Mail and Guardian June 28 2002 issue
David Shapshak
SPEAK ZULU WITH YOUR COMPUTER

Learning a new language is difficult, but it can be much easier if done interactively, in "conversation classes" or the "language labs" that I attended in the 1980s when I studied French at school.

Interactivity is a key way of learning the vocabulary and, with the popularity of computer-based learning, a language CD is ideal.

Speak Zulu With Us - Intermediate to Advanced is produced by Cape Town company African Voices. It is designed for intermediate to advanced speakers - a follow-up to African Voices' Speak Zulu With Us - Beginner's.

Once installed, says schoolteacher Rae Arnott, who tested the CD for me, it lets you record your spoken attempts so that you can hear if your pronunciation is wrong and then correct it.

Everything about the CD is geared towards learning the language. All the menu items are in Zulu (followed by the English word), it is "very user-friendly, the graphics are well-suited to the theme of the lessons and the music is appropriate and fun to listen to, while giving the user a feel of Zulu culture", says Arnott. "It's also easy to install for a technophobe like me."

"There is interesting information given along the way - not only in the lessons - and it lets you go forward at your own pace. It is very thorough, too, and has different and interesting ways of testing you. The 'click and drag' instructions are an easy way of doing the exercises."

© Daily Mail & Guardian - 28-June-2002