Talk Now! Cantonese

Rating:
Summary: Hard to stop using...
Review: Dang. If only all language learning tools were so much fun!!! By far the quickest and easiest way to build up a basic vocabulary. (The program for building an intermediate level is World Talk. It starts where Talk Now! ends and builds from there.) Quickest and easiest because it keeps things interesting. I've been looking for aids to build up my Cantonese vocabulary for a long time...and now I've found a product I'll use no matter what language I'm studying.

Two thumbs and both big toes up!

Rating:
Summary: wonderful!
Review: I agree with the other reviews...This software is just wonderful. The chinese characters used in the software are traditional not simplified. (Traditional is used mostly in Hong Kong but simplified is used mostly in canton and mainland china). Even with this it is a good investment. The software is very good for beginners. It gets you talking! The other cantonese learning aids (I had a hard time finding many) I have used start off with whole complicated sentences in cantonese which were much to hard to someone who does not have any base knowledge. This gives you a way to attain that base knowledge. An A+

Rating:
Summary: One more thing...
Review: I neglected to mention the only criticism I have of this particular software. There is a feature for printing picture dictionaries. This is a wonderful idea, so one can associate an image with a word...much more helpful in real life unless we're blind.

For European languages, putting words written in a latin-based alphabet works pretty darn well, seeing as we can piece together a pronunciation, etc.

Unfortunately, for Talk Now! Cantonese, instead of using a romanized form of the word under the corresponding picture, Eurotalk uses only the Chinese character...

Rating:
Summary: Not the best product I've tried
Review: If you just want to learn a few words in Cantonese and learn well by plain rote, this is probably a fair course. However, if you're serious about learning Cantonese, skip this one and try something else. This course just throws out random words with no context of how they'll be used. Grammer and enunciation are given very little attention here. If you've studied Cantonese at all, you'll understand the importance of both. The audio is not terrible clear and the pronounciation doesn't seem to jive with what I'm learning from my wife and other courses.

This course is okay for the price (I got it on sale bundled with the Mandarin course for $10), but if you plan on ever having a conversation in Cantonese someday, I'd recommend the excellent Pimsleur course. Basic Cantonese by Virginia Yip is quite good as well. Even Teach Yourself Cantonese by Hugo Baker is pretty good once you get used to the format.

Rating:
Summary: Great methods, mediocre content
Review: The good part about this software is that it provides a fun and engaging way to learn some basic Cantonese vocabulary. The words and phrases are spoken twice, in a male and female voice with accompanying pictures. The games and self tests are fun to work through. It also provides a way to record your voice and compare it to the speakers' pronunciation.

The bad part is that it does not go very far in how much content it provides. If you are a serious student this will not provide you with any grammar, no section on enunciation of particular sounds (a necessity for those of us starting from only romance languages which do not have these sounds), and no explanation how to read the Romanized spelling of words. Also, it gears some of the vocabulary towards tourists but then much of the dialogue is a very formal type that is not even spoken in practice. If the content is geared toward the casual learner then one would suppose they would teach the language as it is actually spoken. My tutor/girlfriend taught me which parts of this program I should ignore.

Do not buy this expecting it to go very far in teaching you Cantonese. It is only useful as a supplement to another introductory curriculum that might be lacking in good teaching tools.

Rating:
Summary: Talk Now! Cantonese
Review: This program teaches you basic words and phrases in Cantonese. (i.e. no grammar lessons). Some of the phrases are a bit geared towards tourists, such as "Where are the suitcases?" and "Someone's stolen my passport." However, there are many different topics, so you can use it even if you are not a tourist. Some of the topics include: food, countries, colors, telling time, human body parts, and numbers (1 through 20). The games are a great way to learn the words... much better than drills and repetition. I'm trying to learn Cantonese and this software has really helped me build up my vocabulary.

Rating:
Summary: Talk Now! Cantonese
Review: This program teaches you basic words and phrases in Cantonese. (i.e. no grammar lessons). Some of the phrases are a bit geared towards tourists, such as "Where are the suitcases?" and "Someone's stolen my passport." However, there are many different topics, so you can use it even if you are not a tourist. Some of the topics include: food, countries, colors, telling time, human body parts, and numbers (1 through 20). The games are a great way to learn the words... much better than drills and repetition. I'm trying to learn Cantonese and this software has really helped me build up my vocabulary.