Hi Otto. I like Tell me more because it is more comprehensive. I looked at beginning Italian, and found the program gave me lots of reinforcement for the right answers. While it was a little annoying to have to go through a computer analysis -- especially since my computer failed one of the tests, and I had to install some new component, the program was superior to BYKI once I got into it. BKYI is OK for getting started, but mostly it was just a lot of flash cards. The Tell me more program included grammar explanations. Thanks for setting up this blog! This is a much better way to collect staff feedback than email!
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
It’s a tough call.
I like BYKI because: it has more languages for an English Speaker, slow sound button, keyboard mapper, blog, and the diction checker that lets the user record their voice and compare it to a native speaker. However, for ESL users, there are fewer languages than Tell Me More. BYKI offers ESL for speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish languages.
Tell Me More is more difficult to use, requires registration and downloads, and uses pop-up windows. That can be annoying. What I like is the depth of the lessons, the use of cultural texts, and the choice for most languages between business or social focus in the lessons. It also has ESL for more languages. In addition to the above languages for BYKI, it has interfaces for speakers of Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Thai.
Over the weekend we had an exchange student from France ask for materials on learning basic English terms. Tell Me More was useful to the student. BYKI would not have been.
BYKI is more fun and provides access to a lot of different languages at a basic level. However, an ‘express’ version is available for free download. It is mostly an enticement to buy the complete program for one language but it could be useful for people who want a quick exposure to a language. Tell Me More seems to have more educational value for the languages it covers. I guess the question for me is cost and purpose. Is the goal to get a comprehensive database on a few major languages or to get a database that gives basic lessons on a lot of languages?
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
I tried two languages that I am a tiny bit familiar with – Hindi and Russian. They do start you off pretty slow. I felt like I was on the same flashcards forever!
I ran into the same problem with both languages though. In Russian, there is a formal hello and a casual hello. When I took the multiple choice test, “hello” was listed twice as a choice. I kept selecting the wrong hello. There was no explanation, nothing to distinguish one English hello from the other, so that was kind of frustrating.
The same sort of thing happened with the Hindi. The sentence is spoken differently when addresses a man or a woman. I couldn’t hear or see any difference despite repeated attempts. It would have helped if there was some kind of lesson that could explain that. Then when I took the multiple choice test, the answer “How are you?” was on there twice. I again consistently picked the wrong one.
I admit this was a quick trial so I might have missed a lot.
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
I didn’t see much difference. I looked at Brazilian Portuguese, which I know a little, and it was OK, but the endless stream of flashcards got old pretty fast. Also, and this may have been a connection problem just this morning, the sound kept cutting in and out. I also had a look at their Guided Tour, and I kept having to hit the ‘play’ button to make it work, and that got old even faster. If this isn’t a one-time connection problem, it could be a definite turn-off for people who want to check it out before they sign on. By the time I got to their ancillary features, like Twitter and Facebook, I was spending more time hitting ‘play’ than I was hearing anything. I’m going to pick another time and give it another try before I reach any definite conclusions.
One more point of interest. I just went to look at the Latin section and in the Overview clicked on a link that brought me to a site SELLING Transparent Language’s software programs. I cruised the page and they have quite the little shopping list. Do we want to be shills for Transparent Language’s stuff? Would it even be legal for us to do so?
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
I used it several times right after we got it, and then I either got busy or the novelty wore off :). Then I got back into it today just to refresh my memory. I like that it groups “like” things together on one page , like various salutations and responses-- and that you can switch between showing the English or not showing the English and I like the photograph that goes with the grouping. It also apparently does voice recognition, though I never used it. I also discovered a cool thing—it will show you an animated mouth (lips teeth throat) from the front and side view and demonstrate what should be happening when you pronounce your letters and sounds correctly. It’s not Rosetta Stone, but it’s pretty nice. As far as going into depth, I never got that far. I’m definitely still a beginner. Hope this helps.—Renee P.S. One thing I did like about Before you know it, you can click on the turtle symbol to get the voice to speak slooowlyy.
