No comments about Instant Immersion Chinese Deluxe 2.0.

5 comments about Instant Immersion Japanese.

1. If your anything like me you see the price on this product, your excited, many of the reviews make it sound great. I'm sorry to rain on your parade but the truth is this not a very good program. The first CD "talk now! japanese" is a good vocabulary builder, teaches a bunch of sections with little sections inside, for example, there will be the shopping section which teaches some random house hold items. Once you enter this section (or any other section) you have 4 choices- a list of the words, another part where you can record your own voice (very handy for pronunciation), then an easy game, and a hard game. All while I was using the first CD i was VERY happy, I felt like i was finally gonna be able to learn a good amount of japanese...WRONG!
   On to the second CD, it wis ALL in japanese, with the exception of english directions. You have to realize you aren't taught any verbs in the first CD. Now I dont know how anybody else's brain works but mine needs directions and pased learning. The CD is set up in sections of games in different areas and I found myself guessing most of the answers and I didn't feel like I learned anything.
   On to the third CD called Jquicktrans, didn't understand how it worked, gave up because I had better things to work with. difficult though.
   On to the fourth CD, this is just a bonus program as I see it, learn some things about japan's culture, it is interesting, nothing special.
   I learned some nice vocabulary, some stuff about japan's culture, some kanji. now I'm off to see if i can find a better method...

   I didn't learn anything through this program and I would not suggest anyone buy this.




2. When I first bought this program, I was very excited. I had planned to use this as a supplement to another program I planned to buy later, figuring that it would give me the basics. The first CD was really helpful and I was ready to continue to learn with the second CD. Next thing I know I'm basically ready to throw the thing out the window! All the instructions are in Japanese, the words are in Japanese, and I sat there with a blank look. Looks like I'll be ordering the Complete Japanese software sooner than I thought.



3. Although it says it will run on Windows XP, I had big problems. If you have Windows XP, skip this software at least in its 203d version.



4. I sure hope I can get my money back for this. I got the "Deluxe" edition from Costco and it comes with no documentation. I tried one of the programs and it was not intuitive (no way to back up) and only covered about 25% of the screen. Yuck!



5. For those that bought this product thinking they were going to learn how to speak Japanese, it's no doubt they were disappointed. There is no easy self-taught way to fluently learn a language - you need a teacher and classes.
   
   This program is wonderful for those who've had at least some Japanese class room experience, and are looking to build their vocabulary. The dictionary is great, and has really helped in my vocabulary and speaking, which I will need for an upcoming trip to Japan.

5 comments about Rosetta Stone Vietnamese Explorer.

1. I bought this with a bunch of other language materials so I could learn some minimal Vietnamese before going to Viet Nam.

   It was both more and less than I expected.

   It was "more" because the training scheme (what I would call "immersive drill and practice") was much more effective than I would have guessed. It was "less" because it makes no attempt to explain any grammar, explicitly define words used or describe things like the Vietnamese phonetic and tone system (they don't even mention which dialect they are teaching. I think it is a northern dialect). Because of this, I suspect you'll need to use this in addition to some other resource no matter what your goal is for learning the language. However, as as supplemental resource it is very good.

   The scheme used by this product is pretty simple. Each lesson (there are 22 lessons in this package) involves ten drills which collectively introduce some small set of words/ideas. Each drill contains four things (e.g. drill 1 has "girl", "boy", "cat", "dog". Drill 10 of lesson 2-11 has "The girls are not going to jump. The boy is going to jump", "The girls are not jumping. The boy is jumping", "The girls have not jumped. The boy has jumped", and "The boy and the girls are jumping"), and each thing has a photo, a written form and a spoken form. Basically, you can choose which form you want to be presented with (e.g. the spoken form) and which you want to pick the answer from (e.g. a photo). For each drill in a lesson, you are presented with one of the four things and then prompted with the four possibilities to pick the answer from, then you are presented with another one of the four things and prompted to answer, and so on. This means you get asked 40 questions in each lesson. On the surface, then, this is a simple drill-and-practice package. The drills, however, are organized to build on preceding ones so that you are able to progress from "a girl" to "The girls have not jumped. The boy has jumped." in the span of 22 lessons (220 drills). This also provides all the benefits of computerized drill-and-practice (tireless presentation, easy repetition, tracking of mistaken answers, and so on). Additionally, since this has the benefit of offering written, spoken and pictorial "modalities", it really helps one learn the material. Personally, I found it tremendously useful to be able to click the "play again" button over and over again when I was trying to hear exactly how a particular word was pronounced (something which is exceedingly cumbersome, at best, to do with audiotape). For the audio portions, there are two speakers (a man and a woman) who speak different drills, so you do get a little variation in speakers.

