Customer Reviews

Rock 'N Learn: Spanish

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

About two hours of words, phrases and sentences. Rather intense, but extremely useful and is done in an entertaining way of rock songs. My three-year old can sing the color song, count to 20, point to his facial features and body parts, tells the weather, ask for "el pan"...
We are very serious about learning Spanish. So we own Learn Spanish with Carlos and Chiquitita; the Travel Linguist; Hola Amigos; the Standard Deviants. All these are good for different things. But we love Rock 'N Learn the best!
For lack of better words, it crams in the most vocabulary in the shortest period of time and still somehow made it very easy and fun. I think the upbeat songs and dances really helped.

It's fun. It's easy. It teaches a lot. I love it. I own quite a few learning videos, including Chinese and Spanish. None is better than this one. They should do it in other languages as well.

Some facts about this DVD

1. Volumes I & II are both on one DVD
2. There are 26 sections, for a total running time of 55 minutes
3. It's a useful revision tool for beginners learning Spanish
4. Some sections are more helpful than others

This DVD is useful for helping students to remember basics such as the parts of the body, numbers, colors, the alphabet, and simple phrases. The music is catchy, and the pronunciations are clear. The actresses are pretty attention grabbing also.

In some of the other sections however, they rattle off the most peculiar phrases that you'll never, ever remember or need to know, and we often just skip over these. I also think that they go a little too fast sometimes, but at least you can listen to the correct pronunciation of the words.

We generally just show the section relevant to what the child is doing in school to complement his class work, and reinforce what he's learned.




Amanda Richards, April 24, 2008

I have this video and my children age 2 and 6 both watch it. I find that it starts out pretty simple with teaching names of body parts, colors and numbers and then gets harder by teaching whole sentences. Everything that is said in English is repeated in Spanish. Ex: If they say, "Let me teach you a trick", they will repeat Déjame enseñarte un truco. I find the latter part of the video helpful only if you already know some Spanish. It is good to have on hand and I find that it keeps the kids' attention with all the dancing and music.

Our 4 yr girl and 5 yr son love this video, and so do I. Even our 18 month will watch it. Good visuals, fun music, lively scripting. Starts at a very easy level and builds progressively.

I speak Spanish for business and have enjoyed watching this with my kids. Its been a useful tool for developing their interest in learning another language.

When I watched this video with my two-year-old daughter I intially thought the video was cheesy and silly. However, my daughter loves it. She dances and sings to the music and asks to watch it almost everyday. The bright colors, dancing, and catchy songs keep her attention while teaching basics such as numbers, letters, seasons, body parts, etc. I would definitely recommend this tape for children six and younger.

You might be confused by all the reviews here and the extreme range of tastes. Try to overlook the extremes and you'll find what this DVD is really like. Personally, I mostly agree with the recent review by Jennifer Bogart.

The disc is often very fast-paced, but I didn't find that to be a problem because I don't think the producers intended for viewers to learn all this content in a single viewing. We all learn language (whether our first language or others) through repetition, so I expect to be seeing this disc repeatedly with our young student, soaking up a bit more each time.

The material is presented bilingually, so one should easily connect corresponding English and Spanish words and phrases. This is done both in the songs and the onscreen text, which means you do not need a book to go with it. As others have noted, it does seem that this might be almost as useful for people who are learning English as a second language, as it is for English-speaking people who want to learn Spanish.

I do not understand, and do not agree with, reviewers who complain about phrases in the disc being "peculiar" or that material is presented without context. And it is completely wrong to say that there is no "dialogue" in the program. On the contrary, in sections there will be one person asking a question and another person providing a context-appropriate response (like the obvious "how are you" and "fine, thank you").

What may throw some viewers off is that the people doing the talking aren't presented in some kind of fictional setting for a casual chat. Instead, they talk primarily to the camera, while their dialogue is translated onscreen, and the "conversation" is achieved by intercutting between the actors. Since you are trying to learn the words, I think this works fine.

The music is peppy, not Grammy quality but certainly not objectionable. I have no idea why the producers felt compelled to put in all those silly colored backgrounds, but they really don't bother me (or the grade-schooler who is the primary audience here). They detract from the professionalism somewhat but I do not think they interfere with the learning, which is all I care about.

