Customer Reviews

Instant Immersion German (4 CD-ROM)

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

 

 

It's like learning with flash cards. Remember the sense of accomplishment you had as a child in kindergarten when you *knew* the answer? That sensation and more can yours again with this course. The teaching technique works so well that it's addictive. You'll *WANT* to continue with the course. The curriculum consists of:

- word practice - you are introduced to new vocabulary by pictures of the items and the sound of the words' pronounciation by native speakers.

- speaking practice - you are shown the items in random order and you will have an opportunity to record yourself speaking the actual words in german and replaying them in comparison to the native speaker.

- an easy word game - the native speaker will say the words and you will choose the correct picture. You are scored on your answers.

- a more difficult game - the native speaker will say the words and you will choose the correct picture. You are scored on your answers.

The routine is repeated all through the first CD of the course on a variety of different topics. But, unlike other courses, the topics are actually relevant to speaking the language. The topics include items you frequently purchase, frequently wear, frequently visit, basic words, telling time, country names and body parts. It does not focus heavily or deliberately on issues like conjugation at the start, (that issue is difficult/confusing and discourages many language students from continuing). Even so, you quickly begin to understand the rules of conjugation and grammar by example, practice, and association. Because the immersion technique used by this course works so well, you will cease to think in English and think only in German. This is the key to speed of thought and fluency in any language.

Once you've conquered the first CD, your base in the language is complete and the remaining CD's merely build and expand on what you already know, - much like a small child being exposed to more sophisticated words and conversations. It becomes very intuitive.

This course works, because this *is* the way that children learn language,- by the example and feedback of native speakers.

If you want to get started in German QUICKLY, this course is great.

This software is OK--it's affordable, to be sure. But it's notthat great from a teaching perspective--it's just a flashcard system.A much better foreign-language software program is Smart Start German (which Amazon.com also sells). I think that's a better way to learn German, actually--although this software is fine if all you want to do is learn vocabulary.

I think that for the most part, reveiewers are being ridiculously hard on these products, and in some cases, just plain ridiculous. I've bought tons of German language learning software over the years, both cheap and expensive, and plainly said, the quality of this product for its price is astounding. Any one of the CDs included would be worth double the cost of the entire package. Take the Oscar Lake title itself, for example, which I have held off buying for years because it most frequently sold for over THREE TIMES the price of this entire package! I initially bought Instant Immersion primarily for that, with curiosity over the other titles, and having now tried them, I can attest that they're are all terrific. Granted, there is not much of a middle ground, difficulty-wise, between the first and second CDs, but you can't go wrong regardless. True beginners will get more than their money's worth from the first CD, and the same holds true of advanced students with the second...they're both excellent. Buyers will likely not be surprised to know that products that cost 5 to 10 times as much (and yes, I have purchased several) can have just as many shortcomings as this great package, difficulty levels or otherwise.

The Instant Immersion series has to be one of the most unreal values a language learning student can get a hold of; I've since purchased Japanese as well, after buying German, and I'm just as impressed. Don't sweat the reviewer nitpicking, and keep in mind how incredibly inexpensive these sets are selling for, and you'll realize you just can't go wrong with these products. No, you shouldn't count on them alone in learning a new language, but honestly, the same logically holds true with any book or software. Topics has more than earned one vocal fan here.

To learn another language requires a strong desire to do so and a total commitment to succeed. We all learned our first language by listening to others talk, and then copied what they said to get our ideas across. And we failed many times, but we learned how to
master the language.
This course works in a simmilar manner. But, you must really want to learn German and work at it. There are no easy fixes.
The first CD, Talk Now! German is great. These speakers speak as native speakers. And we learned many useful words.
The second CD, World Talk German world be easier to follow if the speakers were native speakers of German from Germany. And if the planners of this CD displayed real German people instead of cartoons with sun glasses. However, one can get some help from this CD by working hard at it. Just remember to change your speech later.
The third CD is good. The translations are correct and your mouse will define German words into English, even after the CD is removed. This is a big help when reading German text on Web pages or when translating E-mail.
The forth CD is a fun and interesting "game". One must think and if you pay close attention, you can really get totally immered in the thought and language learning process.
But, still other tutorials will be required for many students in order to learn German well.
My first choice of an excellent CD-Rom based course would be Learn German Now! by Transparent Language. This one goes to the head of the class, because it teaches reading, writting, listening, speaking, and understanding German. And it is available from Amazon.

