Customer Reviews

Spanish Before You Know It

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I bought this program to help myself memorize a lot of Spanish vocabulary for a college course and it helped out very much so with its flashcard like set up. Not only did it have a very large amount of vocabulary but it also had sound recordings of the vocabulary so you can also learn the correct pronunciation. However, Before You Know It Spanish is not only limited to use in Spanish. This software also allows you to create your on lists for flash cards and then memorize those also. This makes it very useful for learning by memorization and enables it to have many different uses such as having to memorize formulas for math class. These lists you can make are also able to be put onto Palm Pilots/Pocket PCs and you can also share them with friends because each list has its own save file. My opinion of this program is that it does everything it is meant to do and it is a must have educational tool. You can not go wrong with this software.

I have the multi-language version of this software, which includes Spanish, Italian, French and German. So I'm reviewing each single-language version as well so those shopping for language-learning software will know exactly what to expect from this.

Before You Know It uses the flashcard method of teaching vocabulary four ways. Words and phrases are divided into lists by category. User selects a list then goes to the activity of choice to learn the contents of that list. There are a few more activities available in the Deluxe version that the free trial version doesn't have, but both versions use virtual flashcards the following way:

Step 1 - Look at the foreign word and take a guess (out loud or in your head - it doesn't matter because the software trusts you to tell it if you answered correctly). The program will also say the word so you know the proper pronunciation.

Step 2 - Look at the foreign word and type in it in English in the space provided. Here you don't get to cheat, because it can tell if your correct or not. The ones you need work on will repeat more often.

Step 3 - Look at the English word and guess the foreign one. Again, it will trust you to be honest.

Step 4 - Look at the English word and type in the foreign one. This has been the most helpful of all the steps for me, because not only do I have to know the word by now, I have to know how to spell it correctly and include any necessary accent marks.

All of the above you can get with the basic version of Before You Know It that is available to download for free via the internet. Why not try it out before you purchase the deluxe version?

With the deluxe version, you get more four more activities which include multiple choice, pronunciation practice where you can record your voice and compare your pronunciation with a native speaker (warning: software does NOT include a microphone), and dictation (which is just a repeat of step 4 of the flashcard portion).

My favorite thing about this software, though, and what made me go ahead and spend the money for the deluxe version, is the user's ability to customize the program in several different ways:

- User can add a word to any list. You just look up more words you want to know online or in a dictionary and add it to the appropriate category.

- User can delete any word from any list.

- User can copy any word from one list to another.

- User can edit any word in any list. This is handy when studying Spanish because you might want to change the translation from European to Latin American.

- User can create entire lists and categories of their own, add their own pictures and record their own voices to demonstrate the pronunciation of each word. You can create lists for anything you want to learn - not just languages.

- User can download additional, free lists from the Before You Know It website, including state capitals, periodic table of elements (chemistry), multiplication tables, and more. And you can sign up for the free "list of the week." Each week, a new list will be sent to you via email.

This software will help you master your foreign vocabulary and learn helpful phrases, but it does not teach the rules of grammar for these languages. You won't learn conjugation unless you look up the form of each word yourself and add it to their lists or create your own lists.

In other words, the customizing possibilities for this are almost endless if you're willing and able to invest the time to do it. But what it comes with already installed is meant to simply increase your foreign vocabulary and, used alone, will not make anyone a fluent speaker.

I bought the basic version, and I regret it; definitely not worth the money: the vocabulary lists are meager, and that's all this really is: mostly very basic noun practice, with a few lists of common phrases thrown in. I suppose this would be worth shelling out for if you want to learn some names of animals, but if not, not. The pronunciation function is helpful in that it has a slow-speed version to help you hear all the sounds in a word, but still not worth the money, even if it's just three-starbucks-beverages worth. Pity. Transparent Language started as a rigorous drill program that included grammar forms, etc. This is just rather thin.