Customer Reviews

Musical Spanish: Lessons for the Road (Audio & Music CD) (Spanish Edition)

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

 

 

After reading the other reviews here, I eagerly bought this CD-set to augment my Spanish learning experience (I am an adult beginner). While the format is executed quite well, this is really just a nice addition to someone's learning portfolio and not a primary resource. That said, I would have happily given it FOUR stars, but I docked it an extra half-star because I was disappointed in this: the lyrics for many (all?) of the songs are not the original lyrics. Now, YES, I UNDERSTAND they are still helpful as listening exercises, and for their choice of new text used to illustrate particular vocab/grammar skills, but this CD-program is definitely geared towards the adult/teen learner (i.e. not small children) in its presentation style, and so the choice of lyrics seems a bit patronizing...that is, "dumbed-down". Considering that many of the source songs are "classics", I would also feel somewhat "tonto" if I told my Spanish-speaking friends that "Cielito Lindo" was a nonsense song about going to school and needing your notebook. Nowhere on the sales-pitch/marketing blurbs on this website or on the case itself does it tell you this, and I DO FEEL that that is somewhat misleading. Again, Yes, I do enjoy using this product; Yes, the "lessons" are accurate and helpful; Yes, repeated listening does sharpen your listening skills; Yes, I would recommend it to other beginners as a great addition to a learning portfolio. But NO, I DO NOT think this a FIVE STAR product on the same level as some of the other fabulous learning materials out there.

I've had two years of college Spanish and additional courses on Advanced Spanish. For me, reading, writing, and speaking came much easier than audibly understanding the language. Stacey's combination of books and CD's shows that music is a very effective way of learning the vocabulary, grammar, and audibly recognizing words all at the same time. I wish I had her program a long time ago.

Excellent job Stacey.

I was VERY disappointed with this CD. Many of the reviews on this site seemed to suggest that this is a very worthwhile CD and I was excited to use it in conjunction with other materials to boost my children's Spanish (I am bilingual). However, the CD is boring and the Spanish is spoken very poorly. What a shame to introduce Spanish with a non-native speaker. I definitely would suggest that people look elsewhere for audio introductions and exposure to Spanish.

Hi guys sorry to post a review, as I'm the author and of course I think my product works - but this guy has posted reviews on 2 of my products touting a highly expensive (and unavailable through sources like Amazon & Borders) program called "Learn Spanish Like Crazy" - then he compares my products to it, and says they don't measure up. While everybody is entitled to their opinion, he depicts this other program as if it's a $20 audio program like mine, which it certainly isn't. As for my own products (Learn Spanish Verbs Fast & Musical Spanish) - I can only tell you that I've sold many, many copies of these programs, including on Ebay where hundreds of people have written to say how much they enjoyed these products. Nothing I produce is aimed at teaching you the entire language...but my programs are easy, fun, useful, and hit their mark. Reviews comparing my stuff to audio programs marketed through MLM that cost hundreds of dollars - are definitely inappropriate.

Highly recommend for the beginner. Lots of fun and has good sound. She has a nice listening voice and lots of helpful information. Her explanations are broken down nicely and easy to understand. Good choices for songs.

EXCELLENT learning tools. Stacey is to be commended, as she teaches in a very knowledgable,experienced, and un-intimidating way. It is a very fun and interesting way to learn, easy to understand, and her pronunciation is so very helpful. This is by far the best "self-instructing" learning resource I've found.
I always look forward to your newsletters. Thank you, Stacey, for your interest and creativity in helping others learn!

First of all, this product completely skips the vosotros case of Spanish, used throughout Spain. Secondly, the speaker is not a native speaker - her accent is really bad!!

More important than the above, the customer service for this product is awful. Because of her accent, many of the words are difficult to understand. So I sent her several emails and left messages inquiring about how to get the printed lyrics to the 10 featured songs. Not once did I hear back from anyone - once the author has your money, good luck getting a response from her.

In conclusion, there are much better spanish language products out!!

I am a Spanish teacher and I bought this thinking that it would help supplement listening activities from the textbook that can be really dry. If I wanted my students to model an American-sounding accent, I would just speak to them myself. The speaker on the CD is not a native speaker.

Stick to creating your own listening activities with music, the news, etc. This product is a waste of money.

Provides a great way to learn spanish on the road. The traditional songs are made more up beat encouraging you to sing a long, helping you to learn the language. The kids also like the part where it teaches the spanish alphabets. I still feel the needs to supplement with a flash card review and/or workbook.