Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts

by Fluenz

Product Features

• 150 sessions of up to two and one-half hours each -- the most comprehensive software application covering the first five levels of Spanish anywhere. Fluenz Spanish 1+2+3+4+5 will guide you in English through the challenges of Spanish with a proven system.
• The Fluenz language tutor guides you on video every step of the way, recreating a one-on-one tutoring experience, utilizing explanations in English, placing you in real-world contexts, and immersing you in the culture.
• Fluenz blends beautiful full-motion video with a range of engaging, interactive workouts to improve your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills -- including a recording engine to perfect your accent.
• Fluenz's unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies, and students at Harvard Business School and other leading universities.
• Includes Fluenz Spanish 1, Fluenz Spanish 2, Fluenz Spanish 3, Fluenz Spanish 4, and Fluenz Spanish 5 DVD-ROMs, five audio CDs for additional learning, exclusive, downloadable podcasts and flashcards for further practice, and the handy Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of important words and phrases.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• ASIN: B002ZF31NQ
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 8, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #5 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Spanish & Portuguese
  • #9 in Software > Language & Travel
  • #41 in Software > The Mac Software Store

Product Description

Discover Spanish through the magic of a great teacher

Fluenz Spanish is based on three principles:

1) There's no substitute for a great tutor. It's often difficult to motivate yourself to learn a language on your own. Having a teacher to challenge and inspire you, while explaining exactly how the language works, makes all the difference.
2) The best way for adults to learn Spanish is with explanations in English. For example, it is impossible to understand the difference between the critical Spanish verbs "ser" and "estar" without a clear explanation in English. With Fluenz, a real tutor guides you in English along a path specifically designed for Spanish.
3) It's best to learn the most relevant words in Spanish right away. Fluenz has you handling a wide range of real-world situations right from the start.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

300 of 305 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fluenz F2 vs Rosetta Stone: On a MacBook, January 30, 2010

By 

Todd Smith "Hot Toddy" (Pawling, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

I went on a vacation to Costa Rica, and resolved to learn Spanish. I studied French in high school and college, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I've NEVER had an opportunity to actually use my French, as I've found that everyone who speaks French usually speaks English. So, I thought I would try to learn Spanish, and maybe I could actually use it.

I found a website which reviewed many Spanish Learning Software packages, and many of them are only PC compatible. The two highest rated Mac compatibles were Fluenz and Rosetta Stone, #2 & #3, respectively. I had seen the Rosetta Stone commercials ad nauseum, so I thought it would be a good starting point. The "no drills" and "no memorization" aspects sounded great, so RS was my starting point.

I started out with Rosetta Stone 1, 2, & 3. RS is a beautiful program, with lovely pictures, and an intuitive interface. There were many, many times when I was clueless as to what to do, so I would just click until I got it right. RS would sense this, and would present the material again until I scored 90% or better. However, there WERE times when I would figure out the answer through the process off elimination, without truly understanding what I was saying/doing. For example, "comprar": did it mean "to shop" or "to buy"? I couldn't tell. Also, the speech recognition on Rosetta Stone could prove to be very temperamental. There were some words, some ONE-SYLLABLE words, that RS simply couldn't accept. I would record them with my iPhone, and play it back into the microphone, and it STILL wouldn't work. These occasions were rare, but troublesome. There were multi-syllable words or phrases that I had to use the iPhone trick for. I could repeat it one hundred times into the microphone, and it would NEVER NEVER accept what I said. After a while, I felt like I was getting great practice on how to record phrases with my iPhone, but for learning Spanish, my progress was slow. Also, I wasn't learning anything practical for use as a tourist. I want to learn how to bargain a little bit: "I will give you fifty, OK?" I wasn't getting that with Rosetta Stone. I think I completed Disc 2 of RS. Again, it was good, but there were many things that I wasn't sure about.

I heard about Fluenz from that website, and decided to give it a try. I ordered 1+2+3+4+5. A bit ambitious, but, like anything, the unit price goes down when you buy in bulk. I just finished up the first disc, so I'm not at any kind of expert level, but I liked what I've seen so far. I feel like I've really nailed the present tense conjugations of the following words: To Be (both Estar and Ser), To Go (very useful for meatball future tense), To Want, To Need, To Eat, To Drink. These words will get a tourist through a great many situations.

Fluenz's approach is different than Rosetta Stone. They start with Sonia Gil giving an intro, then a simple conversation between two or more people. You can listen to it without subtitles, with Spanish subtitles, or with English and Spanish subtitles. You should listen to it three times, once with each subtitle option. Sonia comes back, and breaks down the dialog, explaining what each word means, and how they relate to each other. There are then various drills, many of which involve typing down what you hear. These are challenging, and fun for me. I pride myself on my spelling, and these can be hard but satisfying to complete.

