4 comments about Movie Talk: French Advanced (DVD-Rom).

1. This interactive learning experience is fun, colorful and very humorous! It makes learning enjoyable! The only drawback to this program is that it is quite difficult to understand at first. You need to have substantial knowledge of French to be able to catch on to the process; luckily there is an English translation to everything so that you can figure it out. Overall I found Asterix to be a good learning tool in my ongoing effort to learn French.



2. This is a really good program! It's educational and entertaining at the same time. In addition to the story and a few other features, it includes an interview of the two main characters, which is really funny. It also includes a quiz to test your knowledge. It's really helping me increase my vocabulary, as well as getting me used to hearing and understanding French. Out of all the French language software out there (and being a software junky, I must have over half of them) this is definitely one of the best.



3. The product is good. But the price is outrageous. The regular Spanish course with 5 CDs from the same company is in the retail store about $[...]. This one SINGLE CD Amazon charges $[...]. I expected to receive again 4 - 5 CDs, especially for the price being more than tripple. That is criminal! I am sure there is no plausible explination for it. So far I found maybe 3 or 4 words which are different from the regular Spanish.



4. I am always on the look out for stuff that will help me develop my listening skills and increase my vocabulary in French. This product is excellent for that. Generally, since I am pretty advanced, I can understand most of what is said, but there are definite exceptions.
   You should have a decent grasp of the language already for many semester credits of French. This is pretty cool since it has the French transcript for the audio, translations, and the notes from the professor, to speak it. I had this for quite a while and didn't bother to use it, but I am glad I bought it, and I am glad I am using it now.

No comments about Learn French Now Platinum Edition (DVD Box).

5 comments about KidSpeak 10-in-1 Language Learning.

1. This is a 3 CD pack. CD #l contained Spanish, French, and German. The basics of basics. My first problem is my having a Windows 98. These CD's are ment for Macintosh and Windows 95. Although it ran instantly I found it locked up after I would exit a lesson to try another language. Was this because I don't have a Win95? It was none the less annoying having to take out the CD and put it back in so I could pick another language on the CD. Another bad point was that each language has praise and instruction of the activities in the selected language which served no purpose.You had to go to the help button to see what the buttons ment in English.That slowed me down having to switch rather than having an instant translation after the foreign language was spoken. Less bouncing around if that was included. The exiting of your language lesson also was spoken/written in your selected language which was foolish. If you're learning German for instance, and you don't read German, you don't know if you're asked if you want to leave or not, and which is the yes and no. Pick the wrong one and you're still in that language when you wanted out. The Spanish in CD #l was a pain in the behind because it was Castillian Spanish, spoken in Spain and Argentina. Their "c's" are pronounced like "th" which can be very annoying if you're expecting crisp pronunciation like you'd speak in Mexico or other Latin American countries. CD #2 contained Japanese, Chinese(Mandarin),Korean, Indonesian. The Japanese was useless as there weren't that many activities and maneuvering the program was difficult because when you selected something, it didn't work. The Chinese was excellent, although I only understood "hello". Again, the CD locked up so I had to take it out and put it back in to run the Korean. Hated it. Didn't bother with Indonesian. For some reason, in the Asian languages, the tone of voice rarely changes so you don't know if the voice is happy or not. CD #3 contained Italian, Portugese, Hebrew. I enjoyed the Italian much better than the other two languages. The memory names of objects/animals/days/numbers games were fun, though I stayed away from Dominos in the math games. How many Americans have ever played Dominos! There were no directions for it either! The 3 levels of difficulty for vocabulary I was impressed with.I liked the songs too for the animals and alphabet though I could only pick out a word or two.I found I partly wasted my money because I have to ignore the Spanish, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian. I seem more suited to French, German, and Chinese. Maybe it's because I'm an adult and not a child who can learn l0 languages at once like I thought. Beware, you or your child learn no conversation. Had the CD's not locked up and had languages that turned out to be turnoffs, I would've rated this higher. I won't return this because of a few uninteresting languages. I'll have enough on my plate mastering the French, German and especially the hardest one, Chinese.



2. I got it for only a couple of languages but my daughter (at 4 & 5 & 6 years old)loves to play with many of them. She will spend aquite a bit of time with it. Hard to tell if she's learning but exposure is good for young ears - and it is not "Mom, I don't want to". Of course I have never tried to put her on a regular schedule with it either.



