Customer Reviews

Learn Hebrew Now!

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When I first got this I was a bit disappointed. For the price, the graphics are really dreadful and I found it very hard to get started. The program is based on the "immersion environment", however, the immersion is so complete that even though I've completed both comprehensive Pimsleur Hebrew courses, I found myself completely bewildered. The dialogue is complicated and extremely fast. There is a "slow" mode which I do not find particularly helpful since the tracks have been digitally slowed. To me, this just distorts the pronunciation of the words and, if anything, makes it harder to understand.

Having said all of that, after playing with the program off and on while continuing to use other products as my main method of study, I have found some features of this program that I really like. For example the "Before You Know It" flashcard section is great! The flashcards can be shown to you in a number of different ways: pictures, English words, Hebrew words, etc., so that you can test your translation into Hebrew and also back to English. This is a really easy way to boost your vocabulary. (Although, I understand that you can get at least some BYKY products online for free and the selection included with this program is very limited).

Another thing I like about the program is that it really helps with reading Hebrew. One aspect of the immersion environment consists of dialogues that will play the Hebrew audio while you follow along with the text on the screen. You can also set the window to show translations on the bottom (sort of like subtitles). Or you can turn off the English translations to test your reading/comprehension; if you get stuck on a word, just click on the one word or phrase and the translation will pop up.

The games are fun if you enjoy cross-words, fill-in the blanks, etc., but don't expect any cute or exciting graphics. The games are probably more effective at drilling spelling than anything else, so if your primary goal is to speak the language, you may not find the games very useful.

Overall, I will continue to use the program, but I definitely would not recommend this to someone just getting started. I think that if you had no previous experience with Hebrew you would be utterly frustrated. BUT if you want to sharpen up your reading skills and get used to hearing Hebrew spoken at a more normal pace, this would be a good addition to your Hebrew learning library.