Reviews
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Multimedia
Learning Spanish Like Crazy
Spanish, Audio Lessons, Multimedia
I haven’t tried Learning Spanish Like Crazy, but one of my readers described it as “right up there with Pimsleur in my opinion, but focus[ing] on more informal Spanish than what’s in Pimsleur’s course.” My impression,…
Rosetta Stone Greek
Greek, Multimedia
Rosetta Stone Greek offers a colorful computer-based multimedia experience—images, text, listening, reading, speaking, etc. It is very pretty, and yet by the end of my Rosetta Stone experiences, I found myself disenchanted. The company has an immersion philosophy…
Assimil
French, Books, Multimedia
Some people whose opinion I respect really like Assimil, a French company offering multimedia programs with different language bases. For example, there are English-based programs designed for English speakers learning other languages, and French-based programs designed for French speakers learning…
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Spanish, Multimedia
Rosetta Stone is a sprawling multimedia language-learning product, one whose marketing has been so effective that it is the first thing most people hearing of this website ask me about. Although Rosetta Stone can be fun initially—in part…
Alif Baa with Multimedia: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds
Arabic, Books, Multimedia, Websites
Alif Baa with Multimedia, which consists of a book and an accompanying DVD, is designed to help you learn the sounds and writing system of Arabic. Methods include print-based, audio, and video instruction. Before you read further:…
Teach Yourself Greek (with CDs)
Greek, Books, Multimedia
This Teach Yourself Greek book-CD combination is one of numerous offerings for different languages in the Teach Yourself series from McGraw-Hill. To date I have not found any book-CD combination products in this series that…
Read & Speak Japanese for Beginners (with CD)
Japanese, Books, Multimedia
I found Read & Speak Japanese for Beginners by Helen Bagley just impossible given the challenges of the Japanese writing system. On principle, the books in this Read & Speak series—which are offered across multiple…
Read & Speak Korean for Beginners (with CD)
Korean, Books, Multimedia
I barely used Read & Speak Korean for Beginners by Sunjeong Shin, but I am not a fan of this series, which offers similar books for multiple languages. Right on the cover of this Korean edition, it promises…
Read & Speak Greek for Beginners (with CD)
Greek, Books, Multimedia
On the title page, this Read & Speak Greek for Beginners book/CD combo annoyingly promises to be “the easiest way to learn to communicate right away!” Ridiculous. But it’s cute for what it is. There are…