3 stars (Mavis Beacon on Mac OS X) - I originally used Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 8 on a PC Windows 98. Loved it. This was back when MB was with Mind Spring. Simply Flawless. Now with Broderbund as MB Teaches Typing Deluxe 16 on an iMac G5 running OS X is a so so product for graphics. Actually pooh, pooh. It works OK as a typing teaching tool. I recently got to a lesson and got a fatal error requiring me to Force Quit the program and start over. It went back to the same lesson and required another Force Quit. Broderbund's website doesn't have any support. No updates for the S/W. So, would I buy this again. Yeah, cause this is all that I know for teaching typing. If you can buy this for around $10ish plus shipping and handling like I did then OK. 1 stars (They were right - not XP compatible) - Even after reading about issues with XP from other reviewers, I decided to go with Mavis Beacon simply because the competing typing software is even worse. I also could not believe that Broderbund would be this outdated - or misleading. Wrong. This product will not install under Windows XP SP2. AutoPlay brings up an unresponsive installer, prompting an error report every time. The Start > Run command (recommended by the install instructions) results in absolutely nothing. So I installed it on my aging Windows ME system, and it ran without a problem. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 16 Deluxe is probably the only thing Windows ME can do better than XP. 1 stars (Stay away from Broderbund software) - I wish I could give them zero stars. Broderbund pulled support for software I owned only 2 years after it was released. I was unable to install it because it required internet registration which was no longer supported. To solve the problem, they offered to SELL me a different software title. They must have thought I was stupid. They expected me to give them more money??? This company has second rate software and third rate customer service. Do not buy any... Broderbund :: Touch Typing (Typist) :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Deluxe 16
5 stars (Much better than expected) - Ok, I bought about 4 CDS for polish an dthis was the best o all.....this CD was great because unlike "teach yourself Polish"...ALL the talk was in Polish with pictures and English written translation...so you could play it 500 times with NO WASTE at all since you'll keep hearing POlish so much much better than ';teach yourself polish " cd. it was also much better than polish immersion which was an insult. I highly reccomend this CD 5 stars (Fun way to learn some basic Polish words) - This program will teach you to read, write, and correctly speak some very basic Polish words and sentences. It's a great way to get excited about learning Polish. It is however quite basic. You will only learn about 300 words. But you will learn them very, very well. And you will speak them very, very well. The program allows users to listen as two native polish speakers say the same words and phrases. You can repeat these as often as you like. And you can record your own speach and replay it until your pronounciation is correct. You will learn basic words, colors, food items, phrases, numbers, how to tell time, names of body parts, names of things you may shop for, and polish names of various countries. As a bonus you can print out a very nice polish picture dictionary. To help reinforce your learning, there are many games that give you the opportunity to be challenged. These too are rather simple...but they are indeed fun. And finally...you do not need to understand english to use this program as a polish instructional tool, you can choose from 72 different host languages. In my opinion, Talk Now will teach you quicker and better than Pimsluer. When you are ready get the intermediate version of Euro Talk Polish called World Talk Polish. And forget Pimsluer, which is overpriced and over-rated. Same goes for Rosetta Stone and a few others. When you are ready for intermediate/advanced learning, then consider courses such as Colloquial Polish..etc. ... EuroTalk :: Polish :: Foreign Language - Dictionaries & Phrase Books :: Learn learning :: Cyrillic :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Co :: Talk Now- Learn Polish - Beginning Level
