18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrid, just horrid, August 28, 2009
This review is from: Kids Love Spanish: Volumes 1-7 DVD Box Set (DVD)
I'm just repeating most of what L. Garrison wrote, but it really is true. These videos go against just about everything that is known about language learning, especially for young children: 1) Children have a great advantage over adults because they can actually hear and reproduce sound distinctions that adults tend to conflate. That means they can efficiently learn all the unique sounds and rhythms of a new language. That's simply not an issue with these videos because the pronunciation is so awful--virtually no native speakers among the children and the adults have mediocre accents at best--that you're probably actually _undermining_ your kid's innate ability to become fluent. 2) Most adult language instruction is now modeled on immersion because that's the way we all learned our mother tongue and it is by far and away the best way to learn. This means all instructional materials should be presented in the language, with no English discussion or on-the-fly translations. Meanings should be inferred from context, the way they are in real life, or through simple matching of images and sounds. These videos probably have more English in them than Spanish. Every single Spanish word is translated over and over, and sentences are built around English vocab and structures with Spanish sprinkled in. My wife, who has a background in linguistics, almost had a heart attack the first time she heard: "He's eating queso" and "What a cute gato".
Plus they're really painful for adults to watch. The two adult women in the videos are like some sort of Stepford robots with facial expressions that never, ever change and look uncomfortable. The music and singing (which, as another reviewer mentioned, take up a huge chunk of each video) are beyond awful. And let's not even talk about the weird cultural artifacts, like the sombrero-wearing cactus. Ooof.
I have some background in foreign language instruction and these are pretty much the worst language materials I've ever seen.
I'll give it this: my 3-year-old liked watching the one with the animals, but he'll watch just about anything with animals in it and I've seen no evidence that he learned a single word of Spanish from it.
We'll definitely try the "coffee break Spanish" recommended by another reviewer, but it's too bad there aren't good materials targeted directly at kids.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not recommended for older kids!, August 15, 2007
This review is from: Kids Love Spanish: Volumes 1-7 DVD Box Set (DVD)
These videos have great potential, but are geared for the very young. Toddlers will enjoy the songs, but older kids will find them too slow and lacking creativity. Unfortunately, they did not use native Spanish speakers and this is a disappointment for those who want to truly have a grasp of this beautiful language.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Total waste of money, October 18, 2009
This review is from: Kids Love Spanish: Volumes 1-7 DVD Box Set (DVD)
Learning Spanish from former president G. W. Bush would be an upgrade over these videos; he had a better accent when speaking spanish than do the women in these videos. It is clear that many of the kids in these videos have learned the exact same bad accent as the teachers. The other critical reviews are spot on.
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