I moved to Germany about 6 months ago and used Rosetta Stone to begin to learn German. When I entered a private, 1,000 euro a month language school, I found that while I tested into a class where my peers had more understanding of grammar and a larger vocabulary than I did, I was able to understand more and the words that I did know came quicker to me and my speech was less halting. In response to Loves2Travel - when RST introduces a new vocabulary word, you are correct, you can totally guess which picture to click. New vocab is paired with a word you already know, which is being tested. So for example, the phrase "The woman runs" does two things: it tests if you have correctly learned the word "woman" (as the other pictures show a man, boy, girl, for example) and it introduces the word runs (the other pictures are eating, drinking, walking, for example). When it goes to test your memory of those verbs, it sometimes does so by introducing new vocabulary. A great way to introduce new words and test older vocabulary without too much repetition. Highly recommended!

Joan, thanks for that insight, from a 1st-time speaker perspective. When I'm ready to learn my next language, I'll definitely give Rosetta a second look!