3. I have a great deal of experience with teaching foreign languages to children. By the time my daughter was 18 months old, she spoke and understood 10 foreign languages. I just received 10-in-1, two days ago.This product is outstanding. My five-year-old daughter who has been exposed to these languages before, loves the games, such as dominoes,tic-tac-toe, memory, vocabulary puzzle-building and more. I am thrilled with the product and would recommend it to anyone, child or adult to work on vocabulary, comprehension and pronunciation. It is truly an immersion program, which is best, but it has a help button if you suddenly have trouble understanig something. if you want to encourage foreign languages for you kids, buy this product.



4. I checked this out from the library to see if I would get anything out of it, but wasn't pleased. The characters don't even speak in English; they only speak in the language that you're supposed to be learning, which makes it nearly impoosible to learn it! The only language I could play on and understand was spanish, and I'm bilingual! Also, when it says the alphabet, it basically says the english alphabet with an accent. When you want to exit, the buttons are labeled in the language you're supposed to be learning, so you can only guess which is which. Last, on about three of the languages I tried, problems came up on my computer and froze the screen. I don't recommend this CD, because they use the no-english method of learning a foreign language, which hasn't worked for me in the past. I do recommend the books Fun With Spanish, Fun With French, Fun With Italian, Fun With German, and More Fun With Spanish, all by Lee Cooper. The words stick in your head after reading them only once or twice! All these books are sold on www.amazon.com.



5. No English translation, so I have no idea how anyone can learn anything from this terrible product.

No comments about Before You Know It- Deluxe French Edition for PC/Mac.

5 comments about Learn French Now! 9.0.

1. French Now by Transparent Language is excellent for language learning. It gave me everything I could need to learn and practice all aspects of French. It has an Alphabet Reference, Pronunciation practice features, Grammer tutorials, thousands and thousands of vocabulary words and phrases, and many games to help practice it all. My favorite feature is the Conversation practice which has you talking back into the computer with a microphone and then the computer will tell you if you answered correctly and how well your pronunciation is. In the end, I could not be happier with this software, it does everything its supposed to and more.



2. 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.




3. I bought this title back in August when the reviews seemed overwhelmingly good. But it is obvious now that someone connected with this company was trying to boost the rating with false commentaries. This is truly the worst piece of software I have ever used. There is no rhyme or reason to the GUI, even the sound of the French speakers is muddled. I have the Rosetta Stone French Explorer that my husband and I enjoy using.We were surprised when we actually started the learn the language. But rather than spend the extra money for the Rosetta Stone complete software program I fell for this drivel. As my husband says, quite often you really do get what you pay for. This lousey piece of &^$# is heading for the Goodwill Store.



4. The good side of this program is that you can click on each word separately to hear it pronounced slowly and then you can click on the entire sentence to hear it spoken at a normal speed.
   
   After going through the section with some essential words and phrases, there is a leap to dialogues and also to the language which moves to intermediate / advanced level. If you already speak French, but your French got a little bit rusty, this may be a fun way to review it. If you're just beginning to learn French, this may be frustrating and you will need to supplement this program with other more solid books both related to language and grammar.
   
   On a side note, Transparent Language has additional CDs as add-ons to this program, which as far as I know are only available through their website. Add-ons deal with different applications of language - for business, travel, entertainment, literature, etc. One CD, for example will take you on a tour through Paris.
   
   It is definitely much cheaper just renting or buying French movies and the only benefit from getting these add-ons is that you can click on each word separately and hear words pronounced slowly as many times as you need to, and then you can click on the entire sentence, or let the entire video excerpt play.



5. This product is wonderful. My son loves it and showing more interest in learning the language. The section which records your voice is great as it shows you how to practice the pronounciations, and where you need improvement. The alphabet, the letters, the translation they are all great, as well as the games. This was a wonderful investment.

5 comments about Learn to Speak French 8.0.

1. I think the other reviewer who rated this item and gave it very few stars may have confused this with another french language program because this one does not come with an audio tape as you see above. Instead it's 4 dvd-roms that are just terrific. Real practise conversations using your microphone, lots of grammar information, pronunciation drills and quizzes. This software is terrific. I am looking forward to their new version which is coming out soon. I hope it includes onscreen flashcards and more extensive grammar drills, quizzes and help. That would be my only suggestion. For additionaly french grammar help I would highly suggest; "Essential French Grammar" by Seymour Resnick, "French Verb Drills" by R.de Roussy de Sales, and you will also find extremely helpful, "Pronounce it Perfectly in French" by Christopher Kendris, PH.D which was released by Barron's. Good Luck everyone!



2. It's a pretty good program over all and pretty easy to use!



3. purchased this to spruce up my pronunciation but found that this version doesn't work with Windows 2000; however, I've now ordered version 8.1 which, supposedly, does work on my platform and will write another review after I've received and tried it.



