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Summary: Unspecific reviews for Tansparent Language products
Review: I'm looking a Learn Spanish Now 9, but I'm reading reviews for Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, and Japanese. These reviews are worse than useless. I imagine that TL may have a certain standards, but I don't think the different language products are totally interchangeable. Something needs to be changed
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Summary: BEWARE OF THE 5-STAR REVIEWS FOR THIS PRODUCT
Review: I just spent the last 30 minutes reading over the many reviews for this product. The majority of the 5-star reviews are OBVIOUSLY fake, written by someone (or a group of people) with a vested interest in boosting the product's rating. Despicable.
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Summary: Beware many of the other reviews, written by company...
Review: It's hard to imagine a more transparent attempt to inflate the user ratings for these products. Over half of the five-star rated reviews are copy-paste identical. Not coincidentally, there is one such review for each language product they make. I'm glad Amazon is bunching them together so you can see this clearly. Beware! A friend lent me the French version and it's mediocre and unstructured.
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Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I think the folks writing the positive reviews must work for the company. These are great for folks who know how to conjugate the verbs, have a working knowledge of the language etc., but for the beginner they are useless and frustrating.
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Summary: Absolutly A waste of money and time
Review: This program is HORRIBLE! If you already know Japanese, then it will be great for you, since it is all written in HUGE Japanese with a small translation guide in the corner. It doesn't accually explain anything, it just gives you some words and says "say these". DON'T BE FOOLED!!! I wish I could give this a negitive 99999999999999999 star rating!!!
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Summary: A great way to learn Italian
Review: I found this software to be extremely helpful. The sentance dictation section was excellent, as it allowed you to hear spoken phrases (not just one or two words) by native speakers. In addition, you could adjust the speed of the spoken phrases (either fast or slow). I used this software while I was taking Italian languages classes and it was helpful in reinforcing what I learned in class. In addition, the video clips used in the software are from a video series that is commonly used in Italian language courses. The downloadable grammar guide was also an excellent resource to have on hand while using the software. As you do the drills/exercises, you are also able to click on most words to get detail about the grammar rules. I would definitively recommend this to a someone who is trying to learn Italian quickly.
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Summary: Bad Software Writers Should Burn In Hell!!!
Review: Learn Spanish Now. V 9.0 is what educational software shouldn't be. There aren't any bugs, but, the educational and interactive value are nil. Educational software has great potential, but this program is just a bad Spanish book that is written in code and comes up on a monitor. Very poorly thought out. Save your money and search elsewhere. There is many more free sites on the internet that offer much more, ¡Para el dinero cero!
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Summary: Really Impressive
Review: I own version 7 of Learn Spanish Now. I bought it a couple of years ago and didn't get into it right away. Now that I am sitting down and using it, I am very impressed. The basis of the program is spoken dialog that also appears on the screen as text. Every single word in the dialogs is hypertexted so that you get its definition, its part of speach, and how it is being used in that context. You can have entire lessons read through, you can go sentence by sentence, or you can go word by word. And you can slow down the pronunciation so it is more easily understood. And as you go, each sentence is translated in a separate box which you can hide if you want to. There are many more features, but this is the basis of it. It is an excellent program.
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Summary: Decent, but not the best product available
Review: I've been trying several different methods of learning Swedish: language CDs (Pimsleur), traditional book and tapes (På svenska!, ISBN 91-7434-429-3, not available on Amazon.com), computerized flashcards (Genius for Mac OS X), hiring a private tutor, Rosetta Stone software, and Swedish Now! software. Of these, I'd say the Swedish Now! software is good for reading and speaking practice only. Swedish Now!'s primary teaching mode is non-structured and passive, as an interactive electronic textbook. You can read the titles in any order and click on any word or phrase to hear it spoken. You can record your voice and compare it against the native speaker's, and it can analyze your voice based on pitch, frictive, and vowel sounds (to varying degrees of success, but enough to make it useful). So the usage is completely open-ended (what they call the "Successful Immersion Approach"). For reading and pronunciation practice, there's no better tool. However, for other aspects of language acquisition, there are better methods. Swedish Now! includes grammar documentation, but it's not well integrated with the main application. It also includes vocabulary and grammar quizzes and games, but they are quite limited and pale in comparison to learning from books and software like Genius or Rosetta Stone. Although the Macintosh version included in the box runs as a native "Carbonized" application on Mac OS X, it's an older version (8.1) that lags behind the advertised Windows version (9.0). It also has an ugly Mac OS 8-era interface that looks horribly outdated on Mac OS X. I've run into some other minor technical problems: The application help uses Apple's Help Viewer, but the grammar reference uses QuickHelp, which crashes often and won't print. Also, the Speech Correctness feature works with my built-in microphone, but doesn't work correctly with my higher quality iSight microphone. These technical problems, while frustrating, are not severe enough to prevent usability. You have to have self-discipline to get anything out of this software. If you're willing to be your own teacher, it can provide an individualized medium for learning a new language. If you're in a hurry, I recommend the excellent Pimsleur language series (audio CDs) instead. If you want the best language self-instruction materials, I'd recommend skipping this product and using a combination of På svenska, Rosetta Stone, and a good dictionary.
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Summary: Unique teaching method, some technical issues
Review: The Macintosh version included in the box is an older version (8.1), lagging behind the advertised Windows version (9.0). While I'm thrilled it runs as native "Carbonized" application on Mac OS X, I've run into a few minor glitches: 1) The application help uses Apple's Help Viewer, but the Swedish grammar reference uses QuickHelp, which crashes often and won't print. 2) The cool Speech Correctness feature works with my PowerBook G4's built-in microphone, but doesn't work correctly with my higher quality iSight microphone. 3) The user interface looks horribly outdated when running in Mac OS X's Aqua interface. That said, this is the best language software I've seen on a computer. Yes, it includes canned quizzes and games, vocabulary and grammar tutorials, just as you'd expect from educational computer software. However, its primary teaching mode is non-structured and passive, as an interactive digital textbook. It took me a while to understand this. You can read the titles in any order and have it speak any word or phrase. Using your computer's microphone, you can record your voice and compare it against the native speaker's. But it can also analyze your voice based on pitch, frictive, and vowel sounds (to varying degrees of success, but enough to make it useful). So, the usage is completely open-ended (what they call the "Successful Immersion Approach"). In a way, this is better than human instruction. I sat there trying to nail the pronunciation of a phrase, repeating it over and over, and I thought: a human would never be so patient! The reward comes not from flashing "congratulations, you passed this quiz!" at your face, but from within yourself as you experience the joy of entering a foreign language with software "training wheels." The technical problems on the Mac version, while frustrating, are not severe enough to prevent usability. You have to have self-discipline to get much out of this software. If you're willing to be your own teacher, it provides a deep and individualized medium for learning a new language. However - if you're in a hurry, I recommend the excellent Pimsleur language series (audio CDs) instead. And if you're looking for comprehensive traditional instruction, I'd recommended a book and CD series called "På svenska!", ISBN 91-7434-429-3 (not available on Amazon.com).
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