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Rating: Summary: mediocre and very limited in scope Review: Bought this set because I wanted to use it in the car to review Spanish (took a couple of courses before). Overall, disappointing and would recommend something more detailed for learners at any level.
Strengths:
- starts from scratch with letters of the alphabet, good for the absolute beginner
- covers present tense regular and irregular verbs, pronouns, articles, indirect/direct object pronouns, and a lot of vocabulary that is almost all travel-related (heavy on shopping, hotels, etc.)
- would be a fine review of the most basic concepts for someone who has been exposed to Spanish previously
Weaknesses:
- 8 CDs does not mean 8 hours of lessons! some are very short!
- use of obviously non-native speakers (heavy American accent) for some dialogues
- too much travel-related vocabulary rather than everyday words
- would probably be difficult to follow if you had never had Spanish before or seen these words written
- too many lessons focused on increasing vocab without additional useful grammar (e.g. only the present tense is covered)
- uses the Spanish "vosotros", which is not used in Latin America
- use of "y'all" as the English translation of vosotros/ustedes. This is hardly grammatically correct (or necessary).
- predictable and outdated dialogs e.g. wife has packed too many clothes for trip, worried about getting to airport, husband remarks on her 3 suitcases, reassures her
Rating: Summary: Could be better but you can learn from it. Review: Myself: I took one Univerity level Spanish class and have gone throught all 8 CDS twice now.
What I liked:
1. Lots of vocabulary
2. Was a good continuation of my Spanish learning.
3. Actually learned a bunch of good useful phrases.
What I didn't like:
1. It should come with a book. Some words are hard to hear
on the CD especially if you've never heard them before.
2. Some of the conversations are rushed and I had to repeat
them 5 times to understand them even after the English
translation.
3. Some vocabulary was near useless
4. Could be too technical in spots: Use the third person
formal conjugated with the infinitive...Huh?, I don't even
know what that means in English, just tell me how to say
where's the bathroom already!
Rating: Summary: Generally good content, but some technical flaws Review: This set does a good job of holding the learner's hand, particularly in the early CD's. On the other hand, those with some background in Spanish might find the pace a little slow. The content is more conversationally oriented than the other set I tried, Penton Overseas' Learn in Your Car (or Anywhere), which is also a good course. Penton's course is more travel oriented, at least in the early CD's.One thing that does bother me about the Instant Immersion course is a technical point. Namely, in many of the tracks on the CD's, the content is inexplicably and obviously truncated. For example, in some cases, the CD skips to the next track mid-sentence, or even mid-word. I don't get the sense that I am missing too much, but it is an annoyance.
Rating: Summary: Generally good content, but some technical flaws Review: This set does a good job of holding the learner's hand, particularly in the early CD's. On the other hand, those with some background in Spanish might find the pace a little slow. The content is more conversationally oriented than the other set I tried, Penton Overseas' Learn in Your Car (or Anywhere), which is also a good course. Penton's course is more travel oriented, at least in the early CD's. One thing that does bother me about the Instant Immersion course is a technical point. Namely, in many of the tracks on the CD's, the content is inexplicably and obviously truncated. For example, in some cases, the CD skips to the next track mid-sentence, or even mid-word. I don't get the sense that I am missing too much, but it is an annoyance.
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