The Univerb Swedish Course Basic was a Big Disappointment

In my attempts to learn the native language of my chosen country, Sverige (Sweden), I have purchased countless computer language courses. Univerb, I'm here to tell you, was a waste of 395kr (roughly $50 US.)

Now, to be fair about it, I had already completed the Instant Immersion Language Lab course and loved it, so I was not starting entirely from scratch here. I had the basics of tourist Swedish (Svenska) fairly down-pat and was really looking for something to build on from that. I could find nothing in the US, so began looking over here and found this set, the Univerb Swedish Course Basic. It has 3 CDs, and claimed to have 2 textbooks along with a Grammar Guide. Honestly, I did not see how all could fit in this box, but I bought it anyway.

The Swedish Grammar Guide turned out to be a tiny little 22 pages of paper with info I could get easily off of a hundred web pages. It's a bit handy occasionally, I mean it fits in my purse for easy reference... but it certainly is not all it was billed to be.

The Univerb Text Books are also tiny little paper numbers. Not text books at all, really, but more little workbooks. They give you a sentence, and you are to translate it. One book asks them in English, the other asks them in Swedish. Bit of a rip off, that. So much for the helpful books part of the deal...

As far as the actual Univerb CDs go, well, again I was very disappointed. Remember, I had just finished a wonderfully interactive set, so when I loaded in the first of the 3 Univerb CDs into my laptop, I was just aghast that the system opened a music player thingy. Yep. No interaction here, folks. All this is, is a series of people speaking at you. They pause for you to repeat the phrases or what have you, but there is no way to record that and play it back to yourself. Booooring!!

I just have never been the type who learns by being talked at. I have to hear it, yes, but I also need to have interaction. I need to hear myself saying it. I need to have visuals. I need a hands-on something. Univerb does not have any of that.

Now, if you are the type who likes to learn buy being talked at, then you might like this Univerb set more than I did. It starts from the ground and works through the basics. Things like numbers up through 100, colors, various foods, questions you may need to know at Customs, the Airport, Getting a Train, Taxi, or other transportation, Times, Shopping.... you know, tourist stuff. It did build on the prior set a little bit in that it did take the numbers higher, but that was about it.

So. I have to go with like 2 stars here, and feel like that is being generous. Like I said though, you just might like this one a great deal if you are starting from scratch and like this sort of learning... I hated it. If you prefer hands-on interactive programs, go with the Instant Immersion Language Lab instead.