ct35books

I read "The Hitchhiker's Guide" books many years ago, and when the 2005 movie was released, wanted to read/hear them again. This audiobook version was just excellent. Well-known British actor and comedian Stephen Fry does an incredible job reading, giving subtle distinctions to the voices and personalities without hamming it up. He really brought the scenes to life for me. Highly recommended!

This program seems adequate if you want to learn basic phrases in a new language. The words/phrases are introduced clearly and the pronunciation is broken up into individual syllables so that you can clearly hear how to make each sound. There is a good amount of repetition and enough time in most cases for you to repeat the sounds/words/phrases when prompted.

This was my first experience with an audio-only program, and I suppose it will do exactly what it says... help you learn to speak and understand the language. However I am a very visual learner. I found that after learning to say the words/phrases, I also wanted to see the words that I was saying, and know how they are spelled. The "reference guide" that accompanies this program is simply a 14 page blurb introducing the Pimsleur teaching concept. It contains no "reference material" at all for the units or language that you are studying. If you are a visual learner then this might be frustrating to you.

No

Not performance per se, but as noted above, some brief glossary with the spellings of the words we have learned would be valuable.

Rutger Hauer? He can teach me Dutch anytime...