Learn to Speak is a truly modern program that takes full advantage of the digital world in which we all now live. The thing that we like most about this program is that way that it puts all of your devices to work for you. Not only can you study on your main computer, but Learn to Speak also includes a dictionary that you can put onto your PDA which contains 15,000 translations. Also, all of the course work is also available in the MP3 format so that you can put all of your lessons onto your iPod and practice on the go.

In addition to this, you can track each family member’s progress individually by creating unique accounts for everyone. This is a truly welcome addition that makes it really easy to see just how quickly everyone is progressing. Learn to Speak goes a step further and also includes pre and post study tests designed to highlight what you have learned, and what you still need to practice.

Like several of the other programs that we reviewed, Learn to Speak utilizes sophisticated speech recognition software that really helps people develop their pronunciation. While as a whole, Learn to Speak might feel a little thin in the fun department, with only a couple of lame-duck games to spice up the teaching, little touches like the speech recognition system go a long way towards making this a compelling first step towards learning a new language.

Our only real complaint about Learn to Speak is that its feature set just isn’t quite as deep as some of the other systems that we’ve reviewed. While they claim to teach not only the basics of the language, but also more advanced tools and techniques, we found that the system really does not go beyond the basics. Learn to Speak is a solid offering, but in the feature, we’d really like to see them take things a little bit farther by using speech recognition more, improving on their installation process, and by adding more interactive games to spice things up a bit and add some more fun to the overall experience.