Learn Swedish Now! 9.0

by Transparent Language

Product Features

• Over 15,000 Words Hundreds of Useful Phrases Full Motion "Big Picture" Video
• Full Native Speaker Pronunciation SlowSound to Hear Every Nuance Advanced Pronunciation Practice
• Record, Playback and Compare Alphabet Reference & Grammar Tutorial Conversation Practice
• Integrated BYKI Vocabulary Software MP3 Audio for iPods or other players
• Personal BYKI list creation (with sound) from 15,000 words Interactive Games Video Unscramble

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006LSWM
• Item model number: Learn Swedish Now
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 19, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,048 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

SwedishNow! 9 Deluxe takes you from beginner to confident Swedish speaker in no time. Five exciting language learning areas feature grammar tutorials, interactive learning, progress tracking from your desktop, and conversation practice with native Swedish speakers. SwedishNow!'s stimulating multimedia environment adds enhanced large-format video--letting you experience Sweden and the Swedish people with real-life video content. Plus, its integrated speech tools record and play back your own voice.

Learn at your own pace and build a solid foundation with SwedishNow! 9 Deluxe's flexible learning format. The DVD-box edition includes four titles: The Most Common Words in Swedish, Survival Phrases for Swedish, Life at the Swedish Palace, and Stockholm. You'll learn more than 10,000 words, build your language skills with interactive grammar exercises and quizzes, cover hundreds of survival phrases, do Swedish crosswords, play fun games, and much more. Access to online testing at TalkNow!'s Web site extends the learning, making this comprehensive Swedish language course fast, fun, and highly effective. Also added is GlobalWriter98 (for Microsoft Windows users only), an easy-to-use translation program that helps you write in more than 100 languages.

Product Description

Learn From Exciting Content and Interactive Activities - Learn Swedish Now! is a revolutionary language-learning tool based on the proven Transparent Method of learning how to use a language in context through rich multimedia activities. Learn Swedish Now! unites industry-leading tools with authentic, native multimedia content to make learning fast, fun, and effective. Big Video Screen - Just select one of the interesting articles or stories and click to explore the Swedish language. View Swedish language videos complete with the sites and sounds of real people speaking and interacting in Swedish. Or jump directly into exciting interactive games, pronunciation-improving practice or invigorating conversations. Determine your own learning pace by deciding when you need translation-and when you don't. All the tools you need to quickly master a language are instantly available in Learn Swedish Now! Interactive Conversational Practice - Practice your lines using the prompts and the integrated speech features, then record your voice and replay the whole conversation with the lines you've recorded. It's a terrific way to get valuable real-world experience using your new language. In no time, you'll be conditioned to respond correctly without thinking about it, just like you do in English. Before You Know It - The revolutionary software that teaches you words and phrases so you know them cold - with Perfect Recall - is now integrated right into Learn Swedish Now! You get: * Quick launch of BYKI from within Learn Swedish Now! * Companion BYKI lists to use with immersion content * Dozens of bonus lists from BYKI Deluxe * The ability to create custom BYKI lists (complete with native speaker sound) from any of the 15,000 words in Learn Language Now! MP3 Learning on Your iPod or Other Player - Learn language Now! comes with dozens of BYKI Pod Audio MP3 files. Now you can practice your language wherever you take your MP3 player.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unique teaching method, some technical issues, September 27, 2003

By 

John R Chang (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learn Swedish Now! 9.0 (CD-ROM)

The Macintosh version included in the box is an older version (8.1), lagging behind the advertised Windows version (9.0). While I'm thrilled it runs as native "Carbonized" application on Mac OS X, I've run into a few minor glitches: 1) The application help uses Apple's Help Viewer, but the Swedish grammar reference uses QuickHelp, which crashes often and won't print. 2) The cool Speech Correctness feature works with my PowerBook G4's built-in microphone, but doesn't work correctly with my higher quality iSight microphone. 3) The user interface looks horribly outdated when running in Mac OS X's Aqua interface.

That said, this is the best language software I've seen on a computer. Yes, it includes canned quizzes and games, vocabulary and grammar tutorials, just as you'd expect from educational computer software. However, its primary teaching mode is non-structured and passive, as an interactive digital textbook. It took me a while to understand this. You can read the titles in any order and have it speak any word or phrase. Using your computer's microphone, you can record your voice and compare it against the native speaker's. But it can also analyze your voice based on pitch, frictive, and vowel sounds (to varying degrees of success, but enough to make it useful). So, the usage is completely open-ended (what they call the "Successful Immersion Approach"). In a way, this is better than human instruction. I sat there trying to nail the pronunciation of a phrase, repeating it over and over, and I thought: a human would never be so patient! The reward comes not from flashing "congratulations, you passed this quiz!" at your face, but from within yourself as you experience the joy of entering a foreign language with software "training wheels."

The technical problems on the Mac version, while frustrating, are not severe enough to prevent usability.

You have to have self-discipline to get much out of this software. If you're willing to be your own teacher, it provides a deep and individualized medium for learning a new language. However - if you're in a hurry, I recommend the excellent Pimsleur language series (audio CDs) instead. And if you're looking for comprehensive traditional instruction, I'd recommended a book and CD series called "På svenska!", ISBN 91-7434-429-3 (not available on Amazon.com).

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for ALL, June 11, 2003

By 

Gary Trent (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Swedish Now! 9.0 (CD-ROM)

I bought this product to try and learn Swedish on my own and it really is everything they say it is and more. The amount of actual Swedish language in the program you can learn is so large that it would take a great deal of time to learn it all. There are tons of conversation practices to learn from and even Interactive Video Conversations which through video, audio, and a microphone you can simulate a conversation with native speakers. To practice vocabulary and other aspects of Swedish language there are many games provided in the software. This software is really versatile because it is good for all skill levels and purposes (work, travel, education, ect.). I give my utmost recomendation to use this software for learning Swedish.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, June 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn Swedish Now! 9.0 (CD-ROM)

I love this product. I tried some other products but I haven't found anything better than this. The games and coversation practices are really fun and there is just so much to learn with this. If you want to learn Swedish(or any other language) try this. Overall, this product is really good and I would advise anyone who doubts this to try it.