   The software also has a "listening" mode where it will play the audio phrases for you and record you saying the same thing back so you can compare your pronunciation with the audio (it also makes some attempt to offer a calculation of how close your pronunciation is, though I couldn't judge how good its automated judgment was). This seems promising, but I found it caused the program to crash on Mac OS X, and the interface was frustrating (for me) on OS 9 because I often misjudged when I was supposed to start speaking.

   There are also many features which I would have expected that this didn't have. Someone else mentioned that you can't print out the pictures or the drills as flash cards (there is a PDF file which contains the written sentences for all the lessons, so you can print that out). I was surprised that there was no way to search for words or phrases (e.g. show me all the drills where "red" is used), and they do not support writing/typing (which I know I would have benefitted from). The interface is sometimes a little cryptic (for some reason the company has chosen to put almost no text in the interface, so you need to learn what various strange icons mean in order to use it). It isn't clear to me whether I'll end up buying the Level 1 package, for it's current list price of [$$$] seems a little ... to me.

   For [$$$], this seems like a great supplement to a more traditional language text, and you would probably surprise yourself with how much you could learn with just this. Personally, I feel like the price/feature ratio was about right for my needs here.




2. This software is easy to use and is much better than a book. This is because Vietnamese is a tonal language, so the word "ba", for example, could have several different meanings depending on whether you use an "up tone", a "down tone" or a monotone. Unless you can actually hear the differences with your own ears it's very difficult to learn the nuances, which is why I would always recommend a software program such as this which lets your both see the sentences and hear them over your speakers.

   The only thing keeping the program from getting five stars is that you have to exit about four different screens in order to get out of the program. Also, some of the stock photos they use to identify the phrase in question are clearly not Vietnamese people or places. It would have been nice to have seen it be a bit more authentic.




3. This software is easy to use and is much better than a book. This is because Vietnamese is a tonal language, so the word "ba", for example, could have several different meanings depending on whether you use an "up tone", a "down tone" or a monotone. Unless you can actually hear the differences with your own ears it's very difficult to learn the nuances, which is why I would always recommend a software program such as this which lets your both see the sentences and hear them over your speakers.

   The only thing keeping the program from getting five stars is that you have to exit about four different screens in order to get out of the program. Also, some of the stock photos they use to identify the phrase in question are clearly not Vietnamese people or places. It would have been nice to have seen it be a bit more authentic.




4. I tried this software because I felt that learning by the methods taught in books was stale and difficult. This software is everything I thought it would be. I've only been using it 3 weeks and already I feel I'm really learning the language. Vietnamese is a tonal language and speaking and listening are especially important. With Rosetta you do both often and the speaking section, which records your voice and compares it to the native speaker, has been unbelievably helpful. Grammar and vocabulary is never drilled in. You merely pick it up through the natural process of looking at photos of action and hearing the speaker describe the photos. I thought that would be difficult but this method helps the student remember it longer because they understand the reasoning behind the lessons. You see the language used in a practical way. I cannot recommend Rosetta enough. If you really want to learn a language a new way, this is it.



5. I read a lot of good reviews on this product and I don't know what these people were thinking. I bought this to supplement my learning and it was not helpful because this cd is actually an intro cd for various languages and not just Vietnamese. Saying that, there's not much material on Vietnamese at all. I was very disappointed. This cd does not discuss gramar and has very limited vocabulary. I highly disapprove of this cd for anyone learning Vietnamese.

No comments about Vocabulary Builder Cantonese.

5 comments about TeLL me More Chinese - Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced.

1. I have to agree with the longest review here. About 18 months ago we bought this prior to our Asia trip. It was nearly incomprehensible before we left, and I convinced myself I was missing something or was impatient. After our return and several hours of "discovery" as described by others it was clear level 1 has no guided instruction to speak of.
   
   We're going back to Asia, and I found myself today looking for a deal on Rosetta Stone or Fluenz. That's when I was reminded by that burning in my gut for having paid retail for this product. It makes me mad because we've dropped about $400 on this and other tools to this point and there is a severe lack of methodology, so let me point people to the closest, most informed thing I've discovered related to Chinese instruction. On the web site "doubting to shua" you will find a lot of discussion of Chinese instruction products.
   
   I may try Rosetta Stone, but I am really beginning to believe an online college course is going to be the only thing with satisfactory structure for someone who wants to speak and read. I will say Pimsleur's cheap level one (8 disc, 16 lesson) introduction has been the best learning tool so far. We are 100% on the four tonal influences after that. I was also able to get us onto the correct bus in Taipei as a result. Native speakers can't always succeed getting the right bus.
   
