Just Listen 'N Learn Spanish

Rating:
Summary: Excellent way to develop listening comprehension
Review: After borrowing this book from our public library, I have struggled first through the textbook and then started listening to the tapes while commuting. Of course, in the first days, I understood only about 10%, however, this has finally increased to about 95%. The recodings have a real life quality, both in terms of speed and content. I like this course very much and recommend it to anyone who wants to understand spoken Spanish. The explanations of grammar are only minimal, however, you can combine this with any other textbook that gives a more thorough background in the Spanish grammar. The great value of this course is its emphasis on listening comprehension of the real spoken Spanish.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful for the beginner
Review: Although I would have preferred a faster moving and more advanced tape, this Spanish instructional tape helped me strengthen my Spanish speaking and especially my listening skills. A great tool for a novice who is trying to learn Spanish, yet it also helped me, a student who has completed three years of Spanish, to better pronunciate my words.

Rating:
Summary: Listen 'N Learn to Lisp
Review: This is a passable, if somewhat dated (1982), CD if you are intending to learn Andalusian spanish. If you are planning to use your spanish elsewhere in the world, such as Mexico, or South America, this CD is of questionable value. It is made with live recordings of Andalusians speaking their dialect. Unfortunately, they often make grammatical mistakes, and the dialect is unusual. The speakers often lisp "es" and "ze" sounds, ("Gracias" becomes "Grathia" and "Gonzales" becomes Gonthaleth"). The dropping of the final sylabants needlessly complicates the learning process.

The prerecorded local color in the background often forms noise that obscures the dialogue in the recordings.

Finally the CD is recorded without intervening skip marks, complicating the rehearing of dialogue, without listening to the whole chapter again.

I think that there are far better products out there.