Customer Reviews

The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish - Verbs

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

 

 

The title is misleading. This really is not advanced Spanish. They spend the first quarter of the program reviewing basics (noun genders, adjective agreements, etc.) so that's wasted. By the time we reach the end, we're just learning about direct and indirect object pronouns. These are the things you learn in an Intro II Spanish course at the local community college. (The proof is in the syllabus of a course I took!)

Another gripe is the presentation. They use a kind of silly, juvenile format with embarrassingly bad, scripted comedy. It's like something you'd see on Saturday morning cartoons.

Last, of the six or so youngsters who deliver the course (they all seem to be about 19 years old), only one or two of them has a good (i.e., native) Spanish accent. The others all speak with that flat, nasal American sound that sounds so bad in Spanish! And one of the presenters made a bad grammatical faux-pas when he said, "No problema" which is a Bart Simpson-ism. It should be, "No hay problema".

Apart from the bad accents I would have no qualms with this DVD if they'd just labeled it correctly, for instance, "Spanish Reveiew for Kids".

This dvd teaches you the very important verb tenses, subjunctives, that are used literally all the time in the spoken language. But students are exhausted after learning the all the others, present, past, etc. Did you ever wonder why you often recognize verbs but are confused by there spelling and usage which seem to stray from what you have been taught all these years? This dvd teaches all the verb tenses, including the elusive but frequently used Subjunctive Tense. This alone has allowed me to break through my learning barriers of speaking like a student or tourist all the time. Now I can understand all those weird uses like, " Yo quiero que tu estudies". I want you to study. Notice the spelling of estudies,,, it is not the well known 2rd person spelling, 'estudias'. In your mind, you reason that estudies really means estudias, but you are wrong. I found this dvd to be a treasure of learning for me personally. And of course, you can not fully appreciate the Subjunctive Tense without also further understanding even more about the world of pronouns, hence, even more light is taught on those many forms and usages also. For example, in "Yo quiero que tu estudies." , the pronoun tu seems to be used incorrectly to a student because you might translate that to mean "... study yours, study yourself, etc". and none of those make sense. So buy this dvd and break thought your old set of pronoun usage and enter the everday world of the subjunctives.

It seems to me that most of the reviewers have no idea about the teaching style of Standard Deviants programs. These were originally designed as broadcast programs for educational television and within classrooms. The instructional videos came later. The style is intentionally filled with humor and some silliness. The idea is that enjoying the program will bring one to pay more attention to it and to learn better, sometimes in spite of oneself. The programs state that they are no substitute for the regular classroom instruction. My child and I have both learned a great deal from the Standard Deviants programs, the language DVD's as well as math, science, grammar and literature. They are very enjoyable and educational as well.

What a fun way to learn spanish. I was really struggling with the verbs. While Standard Deviants stuff is not the serious way to approach a subject, it's much more effective in my book. It's refreshing compared to most of the other junk out there. I would say that if you are looking for something traditional, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for something different, look here.

I have the usual 2 years of high school Spanish decades ago, currently take community Spanish classes and am also trying to learn Spanish using Rosetta and Fluenz, both great software. But there is one area that has always stopped me in my tracks - verbs. I actually rented this on Netflix and after watching once, had to buy it. No matter what you may think of the goofy (fun) way this is presented, I have to say, there are no books, CD's or DVD's out there that break this tough subject down in such an understandable way. There are some decent books out there, but to me the prospect of working through a thick book one verb tense at a time is daunting. There is some criticism that the speakers don't pronounce Spanish correctly, and though they don't slaughter the language, that is a valid point. Get your accent and keys to proper pronunciation elsewhere, but if you, like me, have been struggling with the basics of conjugation on the various tenses and moods of the Spanish verb - this is your baby. If you are a serious academic, then the jokes and songs and loopy skits may turn you off. The entertaining style of presentation doesn't bother me at all. I need this material and this is the best way to get a grasp on it, other than grunting through endless conjugation exercises.

Standard Deviants split up many of their videos into small chunks to sell them multiple times and rake in more moolah off their endless enterprise. This is the one the one to get if you want it all one one DVD for one low price. Caveat - their pronunciation can be pretty awful at times, but it does keep kids attention in class when you need something fun & different!

These Standard Deviant products are shams. The producers hire a bunch of theater students who know nothing about the subjects taught (I unwittingly purchased SD Physics and Spanish at the same time). These actors read scripts with the most innane material, try to be funny and cute (but they are bad actors to begin with and not funny). I suspect they are hired based on whether they are attractive, and I wonder if they are even paid for their efforts. Anyway, SD products do not teach well or entertain. The material is taken directly from textbooks and read verbatim by "aspiring actors" with grossly inadequate explanation. One of the worst products I've ever happened upon.

I have a one year old Zenith 5 disc DVD player and it doesn't work for me.

Seller advertised the product and its condition exactly as the product arrived to me. I feel based only on this purchase you can trust this seller.

I learned Spanish for the first time when I was 14 (I'm much older now), and so perhaps may not be the customer for this title. I memorized, learned, and drilled the verb conjugations repeatedly throughout my courses. This is what the DVD attempts to do. I guess I was expecting a little more practice and illustration of use of the conjugations in real like settings (e.g., banks, stores, sports conversations, employment interactions) instead of in obscure settings like the jungle and gardening (which the DVD does: how many people use the verb "plow" in their daily conversations?). I was also really disappointed and quite surprised that none of the actors has mastered a Spanish accent. Indeed, through impersonation I acquired my Spanish accent (as well as a Chinese accent, a Portuguese accent and a Greek accent). Certainly, actors of all people know more about impersonation than the general public; and you don't need to know the language very well to acquire the accent. The actors even misplace many orthographic accents on words (e.g., the command pongan is pronounced with the accent on the gan). In some instances, you can get an entirely different word with misplacement.

Students will get rote instruction in formal courses. DVD courses should make up for the dearth of practical conversation experience in classroom settings by providing illustrations of when and how the language is used in these settings. I have yet to purchase a video that does this, but I really want one.