I-Technology June 29th 1999, Newspaper insert
Alastair Otter

If you've ever had the desire to learn Xhosa but gave up soon after you tried to wrap your tongue around the clicks, there is hope. African Voices, together with the University of Cape Town, has produced an entertaining and easy way of picking up the necessary skills Speak Xhosa With Us.

Whether youre a practised linguist intent on learning a new language, or an ignorant amateur eager to impress your co-workers with a new language, the CD-ROM caters for all.

Starting up the application, you're greeted by a slide show of very typical South African scenes with a soundtrack to match. And from there on it only gets better. Within no time you find yourself tapping your fingers in time to the beat.

The section on pronunciation gives you a quick lesson in the basics of the language, and youre offered a collection of practice phrases. There is an explanation of the sounds, and you can listen to the words spoken as often as you like.

Of course, Xhosa is known for its range of clicks, sometimes the difference between the sounds is so subtle that you could be forgiven for confusing them.

Obviously, the makers of the CD-ROM are well ware of how daunting these sounds can be to the untrained speaker, and they turn the issue of clicks into a fun task with examples of each, tongue twisters and a video and audio version of the Click Song by Miriam Makeba.

As soon as you've mastered the sounds you can launch yourself into the lessons, starting off with meeting your teachers. Each of the teachers introduces themselves, and the program offers a Xhosa and English text version of the conversation.

The lessons are accompanied by video clips, audio tracks and text. A nice feature of the lessons is links within each of the text sections to help with pronunciations, translations or sounds.

Sections finish with questions and answers to test what you learned. You can also skip back to redo certain tests or lessons.

Of course, for some of us, slick video and a foot-stomping soundtrack are not enough to get us speaking the language. What we really need is a good old-fashioned book. The makers have predicted this, including a comprehensive 160-page course book.

One minor complaint is that there is no quick link form where you are back to the main menu.

there is a network version of the CD-ROM, and African Voices has said it will be releasing a Zulu version later this year.

THUMBS UP: Well designed, good fun to use, caters for all levels.
THUMBS DOWN: Maybe a quick way back to the main menu?