101 Languages of the World

Other products by Transparent Language

Product Features

• Quickly and easily learn language survival phrases
• Greetings, exchanging money, navigating travel situations, and more
• From 1500 and 5,000 words per language and a variety of phrases
• Easy-to-learn, intuitive user interface
• PLEASE NOTE - UNITYPE WORD PROCESSOR ONLY FOR WINDOWS NOT MAC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004UFGD
• Item model number: ML-W08-3-CD
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 6, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,846 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Product Description
Discover the world's common and uncommon languages, from Arabic to Zulu, with 101 Languages of the World by Transparent Language. Learning to speak another language is made easy, quick, and fun. Right from the start, learners of any level--even complete beginners--can start using a foreign language with this unique learning system. Tune your ear and build your comprehension with games and listening activities. Perfect your speaking skill with advanced pronunciation analysis. Participate in real dialogues to learn to speak like a native. Languages of the World also includes a free multilingual word processor: the Unitype GlobalWriter. Type in over 100 languages; get spell checking, thesauruses, character sets, and more (for Windows only).

Product Description
SET OF 4 CD-ROMS IN CASE, FOR WINDOWS OR MAC, W/5000 WORDS PER LANUAGE * MULTILINGUAL WORD PROCESSOR (WINDOWS ONLY) fr TRANSPARENT LANGUAGE, 140 000 WORDS, 25 000 PHRASES,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for those looking for an introduction to languages, December 9, 2000

By	Veggiechiliqueen - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

A few years ago I bought 31 Languages of the World by Transparent Software and I was impressed by the number of languages, games and activities. When I saw that they had released 101 Languages of the world I couldn't resist!

As someone who works with 4+ languages on a daily basis, I also enjoy studying languages as a hobby. It was fascinating to see some of the lesser studied European languages and variants such as Asturian, Provençal, Basque, and Catalan.

The games provided are great for reviewing or brushing up on vocabulary and grammar. Recording conversations and completing dialogues was also very helpful to get a feel for phrasing and pronunciation.

It is refreshing to see a software company taking the effort to enlist native speakers and record unusual languages, such as Blackfoot, Quechua, Hawaiian, Welsh, Xhosa, Wolof, and even some that I was not familiar with.

The important thing to remember is that no, using this product will not make you fluent. It will introduce you to grammar, pronunciation, culture, and common phrases. Native speakers are a plus, but I did not like the fact that languages that made use of symbols rather than letters were Romanized, such as Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, etc. In the long run it is much more difficult to pick up the symbols after learning the language.

Still, this is a great product at a reasonable price for anyone with an interest in languages, either learning for the first time or for reviewing. Give this software a try, have fun, and good luck!

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great language-learning help!, October 28, 2000

By	"nomi2ma" (Chesapeake, VA USA) - See all my reviews

When I first got this product, I had several hopes for it. First, that--due to the ability to hear the language, and compare my pronunciation with it--I could get the "feel" of many languages I hadn't been able to grasp before, due to lack of contact with native speakers.

I wanted this, NOT so much to become fluent in the languages, as to be able to use common phrases of meeting and shopping when visiting other countries or when entertaining foreign visitors--both of which happen frequently for my husband and myself. I had noticed that if I simply TRIED to speak their language, most people would switch to English to accomodate me, but do it cheerfully. In most cases, they would have done it anyway, since I couldn't speak their language--but not so happily. This changed everything.

I mean, a realistic Croat or Lithuanian won't expect most Americans to speak their language, but a few words of friendly greeting--a mere attempt--make all the difference in their feeling respected, welcomed, and "at home" with us.

Second, I wanted the benefits of understanding more about the world's cultures I might never be exposed to otherwise. For example, working with the language of a people helps when you read their history, as well.

For instance, just after studying the segment on Basque, I bought a volume of Basque history, and was amazed at how much more I understood due to this language program. Family names, city names, and so on are words in the language, so you have a much more vivid impression of the place and people.

It's like knowing that a place-name like "Bear Mountain" is a mountain where there were bears, rather than just knowing the sounds of the name, such as "Boca Raton" which means "mouse's mouth" only if you know the original language (Spanish).

It's wonderful for my grandchildren to use, as well, since they see learning the words and phrases as a game--and they pick up languages, and the correct pronunications, faster than adults. And they get used to the idea that there are a lot of other languages, instead of believing that "everyone" speaks English.

Why didn't I say "five stars" for this product? Because NOT ALL the languages on it have the pronunciation features that allow you to hear and copy and compare various aspects of your speaking with the native speakers. But most do, and for that I am grateful. Thank you, Transparent Languages!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for learning less commonly learned languages, October 22, 2002

By	"ja7000" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

For less commonly learned languages such as Bengali, Basque, Urdu, etc. there are few language learning resources available. If you are serious about learning these languages, I highly recommend adding this to your language learning tools. For more commonly learned languages such as German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and Italian you might find software dedicated to your language of choice more useful.

Don't depend on this software alone to learn. 'Learn to Listen & Speak. Guaranteed' is a little exaggerated. For any language you will need to get a good grammar book and a dictionary to develop vocabulary lists. I recommend 101 Languages of the World because software is far superior to tapes when working on pronunciation. With tapes its hard to constantly back up to master the pronunciation of a word or phrase. With this software you can click a word or phrase as much as you want to practice pronunciation.

The software contains numerous common words and phrases and there are several games that reinforce what you are learning. You can also export words to a vocabulary building program that comes with the software. One problem I have is that 101 Languages uses romanized letters instead of script. But otherwise its a great program and worth buying.