Customer Reviews

Barron's Mastering Spanish : Hear It, Speak It, Write It, Read It (Foreign Service Institute) (English and Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Many, mainly positive reviews, have been written about this course. I absolutely agree. This course is old, but the best I have found so far. The only information missing (and Barron's won't tell you) is that part three and four of this course are available from Audioforum... under the titles Advanced Spanish A and B, for 185.- each. There the subjunctive and the rest of the grammar is introduced.

I'm using the two Barron's tape sets along with the video series, Destinos, to teach myself Spanish. Destinos presents a much wider range of vocabulary and situations, but since (if you're using it on your own) you don't speak back to it, a lot of your learning is passive. The Barron's set gets you into a more active mode. The dialogues can be quite sexist--lots of comments about sexy brunettes, fat girls with glasses, etc.-- and you almost never hear a female speaker. Still, they and the drills are effective and well-designed from a language-learning point of view. The guys on the tapes speak at a realistic pace, not in the exaggerated, artificially slow language typical of beginning language courses--and the drills force you to respond quickly, too. The accompanying book is not terribly informative; for grammar issues I've relied on my knowledge of French and Latin. This probably isn't the best choice for a rank beginner, but if you already know another romance language, or if you've taken a little Spanish in school and want to get better, it's a solid course.

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.

Out of date. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from the Barron's Foreign Service Institute French I and II courses, so was expecting a similar experience here. Unfortunately, this course is not as good. As others have complained, the speed of the speakers, though probably authentic, is much too fast for a beginner and the voices of the two characters are not different enough in tone to be easily distinguished. The tapes for Spanish I should have been done more slowly and distinctly. Worse, I found myself continually annoyed because of the out of date, male centered situations and conversation. As a tourist visitor, I need less on finding apartments and maids, more on social encounters. I find myself wondering why I'm learning how to say "Man, that's good whiskey!" "Tell the girl who cleans to take your dirty clothes to the laundry." The thing I did learn from this program was that if I had been in the diplomatic corps in the 50's, I would have preferred life in France! Yes they do cover the verb, pronouns and other grammar issues better than most, but they speak so fast that you will have to be looking at the book all the time, at least through level I, and if you're a woman, you will feel what it was like to live in a macho, (smoking) male centered culture in the 1950s.

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.

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]

The "Barron's Mastering Spanish: Level 1" course is a great supplement for anyone who wants to learn Spanish, and has had some exposure to the language. The tapes are immensely helpful for getting the proper intonation of the spoken language.

However, this probably is not the best place to start for the absolute beginner. I had two Spanish courses in college, and this course is a great way to expand on my knowledge of the language. I believe, however, if I had no Spanish knowledge whatsoever I know I would be completely lost.

Others have heavily criticized the book in this course. Without a doubt it is not a very flashy text. It essentially is nothing more than a transcript of the tapes. It would help if it contained some illustrations, or additional exercises in reading the language, however, as uninspired as the book is, it is essential for following the tapes.

The drills are confusing at first, but it's not too difficult to pick up. The conversations are the most helpful aspect of the tapes, giving a good opportunity to practice your conversational Spanish. This course, however, is not very helpful in learning to read the language well.

If you are serious about learning Spanish on your own, this is a helpful addition to your studies. You will, however, need to have a few other resources, including, but not limited to, a good Spanish-English dictionary (such as the "Random House Essential Spanish Dictionary"), a verb book (such as the "Teach Yourself Spanish Verbs" book, by María Rosario Hollis), and a grammar book. These together with a lot of time, patience, practice, desire, sheer willpower, and (if possible) help from a native speaker it is possible to learn Spanish on your own.

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.

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.