Berlitz Italian Premier Version 2 (PC/Mac)

Product Details

• Delivery Destinations: Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered.
• ASIN: B003S3RLJO
• Release Date: 6 Aug 2010
  

By : Avanquest Software
Price : £23.22

Product Description

Manufacturer's Description

Experience for yourself how fun and easy it is to use the Berlitz Language Learning System. Berlitz has been synonymous with effective foreign language learning for 130 years. Whether you're learning Italian for travel, business of personal use, Berlitz will engage you in easy, fun and interactive activities that will help you learn Italian faster than you ever thought possible. Suitable for All Levels Beginner - Learn and speak Italian Naturally. Start with the basics, such as greetings, introductions, travel terms, money, shopping and more. Intermediate - Know your way around in Italian. Learn to talk about your environment. Berlitz makes it easy to ask for directions, order a meal or tell the time. Advanced - Start speaking confidently and with ease. Begin to express yourself in conversations using the Italian speaking skills you have learned.
Award-Winning Software Learn to speak Italian easily and with confidence on your Windows PC or Mac. Berlitz's complete language learning system will engage you interactively so you can learn faster and more effectively.

• Start speaking Italian confidently in just 30 days.
• Great for travel, business, school or personal use.
• For beginner, intermediate and advanced users.

New Features for Version 2

• 15 New Beginner Lessons - More than 12,000 words and phrases covering beginner level topics.
• Progress Tracking - Keep on top of your progress and identify what you have left to learn.
• New Activities - Make Learning fun with Fill in the Blank, Word Whirl, Concentration and Four Square.
• New Tests - Prove your knowledge and track your progress.

Learn on Your PC or Mac Learn to speak easily and with confidence on your Windows or Macintosh computer. Berlitz's complete language learning system engages you interactively in four different ways so you can learn faster and more effectively.

Engaging Activities Mean You'll Learn Faster:
• Audio Learning - Learn by listening to actual conversations.
• Multimedia Learning - Enhance your knowledge by watching videos.
• Flash Card System - Reinforce your learning with this proven method.
• Speech Analysis - Improve your pronunciation with practice conversations.

Learn in Your Car with Audio CDs Build Speaking Proficiency with Berlitz Audio CDs. Master your speaking skills with a complete and comprehensive course on audio CDs - directly through your car speakers, iPod and other mobile listening devices. Learn on the Go Innovative iPod Exercises. Whether you're relaxing, cooking dinner, taking a walk or doing chores, you can practise your vocabulary with both audio and pictures on your iPod. You'll even get to regularly test your proficiency with word lists that match the software.

Learn and Explore at Your Own Pace Speed Up with our Flash Card System - Reinforce your lessons and quickly improve your speaking skills with this proven exercise method. Learn more than 1,000 vocabulary words and phrases with Berlitz Premier Flash Cards Berlitz Premier allows you to determine your own learning pace by deciding when you need translation-and when you don't. Plus, you can…

• Slow down the dialogue.
• Build a personalised vocabulary list.
• Listen to native speakers.
• Click on any word to hear its pronunciation.

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. Interactive Games make Learning Fast and Fun From simple puzzles to fast-paced Plug-n-Play games that help increase your reading comprehension, Berlitz makes learning languages exciting for the entire family.

Reviews "The concept of multiple learning strands is certainly a clever one which gives this package the edge over the average language tutor." ITReviews.co.uk "a powerful learning package" PC Utilities "an incredibly good tutoring system aimed at everyone from beginners to reasonable speakers" MacFormat System Requirements: Windows: Window XP, Vista or 7, 256 MB RAM, DVD Drive, Sound card and speakers. Macintosh: OS X 10.4 or Later, 256 MB RAM, DVD Drive ^According to Chart Track figures reported January to May 2010 by units and/or value for each Berlitz title compared to the next equivalent language title reported. Product comparison based on competitive products in-stores on 09/01/09.
BERLITZ ITALIAN PREMIER V2

 

Berlitz Italian Premier Version 2 (PC/Mac)

 

