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Rating: 
Summary: The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish
Review: I can't imagine why anyone would want to learn a language from a source that is not accurate! These people try hard but they mispronounce or stress the wrong syllable in many words. I would not recommend this product to anyone learning or reviewing spanish.
Rating:
Summary: The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish
Review: I can't imagine why anyone would want to learn a language from a source that is not accurate! These people try hard but they mispronounce or stress the wrong syllable in many words. I would not recommend this product to anyone learning or reviewing spanish.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievably easy to use
Review: I desperately needed help with Spanish because of my job. I'm not a rocket scientist when it comes to picking up a new language and all of those audio tapes are so damn boring. These DVD's really work - they're fun and really useful. Besides, the Standard Deviants silly troupe is also filled with hotties. What a way to learn!
Rating: 
Summary: May not work in your DVD player...
Review: I have a one year old Zenith 5 disc DVD player and it doesn't work for me.
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Summary: Yo no quiero esta basura!
Review: If you want something to teach your little nieces and nephews Spanish, then you could roll with this. But if you are a grown man or a grown woman trying to learn Spanish this will be a waste of time and money. You'd be better off getting either Spanish Deluxe or Learning Spanish Like Crazy at www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com
Rating: 
Summary: Small segments of this dvd were extremely valuable.
Review: Is is difficult to review this DVD because there are so few video language DVD's on the market. The valuable part of this dvd are a few troublesome area's of Spanish, such as 'direct and indirect pronouns'. I found that section to be most valuable. For example, as best I recall, they explain how to convert ' Juan escribe unas cartas a Marie y Jose', into 'Se los escribe'. These pronoun substitutions are a tricky yet prevalent part of the language. As for the remainder of the DVD, there were alot of grammer lessons which I found a bit boring. I'm not sure what audience this dvd was written for, at times too easy. However, I did find a few sections to be useful, therefore, I would have to say that you should consider buying this dvd if you want alot of stuffy grammer lessons, or if you want to improve areas like indirect pronouns. Overall, I would recommend this dvd.
Rating:
Summary: Juvenile, not advanced!
Review: The title is misleading. This really is not advanced Spanish. They spend the first quarter of the program reviewing basics (noun genders, adjective agreements, etc.) so that's wasted. By the time we reach the end, we're just learning about direct and indirect object pronouns. These are the things you learn in an Intro II Spanish course at the local community college. (The proof is in the syllabus of a course I took!) Another gripe is the presentation. They use a kind of silly, juvenile format with embarrassingly bad, scripted comedy. It's like something you'd see on Saturday morning cartoons. Last, of the six or so youngsters who deliver the course (they all seem to be about 19 years old), only one or two of them has a good (i.e., native) Spanish accent. The others all speak with that flat, nasal American sound that sounds so bad in Spanish! And one of the presenters made a bad grammatical faux-pas when he said, "No problema" which is a Bart Simpson-ism. It should be, "No hay problema". Apart from the bad accents I would have no qualms with this DVD if they'd just labeled it correctly, for instance, "Spanish Reveiew for Kids".
Rating:
Summary: I was very satisfied
Review: While it's true that I wouldn't label the DVD "Advanced Spanish" I also wouldn't label it "Spanish Review for Kids." In fact, it is more like an intermediate Spanish review. While I already knew everything they teach, they still use some tips I wish I had heard when I was taking formal college courses. The visual element is compelling - far more useful for imparting and retaining information than audio tapes and textbooks alone. I bought the whole series, and I almost felt like I had gotten to know the actors personally. I hated it when the last DVD came to an end. Sure they speak with American accents - they're mostly Americans! It's not like they're unintelligible. By the time you get to the end of this DVD, you're speaking some pretty darned sophisticated Spanish. The interactive element is great - there are opportunities for self-testing and the DVD format offers chances to review sections much easier than with VCR tapes. I would like to see another DVD that covers past subjunctive, conditional, and the other perfect tenses that were left out of the series. Also, I'd like to see a discussion of por versus para and other tricky grammatical constructions. There's definitely room for at least one more DVD in the series. How about it Standard Deviants? Make it and it will sell.
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur Takes a Happy-Pill
Review: Youthful enthusiasm animates an otherwise stuffy subject. Where as its predecessor simply transferred content from the LP era to cassette tape and then to DVD, Deviants bring the self-learning process up-to-date. The title's latter half accurately portrays the content. For the experienced learner, this item provides a satisfactory review of the basics falling short of a thorough coverage of the "should-a, would-a, could-a's, might and get!" of the subjunctive mood. These programs aired, so the squeaky clean disks record speech which the FCC deems appropriate for the general audiance--an acceptable deficiency for what one finds available for asynchronous learning (asynchro... the latest catch phrase for independent study).
To the reader:
For those lacking acquaintances to practice Hispanic street-talk, Amazon graciously provides retailing of popular cinematic DVD's and musical CD's in many languages, many movies with optional subtitling. Also, those "foreign" Amazons with links at the bottom of these pages await your orders. You already have an account with each of them (Surprise!), so put some movies in your cart, but know the minimum shipping fee--about 27 bucks depending on the exchange rate. This means an order of three or more movies spreads out the shipping charges to a reasonable proportion of the total cost. After the first 27 bucks, it's just the regular charge for each additional disk--still drastically less expensive than a live-in tutor, which is what you get with the DVD's. The DVD's from Amazon Dot (other country)'s e-shops additionally include the minimum fee for each retailer, so avoid them unless they too offer several titles to include on one, separate order--which currently (Feb 2005) is hardly likely. Before purchasing, check to see that your American retailer has not violated international trade agreements by selling a player which blocks DVD's from other regions. You need what commonly goes by the name of a "region free" player which is really just an ordinary player everywhere on this earth except our Good Ol', Isolationist, Greedy Corporate U S of A--God bless Capitalism. Love it or leave it.
You may have a region free player and not know it, but you'll need to check around on your own to find the hidden menu. You're not violating any law by playing the DVD. Just pay the market price and don't copy it. Avoid software which allows you to play the DVD by making a back-up disk without the regional coding. A copy by any other name still reeks of sticky fingers. Software should only make the player region free.
Back to the review:
For an introduction to mastery of the language beyond that even of the ordinary, native speaker, the eager learner should keep an anticipatory glance towards the Deviants (or any distributor) for an as yet to exist, comprehensive series on a related pair of topics called the subjunctive and the imperative. The subjunctive mood takes toddling vocabulary beyond those first steps of basic conversational "baby-speak". A voice mastering the subjunctive still sticks out as much as a Gringo in the market stuttering to ask directions but at least in a very pleasant tone and in a knowledgeable fashion which isn't half bad to listen to.
Capping two birds with one stone, this Deviant transaction provides a chance to casually review intermediate Spanish while "accidentally" familiarizing the inquisitive adolescent booger gobblers, carpet ornaments and the older, post-pubescent, defiant, non-rent-paying tenants who hear the lessons too.
In short, the old-time rich used to host a Jesuit tutor in their homes and way back before then, powerful rulers enslaved Greek intellectuals. Although Greeks have come to balk at enslavement and would bring suffering and pain to the person who would try to catch them, the prices of these DVD's make an on demand teacher affordable for the regular person anyway without letting blood or spilling brain to put on chains. Because the title claims "advanced" without the Deviants doing more than dabbling in the subjunctive, it gets a still solid, three and a half stars--adequate, good deal, well worth the investment; would buy from same again.
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