• * Comprehensive interactive language learning; ideal for beginners

• * Easy and hard quizzes, plus a challenging memory game

• * Compare yourself with native speakers; monitor progress

• * Topics include phrases, food, shopping, telling time, and more

• * On-screen help available in over 75 languages; printable dictionary

There are several good features of the program:

-Words and phrases are spoken by a male and a femal voice.
-You can choose from dozens of languages for the help language.
-Some of the games are actually quite fun (such as creating the Frankenstein monster while learning the parts of the body).

But the problems with the program are many:
-Sound is a bit muddy
-You can complete everything in about three hours of work.
-Symbols, pictures, hosts, etc. are all European.
-Because the software engine is generic, you learn a lot of words you would never use in India, or words for which Hindi speakers use the English word. For example, you learn that the Hindi word for "tie" is "tie" and "jacket" is "jacket". Even worse, "Mug" is "mug" and "bread" is "bread" even though there are commonly used Hindi equivalents for these: "pyala" and "roti" respectively.
-Some of the words are wrong or very rare usages. For example, the word given for grey is "bhura", which actually means brown. My guess is that whoever they got to give the Hindi words for things either speaks an odd dialect, or is not a native speaker at all.
-Many words are spelled wrong in the Hindi script. For example, Israel is pronounced "Israel" by the speaker, but spelled "Istrael" for some reason.

This program might be useful for you if you are a beginner at Hindi, and want something amusing to supplement your textbook study. But don't expect to learn all that much.

24 of 24 found the following review helpful:


Do Not Buy this Product!  Mar 03, 2004
I bought this CD ROM because my boyfriend speaks hindi, and I wanted to learn to converse with him in his native language. I studied and practiced only to have him look at me and say "What?". The words are not accurate, they only provide the hindi spelling, not the english spelling, so learning the words and their pronunciation is VERY difficult. He laughed out loud when he checked it out. Don't waste your time and money!

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:


An elementary program of very little utility  Jan 09, 2006 By Eagle Vision
Set up in a gameshow format, the topics include phrases, first words, food, colors, countries (who cares for that?), body parts, time, numbers, and shopping.

Each section has an introduction to pronounciation in male and female voices. A dictionary showing the object and phrase in Devanagari and english (useless unless you know Devanagari) is available. Two levels of testing : Easy and Hard and Pronounciation sections are available.

A "Memory" game shows objects on cards at the hard and easy level for each section.

There is an internet link to Indian culture and an online Hindi dictionary.

The countries are a useless section. Some of the words have their origins in the English language which is a waste of time : card, T shirt, Credit card, Strawberry, etc etc. The voices in the phrases section is too unclear to learn anything practical.

Who would find use in it? Hmmmm. A child in kindergarden or first grade or Maybe an older child trying to kill time since his or her video game system is down or a person hospitalized who has nothing but this program in their CD ROM drive. The entire program can be covered in 2 hours.

Marginal educational benefit is here. Other programs such as Hindi Guru and Rosetta Stone Hindi CD ROMS are more worthwhile. Even better are the books Teach Yourself Hindi and Colloquial Hindi.

6 of 7 found the following review helpful:


good, but i wish they spoke more clearly  Jul 19, 2003 By faith
I think that it is a good tool, but I wouldn't solely rely on it. The speakers are not completely understandable...i need my boyfriend to correct me when i hear it wrong...i sometimes use a book i purchased on amazon.com 'say it in hindi' to look up the pronunciations...I wish they would have a translation of what the person is saying in englsh so i could read it as i say it, but they just have the hindi writing (which i don't understand at all)...it is fun to use and i've learned a bit while just using it for a few days...in the sections of 'phrases' the speakers talk too fast and i have to play it many times to say the sentence once...:-/ so i'm just sticking to the one word sections :-P...i'm just happy to have any software to practice hindi with...

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:


Very Basic  Apr 15, 2007 By MelissaMarie
This is a fun program and keeps your interest to learn very basic words. Most of the books/programs I have used in the past jumped into complicated sentences and got very confusing for me. This is fun and simple. You will probably need to purchase another program to learn to converse after you learn the basic words. The program does require a microphone on your computer.

See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com