Customer Reviews

31 Languages of the World

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I hadn't found much info on this program online, so I was a little scared to use it. I got it to help teach me Korean. I wasn't able to find a reasonably priced & well rated dedicated language package for that. I found this one, but I kept thinking "A $...piece of software for 31 languages, it's going to have almost nothing for the one language out of those I want."

I was happy with the purchase (mainly because I plan to use the French portion too). The Korean section is a little light in the tooth, but it is sufficient to help learn pronounciation and some vocab and phrases. My girlfirend is Korean and she tells me it is accurate.

This program won't teach you the language, it's more of a phrasebook taken to the next level w/ feedback. You'll probably need a good college text book if you are serious about learning, but it is a good supplemental aide. I'm not sure [someone] was talking about there being no instructions, it's really straight forward enough you shouldn't need more instructions than it gives.

I found 31 Languages of the World to be a very good and useful product. I travel all over the world very often for business and find it quite useful to be able to speak at least some of the native language of the place I am traveling to. With this product I am able to learn a variety of languages through interactive games and activites. I found this to be very useful for pronunciation and learning situation based conversations (like how to buy a plane ticket or asking for directions). Anyone looking to learn multiple languages should start here. This is a versatile and good product for language learning in general.

I bought this product out of general intrest and it is great. I would say this is extremely useful for travel and just in general if you want to learn some languages. It offers 31 languages, some common ones like English & Spanish and some more obscure ones like Zulu & Thai. I really could not get enough of this product because I found it to be very fun to use and also very intriguing.

I bought this software at Walmart for about $10. I was excited, being the language lover I am. But when I got home and started the program, I was gravely disappointed.

Sure, people who see this may think, "Wow! A program with 31 languages! How rare!" Exactly. Maybe the problem with the program is that the languages aren;t given special considerations s to how different they are and each language takes different techniques to learn them. The interface is confusing and there is no true beginning to the program. A complete beginner in a language will be LOST.

I would give 0 stars if that were an opption. I think Amazon should make that an otion, because giving this program even half of a star would be too much.

It's better to take classes, read books, and just talk to people for practice, and watch films. (This from experience.)

I was very disappointed with the 31 languages of the world software. There were no directions provided except for little tips when you open the program, making it extremely hard to follow. I have been a spanish student for about 3 years now, and I couldn't even figure out the answers to the games for the Spanish section. The answers were not related and were either too simplistic (such as the way to say "the") or too confusing to even guess. As for the learning sections, all they are are paragraphs written in the foriegn language and translated on the bottom. You can click on each word to see individually what they mean, but it is extremely hard to grasp the language in ways you would learn in the classroom (like the different verb tenses, set vocabulary lists, etc). I felt the program had no format and did not help me at all. I would not recommend buying this software. If you are serious about learning a language, I would try one of the more expenseive, single-language software programs instead, or sign up for classes somewhere.

Language learning isn't an all in one source. Even the expensive Rosetta Stone software requires that you get a language grammar book to truly understand a language.

I have had this program for five years. I used the software to assist in learning three languages (Italian, Spanish, and French). I plan to use it to learn many more.

It's a tool to aid in learning. My first attempt to use this lead to frustration. The instructions are not well laid out and takes some fiddling to figure out what to do. It doesn't give you a "Start Here to learn a new language." Nor does it attempt to teach you in a step by step manor. I gave up trying to use it as a all-in-one product. I used grammar workbooks and a 'learn as you drive' system. After doing those, I went back to this software.

The Pros: So many tools for a low price (and languages!) (I picked mine up from bargain bin at a much higher price and consider it a value for what I paid.)
1) Wonderful dictation system in which your inflection and pronounciation can be rated via a microphone. Either by word or entire phrase.
2) A 'slow' option to get a handle on the phrases before speading it up to conversation level.
3) Conversations you would use in everday situations while traveling (None of that "The monkey is in the tree" junk.)
4) Word by word or phrase by phrase play back.
5) Games (caveat to this in the cons though).
6) The licensing (or lack there of). I work in software license management and I think what Rosetta Stone has done in locking their application is absolutely ridiculous. People have needs to change their systems and language learning is a lifetime process. I have used this program for five years and had to reinstall it at least once per year for system or hardware changes. There are better ways to enforce licensing.

Cons
1) All the material (and answers to the games) is in the dialogs. So you will have to complete all the dialogs and memorize them to get the answers.
2) Locked open; you can't minimize or make it the inactive window to 'listen and do something else'. It wants to be the focus of your attention and is programmed to do so.
3) It doesn't focus on step by step learning.
4) You have to poke around to figure out how to use it; it's not intuitive.

It's a great tool once you have a handle on the basics. I come back to it time and again because it helps to flesh out my basic books and CDs.

Items in my language toolbox.
1) Dictionary - English vs Current language of study
2) Learn as you drive CDs for listening as I do other things.
3) Language grammar workbooks; written is just as important to understanding as listening.
4) Phrase books (even better if they come with an audio CD). It aids in understanding how to put the sentences together and offers a phonetic view of the language.
5) Other source material (This program falls under that category; along with movies, newspapers, and music CDs in the language of study).

I was given this program as a gift when I decided I wanted to learn to speak Spanish.
First off, it's too advanced for a beginner. Secondly, when doing the crosswords, the words are either too easy (the) or too hard.
My husband wanted to learn Finnish and the sound wouldn't load.
The program is very quirky and gets stuck or even crashes at times. I think it's not overly compatible with operating systems more advanced than Windows 95.

Good for getting your feet wet before purchasing a more pricey program for a specific language.