Tell Me More Spanish Performance Version 9 (10 Levels) [OLD VERSION]

by Auralog

Product Features

• Extensive Spanish software with 2,000 hours of learning
• 10 different levels; 10,000 exercises; 10 hours of video
• Speech-recognition technology; 24/7 online adviser
• Role Play activity; tests to evaluate your level and progress
• High-quality headset and microphone included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0011SFXCK
• Item model number: 9-005-10
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 2, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,308 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #84 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Spanish & Portuguese

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Tell Me More Performance is the most complete and extensive Spanish software available anywhere. Become fluent in Spanish through 10 distinct levels and utilizing exclusive online services:

• A 24/7 online adviser to answer your questions
• Comprehensive tests to evaluate your level and progress
• Weekly lessons based on a relevant news topic
• New Role Play activity

Tell Me More Performance provides language learning that is simple-to-use and increasingly effective, making learning a language fun and engaging. It’s so effective, in fact, that more than 95 percent of learners have progressed at least one level (IDC study after 50 hours of learning).

Highlights:

• 2,000 hours of Spanish learning and 10 different levels: Tell Me More Performance is the most comprehensive method on the market, allowing you to choose from 10 distinct levels of content, from Complete Beginner to Expert.
• 10,000 exercises: Covers all the skills to learn Spanish: speaking and listening, reading and writing, grammar, vocabulary, and culture. Learn in an interactive way with dialogues, speech recognition, and other cutting-edge software.
• The most powerful speech-recognition technology on the market: Tell Me More Performance includes the latest speech-recognition technology, giving you the most effective way of assessing your pronunciation. You will improve your Spanish conversational skills with graphs and 3D animations, while interactive dialogues with the computer make your Spanish learning experience fun.
• 10 hours of video: full immersion in the language and culture through cultural videos--or play the part of a character in the Role Play activity.
• A 24/7 online adviser: Need help learning how to use the software? Have questions about how the software works and want an answer right away? Our advisers are ready to help you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will answer your questions for free by chatting with you online.
• Real news broadcasts: Experience a new Tell Me More lesson every week online, in partnership with EuroNews. In 30 minutes you will learn about a current news topic with video, vocabulary, and grammar exercises incorporated directly into the broadcast.
• Test your progress: at any time during the course, you can take a test to evaluate your progress.

Learn on the go with Tell Me More

Continue your Spanish learning wherever you go:

• On your Pocket PC (MPEG videos, audio files, cultural texts, etc.)
• On your MP3 player (including iPods and other MP3 devices)
• On audio CDs
• On printable vocabulary lists and grammatical explanations

Product Description

Join the Revolution in Language Learning, with the brand new TELL ME MORE® PERFORMANCE! TELL ME MORE® PERFORMANCE is a breath-through for language learning. It is the most extensive Spanish software available, offering over 2,000 hours of dynamic Spanish learning on 10 distinct levels ¿ as well as additional exclusive online services. TELL ME MORE® PERFORMANCE provides language learning that is simple-to-use and increasingly effective, making learning Spanish fun and engaging. It¿s so effective, in fact, that more than 95% of learners have progressed at least one level!* *IDC Study ¿ after 50 hours of learning An Internationally Renowned Solution Used by more than 10,000 academic institutions worldwide. Chosen by thousands of international organizations for their training programs, including the U.S. Government, Toyota, EDS¿Currently supports more than 5 million learners worldwide 2,000 hours of Spanish learning and 10 different levels Covers all the skills to learn Spanish: speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The most powerful speech recognition technology on the market TELL ME MORE® PERFORMANCE includes the latest speech recognition technology, giving you the most effective way of assessing your pronunciation. A 24/7 online adviser Our advisers are ready to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Real News Broadcasts Experience a new TELL ME MORE® lesson every week online, in partnership with EuroNews®. Test your progress At any time during the course, you can take a test to evaluate your progress. Learn on the go with TELL ME MORE® Continue your Spanish learning wherever you go: on your Pocket PC, MP3 player, audio CDs, printable vocabulary lists and grammatical explanations Progress Guaranteed TELL ME MORE® guarantees your progress, as long as you work at least 50 hours on the program. The terms and conditions relating to this guarantee are included in the software package.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Way better than Rosetta Stone, but need some basic Spanish, July 25, 2009

By 

Robert B. Simpson "Brad" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tell Me More Spanish Performance Version 9 (10 Levels) [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I am fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and have wanted to learn Spanish for some time now. I was about to pull the trigger on Rosetta Stone when I saw some reviews on Tell Me More.
I would have to say that I'm incredibly pleased so far. Tell Me More uses so many more methods of presenting the information than other programs. I love the voice recognition software to practice pronunciation. I also really appreciate that at any time, I can open a separate window to focus on a particular word that is giving me trouble. It allows to you work on grammar, writing, spelling, and conjugation...4 major areas that I feel Rosetta Stone is very weak.
I do have to say that for kids or beginners, Rosetta Stone may be easier to use, but I don't think that I would have ever become truly fluent using RS.
I purchased the 10 level Performance edition and would warn you that there is a TON of information to cover, so don't expect to have everything gone through in a month. I'm still finishing up the intoductory lessons, which have been great.
I think the coolest feature so far while practicing using Tell Me More is the exercises where someone will speak to you, asking you a question, and the voice recognition software waits for you to vocally answer the questions.
All in all, a GREAT product for anyone wanting to really learn the language!

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT THE LATEST VERSION., November 27, 2009

By 

Joseph T. Reinckens II (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tell Me More Spanish Performance Version 9 (10 Levels) [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I just started using this about a week ago. I have gone through the first disk (I had a lot of third-year Spanish courses in college.) This is version 9. According to the TellMeMore website, the latest version is Version 10, which is a completed rewrite. They sell 10 Levels Version 10 for $549 and this one for $374. They have an on-line demo.

