Rating: 
Summary: Good begginer's course! Covers fundamental's well, book poor
Review: A ggreat beginner's course. it goes over the areas that most beginner's have troubles. The course places a major emphasis on pronunciation early on. Students should be prepared to be drilled-- over and over. I certain points the pauses seemed a bit brief so you may want to keep the pause button handy or get the CD version. Also, the book is split into two halves. Typically, the lower page is the regular language and the top is phonetic. That was confusing to me in the beginning. Also, in the beginning a lot of the drills are phonetic rather than actual spelling. Be forewarned of the potentially confusing fact and its a great course. Buena suerte!
Rating: 
Summary: Not very useful for a beginner
Review: Barron's Mastering Spanish is terrific! I've studied MANY foreign languages and used a variety of audio tapes to help with my studies. The Barron's series is the best one I've ever encountered. It is true, however, that the course is long and in depth. You will have to devote a lot of time if you want to finish the course. (I've only gotten through the Level 1 course, and it's taken me 2 1/2 months.) I used them in my car, which is the perfect place to listen to them. They require quite a bit of concentration. This series would have rated a solid 5 stars if it weren't for the accompanying book. For some reason, the book presents all of the Spanish in both PHONETIC representation, as well standard Spanish spelling. The phonetics, which are given enormous precedence over the Spanish spellings, are not only useless, they're annoying and distracting! To add insult to injury, the dictionary appendix at the end of the book isn't even in Spanish alphabetical order. It too is in phonetic order, making it nearly worthless! The book aside, however, the tapes (I had the CD's actually.) are great. Other than the fact that I've lived in LA for half my life, and so have heard a LOT of Spanish in my everyday comings and goings, I've never actually studied any Spanish at all. After completing this set, I feel that I've gotten a terrific grounding in the basics of the language.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent teach yourself course
Review: Barron's Mastering Spanish is terrific! I've studied MANY foreign languages and used a variety of audio tapes to help with my studies. The Barron's series is the best one I've ever encountered. It is true, however, that the course is long and in depth. You will have to devote a lot of time if you want to finish the course. (I've only gotten through the Level 1 course, and it's taken me 2 1/2 months.) I used them in my car, which is the perfect place to listen to them. They require quite a bit of concentration. This series would have rated a solid 5 stars if it weren't for the accompanying book. For some reason, the book presents all of the Spanish in both PHONETIC representation, as well standard Spanish spelling. The phonetics, which are given enormous precedence over the Spanish spellings, are not only useless, they're annoying and distracting! To add insult to injury, the dictionary appendix at the end of the book isn't even in Spanish alphabetical order. It too is in phonetic order, making it nearly worthless! The book aside, however, the tapes (I had the CD's actually.) are great. Other than the fact that I've lived in LA for half my life, and so have heard a LOT of Spanish in my everyday comings and goings, I've never actually studied any Spanish at all. After completing this set, I feel that I've gotten a terrific grounding in the basics of the language.
Rating:
Summary: Great program, might be too simple though
Review: First of all, this course is great and complete in coveringwhat it covered. The storyline behind it is fairly interesting (a USambassador sent to a spanish-speaking country). The book that comes w/ this book MUST be used to get the most of it. That means you can't just listen to the tapes in the car and expect to get it. The book contains pronunciation keys as well as the script of the tapes. There are 12 tapes in all in case you were interested.However, I was somewhat disappointed with this book because it only goes over the present tense, which is not nearly enough. I know there's a volume II, but I expect more. But all in all, it's a good program.
Rating:
Summary: Great program, might be too simple though
Review: First of all, this course is great and complete in coveringwhat it covered. The storyline behind it is fairly interesting (a USambassador sent to a spanish-speaking country). The book that comes w/ this book MUST be used to get the most of it. That means you can't just listen to the tapes in the car and expect to get it. The book contains pronunciation keys as well as the script of the tapes. There are 12 tapes in all in case you were interested. However, I was somewhat disappointed with this book because it only goes over the present tense, which is not nearly enough. I know there's a volume II, but I expect more. But all in all, it's a good program.
