Why I buy this one ?
- Improved user interface; audio CD, plus free headset and microphone included
- Complete and extensive German software with up to 850 hours of learning
- 4 levels including complete beginner, beginner, intermediate, and advanced
- 4,500 exercises and 37 types of activities broken down into 6 workshops
- Covers reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, grammar, and culture

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What our customer's say!

"Very good but not a miracle maker", I've been using Tell Me More now for a few months, and I've finished the Complete Beginner and most of the Beginner courses. I've also been able to recently try out Rosetta Stone's French course (next year's goal). I took a ten week summer German class about five years ago, taken about two years of ancient Greek, a year of Hebrew, a semester of Latin, and two years of high school French. Which gives me a strong familiarity with language teaching, even if my discipline has not given me entire familiarity with all these various languages.

My German was so fleeting and not kept up that I felt I needed to go back to the basics. Only I couldn't justify spending the money for Rosetta Stone, especially as I saw a lot of really great reviews for Tell Me More. Some of the one star reviews here almost dissuaded me, but I went ahead and bought it. I couldn't be more happy.

First off, in response to some of the reviews, there's a lot more function to this software than apparently they have found. While the great, great majority of the text is in German, and vocabulary is introduced often without context or preparation, there is a handy little button that opens a German/English dictionary. Click a word, and that word is immediately defined. Meaning every lesson type becomes source for, and reinforcement of, vocabulary. It seems that most of the attacks on this software have come out of an unfamiliarity with it.

Get to know it. Hit buttons. See what they do. Admittedly, the documentation provided is fairly poor, but do what you'd do in a different country. Explore! Do that and you'll find a very great learning tool.

And that's what this is, a tool. It will not magically impart an understanding of German. Learning a language takes work. It takes a lot of work, a lot of repetition, and a lot of discipline. Most of the time tests and grades force that discipline, but this software demands a lot more self-discipline than most people possess. It leads you along a learning path, it does not insist you do what it takes to follow that path.

To me it feels very much like an interactive class, offering a steady variety of learning approaches that never bog down. Indeed, sometimes it feels a little too random but I think that's a good thing. It doesn't get boring, even if it does keep at a steady level of difficulty.

There is a strong emphasis on reading and voice recognition. The software has as good voice recognition as Rosetta Stone, though the provided headset is not as good. I'm using my USB Logitech headset and it works perfect.

Rosetta Stone, in contrast, tends to move along by using a lot more images and expanding conversation--certainly an effective approach. But, the price difference doesn't seem to be justified. For what you get the more layered and varied approach of Tell Me More is quite effective in every way.

There are some occasional bugs in the software, but not enough for me to knock any stars off it.

Overall, I'd say Rosetta Stone is a great choice if money is no object. But, if you are on a budget I'd heartily recommend Tell Me More as a very good alternative.

Is it worth paying the extra money for "absolute beginner"? I'd say yes. I'm glad I did. Even though I had a class before the shorter, basic level was a great way to get my mind started on German, introducing vocabulary and concepts--and the software--in a very approachable way. Indeed, I thought Absolute Beginner was a little harder in some ways, not that it introduced more, but that it pushed a little more in advancing. So, unless you have a strong beginning knowledge of German already, I think it's a good choice.

"Little or No Teaching", The program teaches through giving you exercises to do, but like other 1-star reviewers commented, the program does not actually teach you anything. You have to go to different screens to find out any grammar explanations or word translations. My biggest beef about it was that you have to answer many of the questions orally & if you don't have near perfect pronunciation, the program will not let you progress to the next question (even if your answer is correct). I was really hoping it would help me practice German grammar in an interesting way, but there was not a lot of that. Save your money, DON"T BUY this product.

"A well-rounded in depth program", I noticed some of the one-star reviews here and had to comment. First, the bad news: the videos and music, etc, are a little dated. Second, it definitely expects a lot out of you. Sometimes it seems a little daunting. The good news: it's in depth. This is no flash cards, memorize some phrases nonsense.

I set my program up to do 5 hours a week and by the time I finished my first CD, I felt like I'd just gotten out of a semester class. I guess this is my way of saying it's not for the faint of heart.

If you're hoping to casually learn some words and phrases before your Oktoberfest trip, don't bother with this program. Truly, this is something you could spend a year or more on. I've had it for over a year and I've only finished the first two CDs. Why? Because there was so much information I did the first two CDs twice.

Now with all this effort behind me, I can tell you that I know a lot more German now than I did when I started (which was basically nothing). All in all, I'm glad I bought this program.

"Pronunciation is Key!", I ordered this product because there wasn't much to choose from in learning the German Language. I am amazed how other reviews can give it 5 stars. But then again after reading their reviews I understand why. I had this product for over a year and I listened to all four CDs. The first CD was impressive and if anyone rushed to review it, they will give it 5 stars. The other CDs 2, 3, and 4 were terrible. The main thing in learing any language is not fun exercises, it's pronunciation. This is the main reason for me purchasing this product - to hear the correct pronunciation spoken clearly and loudly without causing distortions as in CDs 2, 3, and 4.

Some of the speakers sounded as if they where shouting into the mic others where just to close to the mic. Then the girls sounded as if it was bedtime for them. The audio level was never level, mostly all distorted. This makes you wonder if anyone checked the audio before releasing it to the market.

Pronunciation is the main thing, the avant-garde, to hear the language spoken and to see it in written form is worth paying top dollars. The grammar part I can do on my own once I've learned how to speak and read German. Just pick up any German grammar book and start reading. The exercise part is fine, but structuring any exercise program however you want will still get others to learn. So I really can't rate exercises or rate it's ability to evaluate your own voice. These are not important to me. I just need to exercise the muscles in the back of my tongue and throat to imitate the pronunciation (words) correctly. Practice makes perfect. We all have the ability to mimic any language, we just need to concentrate and practice.

For a beginner like myself I recommend Pimsleur Level 1, 2, and 3. You can purchase Tell Me More as an addition to enhance your learning, just don't expect Tell Me More to be a professional product. Try Pimsleur first.

"The TRUTH about this product!", I picked this product to purchase because I thought it was the best. I didn't go off any bogus reviews, (like the one's on Amazon). I thought it had the most features and seemed all inclusive. I got the Performance version which includes 10 levels.

Let me start out by describing how the software starts you out:

The first thing you do is listen to two people meet each other for the first time. Seems simple enough. Next, you begin doing exercises, crossword puzzles, fill in the blank, identify the object in a picture, type in conjugates (her, she, is, it, ect). Again, sounds good right?

Not quite! At no point did the software teach anything about grammar, what the meaning of the words are in the crossword puzzles, ect. For example, the crossword asks you to fill in the crossword puzzle for CAT, never at any point, were you exposed to the word CAT! So you have no possible way of doing the crossword puzzle since you don't know the German word for CAT! I seriously don't understand how one is expected to figure it out! Dictionary?

This is how the entire software is! It is almost like it was meant to be a bunch of exercises, without any teaching. If you had a private tutor with you, I can understand how this software would be pretty good. Your tutor teaches you, when he/she leaves you do your exercises.

To top it all off, Auralog, Inc tried to prevent me from returning their software! It took about a week of phone calls and emails to get them to honor their return policy.

Remember, when you are comparing language software, Tell Me More does not have "teaching" anywhere in it's product!

Read this reviews before You buy...

"The Best to learn German", I just got this program three days ago and their speech recognition is awesome. I also like the complete beginner level and the fact that I can transfer the audio files with the click of a button to my desktop.