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From:Auralog
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See Product Page
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#1853 |
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22 of 26 customers found the following review helpful:
 Bizarre, just... really bizarre. Useless junk, totally overpriced., 2007-12-25
First, a little background. I studied Spanish in high school as well as college. While my formal education left me with a thorough understanding of Spanish grammar, I found that my vocabulary was sorely lacking and so I began exploring the various options for improving my skills on my own.
I read rave reviews of the Auralog software, so I decided to give it a try. Boy... at least I was lucky enough to have purchased a second-hand copy for $50. This software is really, really weird, and certainly not worth $250.
There is absolutely no introduction, no explanation of the exercises, how they're organized, or anything else. The program just throws out a bunch of vocabulary, most of which is completely without translation. You can override the guided activities if you want to look at the section's vocab list first, but even then it doesn't include all the words.
There is also no explanation of grammar. And while this wasn't a problem for me, it would be for those who are just beginning to learn the language. Again, you can override the guided mode to review the grammar, but it is sparsely explained. You'd do much better with a basic grammar book.
This stuff is really strange, and frankly, I have no idea why anyone would give it 5 stars (although frankly, I don't understand it with Rosetta Stone either). If you're looking for something user-friendly, try Transparent Language's software, or the discontinued (but excellent, and now very cheap) programs made by the Learning Company.
Bottom line: Just because something costs $250 doesn't mean it isn't total junk. There are far better programs out there for a fraction of the price.
17 of 18 customers found the following review helpful:
Good software, bad marketing, 2007-12-08
I ordered this product to get a head start on Spanish classes I'll be taking at school, and use during the class. I plan on traveling to Central America on an extended trip next year.
PROBLEM---TeLL me More's product is the WRONG dialect. It is European Spanish (Castillian), not Latin American Spanish. It came with 4 discs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and then they threw in 1 beginner disc of Latin American Spanish. So now I am learning "vosotros" verb conjugation which does not exist in Latin American Spanish, and the speech recognition software wants me to use a Castillian accent (making some "S" sounds more like a "TH" in English).
Great software. Great features. The speech recognition is great. It is very picky about pronunciation, which means I'm learning to speak more like a native speaker and less like a gringo. Would have been 5 stars if it was the dialect I needed.
7 of 9 customers found the following review helpful:
 Not what I thought :(, 2007-11-16
I expected this software to be amazing after reading reviews. I was very disappointed. The interface was very dated and not user friendly. It wouldn't allow me to continue on to something else if I didn't like what I was working on. I was hoping for something much better for that price. I couldn't return it either - basically wasted my money. I definitely wouldn't recommend this software. Although not perfect, I found Rosetta Stone much easier to use and much more effective.
30 of 30 customers found the following review helpful:
 This made my reluctant daughter want to learn Spanish, 2007-09-27
I'm a homeschooling mother of 6, and I have been trying to teach my 15 year old daughter Spanish since she was born. She has been resisting, and resentful about it. When I gave her the Tell Me More software, she was interested and engaged immediately. It's not perfect, but it is fun and educational. Here are some pros and cons of the software.
Pros:
* three different modes
* four distinct levels
* voice recognition feature
* easy to navigate
* fun
* dictionary feature
Cons:
* assumes knowledge of verb conjugation
* pronunciation exercises have no clear-cut end
* complete beginner level feels more intermediate than beginner
* word search sections assume you know the written form of words you've only just heard; assumes a large vocabulary
24 of 32 customers found the following review helpful:
Very disappointed, 2007-07-24
I have just completed Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin American-level 1. I thought it was okay but I was looking for more conversational Spanish and I found Rosetta Stone to be lacking in the area of conversational Spanish, providing vocabulary words to review, and the content in level 1 was slightly too sophomoric for my opinion. As a result I did research on the web read reviews and discovered that "tell me more" was the best rated on Amazon and other review websites. I was very disappointed in the product, I found the software was not user friendly and I'm very computer literate. I was not interested in doing crossword puzzles and grammar exercises yet I could not complete the guided course work without it. when I went to free roam mode I found that there was not enough opportunity for the program to allow me to listen and repeat dialogue it was amazingly cumbersome just to make progress in anything compared to Rosetta stone. Additionally I'm not that interested in learning grammatical structure I want to hear people speaking, read the words and learn via picture, association and repetition. Also it did not have the dynamic learning mode this was also disappointing. I also discovered that the software was last produced in 2004, outdated. In speech recognition mode it kept going and going and I get no feedback as to whether I was finished, it kept going no matter how many times I tried; it said my pronunciation was moderate while other speech recognition software showed my pronunciation to be good after practicing. In summary I hated my experience and return the product immediately. I wish Rosetta Stone had more conversational Spanish and reviewed topics of conversation that were slightly more adult oriented for level 1, I'm hoping level two is better as I'm going to purchase Rosetta Stone immediately. Please note everyone learns differently and has different expectations I was just surprisingly shocked at how difficult it was to make progress and really jump right in learning listening and repeating, it's just not for me maybe it could be something you like?
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