Hi Otto. I like Tell me more because it is more comprehensive. I looked at beginning Italian, and found the program gave me lots of reinforcement for the right answers. While it was a little annoying to have to go through a computer analysis -- especially since my computer failed one of the tests, and I had to install some new component, the program was superior to BYKI once I got into it. BKYI is OK for getting started, but mostly it was just a lot of flash cards. The Tell me more program included grammar explanations. Thanks for setting up this blog! This is a much better way to collect staff feedback than email!
ReplyDeleteI am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
ReplyDeleteIt’s a tough call.
I like BYKI because: it has more languages for an English Speaker, slow sound button, keyboard mapper, blog, and the diction checker that lets the user record their voice and compare it to a native speaker. However, for ESL users, there are fewer languages than Tell Me More. BYKI offers ESL for speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish languages.
Tell Me More is more difficult to use, requires registration and downloads, and uses pop-up windows. That can be annoying. What I like is the depth of the lessons, the use of cultural texts, and the choice for most languages between business or social focus in the lessons. It also has ESL for more languages. In addition to the above languages for BYKI, it has interfaces for speakers of Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Thai.
Over the weekend we had an exchange student from France ask for materials on learning basic English terms. Tell Me More was useful to the student. BYKI would not have been.
BYKI is more fun and provides access to a lot of different languages at a basic level. However, an ‘express’ version is available for free download. It is mostly an enticement to buy the complete program for one language but it could be useful for people who want a quick exposure to a language. Tell Me More seems to have more educational value for the languages it covers. I guess the question for me is cost and purpose. Is the goal to get a comprehensive database on a few major languages or to get a database that gives basic lessons on a lot of languages?
Well, that’s my 2 cents worth,
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
ReplyDeleteI tried two languages that I am a tiny bit familiar with – Hindi and Russian. They do start you off pretty slow. I felt like I was on the same flashcards forever!
I ran into the same problem with both languages though. In Russian, there is a formal hello and a casual hello. When I took the multiple choice test, “hello” was listed twice as a choice. I kept selecting the wrong hello. There was no explanation, nothing to distinguish one English hello from the other, so that was kind of frustrating.
The same sort of thing happened with the Hindi. The sentence is spoken differently when addresses a man or a woman. I couldn’t hear or see any difference despite repeated attempts. It would have helped if there was some kind of lesson that could explain that. Then when I took the multiple choice test, the answer “How are you?” was on there twice. I again consistently picked the wrong one.
I admit this was a quick trial so I might have missed a lot.
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
ReplyDeleteI didn’t see much difference. I looked at Brazilian Portuguese, which I know a little, and it was OK, but the endless stream of flashcards got old pretty fast. Also, and this may have been a connection problem just this morning, the sound kept cutting in and out. I also had a look at their Guided Tour, and I kept having to hit the ‘play’ button to make it work, and that got old even faster. If this isn’t a one-time connection problem, it could be a definite turn-off for people who want to check it out before they sign on. By the time I got to their ancillary features, like Twitter and Facebook, I was spending more time hitting ‘play’ than I was hearing anything. I’m going to pick another time and give it another try before I reach any definite conclusions.
One more point of interest. I just went to look at the Latin section and in the Overview clicked on a link that brought me to a site SELLING Transparent Language’s software programs. I cruised the page and they have quite the little shopping list. Do we want to be shills for Transparent Language’s stuff? Would it even be legal for us to do so?
I am posting the following comment made by another ACLD staff member:
ReplyDeleteI used it several times right after we got it, and then I either got busy or the novelty wore off :). Then I got back into it today just to refresh my memory. I like that it groups “like” things together on one page , like various salutations and responses-- and that you can switch between showing the English or not showing the English and I like the photograph that goes with the grouping. It also apparently does voice recognition, though I never used it. I also discovered a cool thing—it will show you an animated mouth (lips teeth throat) from the front and side view and demonstrate what should be happening when you pronounce your letters and sounds correctly. It’s not Rosetta Stone, but it’s pretty nice. As far as going into depth, I never got that far. I’m definitely still a beginner. Hope this helps.—Renee
P.S. One thing I did like about Before you know it, you can click on the turtle symbol to get the voice to speak slooowlyy.