Product Features

• The UK’s Best-selling Language Software from the No.1 Name in Language Learning
• New Features for Version 2 including new beginner lessons, progress tracking and fun new activities
• Suitable for all levels - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced for business, home, travel or school use
• Learn on your Mac or PC with this award-winning software
• Complete instruction – learn by listening to actual conversations and watching videos
• Flash Card System – Quickly improve your language skills with this proven learning method
• Practise your vocabulary using your iPod or other MP3 player, plus, extend your vocabulary with the vocabulary building screensaver
• Master speaking skills in your car with a complete audio course on CDs
• Advanced speech analysis – improve your pronunciation with speech analysis tools
• Interactive games – puzzles, fill-in-the-blank and more make learning enjoyable and effective

Customer Reviews

I picked this course because it will run on my Mac computer.
It couldn't have been easier ,just insert the disc and the program was soon installed and up and running.
I was confused at first so I played the Guided Tour which comes up when you open the program. I went through it twice and then felt confident to start. On the screen you see two books, Reading lessons Italian and Conversation Lessons Italian. I clicked on the Conversation book it opens and you can click on which lesson you want to go to.In fact you can begin with the alphabet.
I go to Lesson One and I can choose between Vocabulary, Video or Speaking. I choose Vocabulary and up comes Flash Cards. With these you begin with Preview where one word at a time appears in both English and Italian, with the word being spoken. Step 2 : Here you see the word in Italian and you speak the word in English, or if you prefer you can type it onto the screen. Step 3 You see the word in English and you type in, or just speak the Italian.
You can repeat each word over and over as often as you want to.
The Flash cards soon felt like a game and using it with a friend we became competitive and the whole thing became fun. Which is good cos then you want to keep doing the course.
There is the Tortoise button which enables you to slow down the speech so you can hear the pronunciation more clearly. I found this essential.
In the Video section You are watching and hearing Italian being spoken. You can control the pace of what you see, hear, and understand so you never feel overwhelmed. You can repeat over and over if you want to, again with the Tortoise button as an option. There a space to make your own notes on screen.
The sound quality is excellent on both the computer program and the four additional audio CD's.
This is a comprehensive program with many different tools and aspects, eg crosswords, Written Tests etc and
for your Speaking practice you can measure your pronunciation with the Speech Correctness Meter. This is where the computer can give you feedback on your pronunciation. This is a nice extra as you can practice in private and yet have accurate feedback.
I found plenty of Grammar info , and when you click on the link in Green there is additional Grammar info. There is so much to learn, I think its down to me to keep at it, the Grammar scares me a bit and i am happier with learning words and sentences at this beginners stage.
The Audio CD's are mainly conversational and include general stuff like how to say I am from England, what job I do etc. It seems aimed at English speakers of UK and USA.
I am enjoying using this and can't pick out any flaws yet. Perhaps i will return with an update in Italian in the future :-)

This product is easy to set up straight out of the box and comes with a very detailed instruction booklet for set up and how to best use the language learning system. It has several options on how to use the product with iPod .MP3s and flashcards (digital) as well as the actual learning system, which are all easy enough to use.
On to the problems that I have with the product. The user interface is very poor and lacks in some very simple design features. I never actually owned version 1 of this software so I can't really speak highly of any upgrades because they all seem like standard features that come as a part of other language software anyway. Another issue I have is that this item doesn't come with any learning books. As a respected language training provider it should be simple for Berlitz to know that people have different learning modalities and they should have provided tools for the kinesthetic learner the same way they have done for the visual and auditory learner.
The alternate that I would suggest is the LiveMocha/Collins language learning courses. They are a lot more up to date and provide a lot more learning tools which also allow you to interact with other language students as well as native speakers via the LiveMocha website. One downside to the LiveMocha course, is that it is only a temporary timed subscription to the site which you have to renew if you don't finish the course in time. Where as this Berlitz system is a one off purchase that you can use at your own pace and not have to worry about it expiring on you.
Apart from the dated user interface and the lack of tangible learning material, this product should serve any beginner/intermediate well and is worth it for under £20!

 

Berlitz Italian Premier Version 2 (PC/Mac)