You will be hard-pressed, as a beginner, to learn much from this program. The first CD, "Talk now," is pretty fun, albeit extremely basic. In it you learn things like numbers, colors, body parts, a few simple phrases, etc. Once I felt I had mastered it, I was looking forward to learning more on the second disk, "World Talk."
The second disk really leaves you hanging as it's completely in German, with no translation whatsoever. This program is supposedly based on the "Immersion Method", whereby the user is "...surrounded by native speakers and a new culture." But I don't know how one could learn much of anything with someone talking at them, having little idea as to the context of the conversation.
For example, one of the lessons shows a series of vague pictures (i.e. a desert scene, rain clouds, a beach, etc.), and then proceeds to rattle off complicated conversations entirely in German, with nothing more to go by. You're then required to select the scene they were referring to. I found myself completely guessing throughout the majority of the exercises, learning very little, and getting frustrated at times.
The Webster's 5 Language "Talking" Dictionary is next to useless. It doesn't translate phrases (single words only) and won't pronounce anything but English words. If I wanted to hear words spoken in English, I would have bought a different course.
It comes with the game "Who is Oscar Lake?," a "Myst" type mystery game, which looks interesting, but with little foundation from the previous CDs, it is just as bewildering, and definitely seems better suited to a more advanced student.
Overall, I found this to be a very misleading product. It claimed to start at a basic level and steadily progress. Instead, I found it to be a mismatched hodgepodge of half baked programs, and not of much use to a beginner.

Don't waste your money on this CD-ROM. It won't teach you much about the German language. The first disc is okay. It teaches a few words and phrases. But then the second disc has people talking completely in German, using words that the first CD didn't bother to teach, and there isn't a single clue as to what they are saying. Don't throw your money away on this product. It's worthless. I learned more German from watching "Hogan's Heroes" than I did from this thing.

I found this software to be very disappointing. The material is organized by subject, and it is impossible to graduate from one subject to move on to the next. There are no guidelines for learning the material in a reasonable manner. The material that is included is shown with a flashcard system where the picture is shown and the word is pronounced, but there is little encouragement to have an individual think and use the langauge to answer comprehensive questions. The games that are played consist of picking the spoken word from a list of answers. While this may help someone listen to the language, it does very little to help someone learn to speak the langauge. The spoken language is learned through repeating the program. Your voice can be recorded, which is fine if you want to sound like a parrot. I think a better choice would be to force the user to speak first.

The Second CD is completely in German, but without a good fondation, it is difficult to follow. There is very little help offered during the games.

The talking dictionary was the worst of all. First, I had a very difficult time changing the options in the program. I tried going into the option screen but frequently had to repeat a change several times before the program would actually remember. The program was designed to run in the background and translate words that were clicked on. However, the speech only reads the word it is translating, so while you can translate a foreign language into your native tongue very easily, it doesn't allow you to translate the other direction. I also found that the program used up an immense amount of memory and kept popping up as I was typing, it slowed everything else on the computer to a virtual crawl. I tried killing the application, but it refused to stop running, I eventually had to remove it from the start menu and reboot to get the thing out of memory. I tried using it to read through a German website, but it was able to translate less than 50% of the words, with little consistency.

If your looking to learn German, this isn't it. However, if you want to play a couple of games, learn a few colors, and maybe augment a different learning system then this may be a good program.

I don't care how others rate this software. I know that two nights after getting it, I could make phrases in German that I would use as a tourist. I recorded my pronunciation to match it to the voice on disk, and I felt like I was becoming a true German. Foreign exchange students in our high school were amazed that I could speak to them in their language. And, I did it with no embarrasement. I can't wait for my trip to Frankfurt.

This will not replace classwork, nor is it a teach-yourself course, but it is extremely good practice to suppliment school. It is also good to keep your memory fresh over breaks or refresh your memory.

If you are wondering where to start ...you just found it... this is a perfect place to start to teach anyone German. I bought it for my childern and they have not lost interest in it yet. It's scoring system and gamelike learning is exactly what is needed to teach children and keep them interested. It is very easy to use. It has both male and female speakers. Ich empfehle es in hohem Grade.