Frankly, this product has so much going for it.  It's a complete package in every sense of the word, with the most lessons we've seen, and its feature-set is leaps and bounds ahead of most products in its category.  

With 850 hours of instruction this is quite an offering, a lot by any measure, and 4500 exercises with 37 different activity types is even more.  And those lessons are distributed over 4 levels of advancement in one package - complete beginner, beginner, intermediate and advanced.  This is 850 hours of well-crafted instruction, practically guaranteeing a mastery of the language which few other products can approach.

So what this means is that if you're in this for the long haul, committed and really want to learn French well - to the point of fluency and mastery, then this is the perfect software for you.

Can You Handle It?

This is where you have to decide if you can honestly spend more than 850 hours in front of a computer learning a language.
It is a lot, but to help make that decision easier we can tell you the lessons and activities are so fun and addictive you'll be enjoying every moment.  It's so rare that learning a language is this much fun, so much so that if you've been turned off by previous language courses then French Premium will probably put you right.

Speech Recognition Included

You can't really learn a language without being able to speak it, so the ability to know when you are speaking and pronouncing correctly is essential.  Tell Me More comes with very high quality speech-recognition technology called S.E.T.S (Spoken Error Tracking System) which provides instant feedback and makes oral practice a breeze.  Most French learning software lacks a speech recognition component, so it's a very welcome feature.  We feel it should be an integral part of any language learning software.

Different Learning Modes

This courseware also has three different learning modes: Dynamic, Guided and Free To Roam.

In Dynamic mode lessons and difficulty levels are automatically customized according to how well you're doing, and your next lesson or exercise is chosen for you based on your performance on the current exercise.  This means if you are a bit more advanced than beginner then you'll be quickly brought up to that level.  Likewise if you're more in the intermediate range.  Obviously this is a very good feature and makes it ready-to-use for anyone, of any level of French familiarity.

The Guided Mode is particularly neat.  It's like having a French instructor set up a lesson plan just for you, based on your goals, how much time you can spend on lessons and your study habits.  There's a diary which keeps track of your progress against the lesson plan and if you find yourself falling behind you can always adjust the goals.  It's a great way of keeping yourself disciplined and committed.

The Free To Roam mode, as the name suggests, is where you can study and practice at will, at any level, lesson or exercise.  This is particularly useful if you want to continue practicing after mastering the language, or if you want to dive in to one particular area of French such as ordering food at a restaurant.

Our Recommendation - A Definite Buy

There is certain sense of satisfaction in knowing you're getting much more than your money's worth here.  There's no way you can buy this product and feel let down by the huge array of lessons, the feature set, the speech recognition technology and the many levels of difficulty.

There are many other features of this course which warrant recommendation, such as the 24/7 live support and the fact that you can download lessons to your iPod, MP3 player, etc.  However, we'll end our review by also noting that Tell Me More French Premium has a long list of positive reviews, testimonials and accolades - including seven awards, so you need not take our word for it.