Customer Reviews

Instant Immersion German Pro 7 CD Platinum

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

 

 

If you don't speak German than this is not the right product for you. I'm German and I bought this product for my fiance who doesn't know any German. It was very confusing and difficult for him to understand (if even). The lessons were read very fast, I even had a hard time sometimes following. If we used the slow-down pronunciation option, it sounded like a record player on the wrong speed. The only word by word translation was at the end (like a dictionary). And it didn't even have all the words that were used in the lessons.
It might help you if you had taken German before and would want to refresh or deepen your skill.

Despite the attractive packaging, the Instant Immersion series from Europe is absolutely the worst language teaching program I've seen. I picked up several titles at a local store, tempted by the "free" price after rebates. Upon installing German, which I hadn't touched in over a decade, I decided to return all the titles. Most of the 7 CDs are totally useless. The user interface is laughably reminiscent of programs in the Windows 95 days, and you get 256-color, 640x480 video! The audio also slows down often, even on my P4 2.0Ghz PC. Even though you can find it for free, it just ain't worth your time.

I bought both the German and Spanish Pro software packages. I opened the German first and found it very confusing and poorly laid out. There is no clear lesson plan and there are no steps provided for LEARNING the language. They might as well just drop you in the middle of Munich and expect you to start learning German that way. Needless to say I didn't open the Spanish Pro software and returned it... Unless you already speak German and want to brush up (even then pick something else) you might want to think twice...

i have no experience with German and although I was prepared to be "immersed" in the language, I found these cd lessons very confusing and disjointed. The video sequence flies through several "scenes", all of them disconnected so that it is difficult to glean some understanding through some sort of "context". Some of the lessons in the grammar section which were supposed to be animated were not; there wasn't even audio in some of the grammar lessons so I couldn't hear various conjugations etc...Graphics are not easy to understand either. All in all a bad buy, definitely...I'm going to return this and try something else.

For starters, all the content offered would have easily fit on a single CD-ROM, so their offering so many disks reminds of bogus language courses from the past which had 30 or so cassettes or videocassetes, each with about 10 minutes or so of playback. Each area of the course is essentially worthless. To just describe one disk, the vocabulary disk has about 2,000 or so words almost randomly chosen. Very few of the essential words of the language appear, and instead hundreds of terms deal with country names and things you don't need to know your first days, such as cufflinks and redcurrant.

It is true that pictures and videos help remember words, but the images are thoroughly depressing and pathetic on many ocassions. For example, the woman in the "kiss" term looks like she is doing so forcibly, and in general any picture or video (one in about 30 definitions has a 2 or 3 second video) in which people of any age appear seem to either have a great dislike for the photographer, or for life in general. It is rather disturbing to see such suffering when one is trying to learn a new language.

The other disks are even more worthless, and everything has a depressing quality to it. Needless to say, I sent it back, and will instead try another product. I recommend staying far away from this one!

I really enjoy working with German Pro. It is created and stimulating for the serious minded German student. The "Tell Me More" CD's have many different features which are challenging, but not overwhelming. The only minus to this program, that I have is with the "Dictation" feature. The female speaker raddles off the sentence at top speed, which I can't understand even when the answer is written out on the screen. The male speaker generally speaks slower and is easier to understand. I definitely recommend this program and would be interested in purchasing more advance German products by this company in the near future. In fact I have purchased the Spanish Pro and look forward to using it soon.

I really enjoy working with German Pro. It is created and stimulating for the serious minded German student. The "Tell Me More" CD's have many different features which are challenging, but not overwhelming. The only minus to this program, that I have is with the "Dictation" feature. The female speaker rattles off the sentence at top speed, which I can't understand even when the answer is written out on the screen. The male speaker generally speaks slower and is easier to understand. I definitely recommend this program and would be interested in purchasing more advance German products by this company in the near future. In fact I have purchased the Spanish Pro and look forward to using it soon.

One star is too high; I wish "Zero Stars" was an option. I bought this program, installed it, and then uninstalled it. It did not take very long to figure out that it was a complete waste of time. First, it only wants to run in 640 x 480 or 1024 x 768 screen resolution. I run everything in 800 x 600, and I don't want to change just to accommodate a lazy programmer. Speaking of bad programming, the interface on this title is bad. I think it would have taken more time learning how to use the program than learning how to speak German. I'm returning this product, and buying another.