Berlitz Learn German Premier (PC/Mac) (6 CD Set - Windows & Macintosh)

Inside this Berlitz German Premiere course is a large printed manual of 176 pages [all in English, and this is a 'how to use the software/audio CDs manual' rather than a teach yourself German book]. There are also 6 CD/DVDs, the 4 CDs are German audio CDs which are completely stand-alone from the software - you just listen to them in the car or bedroom [not on the train as you have to talk out loud to practice your German]. These 4 CDs teach you things like: how to introduce yourself, shop for items, order in a restuarant, talk about your family, answer the phone, ask for directions, and .. so forth [they can easily be ripped to your MP3 player as well]. The other two DVDs are a software install DVD for the PC and an install DVD for the Apple [OSX]. The software runs on Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and ME and has minimal PC requirements [800x600 display, DVD ROM drive and a sound card]. The Berlitz software installed quickly on my XP Pro PC, and it even added a 'guess the missing German word' screensaver. However the install on our new Windows 7 [64bit] Dell Studio 17 Laptop went a bit awry and had 'serious OS errors' on the restart after installation - but after a long Windows 7 error recovery process the OS and Berlitz German run perfectly. This software usefully allows the second copy on the laptop.

This Berlitz German software is split mainly into two halves. One is a series of 'flash cards' on around 80 various topics [like Animals, Travel, Weather, School, Vegetables, Shopping, Asking Directions, Professions etc..]. Each topic has around 10 to 20 Flash cards of single words that, for example, say the word [Bear] in German and English with a picture. The word is spoken, and you can hide the German and guess the word yourself [and score yourself on how many you get right]. As well as these Flip Cards, there's a seperate bit of software that adds stills and video and shows people having spoken conversations in German. The German text also appears and the spoken bit highlights. There's also the translated English if you want it. This is very useful for immersive listening to the sound of spoken German, and the conversation gets more complicated as the software runs. There's also other useful reference stuff like the sound of the German alphabet, and a text book help guide covering the structure of the language [e.g. verbs, nouns, and the grammer basics]. Plus you can export flash cards and stuff to the iPod to learn on the move as well. In fact the only thing it lacks, and this is a bit of a biggy, is a proper German/English and English/German dictionary - I know you can just buy the dictionary as a hard copy, a cheap little LCD machine [Berlitz even make one] or use freebie on-line translators, but it's a real pain one isn't included. You can build your own vocabulary list via 'Checkwords' and 'find grammatically similar words' but that's not as useful as a proper & quick 'What is das word?' dictionary. Plus this course isn't ideally suited to School kids as it doesn't integrate into their text books or lessons very well - the Berlitz course does it's own thing [it's great to help the kids immerse in the German language though, provided they are commited enough].

But otherwise this software is pretty good at getting commited adults up and going in basic conversational skills for a holiday or to kick start proper fluency. There's plenty of context sensitive help [although it talks often of Spanish as an example rather than German] and above all this software is really very cheap anyway - especially when discounted on Amazon. You could usefully suppliment it with a Berlitz German Phrase book and mini printed or LCD dictionary for the hols. For more advanced language learning Berlitz offer additional 'pay as you go' on-line interactive courses or even immersion all-day classes at training institutions. So Berlitz German Premiere is recommended - a solid 3.5* for it's simple but effective teach yourself German content and 5* for value for money.

For the low price, it's quite surprising how much learning material you get here. And it's presented in a range of formats - software, audio CD and even iPod-ready files for learning on the go, and a handy flashcards app for Palm or Pocket PC. Compare that to traditional book and audio CD courses, where you'll often pay more and not end up with such a great, interactive course as this.

The CD-ROM activities are solid, stock language learning fare, and although they're not particularly innovative or exciting, they do the trick with activities such as unjumbling sentences, filling in crosswords and filling in missing words. But the strength of the course is the pronunciation practice module, where you can compare your voice to a native speaker's - excellent for perfecting your accent.

The dialogues, videos and native texts are all of a high quality, and contain enough material to give you a great working level of German. Cross-referencing with the grammar explanations is very effective here, and Berlitz have laid out the screen tidily and without clutter, so finding the relevant links is never an issue.

For a beginner it's great - although the 'advanced' level isn't really quite all that advanced. That said, it's perfect for a brush-up if you already studied some German a while back.

Well personally, I dont think it is hard to use, it is quite complete as well and someone said it wasnt working on Vista but I have Vista and it worked right away on my computer so I think the problem for that other person is his computer because I really had no trouble installing the software and i dont have any problems using it, anyone a bit PC literate and smart will be able to use this software

So if you have Vista, you can buy this, it works fine!