Review: Byki Deluxe 4.0
- Article 75 of 89
- MacFormat, October 2009
A great but limited way to learn foreign vocabulary
One of the hardest parts of learning any language is the vocabulary. No matter how good your grammar and pronunciation, ultimately it’s all down to the words you learn and can understand. And for learning words, flashcards are hard to beat.
Byki Deluxe is one of the premier flashcard programs available. It takes advantage of the multimedia facilities of your Mac to enhance the simple word/definition format of standard cards: it includes audio files with the pronunciation of words and phrases, a recording system for comparing your pronunciation with that of native speakers, a variety of games to keep you interested and tests to see how well you’re doing. And although they weren’t provided to us for review, there are also MP3 files for your iPod so you can learn and listen on the go – a separate $7.99 iPod/iPhone application for testing yourself on your flashcards is also available.
The French version we tested came with 153 lists for a total of over 2000 words and phrases to be learned. These cover most situations and include some quite obscure words that should be new to even seasoned French speakers. Other lists created by Byki users are available for download as well, and you can create your own.
Although it’s an excellent flashcard program, it really is only a vocabulary tutor, so no one should expect to come out of this being able to do much more than parrot the phrases they’ve been taught. There’s no grammar instruction whatsoever, the pronunciation tutor is a blunt instrument that’s not much help in improving your spoken French and there’s no real way to build fluency or understanding of longer conversations.
Although in most areas, it’s exceeded by its Berlitz equivalent at a cheaper price, Byki Deluxe is available in a vastly wider range of languages, including some quite obscure ones (Tuvan, anyone?). Nevertheless, it’s a useful, but expensive tool for building up vocabulary, but no substitute for other, deeper teaching systems.