Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description
SwedishNow! 9 Deluxe takes you from beginner to confident Swedish speaker in no time. Five exciting language learning areas feature grammar tutorials, interactive learning, progress tracking from your desktop, and conversation practice with native Swedish speakers. SwedishNow!'s stimulating multimedia environment adds enhanced large-format video--letting you experience Sweden and the Swedish people with real-life video content. Plus, its integrated speech tools record and play back your own voice.

Learn at your own pace and build a solid foundation with SwedishNow! 9 Deluxe's flexible learning format. The DVD-box edition includes four titles: The Most Common Words in Swedish, Survival Phrases for Swedish, Life at the Swedish Palace, and Stockholm. You'll learn more than 10,000 words, build your language skills with interactive grammar exercises and quizzes, cover hundreds of survival phrases, do Swedish crosswords, play fun games, and much more. Access to online testing at TalkNow!'s Web site extends the learning, making this comprehensive Swedish language course fast, fun, and highly effective. Also added is GlobalWriter98 (for Microsoft Windows users only), an easy-to-use translation program that helps you write in more than 100 languages.

Spotlight Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

Unique teaching method, some technical issues, September 28, 2003

The Macintosh version included in the box is an older version (8.1), lagging behind the advertised Windows version (9.0). While I'm thrilled it runs as native "Carbonized" application on Mac OS X, I've run into a few minor glitches: 1) The application help uses Apple's Help Viewer, but the Swedish grammar reference uses QuickHelp, which crashes often and won't print. 2) The cool Speech Correctness feature works with my PowerBook G4's built-in microphone, but doesn't work correctly with my higher quality iSight microphone. 3) The user interface looks horribly outdated when running in Mac OS X's Aqua interface.

That said, this is the best language software I've seen on a computer. Yes, it includes canned quizzes and games, vocabulary and grammar tutorials, just as you'd expect from educational computer software. However, its primary teaching mode is non-structured and passive, as an interactive digital textbook. It took me a while to understand this. You can read the titles in any order and have it speak any word or phrase. Using your computer's microphone, you can record your voice and compare it against the native speaker's. But it can also analyze your voice based on pitch, frictive, and vowel sounds (to varying degrees of success, but enough to make it useful). So, the usage is completely open-ended (what they call the "Successful Immersion Approach"). In a way, this is better than human instruction. I sat there trying to nail the pronunciation of a phrase, repeating it over and over, and I thought: a human would never be so patient! The reward comes not from flashing "congratulations, you passed this quiz!" at your face, but from within yourself as you experience the joy of entering a foreign language with software "training wheels."

The technical problems on the Mac version, while frustrating, are not severe enough to prevent usability.

You have to have self-discipline to get much out of this software. If you're willing to be your own teacher, it provides a deep and individualized medium for learning a new language. However - if you're in a hurry, I recommend the excellent Pimsleur language series (audio CDs) instead. And if you're looking for comprehensive traditional instruction, I'd recommended a book and CD series called "P?svenska!", ISBN 91-7434-429-3 (not available on Amazon.com).

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
 

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Incredible, July 8, 2003

Swedish Now is an incredible piece of software. This is a really good way to learn a language and this software takes advantage of everything technology has to offer in regards to language learning. It uses video, has extremely detailed audio features (you can listen to every Swedish word in the program), and uses voice analysis technology to help correct your pronunciation. When you get bored learning or feel you need to practice the Swedish you know before moving on there are some really fun and intresting games to help you practice. My impressions of Swedish Now is that it is well worth the buy and it will help you learn to speak Swedish.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Great for ALL, June 11, 2003

I bought this product to try and learn Swedish on my own and it really is everything they say it is and more. The amount of actual Swedish language in the program you can learn is so large that it would take a great deal of time to learn it all. There are tons of conversation practices to learn from and even Interactive Video Conversations which through video, audio, and a microphone you can simulate a conversation with native speakers. To practice vocabulary and other aspects of Swedish language there are many games provided in the software. This software is really versatile because it is good for all skill levels and purposes (work, travel, education, ect.). I give my utmost recomendation to use this software for learning Swedish.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Awesome!, June 4, 2003

I love this product. I tried some other products but I haven't found anything better than this. The games and coversation practices are really fun and there is just so much to learn with this. If you want to learn Swedish(or any other language) try this. Overall, this product is really good and I would advise anyone who doubts this to try it.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Try this program for Language Learning, May 30, 2003

Hi I was an exchange student from the USA who went to Sweeden and was prepared for my trip because of this program. Before going to Sweeden I was able to learn a good amount of the Swedish language with Swedish Now which kept me from being left in the dark. While in Sweeden this program provided great review and practice so my language skills could improve and sound well. If you are intrested in learning a new language I would give this a try. It works well and I really enjoyed the interactive learning this program provided through games and other media. Being able to hear the words made my pronunciation much better and clearer. I was able to expand my vocabulary because of the sizeable content in the program. My experience with Swedish Now is nothing but good.