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Instant Immersion Spanish Levels 1, 2 & 3
by Lions
I've been wanting to learn Spanish for many months now but all of the free ways to do it just were not working for me. After hearing some good things about the infamous Rosetta Stone, I decided to look into that. However, that idea was thrown violently out the window when I saw the £479 price tag on Amazon. After a bit more searching, ... I came across Instant Immersion Spanish. The packaging stated that it was "As effective as RosettaStone for a fraction of the cost!". Unfortunately, only the "fraction of the cost" part is true, for the "as effective" definitely is not.
.:~First Impressions~:.
I was very excited when Instant Immersion Spanish finally arrived in the mail. The packaging looks very professional and the back of the box states all the reasons why Instant Immersion is superior to both Rosetta Stone and Berlitz (another major language learning software which I will mention later in this review). After seeing all of the advantages, I was naturally very excited to try out Instant Immersion.
.:~Installation~:.
Installation of the software was a breeze for me. I just popped in the first CD and it installed very quickly and painlessly. I will also note that just in case you were wondering, the CD is required to be in the computer to use it, so even after installation you must make sure you've got the CDs. This is annoying, but it's hardly different from much other software so I can't really complain.
Unfortunately, Instant Immersion starts to seriously lose some points in the installation section though, for I soon found that EVERY TIME you insert a new CD you must install that CD too. Since I already knew a little bit of Spanish prior to purchasing this product, I soon found the first CD to be rather ineffective as I already knew pretty much everything on it. So I popped in Level 1 Lesson 2, and found that I needed to install that too! Just to be sure this wasn't just some crazy bug or whatever, I tried out Level 2 Lesson 1. Another installation. Let me tell you, it's a big pain. Imagine purchasing Microsoft Office (the whole package) and having to spend 10-20 minutes installing Word, then doing the same for Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote, etc. That's what this was like. Time-consuming.
.:~Effectiveness~:.
This software is far from effective as effective as Rosetta Stone. First of all, it has a very unprofessional and disorganized manner of teaching you. There is no way of tracking your progress. The pictures they use to represent actions or objects are unclear and confusing. For example, when I think of "thank you very much", I don't picture two poorly drawn hands shaking. And that's not all, a bunch of their pictures are worthless in assisting you.
Another very frustrating aspect of this software is that it doesn't have any way of helping you with words or phrases you are having trouble with. The best way I can give an example of this is the "Berlitz" language learning software, which I purchased soon after I realized what a piece of crap Instant Immersion was. With Berlitz, when you get a question wrong, it gives you the correct answer, and then another question, and then the one after that they give you the same question you got wrong a second time. If you get it correct this time, they will ask you another question, and then come back to that same one you got wrong AGAIN. They do this again and again so it and you learn the phrase easier and more naturally through repetition. With Instant Immersion, a wrong question means NOTHING. It simply moves on, leaving you to struggle to learn the words. It is insanely frustrating, it's almost like the software is working AGAINST you. I really have no idea how anyone uses this to help them, it made me angry after a couple of minutes of sitting at it.
.:~iPod and MP3 Lesson~:.
Instant Immersion also sports a lesson that you can put on your iPod or MP3 player. I only really used it once but I have to give them credit for it, it worked pretty good. It's certainly better than their computer software, probably because I didn't have to look at confusing pictures that look like they were made by kids in kindergarten (just kidding, that would be an insult to the kids as I'm sure they can draw much better pictures than the ones Instant Immersion uses.) Seriously, I don't understand why Instant Immersion didn't just try to make their software as effective as their portable lesson, they would probably much more successful. As it is, the portable lesson is what keeps them from getting a one star review.
.:~Recommendations~:.
I would certainly not recommend this software to you if you are looking to learn Spanish quickly and easily. In fact, I wouldn't recommend any language learning software from Instant Immersion, for I read reviews on their Italian learning software and they all said pretty much what I have said here, meaning it's useless. I assume they simply have not tried out their own product or they would know how ineffective it is.
So what do I recommend for learning Spanish? Well first, if you could get in on a local class maybe at a community college or something, that would probably be the best thing for you. If that is not an option for you, then the next best thing would be to go for Rosetta Stone. I have some friends that used it to learn French and said it was very quick and easy, and worth the money. If that still isn't an option for you (remember, Rosetta Stone costs almost £500) then I suggest you take the same path I did. I picked up Berlitz Spanish Premier for only around £10, so it's even cheaper than Instant Immersion. I am very happy with Berlitz and it is much better than this software, and I will be leaving a very nice review on it sometimes soon here on DooYoo. In the meantime, I suggest you stay away from software made by this company, I wouldn't want you to become as frustrated as I am.
Adios!
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Geo Challenge - Facebook Application
by flutterflies
Geo Challenge is a facebook game application by PlayFish that challenges your knowledge about the world. It is a very fun game and such a useful time waster since by playing this game, you know many things that you didn't know before. This game is really easy to find. Simply log in to your facebook, and then search 'Geo Challenge'. There ... will be a facebook page of this game application and just click 'go to app', then be ready to play it!.
This game is competitive since your score will be compared with scores of your friends on facebook who also play this game. Every score has its own meaning, for example, if you successfully got approximately 3500 for a score, it means that you will get a 'bus driver' bedge, with some comments writen. If you only successfully got 3500 for your score, the comment will be : "You have decent local knowledge, but you stick to the same routes and areas..", something like that. It is very funny though. However, you can collect until 37000 or more for the score.
This game is divided into 4 rounds. The first round is called Suitcase Shuffle. In this round you will be challenged with your knowledge of Flags of countries from all over the world. Why is it called Suitcase Shuffle ?. Because the flags will be on the suitcase, and when the name of the country appears, we need to click on the suitcase on which the flag is attached. For example, I read the word United Kingdom, then I should quickly click on the suitcase on which the flag of United Kingdom is attached. As easy as that. I didn't find any difficulties playing this game, but I admit that I don't know the whole flags of countries all over the world, so I still met some troubles in this round. But if you play it frequently, I am able to ensure you that you can get a much better score.
The second round is called 'Map Mayhem'. This is much harder than the previous round I think. In this round, the picture of some different shapes will appear, it will be unfamiliar thing to see at the first time, but after seconds, the whole picture will appear and in this moment we will know that actually those pictures are the map of some countries. All we have to do is guessing what country that is. If we like to see the map, we will notice what countries those pictures are. But again, if we play this game more than once, I am sure, for the next play, we're gonna remember more shapes and guess the pictures more often.
The third round is called 'City Blitz'. I like this round the most compared with other rounds. In this round you will be shown the map of the world. Then the name of a city will appear one by one, and all you have to do is clicking the part in which this city is. For example, I was asked 'London', so all I have to do is click the part of that map where United Kingdom is. As simple as that. I got a highest score in this round. But wait until you see the last round.
The last but not least round is 'Landmark Loco'. This is also interesting part of this game. You need to know some famous landmarks all over the globe and show where they are located. At the first time you will be shown a map of the world, then when a picture of a landmark is shown, you have to click the landmark's location. For example, you are shown a London Eye, then all you have to do is click 'London'.
According to me, this game application is a very good time waster. When the first time I tried this application, I got a low score and if I compared with my firends' score, mine was the lowest. But after playing this game several times, I got a higher score, even almost the highest. From this game also, my knowledge about the world is developed significantly. I simply love this, this game is just uber cool!!.
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