Product Description

Instant Immersion German Deluxe v2.0 will let you progress at your own pace in the privacy of your own home. The package contains four CD-ROMs and four audio CDs that will put you on the fast track to German fluency. Get started with the Talk to Me software suite, which takes you through beginner, intermediate and advanced levels with 300 hours of progressive instruction. You will gain confidence as your German skills develop at a rapid pace.

As you advance, the Collins Lexibase German-English Dictionary will be at your side. The dual-directional translation tool and CD-ROM reference provides more than 430,000 translations of words and expressions combined with a host of powerful search and display options. Supplement the software titles with the Instant Immersion German Audio curriculum, which was developed by university instructors. The go-anywhere audio CDs cover many helpful subjects, including weather, gender agreement, irregular verbs and the art of asking for and giving directions. Whether you are new to the language or took German in school, Instant Immersion German Deluxe will provide hours of self-taught success andstimulating discovery.

Features

• Comprehensive German tutorial includes four CD-ROMs and four audio CDs
• Talk to Me software suite covers beginner, intermediate and advanced levels with 300 hours of progressive instruction
• Collins Lexibase German-English Dictionary offers more than 430,000 translations of words and expressions combined with numerous options
• Instant Immersion German Audio curriculum covers alphabet, sounds, greetings, introductions and more
• Convenient audio CDs keep you motivated and progressing while on the move
• Learn German at your own pace, in the privacy of your home

4 CD-ROMs

• Talk To Me Beginner German (100 hours)
• Talk To Me Intermediate German (100 hours)
• Talk To Me Advanced German(100 hours)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5197 in Software
• Brand: TOPICS Entertainment
• Model: 80698
• Released on: 2007-11-29
• Platforms: Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Features

• 3 bonus Instant Immersion audio CDs focusing on vocabulary building
• 8-CD suite of German language multimedia learning software
• 300 hours of beginner, intermediate, and advanced tutoring on 5 CD-ROMs
• Monitor pronunciation and intonation with Spoken Error Tracking System
• Instruction on 20 key lessons including vocabulary grammar and phonetics

From the Manufacturer
Your first-class journey to a new language is ready to commence with Instant Immersion German Deluxe 2.0, the multimedia learning collection on CD-ROM and audio compact disc. The eight-CD suite combines beginner, intermediate, and advanced Tell Me More content on five CD-ROMs. Each interactive lesson utilizes the Spoken Error Tracking System, which monitors your pronunciation and intonation. Round out your study with three bonus Instant Immersion audio CDs focusing on vocabulary building.

Customer Reviews

Very nicely build software
I bought the French and the Italian versions and loved them. What I like the most is the ability of the program to keep you concentrated all the time through audio, visio and interaction making learning of a new language (one of the most repetitive and boring tasks) an interesting one. I don't think you can recognize all the features of the program in one or two hours. I used the software for 2 days and discovered feature after feature making my work even more easier and interesting. The speech recognition is not perfect but I never found the exercises that involve this feature unpassable. You can keep on aiming for the best results or you can continue if you are happy with the way you sound. I am very pleased with this method and will give the software all the stars possible. (I am on line looking to buy the German one too.)

Interesting concept, frustrating voice recognition
After reading all the bad reviews of the Instant Immersion Deluxe 1.0 product, I almost passed on the 2.0; however, I decided instead to give it a try, hoping that a new revision would bring great improvements. I should point out the fact that I have had 3 semesters of college level German, and would consider myself to be of Intermediate level. Also, this review is being written based upon about an hour of usage with this product. I am not sure what has improved over the 1.0 product, since I don't have it; however, I think anyone wanting to learn German or any other foreign language would be better served with a good German language book (such as the Living Language Series) or a good audio course such as Michel Thomas. One of the most frustrating things is the bad voice recognition. I actually went out and bought a high quality headset with a noise cancelling microphone, however, I still seem to be having issues with voice recognition. There are times when it works great; however, there are also times, such as when building sentences with your voice, that it just cannot seem to discern the difference between certain words (my accent cannot be that bad). This makes it almost impossible to complete some of the voice excercises. Having said that, this product is not all bad, some of the good points include:
- I like the fact that during the dialog session, using the voice recognition, you almost feel as if you are having a conversation with the computer. (although you are limited to one of three responses for each question)
- The pronunciation practice will try to give you a score (0-5) based upon how well you pronouce a word. While not always accurate, it does help.
- The sentence building helps you build your grammar; however, you have to manually access the help to read about the grammar rules. It would have been more helpful for the software to explain the grammar to you as you are constructing the sentences, or recognize and point out the grammar mistakes you are making.
- There are a huge variety of exercises you can perform with each dialog, and a day planner can help you keep track of your daily progress or plan out your studies.

Overall, I would have given this product 2.5 stars, but that is not an option, so I gave it two stars. One point that was made in many of the 1.0 reviews was the lack of documentation. While this Deluxe 2.0 version did not come with any paper documentation in the box, I did find that a large PDF manual was included on the CD's. I felt the documentation was adequate.

Good exercises
I'd rather have active tests instead of just listening CD's about grammar in the car. But, I know that for some people that works better. I liked the exercises in the talk-to-me cd's. Overall a good learning set...