   Fortunately, China is the largest English speaking country in the world, and they treat you like a rock star when you earnestly attempt to communicate in Chinese. To be fair I'm, going to do what I should have done 18 months ago. I'm going to write Tell Me More and find out if there is an update with guidance. If there was some guidance I believe this could be the best product out there. At the same time I also can't figure out what the three images have to do with the word you are matching. I was pretty successful in the first Myst trilogy and I do nothing but problem solving for a living, but I couldn't break the code on this product.
   
   Maybe this is a test and NSA is going to pop up with a giant signing bonus and license to kill for the first person to decipher this product. If so, it probably won't be me because I'll be hiring a personal tutor and going to language school when we go back to Asia.



2. The desc is incorrect. Taiwan doesn't use the pinyin system nor simplified Chinese characters. Taiwan uses Traditional Chinese Characters and a pronunciation key of 36 sounds to create how Mandarin is spoken, which in my opinion are harder to learn but result in better pronounciation.
   
   Please neglect my rating as I don't have this product and was looking for a ZhuYing FuHao product.



3. This is one of the worst products I've ever purchased. The first time I ran the software it gave me no instruction on what to do next. I fumbled around a clumsy user interface for about an hour. There were lists of words to say but it didn't tell me what they meant. Nor did it tell me why I was saying them or even how long I should say them. You would do just as well as purchasing a Chinese newspaper and attempt to read it for a while. At least the pictures would make more sense.



4. First let me say that the reason I selected Tell Me More as my Mandarin language program was because of the good experience I've had with their German program. But this ... this is just a disaster. Unworkable, clunky, unhelpful. I've never thought of "Tell Me More" as a cry for help one might shout when running one of their programs, but that was my situation. I looked at this thing a hundred different ways, thinking I must be missing SOMETHING. Alas, it's just a poorly designed program unworthy of stealing, let alone purchase.



5. I wish I could give this product a good review, but it would have to run on my computer in order for me to do that. If you have Vista beware. The customer service folks tried to help, but they finally gave up. I asked a few questions that would allow me to do it manually, but they ignored those and pointed me in totally worthless directions.
   
   They finally offered me a refund, but I haven't taken them up on it yet. I was able to run on my office PC running XP. I copied the disk to a thumb drive and then burned a DVD on my own computer. That ran, but did not install correctly, and I don't think their customer service people are that technically savvy to be able to help.
   
   In the the areas that I could get to run, I noticed the people speaking were using Taiwanese versions of Mandarin, not Beijing as I was expeting.

2 comments about Talk Now! Thai.

1. This was a weak attempt at making a Thai language acquisition software. Talk Now! Thai does not teach very many words or phases. Nor does it try to teach conversation or grammar. For the most part, the games are unimaginative.
   BUT! This software is great for someone who does not know any Thai at all. This software will give a total beginner some very common words. And the games (if they are played) give the beginner ample opportunity to learn to correctly pronounce the the words. Plus, the memory card game is fun. This makes Talk Now! Thai worth buying.
   So, if you are a complete beginner this is a great place to start. You probably won't find anything cheaper that is worth your time. But if you know more than 50 Thai words, then try Courage Interactive Thai (sold in Amazon's Z-shops), Thai for Beginners Software, or World Talk Thai (has better games). Please do not waste your money on Rosetta Stone Thai-- it is worse than Talk Now! Thai and is 10 times more expensive.



2. This is a product for Beginner !!! For something more advance you could consider Courage Software Thai.

2 comments about Talk Now! Learn Chinese Mandarin - Beginning Level.

1. This program is decent for absolute beginners - just to introduce you to few hundred words. Don't count to be able to communicate in Chinese with this program. You'll learn how to count to twenty, colors, names of some food itesm, clothing items, how to tell time and few basic expressions.
   
   What does work for this program is games, which are fun to do and help to retain the information. The program though seems almost better suited for kids than for adults - well, just so you can say you know few words in Chinese.



2. This is a laid-back way to learn Chinese vocabulary. It's good for kids and adults alike.

2 comments about Instant Immersion Chinese Deluxe v2.0.

1. This program is a mess. There are basically no instructions and there is no plan for this software. It's unclear where to start and what to expect from each menu item. I had zero knowledge of the Chinese language when I got the software, and I still have zero knowledge.
   
   It lives up to its title of Instant Immersion. Unfortunately, you're immersed in Chinese without any context. You're expected to choose responses to a conversation for which you do not know the topic. A single picture (with no context clues) is on the screen during the "conversation." There is no indication if your "response" is appropriate. Thus you learn nothing.
   
