Rating: 
Summary: 101 Languages WOW
Review: 101 Languages Of The World is a fascinating product. Not only can you learn the basics of many more common languages, but you can learn uncommon languages like Macedonian or Swazi. The great variety offered in this product makes it well worth the buy. There are many interactive games that help you to practice and learn the language(s). The audio features are incredible. There are native speakers for all the languages so you can hear the correct pronunciations and even speak into the computer so it can compare your pronunciation with that of the native's. 101 Languages of the World is great for learning a huge variety languages, for all purposes and for all levels of study.
Rating:
Summary: Very Diverse and Adaptable Product
Review: 101 Languages of the World is a very satisfying product for what it is. The great diversity offered in the product is amazing, being able to learn 101 languages with a piece of software is unbelievable. I really love the fact that in one instance I can be learning Farsi and the next be practicing my Tagalog. It is truely a great product because it is well put together software and has immense content.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for those looking for an introduction to languages
Review: A few years ago I bought 31 Languages of the World by Transparent Software and I was impressed by the number of languages, games and activities. When I saw that they had released 101 Languages of the world I couldn't resist!As someone who works with 4+ languages on a daily basis, I also enjoy studying languages as a hobby. It was fascinating to see some of the lesser studied European languages and variants such as Asturian, Provençal, Basque, and Catalan. The games provided are great for reviewing or brushing up on vocabulary and grammar. Recording conversations and completing dialogues was also very helpful to get a feel for phrasing and pronunciation. It is refreshing to see a software company taking the effort to enlist native speakers and record unusual languages, such as Blackfoot, Quechua, Hawaiian, Welsh, Xhosa, Wolof, and even some that I was not familiar with. The important thing to remember is that no, using this product will not make you fluent. It will introduce you to grammar, pronunciation, culture, and common phrases. Native speakers are a plus, but I did not like the fact that languages that made use of symbols rather than letters were Romanized, such as Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, etc. In the long run it is much more difficult to pick up the symbols after learning the language. Still, this is a great product at a reasonable price for anyone with an interest in languages, either learning for the first time or for reviewing. Give this software a try, have fun, and good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for learning less commonly learned languages
Review: For less commonly learned languages such as Bengali, Basque, Urdu, etc. there are few language learning resources available. If you are serious about learning these languages, I highly recommend adding this to your language learning tools. For more commonly learned languages such as German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and Italian you might find software dedicated to your language of choice more useful. Don't depend on this software alone to learn. 'Learn to Listen & Speak. Guaranteed' is a little exaggerated. For any language you will need to get a good grammar book and a dictionary to develop vocabulary lists. I recommend 101 Languages of the World because software is far superior to tapes when working on pronunciation. With tapes its hard to constantly back up to master the pronunciation of a word or phrase. With this software you can click a word or phrase as much as you want to practice pronunciation. The software contains numerous common words and phrases and there are several games that reinforce what you are learning. You can also export words to a vocabulary building program that comes with the software. One problem I have is that 101 Languages uses romanized letters instead of script. But otherwise its a great program and worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Great things come in tiny packages, I saw this on sale for $9.00 at circuit city, and though skeptical it would be worth much, thought $9.00 isn't much of a gamble. This was like a slot machine that paid off! I am just blown away by the quality of this program and the extent of language instruction involved. Granted, this is NOT a program on which to found your study of your choice language, but as a supplement and interactive aid on DOZENS of languages, you will find plenty to learn. Where this program is especially helpful is with minor languages where there just aren't many resources or opportunities to hear native speakers, or build a vocabulary. I'm personally interested in more exotic languages, such as Bengali, Lithuanian, Slovene, etc., and can now listen to the dialogues and speak along with the script, and I've committed much vocabulary to memory. This CD lets you hear genuine native speakers converse on a myriad of topics, and then test your knowledge of what you've learned. If you are interested in MANY languages, and like comparing various types (Russian w/ Polish; Sicilian w/ Italian; Finnish w/ Estonian, etc.) then you have a great research tool. Now if you're looking to bone up on a major language such as Spanish, French, etc., there is a good dose of vocab here, but you're probably better off with one of the many dedicated audio or software language programs - though assuming you too can buy this program cheap, what you will get as far as dialog practice more than justifies the price. The real value here, however, is the info and practice you get with rarer languages, and for the simplicity and compactness of this little program. Neat!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth The Money