4. My daughter (age 12, and fixated on all things French) has been trying to learn French through a variety of media--workbooks and audiotapes, Muzzy videos, textbooks, none very stimulating--so I bought this CD for her to try.
   
   First, let me start with the software itself: it was real discouraging when I first installed the French 8.1 Deluxe edition--kept getting error messages about MicServer Pass (error 26). Had to shut down probably 30 times the first few hours of use. Finally determined that there seemed to be some kind of conflict with other programs/graphics on my system--primarily a Japanese Hello Kitty screen saver installed. ALSO, I learned that you just can't click that mouse as fast as you'd like in the Play/Record mode, because if you click faster than, say, a 5 sec increment, the system freezes. I assume it's because the program just isn't developed enough to handle incoming audio recognition and cursor commands while simulataneously processing video/graphics/data transmission. Well, what do you expect, it didn't cost that much to begin with. So I have learned to slow my mouse clicking down a bit. In addition, I highly recommend you run AdAware, Spybot, and some kind of Utilities Clean-up/Fix program before installing this--and do what the installation instructions suggest, END all other programs running in the background. Finally, I would say that the less processes you have running while you are using this feature, the better!

   About the program itself: I learned French in middle school, as well as 1 semester in college. (I also have a total of 3 years high school/college Spanish experience). So, based upon my knowledge of foreign languages, and the varieties of media I have used--the classroom, workbooks, textbooks, videos--I would say this software is the most entertaining method of learning a language. My daughter, who has NO foreign language experience, says this system of language learning works best for her, thus far.

   This program--although not labeled so, take my word for it--is designed for conversational French. The strengths in this program are the French speakers and their pronounciation. Their phrases are short and to the point. In the beginning, the phrases are everyday phrases and the key to learning them is saying them over and over again; basically, MIMICRY [the accompanying 184-page reference book is just a written form of all the narrative you hear on the software, it is NOT a workbook or dictionary]. I told my daughter DO NOT RUSH through this, stick with the same lesson for at least a week. There are optional grammar notes for those interested or for those (like me) who never paid much attention to grammar exercises in school, but they are not the key to learning. After all, you don't see young children reading grammar books and they can speak quite well.

   The voice recognition feature is not entirely accurate (I said ba-ba-ba-ba into the mic once and it gave me an excellent rating!) but it provides enough feedback so my daughter feels like she is making progress, mainly by copying the French speakers. It trains the ear to recognize French sounds.

   As you go on in this program, you can pace yourself when things get a bit more challenging. Some of the phrases don't have much to do with everyday life, but they tend to teach the repetition/variation of common phrases over and over again, so it builds on the foundation. Using the program myself, I can determine where I am rusty. Also, I see my daughter decide (by herself and by the automatic scoring) where she needs to go back and review. The interactive functions--visual, written and verbal--really help reinforce what you've learned.

   I would think that if one continued with the entire program and put as much effort into it as in a class--say, at least 1/2 hour a day up to 1 hour a day on weekends--then, by the end of the CD course one would be quite confident and fairly proficient at speaking and understanding spoken French, or the written level used by a daily newspaper in France.




5. This is a very professional tool to improve your languaje skills. I love to use the voice recognition feature and the accent assesment. It really helps you to speak clearly.
   
   Lessons are very well designed and it covers everything: pronunciation, grammar, reading, listening, vocavulary etc..
   
   It's an excelent tool :)

2 comments about Talk To Me French (Beginner-Intermediate-Advanced).

1. This is a good product to really practice and perfect speaking the correct way. I found it really interesting. It comes with a headset for listening and speaking into. However, I had to take the program off my computer because it slowed everything down. I will reinstall it at a later time when I have time to use it. But to have it sitting on my computer for me to use it a few minutes a day isn't worth the headache of it slowing everything down.



2. I may be doing something wrong. I thought this would help me learn French but it seems to assume that i already know French. I have tried all sorts of things to understand what is going on but it gives me a French sentence and expects me to assemble it correctly and I have no clue what the words mean so.....
   
   Chas E. Moser

No comments about Learn to Speak French Dlx+.

5 comments about Rosetta Stone French Explorer.

1. The learner is under the complete control of the learning method. There is no easy way to learn what YOU want to learn. After umpteen lessons, I found that I still did not know how to say, "How are you?" or "I am fine, thank you." In fact the pronoun 'I' is never taught at all. However, if you want to learn to say, "The children are dancing in the street" or "He is jumping into the pool", and many other useless phrases, this is the program for you.