Fluenz does NOT use voice-recognition, which simply and effectively eliminates the frustrations I had with RS. My accent may not be as polished as it might be with RS, but at least I'm not fretting about getting stuck on a certain passage, wondering if it is me or the computer that is at fault. However, Fluenz DOES make use of the microphone. The aforementioned conversations are repeated, with you taking the role of one of the characters. You say the line that is shown, and click 'stop', and the conversation continues. You then play back the conversation, so you can hear your own voice. At that point in the lesson, you can tell if your accent is crap or not. And this works for me. I want to be a tourist, not a Telemundo newscaster. If I can crack a joke in Spanish, and make a senorita laugh, then this whole language thing will have paid off.

One thing I've found to be kind of humorous: Sonia Gil is very attractive. Sometimes my mind goes blank, as I'm just staring at her face, and I miss what she said completely. Doh!

MacBook users: Both Rosetta Stone and Fluenz work beautifully with my 2009 MacBook. No external microphones needed. RS adjusts the sensitivity of the microphone automatically, Fluenz does not. You will have to go System Preferences/Sound to adjust it. Once you do, it is done. No problem.

I recommend Fluenz over Rosetta Stone, especially if you are an adult who wants to 'speak tourist'. Rosetta Stone is good, but the little snags proved to be frustrating for me. Fluenz is more real world oriented, with expressions like: "We are going to the store together, would you like to come?", whereas Rosetta Stone had expressions like: "The car is in front of the house" or "the dog wants meat"

The people at Fluenz are great as well. I ordered 1+2+3+4+5, but I only received 1+2+3. I contacted Amazon, who said "Because Fluenz's inventory is constantly changing, we can't replace items sold by them that are Fulfilled by Amazon." I could either return the whole thing, or they could refund part of the money. I let Fluenz know about this, and they promptly sent me the missing discs 4+5. So Fluenz's customer service is great. Over educated young college grads.

Follow Up: 5/17/10: I've been using Fluenz, off and on, (it's hard to remain focused), but to address my previous statement: "For example, "comprar": did it mean "to shop" or "to buy"? I couldn't tell. " Comprar means both "to shop for" and "to buy". Doh!

I trade comments with Sonia on Facebook, she's the best! Nothing wrong with Rosetta Stone, but Fluenz is the real deal, in my opinion.

158 of 164 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Far superior to Rosetta Stone, March 11, 2010

By 

Ex Ell (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

Like everyone else, I'm comparing what I consider to be the two top dogs when it comes to Spanish language learning software: Fluenz and Rosetta Stone. Which software you should choose depends on what you want to be able to do first. Do you think it's more important to learn to order food in a restaurant, or explain where a cat is in relation to a table? It's a serious question, because therein lies the difference between these two programs.

Rosetta Stone assumes that you are an infant who should learn colors and animals first. If you are an infant, stop reading, and navigate to the Rosetta Stone section. If you are an adult who would rather learn the word for "cellphone" before "horse," then you should undoubtedly choose Fluenz.

Fluenz features a slick user-interface and a real person who acts as your personal tutor. (Incidentally, she is quite attractive.) Unlike Rosetta Stone, which uses a strict immersion model, Fluenz relates Spanish to English in order to build on the knowledge you already have about grammar and the way words work together. With Rosetta Stone, I found myself having to look up words because the pictures are sometimes unclear. For instance, there was a picture of a child and a man with the word "abuelo." I didn't know that it meant "grandfather" until I consulted a dictionary. You can't rely strictly on visual cues for everything. With Fluenz, every detail is spelled out and explained for you. You are told the precise meaning of every word and given tips for pronunciation and usage. I have found that this explicit approach is much more effective for my learning style. Your experience, of course, may vary.

After the principal lesson, Fluenz tasks you with a series of "workouts." These are very enjoyable exercises that increase in difficulty and require different skills than Rosetta Stone exercises. For instance, in Rosetta Stone, you can almost always use process of elimination to choose the correct picture. In Fluenz, you are almost immediately asked to construct your own sentences using the words you've learned. In other exercises, you must transcribe spoken dialogue. I immediately realized that comprehending an entire spoken sentence was much more difficult than comprehending a single word. To me, it's a far more aggressive approach than Rosetta Stone, and I can feel my brain working harder.

I will also say that I have used Rosetta Stone quite a bit, but I stopped using it because I simply became bored with the tedium of the program. I find Fluenz far more stimulating. I can hardly wait to come home every day and use it again. It's as addictive as a video game, and the best part is that I'm getting practical knowledge of Spanish that I can immediately apply to real life situations. I'm so fond of the program that I plan to try the Italian next.