Rating: 
Summary: Parts 3 and 4
Review: I agree with most of the reviews that this is not for complete beginners, but I strongly disagree on the pronunciation issues brought up here. I've had a number of major revelations on pronunciation based on the opening chapters of this series. To speak any language without displaying a horrendously bad accent is extremely difficult and this series takes the bull by the horns. I believe the rapidfire speech on the CD's is intentional. I've also bought the 2nd 12 cassette course, which goes into the past tense. It is extremely good in many ways, but is not put together as nicely as the 1st...the book has a horrible font and the tapes refer to the wrong pages. Nevertheless it's indispensible to me at this point. I'm trying to find out if there is a 3rd course. [what about it, amazon? you don't even appear to have the 2nd, although your price is about $20 cheaper than what I paid at Border's for the 1st set]
Rating:
Summary: Unusual, but very good
Review: I agree with most of the reviews that this is not for complete beginners, but I strongly disagree on the pronunciation issues brought up here. I've had a number of major revelations on pronunciation based on the opening chapters of this series. To speak any language without displaying a horrendously bad accent is extremely difficult and this series takes the bull by the horns. I believe the rapidfire speech on the CD's is intentional. I've also bought the 2nd 12 cassette course, which goes into the past tense. It is extremely good in many ways, but is not put together as nicely as the 1st...the book has a horrible font and the tapes refer to the wrong pages. Nevertheless it's indispensible to me at this point. I'm trying to find out if there is a 3rd course. [what about it, amazon? you don't even appear to have the 2nd, although your price is about $20 cheaper than what I paid at Border's for the 1st set]
Rating:
Summary: Really learn to speak Spanish
Review: I bought this course a long time ago, when I was working in Mexico, and got bored with it pretty quickly. Many years later, I married a Mexican woman whose family spoke no English, so I picked the course back up. It's tough (if you're not motivated, you'll give up), but thorough and good. Along with level 2 (and you'll need both levels, without a doubt), you will be able to carry on meaningful conversations in Spanish.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent course if you are willing to put the time in
Review: I now live in Guatemala and speak the language fluently but began my studies with this course. It is one of the oldest cassette courses - if not the oldest - on the market (I think the Foreign Service Institute made it in the 1950's) but its one of the best for studying on your own because of the huge number of drills the cassettes contain. If you spend alot of time in the car you can really put that time to good use by going through the exercises once with with the book at home and then drilling them again while driving to and from work or wherever. After working with this course and level 2 I moved to Guatemala to study in an immersion course. I was surprised at how well I was able to communicate as soon as I got here. You won't gain fluency just by taking this course, no home study course can do that, but if you are willing to really put the time in with the exercises (they can be a bit boring) you will be surprised at how much you learn and more importantly, be able to use in a real life setting. The only drawback for most users of the course is that the vocabulary and dialogs are geared to someone planning to live in a spanish speaking country. Vocabulary and usage related to tourism (dealing with bus travel, hotel bookings, restaurants etc. )is not extensively covered. However any good tourist oriented phrasebook would be a good supplement to this course. You should know that this course and level 2 cover only about half of the original Foreign Service Course in spanish. Advanced grammatical topics like the subjunctive are only touched on. You will need to look elsewhere for a complete course in spanish grammer. But this and level 2 are excellent preparation for that.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Learning Tool
Review: I really believe that this course encourages fluency by prompting participants to think in the target language. For the most part the dialogues and drills are structured in such a manner that the gramatical concepts can be grasped intuitively. The book can be a little confusing at first, but I truly believe that it supports the tapes very well. Once one becomes familiar with the structure of the units, it really is not too difficult to follow. The main complaint I have heard is that the book includes unnecessary pronouncation aids. Personally, I find these to be useful, especially for those that prefer to study sections in the book prior to listening to the tapes. Using this method, I have noted an improvement in retention level. All in all, this is an excellent program.
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