31 Languages of the World is a five‐CD product that provides instruction and audio‐lingualexperience in the learning of 31 languages. These languages include: Spanish; French; German; Italian; Japanese; Chinese; Arabic; Brazilian; Czech; Danish; Dutch; English; Finnish; Greek; Hebrew; Hungarian; Indonesian; Irish; Korean; Latin; Norwegian; Polish; Portuguese; Rumanian; Russian; Swahili; Swedish; Tagalog; Thai; Turkish and Ukrainian.
Each language covers over 75,000 words and over 15,000 phrases and up to 5,000 words and hundreds of sentences in context per language. It includes: interactive dialogs and conversation practice; fully integrated native speaker sound and advanced speech analysis; record, playback and compare features; interactive games to build vocabulary and grammar skills; comprehensive grammar references, complete with alphabet overview for each language; and SlowSound to develop listening skills. Included along with the four language CDs is a bonus CD that contains a 30‐languages accent multilingual word processor, as well as a ten‐city travel tour.
This product can be used in both the Windows and the Macintosh environments, and features Windows pull‐down menus, as well as buttons to access the various components. The buttons along the top of the screen go to the main menu, conversation practice, games, speaking exercises, videos, sound graphs, and help screens. The SlowSound feature allows the user to slow down the sound of the computer from 10‐50 per cent in order to assist in listening and pronunciation skills. Every word in a language can also be examined through various folders that focus on segment meaning, word meaning, root of the word, and phrase meaning.
Installation of this product is a little awkward, as the user has to find the correct CD to use in order to install the entire product. Once installed, however, access to the various languages involved finding the appropriate CD to place in the drive. Each disc indicates which languages are contained on it. This product uses the transparent method of teaching languages ‐ that is, a rich language experience that involves immersion in a complete language environment where the user sees, hears, and speaks the language, and which also makes it an enjoyable experience.
I had difficulty moving between the various CDs to find what I was looking for at times. The ten‐city travel tour bonus CD basically involves about a one‐page focus on a city, with a short video clip and speaking exercises related to it. The main menu allows access to all five CDs in the product, including the city tours.
The best application of this product would probably be in the language lab of a high school, or higher education facility. I cannot see this product being of value on an individual basis, unless a person is a linguist by profession. The company would probably be better served by developing each language into an individual CD product, as there are very few individuals who would want to have access to so many esoteric languages. Perhaps a CD with the five major languages of the world (English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish) would be more appropriate, as 31 languages for study is a bit much for any one person to tackle!
