Hear Now! is a fast, new way to start a language. It's a computer-based mini-phrase-book with audio support. The vocabulary has been specially selected to enable you to quickly create new phrases for yourself, so extending your command of the language. And the audio support means that you can listen to any phrase in isolation, and focus on its exact sounds. You can also print the mini-phrase-book, so you're not tied to the computer.

Creating new phrases

The phrases in Hear Now! have been chosen to give you the most important words in six categories:

• Nouns (words for people, places, drinks);
• Pointing (that one, one of those);
• Numbers up to 12 (so you can tell the time);
• Days of the week;
• Pronouns (me, you, he, she);
• Prepositions (in front of, behind, after, before, next to).

These are all words that you can recombine easily to create new phrases: after Tuesday, three coffees, eleven o'clock at the station. Studies have shown that making up new phrases is the way to become fluent in a new language. And presenting the material in groups according to category helps you to remember it.

Audio support

In the text, Hear Now! spells out each phrase using a principled phonetic transcription: that is, one in which each meaningfully different sound is always represented by the same letter. So, for example, the vowel sounds of English pit, pet and put are represented by I, E and U respectively. This system is based on one devised by European linguists for use on computers, called Sampa.

Every language has a comparatively small inventory of meaningfully different sounds, and learning to distinguish those means that you'll be understood first time. With Hear Now! you can click on any phrase to hear it, so you can focus on the sounds, and quickly develop good pronunciation.

The French mini-phrase-book was spoken by Claire Buet-Charlwood. You can preview her book, Skeleton French.

Install and run

Double-click the downloaded file to install Hear Now!. This delivers two files:

• the mini-phrase-book player HEARNOW.EXE
• an .fcn file which is the phrasebook for the language you chose.

These files will be in the folder C:\HEARNOW, unless you changed this during installation.

The installation wizard also puts a shortcut on your Program Menu (accessible via the Start button).

To run the phrasebook, click the shortcut or double-click HEARNOW.EXE.

Printing

When you've bought a licence, you can print out your mini-phrase-book so that you can read it away from the computer. Hear Now! will send the text to whichever printer you have specified as your default printer - you can change this in Windows. It will not print the text to an electronic file, and you cannot change the typeface or typesize on the print-out.

Technical stuff

You need a speaker on your computer to use Hear Now! Make sure it's plugged in and working - test it by using Media Player to play a .wav file.

Hear Now! plays special files that have the suffix .fcn. You can move an .fcn file to another folder and rename it, but you must not alter its .fcn suffix - if you do, Hear Now! will not let you access it. You can also move Hear Now! to another folder, and rename it if you wish.

When you run Hear Now!, it displays a list of .fcn files in the same folder. If you've moved them to a different folder, Hear Now! will not show them to you when it starts up. But you can still track them down using File|Open.

If you download a second phrasebook, you will get not only a new .fcn file containing the phrases in the new language, but also a second copy of HEARNOW.EXE, which will overwrite your first copy. But since all versions are fully compatible, this will have no effect.

Licence

• When you first download Hear Now!, you can browse it for 15 minutes; during this time you have full access to all its facilities, except that you cannot print the material out.
• When your browsing time runs out, you have only very limited access.
• To get full access again (including printing), you need to buy a licence.
• A licence consists of a code linked to a person's name - you enter your name as licensee on the order, then when you get the code you enter the name and code into the software.
• A licence entitles you to use the licenced product on any computer or computers of which you are the primary user.

The price is 10 UK pounds for a full licence (i.e. one with no time limit), or 2 UK pounds for a 30-day licence. You can buy further 30-day licences whenever you wish - they don't have to run continuously:

• If you enter a new licence code while the existing licence still has time to run, you'll still keep your unused days - the new one lasts until 30 days after the old one expires.
• If your old licence has expired, your new 30 days starts from the day you enter the new licence code.

Your fifth 30-day licence gives you a full licence. All licences on any one computer must be in the same name.

Buy on-line

Buy off-line

Send a cheque in UK pounds made payable to Derek Rogers Professional Software to the address below. Don't forget to state the language and the Licensee's Name:

Hear Now!, 21 Hamilton Drive GLASGOW G12 8DN UK