Customer Reviews

Hebrew Tutor: Learn Biblical Hebrew with Your Own Personal, Interactive Tutor

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm taking Biblical Hebrew as a course in college, and this Tutor was required for our first class along with Seow's Biblical Grammer (Seow-I don't recommend for a first-year book). I ended up mostly learning from the Tutor! There's even a song to learn the alphabet by. It uses conventional learning methods along with games to teach you Hebrew. I highly recommend it!

The only reason it isn't 5 stars is because there are a few bugs in the program. We all (in the class) got our software from different sources, but they all had the same bugs. Mostly its as simple as typos, but some of the games don't work very well--if at all--because vowel points disappear and parts of letters vanish for some reason. It makes it hard to learn certain lessons (especially the lesson on vowel points for which I was forced to refer to Seow's book because the program was so messed up), but overall it's been an invaluable tool for not only making Hebrew easier, but more fun too! I recommend that you get it as an additional tool for learning Hebrew! :o)

I installed and used this program under Windows 98SE with success. The tutorials are helpful and reasonably paced. It helps a great deal in providing basic drill-and-practice. For those who don't have a teacher, it is also helpful in learning a consistent system of pronounciation. Be warned, however, that there are multiple systems of pronounciation "out there," and the program doesn't give you the option to choose between them.

For those running Windows XP, however, the program is a disappointment. The fonts included with the program will not install. The program seems to work best under low resolution (640 x 480 or 800 x 600) and few colors.

Regarding the font issue, multiple attempts to contact Parson's yielded no response, so there is little chance that the issue will be addressed. Unfortunately, many vendors say that the program will run under Windows XP. While there is *some* truth to this claim (the executable runs) the program isn't very useful if you can't read the Hebrew characters or transliteration font.

In summary, a nice idea, and reasonably well-done. However, it does not run under current versions of Windows and technical support is not unavailable.

This program was my introduction to the Hebrew language. I think it's an excellent way to start. The sound + visual is a very effective way to teach.
The program worked when I reinstalled on my XP system and I dragged the hebrew font file to the system font folder.
Old but very good!

This CDROM was a great introduction to Hebrew. With very little background and about six hours one Saturday, I had the alphabet and several words down by memory. I could sound out words the first day. Focus is on biblical hebrew, which is what I wanted. Covers topics well, and is much better than other Hebrew multimedia products I've tried.

I also couldn't get the program to work (like Tom above) until I found this website http://www.kathrynwestbrook.co.uk/hebrew.html where you can download a fixed heb_tran.ttf font which will install. After that the program worked fine for me and I like it a lot. I am using windows 2000 pro.

I really love this program, because I never thought I would ever get to take Hebrew in a seminary or anywhere else due to family and job committments. Now I can sit at home and be spoon fed Hebrew whenever I want. I can review it a million times and it never gets tired. The first time I actually read a simple Hebrew sentence, I just sat back in amazement at how much the program had taught me in such a short time.

Yes, it is an old program. Yes, you need to copy the files to your hard drive manually. Yes, it needs to be updated. But that doesn't change the fact that this program is one of a kind.

Be sure to set the screen resolution to 256 colors and I think 640 x 480 t avoid having the letters chopped off.

If you have a modern Computer with Window XP. DO NOT BUY THIS ! It will not run on XP. This program was produced in 1997, in computer years that is 100 years old. Had I known this would not run on XP I would never have bought it.

Now I have a 15$ coaster.

Hebrew Tutor is a program that will basically give you the equivalence of a first semester seminary-level course in Hebrew. Beginning with the alphabet and ending by translating the book of Ruth, Hebrew Tutor seeks to give you basically one-on-one tutoring with audio and text lessons, drills, and quizzes.

The problems arise relating to the technology. Hebrew Tutor was created in 1997 and has not been updated since 1997...and it shows. The fonts that come with the program are not compatible with modern operating systems (XP/Vista, so in order to run the program you will need to contact the publisher, or as in my case the seminary using the program in order to even get the fonts to appear semi-correctly). Even with updated fonts many screens simply do not show all of the letters appropriately (Many only show half the letter). This is not enough to render the program useless by any means.

A second problem that arises is that the program is written for a 16-bit operating system. Most modern computers (running XP or Vista) are 32-bit and can run a 16-bit program without a problem. The computer from which I am writing this review and an increasing number of machines are 64-bit systems. At this time, 64-bit Windows simply cannot run a 16-bit program, so I need to go to a separate computer in order to run Hebrew Tutor.

Finally, the since the program is old, it looks old and runs like an old program. When it was written, gigabyte-sized hard drives were just coming into use, so it was unfeasible to have the 500 MB of files on the cd copied onto the hard drive for quicker access. The problem with this slower access to the program's data files is that the program runs very slowly (By modern standards), needing to fire up the cd-rom, find the audio file, and read the file prior to being able to pronounce any words you click on.

Nevertheless, the program has effectively served me to teach me Hebrew, with more than a little bit of frustration. I would hope that after more than a decade with a successful piece of software, Parson's would publish a more technologically up-to-date version.

do the font fix as suggested on the Quickverse.com web site PLUS
set correct compatibility mode as follows:
With Hebrew Tutor installed browse to D:\HEBTUTOR\INTRO
Right click HB.EXE and choose properties go to compatibility mode.
choose run in windows 98 - check 256 colors - check 640 x 480 resolution.

I got the program today, and Parsons did not even give a how-to install memo or anything like that. There is the disk and a bunch of cards in hebrew. There was not even a read-me to tell me how to go about installing it.

When I tried to install it, it crapped out at first. It complained about the fonts and some transliteration biz. So I went to the control panel, and clicked on fonts, and then manually inserted the fonts from the disk. It still complained about the transliteration stuff, but regardless now seems is working fine. You have to play around.

I have greek tutor also from Parsons, and never had these problems. Thats a great program.

I just want to add one more comment. You will see wierd letters here and there as you continue to use this thing (i.e. the transliteration is not working properly). This is because Parsons has not given you a proper font. What you can do is google HEB_TRAN, find this font and then install it. The transliteration should then work properly.