Customer Reviews

Tell Me More French Premium Version 7 [Old Version]

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

 

 

I was fortunate to learn french in France over a two year period in Strasbourg. One of the biggest concerns I had leaving was I would lose all the French I had learned. I was a little skeptical at first when the representative from Auralog promised that I could actually improve my French while living in the U.S., but I am happy to say that it is true! I have been using this product for the last 4 months and have never been happier. After a recent visit to Geneva I can tell you that I actually improved my French while living in the United States. Tell Me More fills in the biggest gap in learning any language: oral production. Even while in one of the best language schools in Strasbourg I rarely had the opportunity to speak. Tell Me More addresses it through their voice recognition software which measures your speech compared to a native speaker. The modules are varied and can be customized to your level and needs. What I really like about the program is its variety and the fact you can follow the program at your own pace. If you want my 2 cents (and I did a lot of research in this area), this is flat out the best language program out there!

I almost did not get this product after reading some of the reviews, but Rosetta Stone was boring and did nothing for me. So, I gave this a try. I agree with the reviewers who say the documentation is weak. It does jump right in and can be discouraging at first. But, once I figured out how to use it, it is great. I love the way it leads you to the grammer, pronouncation and translations. I am going to have fits with verbs, but that's me.

I have finished about half of "Complete Beginner" and actually feel I have it down. The various learning modules really help in and out of context. Hearing a word or phrase and having to type it out is the toughest, and most helpful, drill I have come across. The ablility to practice pronouncing words and phrases with feedback have me speaking well enough to be understood by a lovely french lady I happen to know.

I recommend this product, as it is working for me. Just take your time when starting out, press "translation" to see the english portion, and click on "words" to get any word to practice it alone. It slowly builds understanding and usage at a comfortable pace. One more note. Do not get overwhelmed when looking at grammer/verbs. It gives a complete explanation and can be too much at once. Just get the part you need and move on. I promise you, you will be visiting this section a lot, over and over (at least I do). I still hate irregular verbs in any language.

UPDATE Sept. 27, 2008. I have now finished "Complete Beginner" and "Beginner". I am 3/4 the way through "Intermediate". I still recommend this product. In fact, I have contacted the manufacturer to upgrade to the 10 CD version (no update available, but they gave me a discount to purchase it outright).

My french is progressing at a nice pace. I have enough of it in my head to feel comfortable in getting by in France. Talking with people is so much easier then talking to the computer. I thought it would be the other way around, as the computer will use the same words over and over, but the face-to-face allows gestures, pointing, slowing down, etc. So much easier to be understood.

One of the things I suggested for future releases is the ablility to slow down the computer to really hear the words. Auralog did respond to my suggestions. They commented that the reason they did not include this feature is to allow the student to hear french at a normal speaking pace. Slowing it down would be counter-productive. Well, OK. I did not think of that. It is true that I am becoming comfortable "at speed" and sometimes slow talkers (happens when they figure out you are new at it) are actually harder to understand.

I am happy with my progress so far. The program does work. I have been told I have a "slight American accent" and the effort I have put into the language is noticable. I do not know if people are being nice to a beginner, but I am happy, and can be understood.

This product has potential such as the ability to practice pronounciation on any word in the program's vocabulary. There are also some fun exercises to play with. However, that is the extent of what is good. The negative items include:

1 - The product manual is very lacking and non-helpful.

2 - The so-called tech support does not answer their phone, and I am still waiting for e-mail replies.

3 - Some of the product features are not on any of the menus. I am an advanced software professional, and I could not even find some of the features it lists on the box - even after two full hours of searching.

4 - The included CD's are not labeled to know which practice and vocab topics are on each CD. I had to insert each one in and write down the menu choices for the topics. It only displays the ones that are on the CD currently in the drive.

5 - Their web site has incomplete pages and lacks any support forum or knowledge base. It does have a FAQ page, but it is less informative than the useless product manual.

6 - The program requires the CD's to be available for it to run properly, which is unrealistic for travelling abroad. Their web site actually addressed this and claims that it is impossible to make it fully install on the hard drive (more like they don't know how to do it).

Overall, save your money. If this was less than $100, then maybe it might be worth the pronounciation features. But for it's current price tag, it is a major disappointment.

I had purchased the TELL ME MORE Spanish product and really liked it. The diversity of the activities really kept me interested and motivated. I found it more useful than any other resources I used: audio CDs, books...I am going to France for a business trip this year and wanted to learn it before going there, to be able to have conversations there. The dialogues are great as I can practice that.

Here's where I'm coming from. I've spoken French since I was 5. My Mother was French. My relatives are French. I've studied French literature in college. I've spent time in France and in French speaking countries. I am a certified high school teacher.

My knowledge of grammar and my pronunciation were suffering from lack of use, and I wanted a computer-based program to practice French. Since I have a daughter who would like to learn French, the program needed to include all levels - beginning, intermediate, and advanced. I bought both the Rosetta Stone French Level 1-3 Set program and "Tell Me More." In my opinion, Rosetta Stone can't compare to the instruction in "Tell Me More," which is far superior in all aspects. I love "Tell Me More," and actually work through the lessons for fun and relaxation.

To be honest about "Tell Me More," the other reviewers are correct in stating that the technical components are difficult to set up, and the manual is not very detailed. However, the technical support is excellent. You call technical support or write to them. They call you and talk you through the issue or do a remote session on your computer. The technicians are knowledgeable and competent. Once you deal with the voice recognition set-up, it's all wonderful!