2. I am learning French at home and am having great fun using this software. The photo's are very clear, surprisingly clear in fact. Who knew that seeing a photo of a boy in, on and under an airplane would help me learn the difference between dans, sur and son so quickly? Or that seeing photos will allow me to 'imprint and recall' the difference between fille and femme or garcon and homme?

   It all feels very natural to me as I progress through the lessons. I am learning French in the same way I learned my first language (English) by seeing and then associating sounds with what I see.

   The very best thing about this product (other than the smashing speed with which I'm learning French) is the fact that this 'explorer' version of their product lets me run the first few lessons in something like 20 (?) other languages! I've discovered that I really enjoy Italian, too, and it's fun to do the lessons in Japanese or Arabic and see what those languages are like. I have highly recommended this software to two families I know who are home schooling their children. The explorer will allow them to decide on a language that their child will truly enjoy before making a larger investment. Where else are we allowed (for such a small investment in money and effort) to 'try out' so many different languages?

   I intend to invest in their more complete programs when I've exhausted the explorer. But what a lovely way to be introduced to the first 800 or so words of French.

   One note: I am a very, very 'visual' person. For example, I rely heavily on the white board in my office when expressing ideas to the members of my software team. I have been told that I have a 'photographic' memory. Perhaps. What I am finding is that when I try to learn French merely by audio tape or audio CD, my memory fails. I cannot recall from one day to the next what I merely hear. But with the Rosetta Stone Explorer, I am SEEING and HEARING at the same time (photo of action, French speaker saying something about the action, French words superimposed over action photo). This is working for me 1000 times better than merely hearing a French phrase parroted on a tape. I need multiple avenues of 'input' in order to retain and recall the new language.

   I know that there are millions of other people who have brains 'wired' the same way as mine. Many learning theory and research studies have been published on this subject; while some can learn solely through aural input and repetition, a large percentage of students need combined aural/visual input (or aural/visual/tactile). I'm sure that extensive research and theory is behind the design of the Rosetta Stone products. In my case, their approach works like a charm! I couldn't be more pleased with their product design.

   My only concern is that using the product requires that the CD be inserted into a CD drive at all times while using the product. I would prefer to 'run' it off of my hard drive and find the screen changes unnecessarily slow due to this design decision. The speed with which a computer 'reads' from the hard drive is MUCH faster than reading from a CD drive. I suspect that this design decision was driven by a desire to 'secure' the product license (forcing you to have the CD physically present and preventing illegal 'sharing' of the product). It feels punitive and not terribly respectful to those of us that actually shelled out the money to buy the product. I've given them only 4 stars (instead of 5) because of this 'security' decision, which I hope they will abandon in the future. It's a very 'old school' method of license protection that other, much larger and more successful software companies abandoned years ago just for the reasons I've mentioned: It's punitive to 'good' customers and damages product performance. If I'm wrong about the reason for this design, and instead they are concerned about not copying 'too much' data to the customer's hard drive, then I'd leave this decision to the customer. I have more than enough room on my hard drive to copy the entire product over, and would much prefer to run it this way.




3. I found this product does teach you basic words and thoughts better than other CD's I've tried for language learning. However, the flaw is that the CD must be loaded, and the further you get into the lessons, the slower it gets. Further, when you go back and forth between the lessons, it doesn't cache anything, so it's like accessing it for the first time. (i.e. slow as molasses)
   Consider this product as an introductory product, because it doesn't teach you sentence structure, only random events that could occur in your life. But, those events do surface clearly when that occurs. That is, it seems a lot easier to remember because of the combination of phrases attached to pictures.



4. This product is great if you want to learn a few phrases and words but it won't even come close to teaching you the language. It doesn't provide any way in which to learn sentence structure or grammar. I have heard the bigger and more complete personal editions by Rosetta Stone are better than this but still fail to teach grammar. If you want a well rounded product, that also will teach you grammar, take a look at Transparent Language's French NOW.



5. I travel to Europe often but have never been to France so I am using this software in hopes that I will learn enough French to at least carry on a conversation. I borrowed both the Spansih and French versions of this software from a neighbor and I am really enjoying this software. The method is so different from what I am used to and it has broken the monotony. I have learnt several phrases already. But I am getting a feeling that something is missing. I don't feel that I am learning any grammar with this course. My Spanish isn't bad so that has helped since I am already somehwat familiar with the grammar of romance languages. But if I didn't know any romance language grammar at all I think the lack of grammar in this course would have been an insurmountable learning obstacle.

No comments about Language Lab French Audio CD.