Musical Method of Learning Spanish: Rapanese Spanish

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Summary: HOW CAN ADULTS LEARN A LANGUAGE LIKE A CHILD DOES?
Review: Children learn through rote repetition, (nursery rhymes). Adult's can learn this way also, but they allready have a language. ONE NEEDS TO CONTINUOUSLY RELATE THE NEW LANGUAGE TO THE OLD LANGUAGE, IN THE BEGINNING. If this can be done WITHOUT INDUCING BOREDOM then people will keep listening, and learning will ensue. That is where RAPANESE comes in, (from the word JAPANESE when RAP music was popular in 1989). You will think it is silly, you will laugh, you will cry, but the main thing is YOU WILL KEEP LISTENING, and YOU WILL LEARN. Once you have listened to all five tapes, (series one to three), then just listen to Spanish music, or watch Spanish tv, (you will learn the most with commercials because they are so repetitive). Because of the RAPANESE you will know about every 3rd or 4th word. Then you will begin to figure out the words in between by their context, (get a Spanish English dictionary, but don't overuse it). You will find this fun, so you will keep doing it, AND YOU WILL LEARN.

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Summary: BOBBY THE MAGICAL JUGGLING CLOWN
Review: I allmost didn't buy this cool CD because of a listener that left a bad review Toro NYC. He said something about "hace frio" is correct and "esta frio" is wrong. I bought it anyway and nowhere on the CD does it say either of these words. I guess he has a right to say anything he wants. Actually at my level of Spanish who cares. Either way a spanish speaking person will figure out that I am cold.

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Summary: BOBBY THE MAGICAL JUGGLING CLOWN
Review: I allmost didn't buy this cool CD because of a listener that left a bad review Toro NYC. He said something about "hace frio" is correct and "esta frio" is wrong. I bought it anyway and nowhere on the CD does it say either of these words. I guess he has a right to say anything he wants. Actually at my level of Spanish who cares. Either way a spanish speaking person will figure out that I am cold.

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Summary: Rapanese (The Musical Method of Learning Spanish), Series 1
Review: I had such hopes for this series, but was agast at the glaring errors it made in just the Elementary edition. For instance, the verb "estar" is used in place of the verb "hacer" to convey the weather (e.g. "esta frio" instead of "hace frio"). That ended my faith right then and there as I do not want to sound like a dumb American when traveling. The editors should be ashamed that the linguistic background of the author is so lacking that he'd make this error and who knows how many others.

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Summary: Rapanese (The Musical Method of Learning Spanish), Series 1
Review: I had such hopes for this series, but was agast at the glaring errors it made in just the Elementary edition. For instance, the verb "estar" is used in place of the verb "hacer" to convey the weather (e.g. "esta frio" instead of "hace frio"). That ended my faith right then and there as I do not want to sound like a dumb American when traveling. The editors should be ashamed that the linguistic background of the author is so lacking that he'd make this error and who knows how many others.

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Summary: Pronunciation is awful
Review: I threw my tapes out after listening to them twice and being unable to believe that someone could put out a Spanish instruction tape who spoke Spanish so poorly himself. If I remember correctly, the guy who did the tapes bills himself as an effective high school Spanish teacher. His accent is very Anglo and his grammar is not always correct. His method may be a cute gimmick, but his students are going to sound funny to somebody who knows the language.

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Summary: Pronunciation is awful
Review: I threw my tapes out after listening to them twice and being unable to believe that someone could put out a Spanish instruction tape who spoke Spanish so poorly himself. If I remember correctly, the guy who did the tapes bills himself as an effective high school Spanish teacher. His accent is very Anglo and his grammar is not always correct. His method may be a cute gimmick, but his students are going to sound funny to somebody who knows the language.

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Summary: Good introduction
Review: I've studied several different languages and while I was always good at writing and grammar, I was weak in talking and comprehending speech. I've tried other tapes that I've listened to in the car, but lost interest in them because I couldn't understand or keep up. This tape actually got me talking and comprehending Spanish. Granted, you won't be fluent by only listening to these tapes, and like anything else, you have to actually listen to them repeatedly for them to have any effect. The music was a little cheesy, but it made me laugh and the speakers didn't take themselves too seriously and so it all seemed to work for me. I've been listening to and from work for several weeks now. I've learned all the phrases from the first set of tapes, and just bought the second set in the series.

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Summary: Catchy music, but not practical for a serious learner
Review: The music and format make the tape tolerable. When the woman repeats the phrase in Spanish, however, the music covers up her clear pronunciation, making it hard to hear and learn. No text of what is being said comes with the tape, so you have no idea what the words you're learning to say look like. I'm a visual and audio learner, didn't work for me. May be a nice refresher for some, but not a tape for a beginner.

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Summary: THE RAPANESE TAPES DO CONTAIN PRINTED MATTER
Review: The tapes have printed matter that you can follow along if you wish. They are in the form of a nifty little "j" card. I never look at the printed matter. In my view the whole idea of Rapanese is that you don't need the printed matter anyway.