Review: I am a student that studies 5 languages currently. I am very much into languages and I thought this would help me. I bought this software specifically for Icelandic, Vietnamese, Arabic, German, and Inuktitut. Turns out that the only helpful and useful language title was German. Most, actually all of the other languages just gives phrases to practice, and it is the exact phrases as the other languages. It makes learning a language fun, GUARANTEED! Dont purchase this software if you would like to learn a language that is on here. If you are really interested in learning a specific language, purchase Rosetta Stone Software. It may be a little bit of money, but it is definatley worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Great buy
Review: I am very glad I bought this program. While it is true that the instruction is strictly beginner's level, and the native script is missing for most non-Latin based languages, this is still a great tool if you want to sample a large number of languages and decided which ones to take further with a more detailed course. This is also great for people studying a more exotic language for which there aren't any stand-alone audio programs for you to practice pronunciation. But the biggest bonus for me was the included Global Writer word processor which allows you to type in all kinds of scripts, including Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Korean, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Hindi and many, many others. This program alone was worth the twenty bucks! No more playing around with Unicode or fooling with special characters in Word. This is the best software value I've found in years. If I had one complaint it would be that some minor languages are included, like Breton, Galician, and Quechua, but some major languages, like Cantonese, spoken by over 50 million Chinese, and many languages of India are not included.
Rating:
Summary: Great Languages! Easy To Understand!
Review: I want to learn 26 languages, but why not learn 101 Lanquages instead? This program makes it easy for you to understand how to speak,listen and learn new languages. It is also fun. It has lots of games to help you along. If you are ever lost, dont worry just click on a word and it will help you along. The best buy I have ever made. :)
Rating:
Summary: Good for what it's worth
Review: The claim of 'learning to listen & speak guaranteed' is a little loose here. Yes you will if you work at it, but only on a beginner's level. That being said, for what is program is worth, it is very fun! Think of this as a interactive phrasebook. For most languages the same list of phrases is given. Things such as what you would say at a bank, hotel, etc. A few of the languages have cultral notes along with the phrases. Please note that (as I see it) only 76 of these languages have any sound related to them at all. The other 25 are in a flashcard format which make it hard to memorize, understand, and get a feel for the language. If you want to delve deeper into a language, check out TL's language now! series, Vocabulearn, or Pimsleur.
Rating:
Summary: A great language-learning help!
Review: When I first got this product, I had several hopes for it. First, that--due to the ability to hear the language, and compare my pronunciation with it--I could get the "feel" of many languages I hadn't been able to grasp before, due to lack of contact with native speakers. I wanted this, NOT so much to become fluent in the languages, as to be able to use common phrases of meeting and shopping when visiting other countries or when entertaining foreign visitors--both of which happen frequently for my husband and myself. I had noticed that if I simply TRIED to speak their language, most people would switch to English to accomodate me, but do it cheerfully. In most cases, they would have done it anyway, since I couldn't speak their language--but not so happily. This changed everything. I mean, a realistic Croat or Lithuanian won't expect most Americans to speak their language, but a few words of friendly greeting--a mere attempt--make all the difference in their feeling respected, welcomed, and "at home" with us. Second, I wanted the benefits of understanding more about the world's cultures I might never be exposed to otherwise. For example, working with the language of a people helps when you read their history, as well. For instance, just after studying the segment on Basque, I bought a volume of Basque history, and was amazed at how much more I understood due to this language program. Family names, city names, and so on are words in the language, so you have a much more vivid impression of the place and people. It's like knowing that a place-name like "Bear Mountain" is a mountain where there were bears, rather than just knowing the sounds of the name, such as "Boca Raton" which means "mouse's mouth" only if you know the original language (Spanish). It's wonderful for my grandchildren to use, as well, since they see learning the words and phrases as a game--and they pick up languages, and the correct pronunications, faster than adults. And they get used to the idea that there are a lot of other languages, instead of believing that "everyone" speaks English. Why didn't I say "five stars" for this product? Because NOT ALL the languages on it have the pronunciation features that allow you to hear and copy and compare various aspects of your speaking with the native speakers. But most do, and for that I am grateful. Thank you, Transparent Languages!
|
