Customer Reviews

Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases (English and Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book, and its companion, 1,000 words, hoping to take the next step in Spanish. This book requires a great leap. The phrases are repeated only once, in full-speed Spanish, with NO time between for you to try to repeat, or think about what you just heard. Just "Numero Uno: Phrase, Numero Dos: phrase." No English translation (though you can download that from Anna's website). I'm sure at some point, it will be helpful, but for now it's way too fast. I've put it and its companion CD away for when I'm much more fluent.

OK, I liked Anna Rivera's 1000 Most Powerful Words. It is cheap and a good supplemental CD to a spanish learning program. For 5.99 you get what you pay for.

I suppose that's true for this, too, and it was only 4.99. You should know however... the name is completely misleading. I don't consider any of this phrases. I was hoping for a CD on useful phrases, such as "a pesar de" means in spite of, etc... words, that when put together mean something different than they do apart. Instead, the CD is entirely in Spanish (which may be OK) and frequently just lists words, many of them not all that useful. For example, there is a list of names of nationalities "Ucraniano, Coreano, Portugués, Alemán, etc." (which mean Ukrainian, Korean, Portuguese, German...) About half of it is sentences, which has some value. Listening to Spanish for its meaning without any English prompt should help comprehension, and it is easy enough to consult the transcript if you can't pick it up.

I will listen to this a few times, and I am sure I will learn something. I found the transcript easily downloadable, though I haven't gone through it yet... 1000 Spanish Words had some errors.

Interspersed occasionally are advertisments for Anna Rivera's website, which is pretty disappointing. She says she will email lessons free once a week, but they rarely come and don't continue as promised... ie, Parts of the Body Part One never is followed by Part Two, etc. She sends emails of product reviews, which can be helpful, but leave you feeling like you need more spanish products. I suspect she gets kickbacks from some, especially Learning Spanish Like Crazy which she pushes more than the rest. I actually like the Learning Spanish Like Crazy system, as you can see from my other reviews, and have used it as the backbone of my Spanish learning with good results, but her reviews of it ring a bit insincere.

I think the disc is good for learning new Spanish words, it would be even better if the words and the translations were printed so you can follow along. I realize that the words and the translations can be downloaded but not easily, there are to many fragments to download. I also like the fact that they are numbers are in Spanish and one can learn the numbers as well.

For the price, you can't beat it. I purchased both of her CDs.

But you better have a good understanding of Spanish (i.e., be comfortable speaking and listening). I would leave out the word "most powerful" in the title. It is sort of misleading, but I would still purchase it again.

I would have preferred to listen to Anna Rivera's voice.

If you're planning on learning Spanish from the tiny book, forget it.
The CD is spoken so rapidly that one does not have time to write the phrase down phonetically. It was a waste of money for me and I've had 12 semister hours of college Spanish.

I have just listened to and read Anna Rivera's 800 plus most powerful spanish phrases. The product is average at best. There are numerous phrases that have little or no relevance for the typical spanish learner or for the typical traveler. I understand that the product isn't only for the traveler. However, I do believe that the phrases should be high frequency use.

This would be a pretty good tool but it's hard to learn from.
I have the print and audio versions.
The format and information are both good, but for me it is like reading a dictionary... you read and understand it, see how the info is useful, but in the end it is hard to retain.

Probably great as a supplement to formal coursework, but on its own it collects dust on my shelf (or in my computer).

I downloaded this onto my phone and listen to it when I commute. Each section is in bite-sized sections. When I put a section on continuous replay I eventually improve listening comprehension and vocabulary. After a few days of listening, I go to the list I printed out through her free website and read up on the phrases my ear can't quite catch. I've tossed out boring grammar books and verb conjugation tables. Listening comprehension is much more fun and practical!!!

I purchased this to try and learn some basic Spanish because I have a trip to Mexico coming up. This is NOT a good program. I guess it assumes you know some Spanish, because it doesn't teach you what the words mean! And it goes fast. After many other purchases, I have now started the Rosetta Stone program, and it is by far the best and worth the investment.