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Talk Now! Learn Slovenian - Beginning Level

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This program will give you some basic nouns grouped in categories such as food, shopping, countries, first words, telling time, parts of the body, counting (only up to 20), and so on. You will also learn some useful phrases (where is the bank, how much does this cost, I don't feel well, what time is it, etc...). All words are paired with a visual to help you remember. There are fun practice games with varying levels of prompting that strengthen your ability to recognize and remember the vocabulary words. The two human models enunciate clearly, so it is easy to practice your pronunciation.

What the program does NOT contain is any grammar. For example, in Slovenian one pronounces the letter 'c' as 'ts'. The letter 'j' is always 'y'. Also, some letters have symbols over them: a 'c' can become the equivalent of our 'ch', and an s becomes 'sh'. You can pick this up as you go through the program, but these differences are not overtly stated. Additionally, Slovenian is one of those languages where numerous consonants appear in succession with no vowel in sight. The word for finger, for example, is 'prst,' and while the pronunciation is clearly demonstrated, no explanation is offered.

Similary, there are no verbs included other than those you can glean from the 'useful phrases' section. "Ne jem mesa" means 'I don't eat meat'--I assume that 'jem' means 'I eat'. I can also assume, based on other phrases, that the 'm' ending refers to the first person singular. If I wanted to ask three people whether they eat meat, I wouldn't be able to, so the inclusion of verb conjugation would be nice; nor could I state anything in either the past or future tense, thus the makers of this program might consider adding verb tenses to the next edition.

What this boils down to is that if you travel to Slovenia any time after learning the words on this program, you'll be able to recognize some words on the menu and ask where the bathroom is. If you want to refute the ugly American stereotype and actually try to converse with the natives, in their language (rather than expect them to know yours), you'll need to supplement this program with something else.