Customer Reviews

All-Audio Spanish Cassette (LL(R) All-Audio Courses)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you have some background in Spanish, and just want a review, this would be a good tape. However, even with 2 years of Spanish it moves much too quickly. Many phrases do not have time to repeat in the time allocated, the Spanish speaker is speaking much too quickly and the words are not intrepreted into English once one phrase is given several sentences back. I would be completely lost if I didn't already have some background in the language. The Spanish words and phrases need to be broken down and spoken more slowly and with a chance to repeat them on a word by word basis the first time they are used.

You will not learn Spanish with these tapes. They move far too fast. Difficult words and phrases are only given once. You will be very disappointed if you buy these with little or no previous knowledge and expect to learn anything.

I can't comment on how this course might serve as a refresher since I'd have to finish learning and then forget Spanish before I could comment on its merits as a refresher course. :)

I have no natural talent for foreign languages. None. I learn them by playing audio tapes over and over in my car during my daily 2 hour commute. Learning this way is less like memorization and more like osmosis. I learn the language the same way I used to learn the lyrics to songs that got played repeatedly on the radio. With a two hour daily immersion, it's impossible not to soak up the material.

In my experience, most audio language programs suffer from a single critical fault - there is no pause between the English speaker and the foreign language translation. The absence of this seemingly insignificant nuance prevents the student from being able to say the phrase before the foreign speaker, if he has learned it. The result is that the student never builds the proper recall memory necessary to become really fascicle with the language. All that's ever built is recognition memory. Students learn to recognize the foreign language, but they never learn to create it.

The Living Language all audio program is very thorough and would be a wonderful way to learn Spanish but for this critical fault. It's targeted at the language student, not the impending traveler. The material is nicely balanced between explanation, grammar, vocabulary, and phrases, and is probably more thorough than the Penton version of the same product ("Learn in Your Car Spanish"). The grammar explanations in particular are very helpful. But, I don't believe that a student can develop the same facility with the language that they can with the Penton product simply because the student is rarely given the opportunity to perform.

To its credit, The Living Language program does offer dialogs, during which the student can supply one side of the conversation. But they are very short and don't begin to reinforce the entirety of the material. So, while it pains me to do so, I can't recommend this series except, perhaps, for the student who is already very familiar with the Spanish language and merely wants to expand that knowledge.

I liked this course, though I have only used the 4 "On the Go" part of the 8 CDs. It works out OK to bring the book and CD on the train. From around class 20-25, one has to go back and check the previous class a lot, because the pace is pretty high. But that is OK with me.

I started out using the (now defunct) Microsoft Spanish utilizing computer guided instruction. I then supplemented this with Living Language's All Audio Spanish for use while I was in the car or out for a walk, etc. Later I got the Pimsleur series.
Having stated the above, THIS is the order I would choose to do these courses in:
1) Pimsleur Speak, Think and Understand Essential Spanish
I, II and III
Pimsleur really is the best course I've ever used. Monotonous, but REALLY good, especially for beginners.
** While using the Pimsleur course II or III, I would suggest adding Living Languages All Audio in order to mix it up a little. But, if that confuses you, I would leave the Living Language course for AFTER the Pimsleur course.
2) I would then get the Living Language Spanish Verbs course.

I can't really recommend the Living Language course unless you already have some background and/or have taken the Pimsleur. As other reviewers have stated, the pace is somewhat fast for a true beginner. But this is still a very good course and I feel is time well spent learning a foreign language.

The six tape are great when it comes to not having the time to read and learn from a book about learning spanish. It firsts teaches you about how you would say the alphabet in spanish, then how a certain letter(ex:like h)is pronounce in a word and so on. To me so far it's worth the $$$$.