Product Description

Berlitz Spanish Premier (Small Box) Mac/Win

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177 in Software
• Brand: Avanquest Software
• Released on: 2008-07-30
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Mac OS X

Software Editorial
Berlitz Spanish Premier is effectively fast and easy to learn. The claims on the box are absolutely true'.

Manufacturer's Description

Learn to speak Spanish 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 Spanish 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 more Practise 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.

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

Berlitz Spanish Premier
There are parts of this product which are useful to a beginner or someone refreshing a basic understanding of Spanish. However, I think for a total beginner it is not a suitable product. The learning system that is installed onto your computer takes you through a series of videos where you follow quite complicated conversations. A beginner and even someone with some knowledge of the language would be totally confused by not only the complexity of the conversations but the complicated way in which the systems works. There are word games etc that you can do but the programme does not start of simply and build ... it starts off quite complex. I did not find the learning system user friendly or helpful and I am not a total beginner.

I found the best parts of this product to be the flash cards and audio cd's. Both are easy to use and contain basic grammar, simple words and phrases. I would have liked a transcript of the audio cd's though as some parts are hard to hear and understand. You can also build up your vocabulary using words that can be put onto an ipod.

Overall I don't really rate this product and would have preferred a computer programme that worked alongside audio cd's and a workbook taking you from simple to complex

Good value for money, but a bit shambolic
Having spent a few years learning Spanish, I thought this might be a useful package. I have a long history of purchasing study aids for Spanish (would be nice if you could buy your way to fluency!), so can usually tell quite quickly the value of learning aids.

However, having installed it, I'm now not quite sure what to make of it. For the price of the package, you get an impressive array of material. Hefty manual (rare thing to see these days), installers for Windows/Mac/Palm, mp3s, it's all pretty good.

The exercises are quite interesting, and covers quite a range, from beginner to a low intermediate.

Unfortunately, this turns out to be a bit of a failing. There is too much, and it's just not tied together properly.
I've found over the years that part of the problem of learning Spanish (or any language) isn't finding ways to practice - there are obviously millions of web pages in Spanish, it's easy to find musics and films in Spanish - the problem is finding a useful structure, and one that you will actually practice.

To be truly useful, this course really needs a structured exercise plan tying it all together, and a better way to track your progress. It's just all a bit random, and I could see how it could easily end up gathering dust (and trust me, I've a full shelf of Spanish products gathering dust!).

In summary, it's what you make of it. I've given it 3 stars, as it really could be structured so much better, but in terms of value for money for the material you get, it's pretty good.

Good educational software
I was looking to attempt to learn Spanish, so when this became available I jumped at the chance of ordering it. One of the benefits for me was the many different learning methods that came with the product, this included PC and MAC software, and also audio CDs (very useful in the car), and also MP3 and IPOD software. This means that there is a wide range of options available and even if you are really busy, you should still be able to find a method that works for you.

The software was easy to install and came with instructions which were easy to follow. Overall I enjoyed using the package and I feel that it has helped improve my knowledge of Spanish. The one slight issue I had was the same as one of the other reviewers who said that it started off a bit advanced. I struggled at first but realised I preferred this approach as another product I bought to learn French started too easy and never really got into as much depth as I wanted.

I would recommend this product to anyone who wants to improve their Spanish skills by using a range of different methods.