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Passport to Languages

8/1/2029

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Review of Passport to Languages, from eLanguage.com
Words+pictures, Pronunciation scored, Cheap, ★★★★

They teach 35 languages in a combined package ($20). All languages let you record and compare yourself to their native speaker. They earn 4 stars for scoring your pronunciation in US English, French, German, Italian, and Latin American Spanish. They earn 3 stars for other languages. Their scoring of your pronunciation can be set from generous to strict.

They lose a star because their software seems to need Windows 95/98, ME, 2000 or XP. They told me they have a version compatible with Windows 7 and Vista, but when I bought it, directly from their website, it did not work on Windows 7. I tested it with an old laptop running XP. It is an excellent 5-star program if you have access to one of the older operating systems.

They explain lessons in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish, though a few buttons and the installation instructions remain in English.

The pronunciation scoring is under "Learn by Subject," not "Pronunciation."  They say each word, and show spelling and a picture, You choose whether they provide a translation into your own language. They say the word as often as you wish, and you can get scoring of your pronunciation as often as you wish. Sound quality varies but is reasonable.

They cover a lot of vocabulary. In health terms, they have detailed words for different bones, blood and breathing systems, major organs, parts of the head, mouth, eyes, arm, hand and foot, as well as a modest range of health office terms. They teach a charming sequence of 14 emotions with pictures of a mime. They have different health words from Pronunciator, and more than Transparent, though Transparent has helpful detailed pronunciation  graphs besides the summary score.

They explain grammar, but offer no drills or practice.

ELanguage also has more detailed packages in English, French, German, and Spanish, reviewed separately.
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Learn to Speak

5/21/2012

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Review of Learn to Speak, from eLanguage.com
MP3+video+web, Pronunciation scored, Cheap, ★
They teach 4 languages in their full course ($50-100), with MP3 files to learn on the go. They have minimal scoring of pronunciation. They do start with numbers from 0 to 1000, but they go quickly to complex phrases, with little explanation and pauses that are too short to repeat the phrase. There are 40 lessons; each has vocabulary, dialog, grammar.

They show a needle on a dial to score your pronunciation, and it is very inaccurate. In the English course, when I was supposed to say Tail, I got a good score for Teal, and a medium score for Say. Zero pronounced in English, French or Spanish was all acceptable, in the English course.

They have computer pictures of the mouth saying each sound, but the pictures move too fast and are too small and indistinct to learn from.


Some lessons are good and simple, like the difference in English between few and little. Other lessons cover too much, like plurals, and make mistakes. They say, "Both the -s and -es spellings are accepted for nouns ending in -o" and they list heroes and tomatoes. They do not say that -s and -es generally apply to different words. Most require -s. A few require -es,  and a few can take either. They teach "How are you?" as a greeting, without saying that the standard answer regardless of health, is "Fine, thanks." They give that answer 4th, after: "Nothing much," "I'm all right," and "Pretty good."

The English course has travel videos of a few US cities, no better than any commercial movie for learning, and hard to hear the words through the music. These mispronounce the Corcoran Gallery and misspell the Juilliard School. Sound quality varies on their MP3 files, which are full speed.

Unlike their 35-language course, this does operate on recent Windows systems. Version 10 works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. Version 12 is for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10.

Most Amazon reviewers give good reviews to the Spanish course, not to French, nor to English, where all explanations are in English, unlike the same company's 35-language course which has explanations in 6 other languages, and is reviewed separately. Amazon incorrectly refers to a "newer version" which is a competitor lacking speech analysis.
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