3 stars (Not a replacement for a chinese teacher ... but can help you to improve your chinese skills) - I bougth this Set after 2 months of intensive chinese mandarin lessons, and it was hard for me to understand the method used by this software to teach mandarin. First, the method starts inmediatly with chinese caligraphy and not with pinyin. Second, some of the test that supose to help you to remember the vocabulary are really bad, for example the software dictates: "Ni hao" (hello/how are you) and if you write "ni hao" instead "Ni Hao!" you have a wrong answer, and you will spend your time until you understand that this software recognize capital letters and exclamation symbols in a dictation. Also one of the test ask for the opposite of the word ... and i don't have a clue where is the meaning of the word (in english), how could i know the opposite of that word in a chinese caracther Third, 3 Cds are just audio CDs with no more information than the others cds with the sofware. Fourth, one cd it's a game! Five the others Cd could be in just one! A+++: However, this pack have good graphics, a good software for voice recognition and a good chinese--->english dictionary. But doesnt replace a good chinese teacher. Lack: It doesnt have an english --->chinese dictionary (very important), just have like four lessons (common expressions, clothes, animals, etc). Doesnt have a tool to help you with your chinese caligraphy (i have another software that includes one, and it's really useful) Starts toooo fast with chinese caracthers. It's a funny software.. can help you... but it's not for beginners and not for advanced students PD: Sorry... for my english ... my first language it's spanish, From the south of the world Carolina from Chile 1 stars (Where to start?) - Wow, I wish I had read these other reviews before buying Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese Deluxe . I'm a beginner trying to learn the language because my girlfriend is Chinese. But when I put the CD i... Topics Entertainment :: Learn learning :: Asian :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese Deluxe
2 stars (Poorly designed screen functions) - Although this dictionary's contents are extensive, the screen functions are relics from the DOS era. They are laborious and clumsy. To find a word for difinition, it has to be spelled perfectly, there's no list of proximations to the word entered. Changing a word selection is also clumsy especially in the thesaurus when the cursor doesn't show up in the entry slot. If someone knows of a better software, I'd sure like to hear cause this thing sucks!! Maria McGowan 2 stars (Good basic reference, lousy interface.) - The definitions and thesaurus cross referencing are very good. The user interface is quite honestly shameful. Software companies got away with this years ago, but there are now accepted standards for windows user interfaces (e.g keyboard short cuts are missing). Integration with Word 2003 is weak. Numerous bugs and exceptions and very slow. 5 stars (Great product with a lot of features) - I had an old version of this software (2.0, I think), which requires Mac OS 9 or classic. This new version runs in native OS X. I agree with other reviewers: the interface is ugly, but it does the job. I like the audio capability. English is not my first language so I find the pronunciation feature indispensable (don't forget to install it; it's not included in the "easy" install option). Another great feature is the "Defining text contains" search. You can find a word by entering the words that are in the definition. What is the word that denotes the noise a duck makes? You can easily find that, of course, ducks "quack," not to mention that you will also find all kinds of ducks -- the blue-winged teal, the bufflehead, the eider -- and all sorts of duck relatives and even duck dishes. You can also find words that rhyme with duck: cluck, guck and many more. Other ways of searching include usage paragraph contains, forms a crossword, homophones, cryptograms and more. I don't understand why these features are not prominently ... Fogware Publishing :: Learn learning :: Portuguese :: Spanish Espanol :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Education (Educational) :: Dictionary (Dictionaries) :: Encyclopedia (Encyclope :: Merriam-Webster-s Spanish-English Dictionary
3 stars (Instructional CD - Talk Now! Learn Tagalog ) - Teaches a working vocabulary. Games provided are based on repeating the words so it does imprint the words. However, they do not provide any basics as to how to put words together to create sentences. It's still OK though as it does claim to be appropriate for "absolute beginners". 