   I suppose if you already have some knowledge of Chinese vocabulary, it might help you to improve your skills. However, it will NOT help you gain that initial knowledge.



2. Well, the title of this program is "instant immersion." If you are prepared for an immersion program, the contents should not surprise you. I am currently only on the beginner disc, but am making progress. I haven't had any problem finding english translations when I need them or knowing if my answers are correct. Certainly the various exercises can be challenging at first, particularly with identifying Chinese characters. There is some trial and error involved, but with a little time and patience you will be saying "nihao ma" in no time.

No comments about World Talk Learn Japanese: Intermediate Level (PC & Mac).

5 comments about Learn Chinese Now! 9.0.

1. Chinese Now is an excellent program for language learning. I am more than satisfied by its effetiveness and what it has to offer as a product. I found that it has very few flaws and is for all ability level speakers. Chinese is a hard language to learn and so far this program is the best method I have found for myself. Its a 5-star program and a good buy!



2. I bought this CDROM after I read all the good reviews here.
   In my opinion, the method is not that effective.
   And it is not thorough since the Chinese caracters are simply ignored.
   Maybe the best way to use it is as a secondary source of training, but not more.
   Further, like all the CDROM based language method I have tried, the overall design is outdated. But again, this is not specific to LearnChineseNow9.0.



3. This software is not for the complete beginner. If you are a complete beginner, try Beginner's Chinese by Yong Ho and/or the pricey Ultimate Mandarin Chinese (ISBN 0517708779) instead. The software has 4 'chapters,' two being in the 'beginner' level and the other two being in the 'intermediate' level. The chapters consist of dialogues that are rendered in Pinyin only (NO Chinese characters are used). You can listen to the dialogue and follow along with the Pinyin; you can also click on the Pinyin and the program will display the definition of the word/character. Except for one chapter which contains Chinese survival phrases, all the other chapters are better suited for a college student of Chinese than it is for the person who is doing self-study or one who is a complete beginner. The dialogues are in fact very interesting because they explore various aspects of Chinese culture, but one would have to have one semester of college Chinese before being able to appreciate it; after 2 semesters of college Chinese, one could probably understand 40-50% of the dialogue without looking at the translation; after 4 semesters (that is, two years of college Chinese), one could understand most of the simpler dialogues, but the software is still a very good tool for developing listening skills. Overall, if you are a complete beginner, skip this software; if you are taking college/high school Chinese, and you plan to stick with it either by taking more classes or doing serious self-study, then this software is definitely valuable as a supplement; and I would highly recommend it.
   
   P.S. The grammar section and the Pinyin guide is so basic and lacking in substance that it is basically worthless.



4. This program uses only pinyin - no Chinese characters - however Transparent Language has a very decent program for leaning Chinese characters called "Power Chinese" and even though that program teaches you only how to read and write simplified characters, the information is presented in a fun way through playing games and puzzles. One of the programs for learning how to write traditional, or rather, long form of characters is Easy Chinese Tutor (also available through amazon.com).
   
   On the good side with Learn Chinese Now, you can click on every word separately to hear it pronounced slowly (and you can also check your own pronounciation by recording it) - when you got the word, you can click to hear an entire sentence at a normal speed or listen to an entire segment.
   
   The program does have pictures, but they are not really related to the material, so don't expect to see people who are involved in a dialogue actually speaking to each other (as if you were watching a movie) - the only thing you'll find here is several slides.
   
   After learning some basic words and expressions, the program leaps to an intermediate / advanced level and if this is the only program you're using, this leap may feel too much - even though yes, you can still click to hear each word separately.
   
   The program contains as a bonus CD - Unitype, which has two programs Global Office and Global Writer. Global Office will expire after about 15 days, and you'll have to actually purchase to continue using it; Global Writer will still be functional and you can use it to write / type Chinese characters - although I personally much prefer NJStar. In order to use these programs to type Chinese characters, you input characters in pinyin, but you still have to know how the character you desire to use looks like in Chinese, since you'll be offered a selection of characters which are all written in the same way in pinyin (without the use of tonal accents).



5. I have this program and I am not impressed. It looks to me like the series existed and they just tried to make a Chinese version. The games and exercises don't work well for chinese. If you want to learn by memorizing dialogs that don't reflect everyday situations, this is for you.
   
   To get any use out of this as a beginner, I had to copy down the words and phrases and make flashcards on my own. There is no vocabulary drill, no vocabulary builder pages etc. I couldn't believe anyone buys this.
   I also have listened to pimsleur which is great. Another good though pricey piece of software is Wenlin.