Rosetta Stone makes me crazy. They use photos and ask you to put labels on the pictures or choose the right picture for the phrase - over and over and over and over. Even if you know the phrase, it is easy to choose the wrong picture because it is unclear or because your brain is addled from working the same phrases over and over and over and over . . . That is NOT fun. I hate it. When you know something, it doesn't matter. The program doesn't recognize that you know it and advance. I REALLY hate it. In "Tell Me More," after finishing an exercise, you immediately know if it's correct. There is a green signal and an encouraging sound. If your answer is incorrect, there is a red signal, a discouraging sound, and you can see the correct answer. The best part is that, unlike Rosetta Stone, it is intelligent enough to advance to the next exercise.

Auralog, which makes "Tell Me More" language programs, has offices all over the world but is based in Paris. The program uses native speakers of different genders and ages, a very useful technique. The French is so clear and perfect it is a pleasure just to listen to it.

The websites for Rosetta Stone and Auralog show the difference between the methods and companies. Rosetta Stone gives you about 3 pages of information about the program and a short, about 10 minute, demo. Auralog offers a 1-week trial of its on-line course, at any level and for any audience.

Auralog creates language software for consumers, businesses, governments, homeschoolers, libraries and schools (language labs). The lessons are designed for all purposes, economic, political, travel, and more. They address students at all levels - primary, secondary and university level.

In the intermediate portion of the program, which I am now using, there are 12 topics: family; speaking about yourself; spelling and counting; time and dates; objects and animals; adjectives; arriving in France; meeting people; in Paris; finding your way when traveling; talking about your work; and working on your computer. Each topic has 12 activities in 5 categories: culture, vocabulary, grammar, oral and written. Activities are: dialogue; sentence pronunciation; word pronunciation; phonetics exercise; word/picture association; word searches; word association; the right word; fill-in-the-blanks; words and topics; words and functions; mystery phrase; crossword puzzles; sentence order; dictation; written expression; and videos with questions. If you start an activity and tire of it, you can change to another activity and return to the first later. The program retains your progress and shows the percentage of correct answers.

The speech recognition is particularly useful. In sentence practice, you can repeat the sentence. If that is too difficult, you can break it down and practice word-by-word. It displays pitch and wave forms. You can repeat and also listen to your recording. This is very effective.

In short, I find "Tell Me More" to be interesting, comprehensive, effective and fun.

I've been struggling with this software off and on for the last couple of years and finally realized it's not worth either the time or money I've spent on it. It has a variety of flaws, but here are the major ones:

1) The User Interface is Terrible: The software is Flash-based and the user inteface is totally non-intuitive, violating all of the basic user interface standards used by most Windows-based programs. Double-clicking on commands is not supported, and neither is the Enter key. Every selection requires at least two mouse clicks, making navigating the program a frustrating process.

2) Speech Recogition is Unrecognizable: This feature, which is one of the major selling points of the program, is a complete joke. The software simply cannot reliably distinguish between a correctly-spoken word or phrase and a mangled one. It routinely assigns a low score to samples of my recorded speech - but will then assign a high score to the next sample even though the two samples are sonically identical (both to my ear and according to the displayed waveform). To prove how inaccurate the speech recognition feature is, I deliberately mispoke a variety of words or phrases (by subtituting incorrect consonants, for example) while maintaining the general rhythm of the phrase. The sofware almost always assigned a high score to the mispoken sample.

3) Customer Service is Non-Existent: Since purchasing the software, I have emailed Auralog several times with questions. I received an answer only once - two months after sending the email!

My recommendation is that, if you want to learn some French, don't waste your money on this gimmicky product. Instead, invest in a few good French language books (grammar, vocabulary, and the Barron's verb book), learn the basics, and then find a French language class at your local college or university where you will have the opportunity to practice pronouncation and oral comprehension.

I took seven years of French in junior high, high school and college and was hoping to re-learn French thirty years later for a business trip to Geneva. What a mess! If you are at all thinking of buying this software and your French is not already very good, you will be extremely disappointed. Actually, for the price of this program, you will be downright angry. This may be the biggest rip-off in language software ever perpretrated on man. Not only is the software shockingly user-surly, but it began right away speaking to me in French sentences so advanced that I muttered into the included microphone "you've got to be kidding me!" To which the computer phonectics Nazi replied "I do not understand you. Speak faster." This was the beginning of my bitter two-hour relationship with this horrible program which ended with me tossing it in the garbage (I could re-sell it on Amazon, but wouldn't do that to my worst enemy).

I kept thinking that I must be missing something. So I continued to search through the various options, loading more disks and desperately trying to find something of value in the program, something that would help me, only to become more and more frustrated.

I read the positive reviews of this program and simply don't get how anyone could write anything redeeming about this abomination. I've bought some disappointing products and services in my life but this is the first time I was so irritated by a product I felt compelled to write a review and warn others. This program is AWFUL! Do not let the positive reviews fool you! You will hate it -- Guaranteed!

I just started with the TellMeMore French course and looks good so far. I'd say that the speech recognition is the weakest point of the software, other than that everything's just fine.

I've always wanted to learn French, and I did a lot of research before I bought a software program - I'm not made out of money, and I wanted to make sure I found the very best program available. I looked at Rosetta Stone and a couple others, and none of them could compare with this Tell Me More product. It is by far the best. They have cultural components and grammar that Rosetta Stone just doesn't have, and the speech recognition part of it is the best yet. (I tried Rosetta Stone's speech recognition at a kiosk - Tell Me More is light-years better.) It's definitely the best package ever, at least for French. Definitely recommended!

I too have read the reviews and thought I would buy the programme and test it for myself. Having done so and already possessing a very basic knowlege of french, I find the programme very difficult to use. It just has not helped. I bought this programme to improve my french (to become fluent). It says it is for beginners but I find it not beginner friendly, it is still too advance for me. It just didn't meet my expectations. I guess its back to the drawing board. Word of advice save your money.