1 stars (You won't be able to talk back and forth with this.) - If you are looking to buy this software in order to speak to someone back and forth, this is not the product for you. It will teach you phrases and questions, but you won't be able to understand any answers that a native speaker might give you because it doesn't teach you that. You will be able to identify objects in a house or building, but you won't know how to use them in a sentence or even in a fragmented sentence. This is also true for colors. If this is what you rely on to travel somewhere you might find yourself in the middle of a croud just saying azul(blue)......pula(red).... malalim na azul(dark blue)....Nasaan ang maipaparada ng kotse(where can I park the car?) and then even when you ask where can I park the car you won't know where to park it because you won't understand anything that people will tell you because it doesn't teach you that(people might think you're retarded haha). It only teaches you numbers up to 20, so you're out of luck if you ask magkano ito? (how much is this?) and the answer is 150 pisos. You'll just have to hand a merchant a wad of cash and hope he is honest and gives you your change. However, with all the bad things out of the way, this might make a good start for you to learn how to say the words correctly, even though the guy that talk doesn't pronounce the words correctly on there, just click on the girl(she says the correct pronunciations). After completing the CD, Which only took a bout a week and a day a... EuroTalk :: Asian :: Learn learning :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Talk Now- Learn Tagalog - Beginning Level
5 stars (A good way to learn Kana/Hiragana) - I don't have this version of the software, but the previous version can really teach you to read and write kana. I have tried a lot of language software and books that did not work for me. If you follow this program, you will be able to read and write the Japanese phonetic language. It won't give you a lot of vocabulary, but you will be able to sound out Katakana and Hirgana. You also won't be able to actually read Japanese since many chinese characters (Kanji)are also used in written Japanese, but it is agreat start. ... Transparent Language :: Learn learning :: Asian :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Power Japanese (DVD Case)
1 stars (Instant Aversion) - Bought version 2.0 of this at a local bricks & mortar retailer. I couldn't get the software on disc 1 to work. Exchanged the disc - tried it on a few different computers but no luck, so I'm shopping for something else now. 2 stars (Not practical for actually speaking Italian) - I received this item as a gift to prepare for my vacation in Italy. This CD is good for a young child who just wants to learn very, very basic words and phrases. You learn a handful of phrases you might need but that is about it. And the other customer was correct, the 2nd CD in Talk Now is completely italian and contains words and complete sentences that were never even introduced in the first CD. If you want to have your 7 yr old child impress his/her grandparents by knowing how to count in Italian or know how to say colors in Italian, this is great. However if you want to learn to actually somewhat converse in Italian, skip this CD. 3 stars (Hard to actually learn the language) - The first CD teaches vocabulary. After having fun with this, I popped in the second CD. I found that the second CD is all in Italian and that the vocabulary words I learned from the first CD were not nearly enough for me to understand the full Italian sentences spoken on the second CD. There is nothing here -- on any of the CDs -- to really teach Italian sentences. It's a struggle to learn anything but vocabulary from this. Caveat emptor. ... Topics Entertainment :: Learn learning :: Italian :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Instant Immersion Italian (5 CD-ROM Set)
5 stars (Awesome....learning fast!!!) - My husband and I bought this item in hopes of being able to understand some of the locals in Mexico (we go there quite often). So far, we absolutely love this program! We've both learned more in one weekend of using the program than in the months we spent trying another program. I am currently on the second disc (out of 5) and he is nearing the end of disc one. We've also looked at disc 4 (the picture dictionary...a great disc!). We also downloaded the Spanish-English Dictionary bonus disc. I would buy this item again in a heartbeat! 1 stars (Beware, only Castillian spoken here) - This set is fine if you only want to learn Spanish in the Castillian accent. Castillian is a rare accent that you will encounter in certain areas of Spain. No Latin American countries use Castillian! You'd be better off with a different set of software if you truly want to learn the Spanish that most native speakers use. 5 stars (Very Helpful for Beginners) - Excellent in presentation, the only disappointment is that it is teaching the "th" sound that you find in Spain, not in Mexico, but all in all an excellent product. ... Topics Entertainment :: Learn learning :: Portuguese :: Spanish Espanol :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Instant Immersion Spanish (5 CD-ROM Set)
