The program installed easily enough with the option of either full or minimum installation. We ran the program on a 16MB Pentium with an 8 speed CD ROM drive with a minimum installation. Here the program tended to be a little slow when changing between screens or from one activity to another but the performance can be improved greatly by making a full installation.

Once installed, the program leads you through a warm up phase. First the User ID screen appears. As well as a name it also requests the user's voice type: male, female or child (this is for the "advanced" speech recognition met later in the program). Next the main menu screen appears. From here you go on to different "topics" and another menu, then another new screen with a picture. After this initial logon procedure -- four screens in all -- you will find some Spanish. (This despite the claim on the box that "you'll speak Spanish right from the start".)

A Typical "Help" Screen
(click for full-size view -- 72K gif)

As each menu appears, a help screen pops up explaining what you must do. This is necessary because sometimes the interface can get a little cluttered. Arguably the most important part of a program is the user interface but the screens in Spanish Your Way 2.0 tend to be quite complex and not especiallly intuitive. The main menu, for example, includes 17 different buttons; each "topic" adds another 9 and the actual conversation screen itself has over 20 buttons. (The layout is consistent throughout the program though so once it has been mastered new screens present no problems.)

After the setup, the Spanish begins. Spanish Your Way 2.0 is based around 6 thematic conversations: social engagements, dining out, travel, hotels & accommodations, around town and medical needs. In each unit a conversation can be studied and manipulated in different ways and there are also several language reinforcing activities: vocabulary, question & answer, crossword puzzle and dictation.

The first conversation screen shows a picture or panel of two people meeting at the door. You click on the picture to hear the conversation, or click on a speech bubble beside the picture to hear a particular character's utterance. This can be heard at normal or slow speed. There is an option to display the words as they are being spoken and also to see an English translation of the utterance. After this you can move onto the next panel and the next few lines of conversation. The sound quality is very good and a range of Spanish accents are used.

Once the whole conversation (12 panels) has been studied, the next activity is "Conversations Your Way". Here the user can "determine the direction the conversation will take" and join in by taking the part of one of the characters. The first character speaks and the user responds either by clicking on the correct response (mouse-mode) or by speaking the response into the microphone (speech recognition-mode). The conversation then advances to the next panel.

Computer technology these days allows the creation of superb graphics incorporating real-life video footage featuring human actors, and photorealistic still images. Spanish Your Way 2.0 opts for coloured drawings. Not only does this give the program a dated look, it also means that the program is very "static" and when combined with the idiosyncratic design navigating the program can sometimes be a little confusing.

Poor design can also encourage mistakes. To hear an utterance, the user can click on one of the speech bubbles on either side of the picture. The problem is that these bubbles can be clicked from top to bottom (giving the utterances in their correct order) or left to right (giving the utterances in a wrong order, which is often confusing).

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE