Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here are my thoughts on Fluenz after having gone through level 1 and most of level 2:

1. Leverage your English - The teaching style has been covered extensively in reviews of Fluenz Version F2: Spanish 1+2 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Spanish with the latest upgrade., so I won't go into it too much. I will just point out that an important part of adult learning is making connections to existing knowledge. This is why learning subsequent languages is easier than learning your first foreign language - you have more vocabulary and structures to refer back to. As far as I know, Fluenz is the only program that actively leverages your knowledge of English for learning Spanish, and it makes retaining the information so much easier.

2. Human Touch - Sonia gives encouraging comments, explains difficult concepts clearly, and even cracks a joke here and there. This human touch makes a huge difference as far as staying motivated goes.

3. Useful Language - Nothing is more frustrating than hitting a lesson in a traditional program that goes over useless information ('the door is red', 'the car is not yellow' , etc). No amount of brownie points can motivate you to move forward in such a situation. I am nearly done with level 2, and so far I haven't found a single lesson that I didn't feel was useful. Every single sentence and every structure is something I can go out and apply immediately. For me, this is the greatest motivation to continue learning.

4. Cost - You get what you pay for. Period. Sure there are plenty of cheap and free methods out there, but the learning model isn't nearly as effective, and the most common outcome with these programs is to get frustrated and give up. Think of it like this: the cost per credit hour at a US university ranges from roughly 100 to 500 dollars. One semester of a language class is 3 or 4 credits. It will probably take you two or three semesters to learn what you will get out of Fluenz 1+2+3, and you won't get the control and personalization you get with Fluenz. The cost of Fluenz is a small price to pay for communication.

5. Previously Mentioned Flaws - All of the errors mentioned in reviews of Spanish 1+2 (before Nov 09) have been addressed as far as I can see (please correct me if I'm wrong) in the new F2 release. Typo's have been fixed and the interface has been optimized so that it runs smoothly. Kudos to the desing team at Fluenz - somehow they managed to incorporate the most requested features into the new version without making the program any more cluttered or less intuitive.

6. Suggestion - My only suggestion would be to have a dedicated vocabulary building module. Fluenz has done a masterful job maximizing the level of fluency you achieve while minimizing the amount of vocabulary you have to memorize (I believe there are roughly 300 words per level). This is great - this is how I think it should be in the beginning. However, if you really want to be fluent, you will eventually have to suck it up and learn the vocabulary. Fluenz, I hope you can find a way to make vocabulary building as engaging as you have made the rest of language learning and perhaps create a separate program for this. In the mean time, there are vast resources for vocabulary building already available either for free or at a very low cost.

I got Fluenz Spanish for my girlfriend a while back and have had a chance to see her progress and to check out the program as I've helped her with her Spanish. We just got the upgrade to F2, which Fluenz was gracious enough to send for a small shipping fee, as well as the brand new Spanish 3. I decided to write a review based on her work of a few lessons with Spanish 3 as well as the prior work with levels 1 and 2.

1. The Interface

As an engineer I can't help but look at the interface as a finely tuned answer to the issue of how anything can and should be learned on a computer screen. Fluenz has made a leap beyond the classic PowerPoint interface by introducing an engaging teacher, intuitive navigation, and a deft combination of interactivity with straight explanations. They rescued the virtues of a good tutor and managed to integrate her with extensive interactivity. You get the best of both worlds. Although as an app it's not perfect, it's getting there. My suggestions are at the bottom of this review.

2. The Details

You can tell there is serious purpuse here by seeing all the improvements of F2 over the prior versions. Instead of offering revolutionary change they dedicated themselves to slow, detail-oriented improvement. Take the audio. I'm a sound freak and had noticed the poor quality of the prior versions. This is not something you can read in any review on Amazon, or that my girlfriend ever noticed. Yet it looks like they took all the audio, went back to the studio, and remastered it. To my ears the difference is night and day. It looks like they improved the video quality as well. I'm sure this wasn't simple, which is why I appreciate the fact that someone thought about improving the viewing and listening experience.

3. The Experience

Any tutor in our area would charge upwards of $30 an hour to teach Spanish, and there are no guarantees about how good this would be. I have no idea what the best tutor in the most competitive city would charge, but I feel that Sonia is as good a communicator as they come. This is where my bias for the advantages of digital learning really come through. Why hire someone for $30 an hour who might be great, or not at all, who might care some or not too much, when you can have hundreds of well produced video tutorials by someone who is obviously at the peak of her teaching powers? When I think about paying that tutor for 15 hours vs. buying this entire package, there isn't even an argument. And then on top of that you get all the inspiring environments created for the workouts.

4. The Learning Itself

Using English to learn Spanish might or might not make a lot of sense when someone mentions it, but seeing it at work in Fluenz leaves no room for arguing anything else. Seeing how "Ser" y "Estar" (the Spanish form for To Be) are broken down, explained through clever examples and clear comparisons in English, is enough to know that this is the way. It doesn't take a long time with Fluenz to appreciate how challenging Spanish can be with all the femenine and masculine endings, all the article, noun, adjective agreements, all the funky tense stuff. How in the world can this ever be understood without a clear explanation in English is simply beyond me?

5. Practice and Practice and Practice

You'd figure that their emphasis on video explanations would make this a content heavy program with little emphasis on practice. But as soon as the explanations are over the focus shifts to learning through practice. If there is a program committed to practice this is it, which I think really works.

6. Results

I have seen my girlfriend improve her Spanish, in Sonia's words, one step at a time. As she's progressed through the basics, gained vocab, and her ability to actually speak I've realized the system works. Because there is such an emphasis on building real phrases and sentences she's been able to add vocabulary that was interesting or useful to her, right along the material laid out.

7. Next Step

Because I like the F2 version so much, and because I know that most of the ideas for those improvements came out of these Amazon reviews, I want to attach my wish list for the next version: 3D environments that expand the recording engine's features; the ability to port some or all of the learning to a mobile environment; web-based collaboration and interactivity with other learners; more sophisticated encryption that protects intellectual property while freeing the user experience; a more accurate video player; performance tracking features in real time, over time, and by distinct users; and an intelligent workout platform that adapts to learner's strengths and weaknesses;

I can't think of a better way to learn Spanish than Fluenz 1+2+3

I purchased Rosetta Stone in Jan 2007 and fooled around with it a little, but soon realized that learning how to say "the boy is under the airplane" in Spanish wouldn't get me up to speed very quickly. When I decided to visit South America in Nov 2008, I purchased the Spanish 1 & 2 (previous version)from Fluenz (through Amazon). It was great! Sonia gets you up to speed very quickly and I had less than 2 months to become fluent enough to travel. That was a sucess. I was able to get through customs, order a meal, shop and negociate, take a taxi, check into a hotel - all in Spanish - talking with people who spoke no english whatsoever. I just received the upgraded versions of 1 & 2 along with #3 which was just released and I've only done the first couple of lessons, but I am learning quickly.

I did contact customer support to clarify some questions, and they respond immediately and go above what anyone would expect from a suppport group. I can't say more about how responsive they are and how pleased I am with the results.

Bottom line... if you want to learn basic Spanish quickly to begin speaking with native speakers - this is the way to go. Having used the other highly advertized software, I would give Fluenz a much higher rating! I am very pleased that I chose Fluenz.

The Fluenz approach, that is, not assuming that you learn like a child is much better than RS's

"just figure it out" approach. I have 8 RS languages. They all have the same pictures and vary

little in approach. For near east languages like Arabic and Hebrew they spend some time on the

special "dual" verbs, that is, these languages have a special verbal case for two-of-something

instead of just one or many. But it took me a long time to get this since I began with Arabic

and didn't understand the concept. I just couldn't get what they were driving at. And they don't

explain ANYTHING. The Fluenz "explain in detail" approach is like a breath of fresh air.

They TELL you the hard concepts in their languages, in english (what a concept!).

One tiny little problem, though, for Spanish. Castillian Spanish is not very useful in the US.

Try some Castillian spanish where I live, in the Southwest, to native Mexicanos and they'll

laugh at you. By and large they don't consider Castillian Spanish "their" language. At least in

RS they TELL you that their spanish is either Latin American or European. No such disclosure in

Fluenz. I love their approach but I'm not sure I would have bought it if I'd known.

I've completed lesson 30 so far and I'm quite impressed with Fluenz. It really concentrates on the vocab you need to get around a Spanish speaking country: hotels, taxis, dining, buying stuff.

I think one of the main reasons that Fluenz works well is that it reduces the pain of the one thing that everybody hates to do: drill, drill, drill to learn and retain.

It wisely breaks the drills up into several different types of exercises - each a different way of getting you to repeat the words and sentences. There's sentence matching, choose the right picture, type what you hear, repeat what you hear, etc. But repeat/drill you will and that's the way it sticks.

You must drill and drill and listen and listen. You have to train your ear to hear the little variations that can completely change the meaning. It takes time and practice. In real life the good citizens are not going to speak slowly and clearly enunciate each word for you.

Each lesson takes about an hour or so. More if you don't type well.

They include some word lists that you can download to your MP3 player and practice away from your computer.

Fluenz doesn't have the messy registration that Rosetta does. You put the DVD in and go.

You can download a demo of the program from their website [...], and it gives you a good idea of how it works.

