Instant Immersion French Levels 1, 2 & 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)I started this program along with three other comparable programs and have been using them for 30 minutes every day. For Swedish, I bought Rosetta Stone, and for French, I figured I'd try Instant Immersion to see if it really is comparable to Rosetta Stone. In both languages, I have had about the same amount of learning, i.e. reading about them out of books without hearing the language.
Comparable? Well, the boxes are both yellow, but that's about the extent of it.
I got my masters' degree in German philology and have studied the best methods on how to teach foreign languages. Rosetta Stone demonstrates many of these; Instant Immersion includes some but is lacking. I will list the pros and cons of Instant Immersion first and then those of Rosetta Stone.
Instant Immersion
1. It's cheap.
2. The 9 CDs that it comes with are not connected.
3. The CDs drill vocabulary and entire chunks, such as sentences: "I would like a table for four."
4. Don't expect any lessons on grammar, verb conjugation, gender, adjective placement. As far as Instant Immersion is concerned, none of these sentence elements exist. You just have to already know that French has two genders and how it conjugates verbs.
5. Sure, it lets you record your voice...if you have a microphone. Fortunately, I had one from the Rosetta Stone software.
6. Back to only drilling vocabulary... Students who are not given clear examples with correct grammar and why it works that way will not know how to construct their own sentences. Yes, you can throw out lots of random sentences with Instant Immersion, but good luck knowing how to create your own grammatically correct sentence using a combination of words and phrases.
7. CD 1 part 1 is a different program from CD 1 part 2, which looks like a previous version of Instant Immersion. CD 2 part 1 is different from both of those and also different from CD 2 part 2. CD 3, parts 1 and 2, are similar but mostly give sentences to memorize. It appears that Instant Immersion collected a lot of their old software and bundled it all together to sell in a falsely advertised comparison of Rosetta Stone.
8. The MP3 CD is designed specifically for iPod. I managed to download it somehow by copying and pasting the tracks individually to my computer, but it won't just play in a CD player.
Rosetta Stone
1. The program starts with simple, basic sentences from lesson one.
2. It highlights ALL areas that encompass language learning: speaking, hearing, reading...etc.
3. It comes with a microphone--hallelujah!
4. It remembers things that you miss and periodically brings them back for review.
5. It builds on previous lessons, i.e. doesn't throw long chunks of sentences for you to memorize. Instead, you gradually build up to longer sentences. This leaves a very non-threatening feeling that the learner can actually accomplish something instead of making him want to give up.
6. It grades the learner on pronunciation instead of just recording the voice for the learner to compare.
7. It gives approximate times for how long an activity will take.
8. There aren't 9 CDs full of extra old software.
9. The MP3 CDs will play automatically in a CD player and can be burned directly to the computer instead of being specifically tailored to iPod technology. We don't all have iPhones.
10. Rosetta Stone doesn't give English equivalents, but I've found that I don't need them because they design their program so that you don't really need that, and if so, a basic pocket dictionary is plenty helpful.
Yes, Rosetta Stone is expensive, but it is worth every penny of it. Instant Immersion will work as a vocabulary builder, and is worth every penny for that. Just don't expect to learn more than vocabulary. If pointing and saying nouns will get you through France, more power to you. I'm sorely tempted to give up Instant Immersion and just take a French class in the fall at my local university.

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