Product Description

Berlitz French Premier (Small Box) Mac/Win

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36 in Software
• Brand: Avanquest Software
• Released on: 2008-07-30
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Mac OS X

Manufacturer's Description

Learn to speak French at your own pace with Berlitz

Now you can learn languages the easy way with the market leading software that's been helping people learn foreign languages for more than a decade. Berlitz Premier is fast, easy and effective. Guaranteed!

With this unique, time-proven learning system, we've provided three powerful ways for you to learn:
(1) on your Windows PC or Macintosh,
(2) in your car, and
(3) on the go using an iPod or other mobile listening device.

Explore at your own pace - Berlitz Premier allows you to determine your own learning pace by deciding when you need translation - and when you don't.

Innovative Games - Berlitz Premier puts the fun back into learning with interactive games like Plug-n-Play to help increase your reading comprehension. This engaging fill-in the-blank game allows players to begin with a foreign phrase or paragraph that is missing text and a corresponding list of possible foreign words.

Advanced speech analysis - Berlitz Premier provides advanced speech analysis to help you speak like a native. Simply record, playback and compare to perfect your accent and improve your pronunciation.

For more than 125 years the Berlitz brand has been synonymous with effective foreign language learning. With learning centres spanning the globe, Berlitz has more satisfied graduates than any other program of its kind. And now Berlitz Premier is guaranteed to make learning easier and more fun than you ever imagined.

Learn on your computer - This award-winning software for both Windows and Macintosh gives you four easy ways to master languages and engaging activities mean you'll learn faster:
1 Total immersion - Learn by listening to actual conversations.
2 Multimedia learning - Enhance your knowledge by watching videos.
3 Flash card system - Reinforce your learning with this proven method.
4 Speech analysis - Improve your pronunciation with practise conversations.

Learn in your car A comprehensive French course on 4 Berlitz audio CDs. Learn in your car with a complete course on 4 audio CDs. Berlitz makes it easy to improve your fluency while you're on the road.

Learn on the go - Innovative iPod exercises... and morePractise your vocabulary using your iPod or other MP3 player. Test your proficiency with word lists that match the software.

Plus...
Flash card software for your Palm or Pocket PC, Vocabulary building screensaver, and much more!

Ideal for all levels

Beginner - Get comfortable as a new learner by starting with the basics:Meeting and Greeting, Basic Travel Terms, Numbers and Money, Colours, Sightseeing

Intermediate - Rapidly improve your pronunciation through conversation: Asking for Directions, Ordering a Meal, Shopping, At the Hotel, Emergencies

Advanced - Learn words and phrases that will make you sound like a native speaker: Office Conversation, Speaking on the Phone, An Evening with Friends, Survival Phrases and more.

About Berlitz

Berlitz has helped millions of men, women and children speak new languages, and its cultural consultants have assisted thousands of organisations in reaching across cultural barriers successfully. The company's origins date back to 1878 when language tutor Maximilian D. Berlitz developed a new method of teaching people. His approach, which he developed into the Berlitz Method, was so successful it became the gold standard of language instruction and led to what would become a globe-spanning organisation.

Magazine Reviews

A host of different ways to approach learning…a powerful learning package (PC Utilities, 2009)

Customer Reviews

Ideal companion for all abilities
Since buying this learning package,I have been impressed by firstly the ease to download onto Windows,and the clever,incisive format;be it interactive flashcards,video scenarios or CD's for the car.I have had the set for a month now,and without doubt feel much better equipped to be understood for my forthcoming trip to France.

Learn French .... anyway you please
When I was at school I didn't particularly like language lessons and with my mind set on engineering I dropped French and German as soon as I could. But that turned out to be a mistake as now I'm on business trips world wide but mostly to Belgium.

I'm the type of person that is embarassed that I can't speak much of the native tongue so I started out looking for teach yourself french sets.
However I have a busy day with work, OU and wife and kids so I looked for ones with CD's to use in my 1 hour each way commute.

I bought the Elizabeth Smith Instant French and while it was good at first I soon hit portions of the course that needed the book, which of course you can't do while driving.

Then Berlitz came to my attention. The course offers 3 ways to learn, PC, Audio CD & Palm top device.

This course is very reminiscent of how I remember being taught languages at school using sets of dialog (film clips), accompanying translated text, then sessions to practice what you've learned including the chance to have your pronunciation checked by the Software
The software includes a flash card feature for you build up and retain the learning which can also be ported onto Palm devices & iPod's for portable learning.

The strong point for me though was the 4 CD audio course allowing me to learn as and when I feel like it in the car while commuting without any other learning aids.
The audio is well paced, not too rushed but sometimes a little difficult to hear what's been said and get the pronunciation correct. But I think this course is at its strongest using combinations of the learning types.
The only issue I have with the audio course is that the "tutor" has a quite annoying and patronising voice, but if you ignore that its quite easy going learning.

The software is very easy to install and run's perfectly fine on my ASUS 1000HE notebook with no lockups or crashes and is very quick to start up.
You even get a brief overview of how the SW course is constructed to help you understand how you progress through.
Using the software to learn is a simple case of clicking to play a clip. The translated text is shown and highlighted for you to read and understand.
It also offers key words all of which you can playback as in the clip or have the course software read out for you to confirm the pronunciation.
When a section is finished you go into the practice bit where you then fill in the conversation including recording your efforts which can then be checked by the software to provide feedback to you.

I've only had this a week, but compared to the other course I bought and how I feel my French is progressing in that time

The variety of learning types in the course give you flexibility to learn how you want to but still manages to help check how you are doing because after all what it the point of learning a language if you don't actually speak it properly.

So purely because of the audio CD's for the car coupled with the software and the record and compare pronunciation features this course for me is a hit.

Excellent French for beginners
Berlitz have always been market leaders in Teach Yourself languages. This is a very flexible package, and is just what you need to get by very nicely En Francais. Very handy to be able to practice whilst stuck in traffic on the M25, and at home on PC or Laptop. You really can start with little or no knowledge of French, and quickly develop your skills at your own pace. I remember learning French at school, and it was BORING!! However, Berlitz have introduced "Fill in the Blanks" games, speech analysis exercises (which allows you develop more fluent French with an authentic accent, as well as a number of other great features. It actually manages to make learning French fun, and that is praise indeed. Don't expect this package to teach you to speak fluent French, just a good grounding, and more than enough to get by with. There are additional modules availalbe for more advanced students.