4 stars (High Strokes for Typing Instructor for Kids ) - High Strokes for Typing Instructor for Kids by Individual Software Target: The student was a 6 ?# year old girl; smart kid at the top of her first grade class. She was self-motivated to master typing, yet viewed typing practice as work rather than play. An unexpected alternate target turned out to be the parent. Expectations: The student understood that mastering typing would take a long time, and that three 10-minute lessons per day is better than one 30-minute session. Although the program is fun, the expectation that the student view it as a pure game was unrealistic. Yet, for the parent, it was a pure game; silly but entertaining. PC Platform; Hardware & Software: Dell Dimension with 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron processor; Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV integrated Graphics Controller with 1-23-05 6.14.10.4020 driver. XP home edition with all Microsoft security updates installed; DirectX Version 9.0c. Fun Factor: The student viewed Typing Instructor as fun educational software. She engaged in adventures on a treasure island, and competed in games by demonstrating typing proficiency. When the final stages of the game are reached, the castle offers a collection of books to type, as well as other games, e.g., a run away from the mummy type of game; both were enjoying. Narration was implemented with the aid of comical cartoon characters. This added to the enjoyment of the program, especially during the initial introduction before the student mastered any typing skills. The student was motivated to advance to higher levels in the game, and understood that it only occurred with advancement in typing skills. Multi-Person: The game supports multiple students. The parent started using the game out of curiosity, and became hooked. While the game challenges are geared for a child, the typing lessons are useful for adult too, and it helped to sharpen rusty parental skills. Also taught old timer a thing or two, e.g., the "... Individual Software :: Kids (Children) :: Touch Typing (Typist) :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Typing Instructor for Kids
5 stars (An easy version of Photoshop for kids!) - This program is great. Bought for my 6 year old son who displays a lot of creativity but is already knowledgeable of the computer, so thought this would be a good program to utilize his skills. I found that click and create was similar to Photoshop which is amazing because he'll already be learning skills for when he's older. The navigation is easy and Mia, the character, is adorable. My son's favourite part is making the gift cards where he finds excuses to make cards all the time now for the littlest of occasions! Great product. ... Kutoka :: Mac Macintosh Machintosh Apple :: Social Science (Studies) :: Culture (Cultural) :: Art (Arts) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Kids (Children :: Kids (Ch :: Click -amp- Create With Mia
3 stars (fun and easy to learn...) - However, quite basic, so once you've finished the first CD, you'll need something else to get to more advanced practice. Even so, this CD worked perfectly for me and did not require me to download any additional software in order to get it to run. I'm using Mac OS X, 10.3.4-Panther on a G4 iBook. The fact that I'm running a Mac version may explain the differences in my review from the other reviewers the same software, who are likely windows based users. The games are quite fun and the graphics are crisp. We've not yet utilized the voice comparisson option, but look forward to doing so as soon as my microphone arrives--the program allows you to have your pronounciation/voicing compared to the native speaker's voices on the CD. For the price (I purchased on sale for under 15$), it's darned good. Not sure what the other reviewers paid, but considering most shareware costs about that much, this is a solid performer. We supplemented this starter program with Pimleseur Croatian. Imati velik dan! (have a great day!) Nina 1 stars (do not buy this item) - I have given this item 1 star because there is nothing lower. It might be a good product, I will never know. The first thing you will find is that in order to view the product you will need to download a software package costing an additional $15. The next thing you will find is that if you want a refund from Amazon, you will pay the shipping because this is not their fault (even though this is not mentioned in the description). The next thing you will find is that if you delete the program on your computer you will lose shared files. 3 stars (OK, but . . .) - Everything said in the editorial review is true. This method is a lot of fun and the interactive bit really helps. The most useful feature is getting to see a picture, record the word or phrase in Croatian, and then playback your recording next to a recording of a native speaker. Obviously, your computer must have a m... EuroTalk :: Cyrillic :: Learn learning :: Foreign Languages (Language) :: Reference :: Education (Educational) :: Computer software (programs) :: :: Talk Now- Learn Learn Croatian - Beginning Level