By the way, Sonia, who is the moderator/instructor for Spanish, is great. I'll take any course she leads: Upper Urdu, Ancient Latvian...I won't care.

Update Feb 9, 2010

I bought DVDs 3-5. I'm half way through DVD 3 and progressing pretty well. Lessons are still engaging and I look forward to doing three or four lessons a week. I guess they must be working because I surprised myself by chatting a little with the lady at the UPS store.

I agree with all the other reviews that Fluenz needs to get a vocab builder installed. I have resorted to buying/using some flash card software to compensate. Having said that, fairly minor thing compared to the benefits. Fluenz is still the best I have ever used, still 5 stars, well worth the money.

Here are some comments on my experience thus far. I've done 14 sessions.

First of all, customer support is outstanding. We are not used to such good, smart treatment and it is very refreshing.

Now, about the learning. Fluenz combines listening, speaking, writing which is exactly how I need to learn. I've tried audio Cd's before, and for me it just doesn't work. I can repeat what I hear but I am unable to retain the content. I have found that writing things really helps. You hear and read a dialogue first between two characters. The conversations relate to things like restaurants, directions, shopping, etc. Then you get a tutorial, a teacher on video explaining everything in English. The tutorials are very thorough. If you ever found yourself asking the questions: but why use this order of words? or why use this or that tense? Well, the tutorials have all those answers. It's as if they anticipates all the doubts that you are going to have. I really like this approach of understanding what you are doing and having explanations in English. Also the lessons build upon each other. You find yourself reviewing things and expanding on them all the time.

Finally, I'm a graphic designer and I really appreciate the time and thought they've put into the visuals of it. It's clean and uninvasive. It makes all the differences.

I'm really enjoying the learning. I find myself looking forward to the lessons. I recommend this product hands down.

A great experience

I have used Rosetta Stone before, and have been using Fluenz lately. I already knew some Spanish so I started on a higher level. To me the interactivity is what makes the difference. Although I like Rosetta, mostly you look at pictures and match them with phrases. In Fluenz you have a teacher. There is a 10 to 20 minute class with very very clear explanations and examples, and then lots of practice. The exercises get increasingly difficult and they really keep you engaged. I find myself wanting to do the class. I even wrote an email in Spanish today! So far so good. And yes, customer service really is amazing. Send them an email during the weekend and you get a reply right away.

I recommend this product to anyone considering learning Spanish who is a native English-speaker because it is modeled for native English speakers.

I purchased Fluenz after researching different methods to learn Spanish. I had previously used Tell Me More and Pimsleur. Tell Me More may be a good program for some, but as a beginner, I felt completely overwhelmed. I did find Pimsleur useful, especially for pronunciation, but I felt that it was very limited. Neither program inspired me to continue learning, so eventually I quit.

I recently decided to give it another try. Knowing that audio CD's and total immersion software hadn't worked well for me, I needed to find something else. Then I came across Fluenz. It had received quite a few favorable reviews, so I tried the demo. Immediately, I was impressed by the completeness and the quality of the program. I ordered Spanish 1+2+3, and I am very happy I did. Instead of being rote and boring, the sessions are very engaging. Fluenz provides clear explanations in English which, for me, really facilitates the learning process.

This is a great program! Kudos to the Fluenz Team for developing a product that truly delivers.

My husband and I LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOOVE the program! Amazing. Thank you so much. I love all the exercises and how much you drill us. I love how you work all the vocabulary in many different sentences so you really learn what you're saying. I'm SOOO grateful!

Saying that- we have ONE complaint. In certain lessons, the tutor will give you words/pictures to connect with spanish words, to help remember new vocabulary. My husband and I have disliked this. It would help to just eliminate that completely and leave us to make up our own connections for memory.

Other than that- amazing, incredible, FABULOUS program. I cannot believe how quickly I've learned, and how much I seem to really understand what I'm saying/others are saying. Every section, every lesson- helps so much. I wouldn't change a thing! (except what I mentioned earlier). I can't WAIT for more languages to come out!!! Thank you Fluenz!!!!!

I'm currently working on Fluenz Spanish 3 after finishing 1&2. I started 1&2 in the original format which worked well. When Fluenz updated their software they sent me the updated versions for free. The changes that have been made to "version two" of this program make it even more user friendly. Specifically, they made it easier to keep track of where you are in the program.

I've also been really impressed with Fluenz customer service. One of my CD's didn't load well and they rapidly sent me a new copy.

I work in a medical office with lots of Spanish speaking patients. I've found that thus far Fluenz has greatly improved my ability to understand my patients and is building my confidence with speaking Spanish as well. As someone who has never formally studied Spanish, I feel like Fluenz Spanish really works for me and I highly recommend this program.