TeLL me More French Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
TeLL me More is the world's leading software for language learning, valued by users and teachers alike. For its speech recognition technology and personalized language courses, TeLL me More now has more than 5 million satisfied users worldwide. It covers all the skills to learn reading & writing, listening & speaking, grammar, vocabulary, and culture. This package includes 4 levels, Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. An Audio CD, as well as a free headset and microphone, is also included. It is the most complete Spanish software available with up to 950 hours of learning. Exclusive Technological Developments 4 levels in one package - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, to reach fluency Over 5 million satisfied users worldwide Used everyday in more than 10,000 Academic Institutions Global leaders and government agencies have placed their trust in TeLL me More - U.S. State Department, U.S. Government, FBI, Canadian Federal Government, EDS, BMW, ExxonMobil Top Ten Reviews Gold Award for best language learning software System Requirements - PC or Compatible Pentium III 650 MHz, Celeron 333 MHz or equivalent, Windows 95, 98, NT4, Millennium, 2000, XP or Vista 32/64 bits, 64 MB RAM, 70 MB free space, 8x CD-ROM drive or better, 16-bit Windows-compatible sound card, 16-bit graphics card (800 x 600 with 65,536 colors or higher), headset or speakers and microphone, Windows 95 and NT require Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or more
TeLL me More French Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced Accessories
 Easy French Reader
The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice (The Ultimate Verb Review and Practice Series)
TeLL me More German Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
The Ultimate French Review and Practice: Mastering French Grammar for Confident Communication
TeLL me More Italian Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
TeLL me More Spanish Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
501 French Verbs: with CD-ROM (Barron's Foreign Language Guides)
Le Petit Prince (French Language Edition)
Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary Series)
Rosetta Stone V3: French, Level 1, 2 & 3
TeLL me More French Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced Reviews
It routinely assigns a low score to samples of my recorded speech - but will then assign a high score to the next sample even though the two samples are sonically identical (both to my ear and according to the displayed waveform). 3) Customer Service is Non-Existent: Since purchasing the software, I have emailed Auralog several times with questions. To prove how inaccurate the speech recognition feature is, I deliberately mispoke a variety of words or phrases (by subtituting incorrect consonants, for example) while maintaining the general rhythm of the phrase. I've been struggling with this software off and on for the last couple of years and finally realized it's not worth either the time or money I've spent on it. Double-clicking on commands is not supported, and neither is the Enter key. My recommendation is that, if you want to learn some French, don't waste your money on this gimmicky product.
Every selection requires at least two mouse clicks, making navigating the program a frustrating process. 1) The User Interface is Terrible: The software is Flash-based and the user inteface is totally non-intuitive, violating all of the basic user interface standards used by most Windows-based programs. The sofware almost always assigned a high score to the mispoken sample. The software simply cannot reliably distinguish between a correctly-spoken word or phrase and a mangled one. 2) Speech Recogition is Unrecognizable: This feature, which is one of the major selling points of the program, is a complete joke. I received an answer only once - two months after sending the email.
Instead, invest in a few good French language books (grammar, vocabulary, and the Barron's verb book), learn the basics, and then find a French language class at your local college or university where you will have the opportunity to practice pronouncation and oral comprehension. It has a variety of flaws, but here are the major ones:.
My french is progressing at a nice pace. Well, OK. I thought it would be the other way around, as the computer will use the same words over and over, but the face-to-face allows gestures, pointing, slowing down, etc. But, once I figured out how to use it, it is great. It gives a complete explanation and can be too much at once. It does jump right in and can be discouraging at first.
They commented that the reason they did not include this feature is to allow the student to hear french at a normal speaking pace. I agree with the reviewers who say the documentation is weak. I did not think of that. I am going to have fits with verbs, but that's me. I promise you, you will be visiting this section a lot, over and over (at least I do). I recommend this product, as it is working for me. The program does work.
I do not know if people are being nice to a beginner, but I am happy, and can be understood. I have now finished "Complete Beginner" and "Beginner". Slowing it down would be counter-productive. 27, 2008. Just get the part you need and move on.
So, I gave this a try. Auralog did respond to my suggestions. Hearing a word or phrase and having to type it out is the toughest, and most helpful, drill I have come across. I almost did not get this product after reading some of the reviews, but Rosetta Stone was boring and did nothing for me. One of the things I suggested for future releases is the ablility to slow down the computer to really hear the words. Do not get overwhelmed when looking at grammer/verbs.
The various learning modules really help in and out of context. UPDATE Sept. It slowly builds understanding and usage at a comfortable pace. I still hate irregular verbs in any language. One more note.
In fact, I have contacted the manufacturer to upgrade to the 10 CD version (no update available, but they gave me a discount to purchase it outright). The ablility to practice pronouncing words and phrases with feedback have me speaking well enough to be understood by a lovely french lady I happen to know. I still recommend this product. I love the way it leads you to the grammer, pronouncation and translations.
I am happy with my progress so far. I have enough of it in my head to feel comfortable in getting by in France. It is true that I am becoming comfortable "at speed" and sometimes slow talkers (happens when they figure out you are new at it) are actually harder to understand.
Talking with people is so much easier then talking to the computer. I have been told I have a "slight American accent" and the effort I have put into the language is noticable. Just take your time when starting out, press "translation" to see the english portion, and click on "words" to get any word to practice it alone.
So much easier to be understood. I am 3/4 the way through "Intermediate". I have finished about half of "Complete Beginner" and actually feel I have it down.
I looked at Rosetta Stone and a couple others, and none of them could compare with this Tell Me More product. It is by far the best. It's definitely the best package ever, at least for French. (I tried Rosetta Stone's speech recognition at a kiosk - Tell Me More is light-years better). Definitely recommended. They have cultural components and grammar that Rosetta Stone just doesn't have, and the speech recognition part of it is the best yet. I've always wanted to learn French, and I did a lot of research before I bought a software program - I'm not made out of money, and I wanted to make sure I found the very best program available.
The diversity of the activities really kept me interested and motivated. I had purchased the TELL ME MORE Spanish product and really liked it. The dialogues are great as I can practice that. I found it more useful than any other resources I used: audio CDs, books.I am going to France for a business trip this year and wanted to learn it before going there, to be able to have conversations there.
5 - Their web site has incomplete pages and lacks any support forum or knowledge base. I had to insert each one in and write down the menu choices for the topics. But for it's current price tag, it is a major disappointment. Their web site actually addressed this and claims that it is impossible to make it fully install on the hard drive (more like they don't know how to do it).
It only displays the ones that are on the CD currently in the drive. There are also some fun exercises to play with. 2 - The so-called tech support does not answer their phone, and I am still waiting for e-mail replies. However, that is the extent of what is good. 4 - The included CD's are not labeled to know which practice and vocab topics are on each CD. Overall, save your money. 6 - The program requires the CD's to be available for it to run properly, which is unrealistic for travelling abroad.
I am an advanced software professional, and I could not even find some of the features it lists on the box - even after two full hours of searching. 1 - The product manual is very lacking and non-helpful. If this was less than $100, then maybe it might be worth the pronounciation features. 3 - Some of the product features are not on any of the menus. It does have a FAQ page, but it is less informative than the useless product manual. The negative items include:. This product has potential such as the ability to practice pronounciation on any word in the program's vocabulary.
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