Berlitz German Premier

by Daniel MacKenzie

This review is based on the German version of the Berlitz Language Learning system but thereÕs also French, Spanish and Italian software. They will be coming out with the English version later for those people who need to learn English.

I was blown away by this software. ItÕs just so easy to use. There are two main applications that come with the software. Berlitz Learning System and Berlitz Before You Know It Flash Cards. LetÕs start with the Berlitz Learning System.

Berlitz has developed a great new way to learn. ItÕs called Immersion Environments. This is where you get to pick an environment to use and youÕre right there were native speakers are talking for you to listen to. They also have video that goes with the speech. Underneath that is text. The text is what the people in the video are saying. This is so you can follow along with what they are saying. This is Theater mode.

Next is Reading mode. It has everything that theater has and more. There are more meanings to help you understand a word or sentence. Also you can make a word review list if there are words that you are having trouble with. They are called Check Words. The last feature in Reading mode is the sound tab above the video. You get to pick a word from a segment in the text and you can try saying it. The computer will grade you on how well you said the word. A microphone is required to do this but most Macs come with one built-in.

Next, you get little activities to practice what you just learned. Some of them are crosswords, spelling games and unscramble words plus many more. You can base the activities criteria to either the entire text or just your check words. ItÕs very customizable.

Then you get a whole section on speaking the words and checking pronunciation. Like the activities you can base it on anything you want. You can do either words or whole sentences.

The last feature in this is the conversation tab. You can put all that you just learned to use. You get to pick one of the conversations and then chose one of the people to play. Then just follow the directions.

There are a couple of reference tools to use such as an Alphabet Reference and Grammar Basics. Everything so far I enjoyed a lot.

The next thing is the Language Flash Cards. This is my favorite part about the software. You get to pick a topic and you learn the words through flash cards. I learned a lot of the animals in under an hour. There are many kinds of flash card sets for beginners and advanced.

In the flash cards, you start with reviewing them. This gives you the word and the meaning the the language that you get. Next part is to recognize it. This is when it shows you a word and you have to think the English. Then the next section is Know it. It shows you a word and you have to type the English. Following that is called Produce it. This is where it shows you the English and you have to think the German meaning ( in this case). And finally it shows you the English and you have to type the German (in this case). This is a very useful way to learn words fast.

Also included in the box was some audio CDs so you can learn the language on the go in your car or in a CD player. There was also a bunch of MP3 files included so you can learn the language on your MP3 player or iPod.

This software is compatible with both Macs and Windows computers so everyone is happy. If you have a Pocket PC or a Palm there is software for that too.

The only thing that I would suggest is to change the style and make it look a little better. When I launched the Language Learning System, there was a plain gray box with the immersion environments. It didnÕt feel like a Mac OS X application. Just add some color and modify the user interface a little bit. After that, youÕll have a great piece of software.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this piece of software to anyone who needs or wants to learn Spanish, French, German or Italian. Great job, Nova Development!