<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: This is a great package!
Review: I teach English as a Second Language, so I have some familiarity with language teaching materials, and I think this is one of the best Spanish packages I have seen. Maybe that's because it is actually the English translation of a German book, which is probably why it focuses on the Spanish spoken in Spain, not Latin America, the criticism of the other reviewer. I have been studying Spanish off and on for 6 years, so I didn't use this book myself, but got it for a friend and took it for a test drive. One of the best things about this package is the amount of listening material it contains--four CDs! At the beginning of each unit is a dialog with the script right there; for the other audio, there is an audioscript in the back of the book.
A lot of the material could be used in different ways; for example, listening to it with the book closed to see how much you can get, and then reading the script. On the CDs, they don't speak overly slowly, but I don't believe they speak too quickly either. Even at a beginner level, it helps to get used to how people actually speak.
I also liked the variety of exercises the book contained. It doesn't follow the tired "listen to the dialog, then answer the following fill in the blank questions" format, or the "rewrite the sentences, conjugating the verb correctly" format. There is some of that, but there is a lot more besides.
Many of the exercises only require that you get the gist of something, not understand every detail, which is a very realistic goal for a beginner.
There is good grammar coverage, a lot of vocabulary information, and a fair amount of cultural info, too.
There are some valuable reference sections in the back of the book, including a section for writing and pronunciation rules, complete with audio and extra exercises, and a 45 page grammar section.
On a more shallow note, I liked the book visually too. Nothing turns me off a language book faster than opening it and seeing nothing but black and white text on every page. This book is colorful, makes good use of photos and drawings, and uses color to set off vocabulary lists and grammar boxes. These things may not affect how well you actually learn a language, but they can help you stay awake. But maybe that's just me.
I want to start studying Italian just so I can use E-Z Italian!
Rating: 
Summary: There are better options than this CD set.
Review: If you're a European planning to learn a little Spanish for travel or business in Spain, then this may be a good resource for you. However, taking into consideration that in Latin America, México alone has nearly 3 times the population of Spain, if you are planning to use this series for learning Spanish for use in any other country but Spain, it will only make your learning experience much more frustrating. Most Spanish words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled - no great mystery. But in Spain, this is not the case. If you want to learn to speak Spanish with a lisp, by all means, buy this course. There are far better resources out there than this. Avoid it.
<< 1 >>
| 
