Customer Reviews

Learn To Speak English 2002

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

 

 

I see so many people who brought it in 2003 or 2004 say it's obsolete because they couldn't download the internet lessons. Guess what, I brought it directly from The Learning Company when it came out in 2002, and I couldn't download any of the internet lesson since the beginning. I called technical support, they told me the internet courses will be available later, since the product is very new at the time I brought it. I waited and waited, the internet courses never available. The CD is too basic, and it doesn't offer much. People should look else where for a better quality product than Learn to Speak English 8.1.

1. This is an obsolete product. ALL of the optional downloads expired 2 YEARS AGO!!! So, you'll have limited support.

2. The on-line help, FAQ and Knowledge base are totally worthless. Don't even waste your time looking for help there.

3. Installation totally locks up a Windows 2000 system. My system was absolutely rock solid and stable until I installed this product. Installation totally locked up the system -- even the mouse didn't move. Be Ware!

4. There are no books or documentation of any kind with this product. If you want any help, you have to go to a web site or use the CDs. If the product kills your system as it did mine, you can't use either. There is no phone number for support.

5. Support is basically non-existant. If you can't figure out how to use the product or if something goes wrong or you get error messages, you are totally on your own to figure it out.

If you're technically astute, you can eventually get the product to work but expect to spend many hours in the process. Once you get it working, it looks like an OK package but it wasn't an easy process here. Again, there is absolutely no where to go if you have a problem.

I bought this product for my niece. This is for a beginner
who just start learning english. I can't access the Internet
Lessons category from the CDs because all the files are no
longer existed and can't get help from technical support
either since this is an obsolete product. Technical support
is terrible and such a waste of time - You are on your own
with your problem!

This software emphasizes pronounciation and will also teach you all basics including grammer, conversation, and reading. What this program is really good about is speaking practice; examples are abundant, speach recognition is good in comparison to other products, you can have conversations with computer in various ways, and it's fun.
I recommend this software to anyone who has a problem in pronounciation.

Well, I bought 3 of these for my nephews in South America. You know what? The kids are eating them up! It's a pretty decent CD Rom set. There's voice recognition technology (you'll need a headset)which lets you talk to the computer using simulated conversations.It's got like 200 lessons and loads of exercises for all levels. There's even a placement test at the beginning. Not bad for 20 bucks...Caveat : Program tends to crash every now and then.

This program works on my computer properly although I have Windows XP. My problem was that I couldn't locate more advanced lessons on these disks, so I stuck with the easy ones although I bought this program to improve my English, not to learn it from the very beginning.
When this program tested my English, it said that I don't need to take general lessons, and that was all it said. It didn't take me or show me where the advanced level is. I think there is no advanced level in this program.So, that is why I am not satisfied with this program.

I was very excited when I purchased this software package for my wife - as was she - since we had heard such good things about it. But there is a bug that crashes the program on Windows XP. When we called tech support, we were told that this is a "known problem". Unfortunately, there is no fix for it yet. So we are stuck with a program that we cannot return.

For one of the two reasons above this software will not serve most people. Since XP is the latest OS and most ELS students are abroad, these are major weaknesses. Look elsewhere. Don't trust a product that fails on the basics. Even if you don't have XP and do not live abroad.

One thing I did not like at all with this product is that when it teaches beverages, it focuses on beer and coffee (or wine). Why not teach juice or even soda? Anyways, in the introductory lessons you see adults at the bar and drinking beer and when they ask about drinking, it's "wine" or "beer" or "coffee". -- they should not advertise for 12 and up with so much reference to drinking alcohol.

Another thing is that it introduces a few phrases/words for vocabulary that are not common. For example: "scorcher" -- who says that?

Anyways, I do like the bird that teaches grammar -- he is entertaining, but he's only in the introductory lessons thus far, it seems.

I use this program to tutor an ESL student in English. I would tell someone else to NOT get it.

I would like to buy the learning english package with 4 CDs but I cannot because you will not ship outside the US. So how else can we access anything if your sales have restriction on boundaries!
Please advise ASAP I am currently in Zambia and have the ability to pay for the product.