Talk Now! Reviewer's Comments

Instant Immersion’s Talk Now is full of color and cartoon backgrounds making it perfect for children and families. There are nine topics to choose from including food, parts of the body, numbers, time and more. Each topic has five categories such as Listening Practice, Easy Game, Hard Game and three others.

Though Talk Now helps you work on your listening, understanding and spoken Portuguese skills, this software lacks additional teaching and word tools such as supplements like books, tapes or videos. In addition, the program does not have a word processing converter or a word and root search.

Ease of Use:  

The installation process is simply done with about three clicks. Once you actually get into the program, there are question mark icons that relate hints or instructions. However, we did have to find out what the foot icon did on our own and discovered that it led us to the previous menu.

Features:  

Talk now is designed for young Portuguese beginners and this is clearly communicated through its design which utilizes bright colors and animated characters.

This software keeps track of what you have mastered and what you need to work on. It then targets weak areas. For example, if you struggled with the names of animals, Talk Now will keep testing you on animals until you master them.

Fundamentals:  

With Talk Now, you can work on your speech recognition, learning comprehension, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar skills.

However, this software does not include conversation practice and the record, playback, and compare option, which is needed to test pronunciation.

Teaching Tools:  

Talk Now teaches by images only. Other top features include supplements such as books, videos, and tapes or audio CDs.

Word Tools:  

Talk now is equipped with a picture dictionary with printable pages. However, this software does not have a word or root search or a word processing converter.

Learning Games:  

Talk Now doesn’t have crossword puzzles or other well known games, but it feels like the whole program is a game because of the colors and fun pictures.

Technical Help/Support:  

You can obtain help by clicking on the question mark icon in the program or by reading the FAQs or online help. If you still have questions, email or telephone is the best way to get them answered. We sent an email and received a reply within a day.

Summary:  

If you are looking for Portuguese language teaching software suited for the family, Talk Now is the product for you, but if you want adult–focused teaching and word tools such as a Portuguese/English dictionary, an audio CD and a storybook try our #1 Learn Portuguese Now! by Transparent Language.