If you are on the fence, but are one of those people who tend to go with the most popular choice, let me say this: Rosetta Stone will probably always outsell Fluenz. The reason is simple. Rosetta Stone only needs one Spanish program that it can sell world wide, because it does not teach using other languages. From a business standpoint, it's genius. From a learning standpoint, it's lacking. Fluenz is specifically designed for those who speak English to learn Spanish. If this statement applies to you, pick Fluenz over Rosetta Stone.

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, October 5, 2010

By 

Cheryl Holden "Tutor" (brookfield, wi United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

I have completed 4 of the 5 levels of Fluenz Spanish and am on lesson 3 of level 5. Before investing in this great language learning program, I tried RS, Rocket Spanish and Tell Me More Spanish. Fluenz is by far the best language learning software out there if you are serious about LEARNING the Spanish language.

My background...Never studied a language before. I'm retired and was looking to something to keep the brain hoping along. I liked the Spanish language so much that I decided to work towards an oral proficiency rating so I enrolled in a Spanish certificate program at the University of Wisconsin (7 semesters of Spanish required). I tested out of Spanish 1. I'm currently taking Spanish 2, and outside of additional vocabulary, I found that I knew all of grammar and sentence construction required for Spanish 2 and should have enrolled in Spanish 3. So, I'm at least at a 3rd semester university level of Spanish. My Spanish professor continually praises my pronunciation, knowledge of grammar and sentence construction. Where did I learn all of this? Using the Fluenz program!

As I stated at the start, I have tried Rosetta Stone (fell asleep), Rocket Spanish (very little grammar)and Tell Me More Spanish (not bad but only for those who are at an intermediate level). By far, Fluenz Spanish offers the most grammar instruction of any of the others and will provide you with a solid foundation in the Spanish language. Some have posted reviews here after only completing 1 - 2 levels. If your goal is 'fluency' I suggest that you finish all of the lessons before judging how much fluency you will acquire using this program. How do you measure fluency anyway? What does that mean? I will say that Fluenz's main focus is not on building a huge vocabulary but on building a strong foundation. What good is it to know a lot of Spanish words if you don't know how to construct a sentence or conjugate classes of verbs or know when to use ser vs estar or pasear vs cominar or para vs por? You will not be understood if you can't put the words you know together to communicate with a Spanish speaker. That is the main goal of the Fluenz program....teaching you to communicate!

Learning a new language, may initially seem fairly simple, but it is not. Learning a new language requires lots and lots of hard work. If you are only looking to parrot some touristy phrases then maybe this is not the program for you because you will learn far more. At first glance, it may seem that the conversations revolve around touristy type things but everything you learn is applicable to everyday situations. I know. It's what I've been doing in my UWM class. All communications are in Spanish using Skype, voice boards and e-mail. The professor lives in Spain! We write about the economy in Spain, our dogs, cultural things, different sites in Madrid, etc.

Any language learning program is, by nature, scripted. It helps to use supplemental materials such as a grammar workbook for extra practice, listening and listening and listening to lots of Spanish even if you don't understand it verbatim, finding a Spanish speaking partner to communicate with, etc. Fluenz will provide you with a solid foundation on which to build your fluency, but, in the end it's up to the student to reach out and explore additional learning opportunities. Most of us didn't learn English in 6 months!

The top 6 reasons to invest in yourself and buy this program:
1. The onscreen tutor - nothing on the market comes close to the benefits of having a real person explain, what can be, complex grammar and sentence constructions.

2. Emphasis on correct pronunciation - It's not so much how fast someone speaks, it's how clearly they enunciate each word. All of the Spanish speakers enunciate each word very clearly. Also, the speech speed starts out slower in the early lessons and increases to a speed you will hear, say, watching Spanish language television.

3. Each lesson builds on previous lessons. It may seem a bit repetive, however, the goal is to move the student from a translational phase to an instinctual phase where not much thought is needed to communicate in Spanish.

4. Customer support - best in the business. Most language learning software companies only provide technical support. The Fluenz team is ready, willing and able to provide all the language support you could ever want. Stuck on a concept? Just ask. You'll get an easily understandable answer complete with examples.

5. Provides a strong foundation on which to continue to build your fluency. After only 4 levels, I feel that I can pretty much figure out something new when I see it because my foundation is so strong. My Spanish professor does not restrict her use of the language to what we have already learned but I have been able to understand what she is communicating whether she's using a verb tense that I've not seen, words I don't know or Spanish idioms and sayings.

6. Supplemental CDs and podcasts - Hearing spoken Spanish w/o subtitles forces you to focus on what is being said overall. You may not understand what is being said verbatim, but if you can pick up key words, you will know what the speaker is communicating. Great for practicing what you will experience in the real world.

And, one last thing, the interface is simple and beautiful! The program is for adults, taught by adults.