|
 |
Fluenz | ||
Tags: Fluenz | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6537 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 8 20 October 2009 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Has anyone completed the Fluenz programs, both volumes? What are your thoughts? I read reviews on Amazon
that there were lots of bugs, but apparently Fluenz has since been updated to correct this. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5574 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 2 of 8 21 October 2009 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
|
What language? I did both French 1/2. I loved them, there were a couple of bugs in the French 2 (the script would occasionally mess up) and I did see one typo. However they just released a Version 2 of the same software with new features and patches. I did thoroughly enjoy the program as well as the audio component.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6537 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 8 21 October 2009 at 5:50am | IP Logged | ||
|
What language, well, I suppose feedback on all of them would be great. I think all the languages have had their
software updated expect the Italian program, so this leaves French, Spanish and Mandarin with no bugs, right? After midterms I think I might go for the French package. From looking at the website, it seems that these developers actually care about their work. That is, they don't seem to be pushing out a language product for some huge publisher that doesn't care about the quality of the product. Not to mention that the narrator, Sonia, is nice to look at. Edited by Kugel on 21 October 2009 at 6:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6537 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 8 26 October 2009 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
|
First impressions of the program is that you can tell a lot of money was thrown into it. And as far as I know, this
company is a non-profit company, so does mean it got a bunch of grants? I like the exercises, except the matching one. Matching exercises are just pointless. As for the exercises that use prompts, well, they work. However, I can take these same exercises and plug them into a website like Ikindalikelanguages and probably get the same great results. Alternatively, you could plug the prompts into Anki and get the same results. But if you do go with the Anki route, you have to make sure to have lesson notes to refer to in case you get lost with the grammar. The first lesson's workout would ask you something like this: How is Norman? Then you would type: Comment est-ce que Norman va? Towards the end there would be dictations. I think this type of exercise works - these full sentences. There was some time wasted on single word prompts like "vous" and "et". So an improvement would be more full sentence exercises and dictations. By the way, I heard two different ways to pronounce est-ce que. Some said ce and some didn't. I'll have to go back to double check. Edited by Kugel on 26 October 2009 at 7:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mts-ca Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5884 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 8 26 October 2009 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I own Spanish 1 & 2 ver 1.1, and it's alright. As mentioned, version 1.1 had a lot of bugs that would cause the program to crash constantly for me. I have learned to work around the bugs, although I still avoid using the voice recording and playback. There are no tabs stops, and other little annoyances about the user interface, most of which still exist in the latest demo.
It is still one of the better replacements for a classroom that I have seen. The videos that start off the lesson are very useful, having them presented by the very beautiful Sonia Gil also helped to keep me focused. Course progression is good, but I often feel like I'm typing too much and having to constantly switch from typing (touch typist) to mouse tested my patience. I knew some Spanish when I started, but the program should be useful from the beginning to a novice. The program feels more focused towards tourists, but good enough for people focused on business. By the very end of the second disc the user should have a decent grasp of Spanish and able to have small conversations. You should have a better grasp of the language and in a shorter amount of time than Rosetta Stone. It is standalone on the DVD with no install, or copy protection, which is a huge plus. The audio CD is almost useless in my opinion, even though the quality is good. In the end I felt that my pronunciation suffered so I spent some time shadowing Assimil. At $350 it would be hard to even recommend a bug free version if you are budget conscious. This is, in my opinion, the best software solution available. I appreciate it more now that I have a nice and tiny netbook. Although, I still prefer more modular solutions that have books, audio, and video (if it has it) separate. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5590 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 6 of 8 27 October 2009 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
|
When Fluenz first appeared there was some discussion of it on one of these forums. As I recall, the sudden appearance of this product on the market and the equally sudden appearance of a cluster of very glowing Amazon reviews(that also knocked the competition)raised some suspicions about the product and the authenticity of the reviews.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 8 27 October 2009 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Not exactly. The product is sold by a normal "for profit" company (fluenz.com), but this company owns a "not for profit" subsidiary that does goodwill language courses (fluenz.org). The stuff at Fluenz.org is really pretty weak -- see for yourself. It's a painfully simple phrasebook/dialogue-based course, and the pronunciation guide will have you speaking English like a Mexican in no time. For all their good words, it seems to me like they're only doing it as a marketing exercise.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6537 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 8 27 October 2009 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Ah, well, that's good to know - fluenz.com is "for profit".
The course has really nice "art" and good voice acting, but the teaching method is really simplistic. I think members of this forum could've designed better lessons...and most of the forum members don't have "unlimited funds"; and in addition, a team of Ivy league graduates. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
