Customer Reviews

Kids Love Spanish: Volumes 1-7 DVD Box Set

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Fortunately I checked two of these videos out of the library rather than buying them, because they are absolutely the worst I've seen. Not only did they not use native Spanish speakers, so the audience does not hear correct pronunication, but some of the attempts by young children were truly painful. My five year old, who loves most learning videos and games including other Spanish language resources, was bored stiff within minutes. The $1.58 I spent to rent them at the library was completely wasted; they are definitely not worth the price to buy them!

The pronunciation is the problem with the kids love spanish series. There are virtually NO native speakers in the videos, so children do not hear the sounds unique to the spanish language pronounced properly. I had my native Spanish speaking friend watch and he was unimpressed, even critical. The kids who repeat the pronunciation do it poorly, and the adults at times can be just as bad--how can your child learn proper Spanish pronunciation without hearing a word said CORRECTLY?! It is not immersion, as there is lots of English mixed in. All in all, I'd look at other spanish-language series, like maybe Super Bebe instead. Or if you want a cheaper/free non-video alternative try the coffee break spanish podcast series--AMAZINGLY perfect pronunciation from that series, and nice to do in the car with the kiddos.

My 4 year old daughter loves these videos. They are very entertaining for her. She TOTALLY loves the songs! She is even beginning to ask for things in Spanish (the only problem is I don't know what she is saying--I've got to watch the videos too!)

My boys have never been very interested in a foreign language, but when my daughter showed a lot of interest, I decided to buy this set for her. I do not regret it. My six year old seems to enjoy it, but if his big brother is around, he tries to act like it is too babyish for him. Overall I believe this is a great way to introduce lots of Spanish vocabulary to children at a young age. I plan to buy a Spanish program in the future in order to teach grammar and for a more in depth study. This set is a fun way to get children interested in learning Spanish and will give your child a huge start on vocabulary.

why on earth didn't they use exclusively native speakers? Why would you model terrible pronunciation to children, who can learn to speak with no accent *if* given the opportunity? This could truly be a great product line. I strongly encourage the Brock sisters to re-make these with native Spanish speakers for all audio. But I don't want my child hearing these non-native accents.

I won't repeat the other negative reviews except to reiterate them: this DVD is of poor educational quality. I was so turned off by the English sentences with the Spanish words thrown in. I also found the pasted-on smiles and robotic expressions of the "teachers" off-putting. My 19-mo old was running around repeating all the words, so she was hungry for the vocabulary and the experience. But the series is such a wasted opportunity to truly teach language in context and build a rich vocabulary, that I don't want to waste our time with it. I'm returning it and searching for better materials.

We are so impressed with Kids Love Spanish! It is exactly what we were looking for in a supplemental, educational, and entertaining tool for our daughters! It is light hearted, has beautiful graphics and music, and is very well produced. Our girls had the theme song memorized by volume 3...they love it! They also love watching the children and repeating the words they share in the DVDs! We are firm believers in bilingual education as our daughters attend a Spanish immersion school. The DVDs are great for anyone interested in getting some language exposure. My sister is going to buy the box set and she is 46!

The idea of the classes are great and i really like the energy of the two teaches, but they have the worst Spanish accents you could imagine. Your child will not learn Spanish fluently he or she will learn to speak it with a really bad accent. And they use as much English in the lessons as they do Spanish.