Customer Reviews

Advanced Spanish (Berlitz Advanced) (English and Spanish Edition)

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I don't know what "advanced" means these days. Maybe in a high school this material might be referred to as advanced. I took French in high school for four years and couldn't speak a word so maybe in high school "advanced" means basic. I don't know.

I got a high school Spanish text book, and I spent about an hour a day, and after about six months I was up to this level. I could barely function in Mexico City with this ability level. I wouldn't consider that "advanced".

I was hoping that the audio CD's would be useful in helping with listening comprehension. The audio CD's use very basic language with people who talk slowly and clearly. Most of the Spanish audio CD's are too easy to help me. Meanwhile watching Spanish television or listening to Spanish radio is too difficult. Native speakers speak so fast with accents and slang that I just can't keep up. I was hoping to find something that would help me bridge that gap. This wasn't it.

This book is labeled "Advanced Spanish" but it's really fairly basic, or intermediate at best. The lessons are clearly laid out. The CDs have Spanish dialogues that are spoken slowly and clearly, which is good for beginners but not very helpful for more advanced students who want to improve listening comprehension. I found the slow rate of speech fairly annoying at times. Normal people just don't talk that slow. In addition, this book uses the Castilian Spanish of Spain rather than Latin America, so if you want to learn Latin American Spanish, it won't be all that helpful. The book I received was in slightly damaged condition but not bad enough for me to bother returning it. If you'd mastered some basic Spanish and want something a little more advanced, this is a good book, especially if you are planning a trip to Spain.

This is a great resource for learners to get the most out of spanish. It's assumed that readers are at an intermediate level, so if you're not you will hace difficulty learning the material. But for those that have a good understanding I highly recommend this workbook/cd, it will teach a lot of material most books/cds dont.

Another thing I liked is that the dialogue is both in Castilian and Lat. American Spanish. I would say the book is more geared for people traveling to Spain, but still they include words and phrases that are used in Lat. American. They also have cultural lessons where you can understand the dialect and culture, a nice bonus.

Lastly, in reference to the last post, you can only learn so much from cds and books. The only true way to become fluent in Spanish is to speak it everyday. Obviously living in a spanish speaking country is the best option, but no book is going to bridge that gap from average to fluent. Learn the most you can from this workbook and then practice it every day.

I will admit. I'm learning spanish on my own so I've purcahsed a lot of different mediums to help me with that process. Some of them are better than others, but this one would have to be on the lower end of my scale. Honestly there is nothing in this set that you cannot get for free. Actually, I'm pretty sure thast if you've been leaning on your own, you're already engaging in activities that would surpass this purchase. In any event, most of the audio is dull and unexciting, and the book is not really helpful. The only thing that i can see as "advanced" is that there are no clear directions on how to connect that material. I still haven't figured out why i even needed to buy both together, the cds and the book, nor have my skills progress in anyway. If you watch spanish television or listen to music in spanish, it will do you the same about of good as the audio dics. And, if you've already purchased a vocabular/grammer booklet to work with, this purchace really isn't worth you time.

This is a great book and CD for learning and reviewing advanced Spanish. Though it's a slim book, it's packed with the most necessary grammar, so there's a lot one can study and review over and over. I also like the fact that it's slim and can be easily toted around for studying on the subway during commutes.