One reviewer complained about the actress's skirt being too short. Sheesh. Trust me, she looks fine. Nothing that the kids haven't seen on TV -- or in regular life. Mostly she stands out on this DVD because the guys are mostly schlumpy-looking, but let's not hold that against her (or the guys for that matter). Pay attention to the language lessons and you'll be fine.

I also agree with Ms. Bogart that one might want to view this program in short segments rather than all at once. But in any case I'm sure we'll be viewing this one repeatedly and getting a pretty good foundation to connect with other learning activities.

Here in Canada the status quo second language of choice for elementary school instruction is French. With two official languages, French seems to be the natural choice for Canadians, but with only Quebec, France and a few other small countries utilizing it as a first language it seems wise to study a more widely used modern tongue. After picking up a few words and phrases from Dora the Explorer my daughter was confidently exclaiming, "I know Spanish!" It was most certainly time to bring in some further instruction. With Spanish spoken widely in South America, Central America, Spain and by minority groups in North America it seemed an excellent language to pursue.

The DVD version of Rock `N Learn - Spanish Volumes I & II contains the 26 lessons found in their original audio CD/book combinations Spanish Volume I and Spanish Volume II presented in a highly visual DVD format. While not presenting a full course in Spanish, the disc teaches Spanish vocabulary and basic phrases through song, rhythmic speech, colourful visuals and cheerful performers. The content is similar to the phrases and vocabulary typically learned in a first year foreign language course including: greetings, numbers, alphabet, colours, school vocabulary, calendar, seasons, useful questions, directions etc.

Native English speakers to the side of the screen against a colourful background say a word or phrase in English, which appears in print on the screen beside them. After a pause in which the student can fill in the answer in Spanish, a native Spanish speaker supplies the Spanish answer. For the more complex phrases video clips are shown, or computer graphics are supplied along with the English and Spanish text being spoken.

At 55 minutes in length, the disc is best viewed in short sessions. Picking a lesson or two to view several times in a row seems to work best for retention and maintaining interest levels. Attempting to view all of the lessons at once becomes somewhat droning towards the end. Because the lessons proceed at a fairly rapid pace, it takes a few viewings to become familiar enough with the terms to join in the fun. The excellent menu navigational tools offer a pictorial preview of each lesson in the scene selection feature, making it easy to focus in on specific groups of vocabulary words.

Some of the sentences are very complex, and aren't necessarily intended to be memorized in Spanish, but rather provide a translation of an English explanation on the DVD itself. Others do not seem to be commonly used, but rather provide reinforcement and some exposure to Spanish sentence structure. Parents of children with visual sensitivities or attention difficulties may want to pass on this disc, as the background colours behind the performers often include, swirling psychedelic patterns. These aren't too offensive when monochromatic (only blue for example), but when they include blue, yellow, pink etc. and the computer graphic character is wearing red, it can be quite overwhelming visually. These over the top, continually present, backdrops are my main pet peeve with the disc, the other being female performers dressed more provocatively than one would expect in a children's educational DVD.

That being said, the songs and even rhythmic speaking to background music has proven to be highly infectious in our home. Before bed I often find myself singing some of the songs with my children, and they run through my head continually. There's obviously some learning going on here. Spanish Volumes I & II is a fun and easy way to reinforce first-year Spanish lessons or pick up some simple vocabulary before taking a trip.

I would have rated the disc higher if it weren't for the backgrounds!

I taught Espanol in the school. The quality of the dvd does not correspond to my taste, I could not understand why kids loved it so much, but they did and sang the songs with delight. I give this dvd 5 stars because the kids learn Spanish in an easy and funny way, and they retain the vocabulary.

Hi, I'm StoryMaker. We got the Rock N' Learn Spanish DVD from the library once. First of all, I'm saying that the one I'm reviewing might not be the exact version I tried - I think we got an older version or something, the box art was slightly different and the content *MIGHT* of been different. Either way, with repetition, this teaches Spanish phrases and words VERY well using songs. I learned Spanish alphabet, foods, adjectives, phrases and more from this DVD. With repetition, this DVD teaches a lot of Spanish language. The songs are very catchy and the colorful 3D designs capture kids' interests. When we were younger, we had the audio version that just has songs. It was good, too! Some of the phrases are just plain DUMB (why would you need to tell someone you have 2 eyes?) but it doesn't matter very much. It's Spanish language-teaching that WORKS! Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"