Customer Reviews

Modern Spanish: Bilingual Vocabulary Cards (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used these 1,000 cards in conjunction with a self-instructed course (Living Language's Ultimate Spanish); the cards proved extremely useful. I find that flash cards, in general, help memorization; they can be used during travel or other down-time.

The only drawback -- and given the excellent nature of the cards this is a small drawback -- is that the verb cards do not offer complete conjugations for irregular verbs. They omit some irregular parts.

An excellent 75-page booklet accompanies the cards. It lists the cards in groups (verbs, nouns, etc.) in both English and Spanish.

These are perfect to carry with you. Use them when you have a minute or two of time that would otherwise be lost. Using them out of the box, I didn't like starting at "A" and working through 1000 cards to "Z". To make the cards more advantageous for carrying, and to include the entire alphabet in one carryable group of cards, I split the cards into 20 groups of 50. Not 20 cards into one group, then 20 into another. But, one card at a time per group, sequentially. This distributed some "A"s into each group. Some "B" words, etc. I put each group into a small envelope I cut down to be just large enough to hold the cards. I numbered the envelopes 1 to 20. I can grab a packet of 50 cards, carry them with me, study them as I have 1-3 minutes here or there. I can grab another packet another day. Always different words. And always an even distribution across the alphabet.

These are by for the best value for Spanish/English flash cards I have found. Price is very reasonable for the box of 1000 cards. Many of them not only contain the word, but also word groups commonly used. I am using these to increase my Spanish vocabulary, and I got a second box for a friend who is learning English. An excellent buy! Estas cartas son muy bien.

Well, these are clearly not what I thought they would be. I thought they would be flash cards but there very small pieces of heavy paper 1 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. They are Spanish on one side and English on the other as you might expect. It's nice that one side, the Spanish side, is black text, and the English side is blue text. However, the card numbers only correspond to the alphabetical arrangement of the Spanish side. So if you want to know the Spanish word for something specific, you're out of luck unless you turn the cards over to the English side, arrange them alphabetically, cross out the number that corresponds with the Spanish side and renumber them yourself, which is what I did. It would have been nice if they were arranged so that the English side had numbers that could be used to quickly arrange the cards alphabetically by the English translation.

There is a sort of glossary that you can use to look up the English words and find the card that they are on, but the text is really, really, small and difficult to see and very inconvenient for looking up multiple words.

I think these are better than nothing as I use software to try and learn Spanish on my own, but there is a lot of room for improvement of this product starting with the size of the cards and the addition of a dual numbering system.

I was excited to find this product and ordered two different Spanish card sets at the same time. It was fustrating for me to even hold the little "cards" because I thought I would damage the paper. I did not like to work with them and shelved them a couple of years ago. Then I started taking Chinese the past year, bought a set with Chinese characters, and then remembered why I didn't use the Spanish sets. Very good idea, but on flimsy paper/cards.

I like flashcards to be simple so that I can just go through a stack of them quickly when I have a little spare time. Some of the cards have far too much information on them. Also, the small size makes them difficult to handle.

I am a competent Spanish speaker and purchased these cards to refresh my vocabulary ahead of a trip to Latin America.

I was impressed both with the selection of words and the fact that many cards included not just the word, but also oft-used phrases that the word appears in - these are infinitely useful.

I was a bit put off, however, by the fact that a number of cards contained misspellings or grammatical errors (in areas such as gender agreement).

There aren't many cards like this (maybe a dozen out of 1000), and in most cases even if you used the "wrong" version of a word in conversation a native speaker would understand you. But once you start noticing them, they do cause you to slow down and question the other cards as you study. Kind of annoying.

All in all, I did get a lot out of this set, and I would probably buy another product from Vis-Ed.

These cards are suitable for advanced Spanish students only. They are very comprehensive, great for extensive revision and I will use them when I've learned a little more. Good value for money, but if you are a beginner - buy the Pimsleur Comprehensive CDs and get on with it!

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). Flash cards are a brilliant addition to any language student's study materials. Not only are they portable, meaning that you can carry them around to use any time you have a few minutes spare, but they have been proven to be extremely effective in helping you to remember words, phrases and rules. This handy pack covers a wide range of vocabulary - over 1,000 words! Enough to get anyone started speaking Spanish. There are also some cards covering verbs, so by using the set you are building not just your vocabulary but your grammar skills too.

The flash cards take the typical format of having the Spanish on one side, and the English translation on the reverse. A nice design feature of these cards is that the Spanish text is printed in black, while the English is printed in blue. This allows you to quickly make sure the cards are all facing in the correct direction at a glance. A small detail, but one you will be glad for if you ever drop the pack or find that someone has shuffled them badly!

Another one of the features that put these flash cards ahead of some other sets available is the fact that in addition to a word the cards also give an example sentence or phrase to show how it might be used. These sentences offer even more vocabulary to learn, as well as making sure that you fully understand how the word should be used. The range of vocabulary is enough to satisfy most levels of learners, teaching new and useful words to beginners and offering more word groups and a revision of vocabulary to more advanced students.

The compact size of this set of flash cards make the ideally suited to people on the go, or for taking with you while you travel. Although they are not printed on particularly robust card stock, the box set is great value for money, letting you learn over 1,000 words and verbs as well as many more phrases and sentences to help expand your general vocabulary.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasant to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one mainly because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish. According to him, this is the "standard" among university level Spanish professors.

These cards are great. I am amused by the people that are complaining about the alphabetical order--perhaps a dictionary is the better tool for that job. I mix them up, take a bunch with me wherever I go. Also, it is funny that people complain there is too much information on a card (Al, this On-Cor dinner is too big!!). Anyway, I love them.