I majored in German and also studied a lot of Spanish, so I am familiar with the various teaching methods. Their method is a good mix, since it works on all six main areas of language: reading, writing, speaking, aural comprehension, grammar and vocabulary.

Actual news broadcasts is a particularly useful approach, since ALL language-learning programs basically use highly-scripted text.

They also have a 10+2 level package where the final two lessons are business-specific vocabulary.

The user interface could use some improvement. It took several hours for me to stumble on how to do the crosswords and Audio Comprehension questions. For crosswords, after you type in a word you have to click the "solution" icon, a lightbulb in the upper right corner. It then gives you the next word. Normal reaction is that you would only click the solution icon if you just don't have a clue and NEED the answer rather than HAVE the answer. For the Audio Comprehension questions, after you select the answer you also have to click the solution icon so the progress report will show you have completed that task.

There is one incredibly annoying thing with the crosswords ... the program distinguishes between accented and unaccented words that have the exact same pronunciation. So, for instance, if you type él instead of el or tú instead of tu (or vice versa) it considers it an error. They don't say "el -- article" or "él - pronoun". You just have to guess!

I DID NOTICE ONE SIGNIFICANT ERROR -- THEY GOT THE ALPHABET WRONG! Spanish has four letters that don't exist in English: ch, ll, ñ and rr. For instance, chico has four letters, not five. They don't list the ch or ll letters. As you go in further they eventually provide a LIST of the 29 letters. [Should be 30. I originally said there were 3 extra letters and recently noticed the error. I haven't used the program in awhile, so I don't know whether it shows 29 or 30.] But, by that time you are already used to thinking "say -- ache -- ee -- say -- o" (Chico) instead of "chay -- ache -- say -- o"). Also, you can't input the extra letters, which reinforces the error. (They DO have clickable options for accented vowels and Ñ.)

The "practice a phoneme" drills do have animated graphics giving a basic idea of placement of the tongue, etc. However, they use technical terminology only someone with linguistics training would know. (Where is the alveolar ridge?) Also, at least the diagram for t is wrong. It describes an English t, where the tongue does not touch the teeth. A Spanish t is a dental sound, meaning the tongue touches the back of the top teeth.

In the written portions, the program does distinguish non-English characters such as ú, á, í and ñ to force proper spelling but does not accept such characters from the United States-International keyboard layout. Therefore, every time you have to input such a character you have to pick it from a chart with the mouse instead of just inputting it from the keyboard with right-alt plus the letter.

The program is also mouse-intensive. When you finish a question you can't just press Tab or Enter to move to the next screen, you have to go to the upper right hand and click the Next button. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it does quickly become annoying.

From what I have seen so far, having worked through the first disk, this is really not a program for someone who just wants to learn a little Spanish for vacation travel. It puts quite a bit of emphasis on proper word order, spelling (including proper letter accents), and even punctuation.

Because of the way lessons are broken down, you can repeatedly access a particular section and get repeated variations.

There are a few simple things it should mention early on that would make learning spelling and pronunciation much easier for beginners. For instance, it could mention that Spanish is almost 100% phonetic. Also, that the voice accent goes on the final syllable but on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable if the word ends in a vowel or n or s, and in ANY multi-syllable word that does not follow that pattern you have to write an accent, e.g., seis but dieciséis; número; sábado. Also that pronouns get accents and adjectives/articles don't: he = él, you = tú, but el = the and tu = your. Also that question words get accents and non-question adverbs (etc.) don't: Where are you = dónde? but I know where = donde, How are you = cómo? but this ïs LIKE that" = como, etc.

Judging from the demo, this program is EXTREMELY customizable. There are six major categories and you can select which ones you want, ratios, etc. For instance, if you are primarily interested in being able to read you could set it to emphasize that rather than speaking and aural comprehension. Judging from descriptions from professional reviewers, Tell Me More seems to be the "Rolls Royce" of language-learning programs. Although I have only been using it a short while and am just starting to get a good idea of the features, I think I would agree. (My undergrad major was languages and linguistics, I spent a year in a Ph.D. program in linguistics and German, and I have studied German, Yiddish, Spanish, French, Russian, biblical Hebrew, Latin, and English linguistics and I have about 90 semester hours in various foreign language courses at the post-secondary school level.)

Although this seems pretty expensive, 2009-2010 tuition for just one 3-semester hour course at Houston Community College, for example, for a Texas resident living outside Houston is $338 plus fees, etc. And beyond second year, college language courses focus on literature, so you don't learn a lot of words you would need in everyday use.

The Nuance voice recognition is VERY good and doesn't require "training" the program. It can pick up the difference, for instance, between aspirated (the puff of breath with English initial p) and unaspirated p and dental (Spanish) versus (English) alveolar t. When practicing sentences, it will point out the particular word that needs to be practiced.

An important point regarding voice-recognition sentence practice: It expects you to pronounce each word separately. Even if you pronounce them clearly, if you run words together it considers it wrong. (Actually, American news anchors, actors, etc., say each word separately, but most people don't realize it.)

As you get more advanced, the program provides an increasing variety of activities. So far I have found it very good and still interesting, even though I am going over basic introductory material.

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not that great for beginners, January 2, 2009

By 

admneal (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tell Me More Spanish Performance Version 9 (10 Levels) [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I find the overall use of this program to be very limited for total beginner in Spanish. User needs to have some background in the language.
It starts out with zero vocabulary building or sentence structure exercises. The interface is a bit slow, even on my high performance machine.
Very disappointed with the tech support as they, cut and paste answers from the owners manual. They were zero help and didn't seem like they knew there own program.
As far as the their "Guarantee" really look at the fine print before you buy...
Too expensive a piece of software to be this poor.