Customer Reviews

The Standard Deviants - Spanish, Part 1

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

 

 

I have taken college Spanish and tried to teach myself off and on, but have been unsuccessful. So since I was working graveyards and could view this on the DVD player on my laptop, I decided to give it a try.

Sock puppets, and insulting words that make for good jokes were the first vocabulary introduced. Loco, stupido, etc. Fast moving colors and lots of different people relaying information kept it entertaining.

By looking at the outline it didn't look like it covered much, but I would say that it covered in it's two hours what a student would be expected to learn in a week on a college campus.

I didn't know everything like I thought I might, so it will be useful to me. But the tests on the DVD don't seem to work half the time. It would show question one...then the answer and then the voice would say question two but wouldn't become visible until I hit the next button and then it would give me the answer as well. (could be a problem with my computer, but don't know)

I think it is a good purchase to stimulate former knowledge and a great introduction if you are looking to start the language.

I rated it four cause I would have liked to see more without having to buy another DVD...and I struggled with the tests working.

Thanks Standard Deviants, you are the only game in town for education on DVD's. I will be replaying this until I have it down. Good Job!

I love the way the Standard Deviants teach. This video is a fun, step by step way of learning Spanish. I can't forget some of this stuff because of the style.

Normally I would have given a 5 star rating BUT I first bought Advanced Spanish - Beyond the Basics. I liked it so much I bought Advanced Spanish - Verbs, Spanish 1&2 and ¿Habla Español?. My tape of Advanced Spanish - Verbs is IDENTICAL to Advanced Spanish - Beyong the Basics. In fact it had that as the title for the video when you view the tape. The DVD of ¿Habla Español? is IDENTICAL to the Spanish 1 tape except for some quizzes. I wrote the company with this complaint and got no answer. If you go to their site you will find about 20 Advanced Spanish DVDs that have descriptions that all appear to be the same DVD with different titles. I would definitely not buy Spanish 1. Instead buy the ¿Habla Español? DVD. If you already have Spanish 1, you won't get much from this DVD. Other than this, I would be very careful buying from this company.

I have bought several learn english DVD's and nothing can compare to this one..It is like having a teacher right in your own home..Very easy to learn for even the hard to learn types..I am actually speaking spanish after watching the dvd 4 times..I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to REALLY learn Spanish with ease..THIS IS THE REAL DEAL and at a very affordable price........Drew M.

After reading others' reviews I decided to give this DVD a try. While it does have a few errors, it is fast paced and crazy fun - just what my middle schoolers need. I really like using it.

I own 3 of these DVD's from this place. The titles can appear similar so be sure you are buying what you wanted. I bought this one only to discover that either they mailed me the wrong one, or else I just unluckily ended up with a beginners dvd. ("Basics vs Beyond the Basics vs Learning the Basics", etc) This one with the picture of the formal dressed man and woman dancing on the dvd cover, is strictly a beginners lesson. It starts with teaching you the numbers 1 thur 10, etc. Overall, this line of dvd's are good videos and they alone have gotten me past my 10 year learing barriers and allowed me to break through the world of pronouns, refexive, etc, and also break into the world of subjective verbs which have been my 10 year learning nemisis to improving my spanish. Yes, these vid's appear to be goofy and sesame street like, but this teaching approach has not been a deterent to the valuable lessons they provide.

The content included in this DVD is not appropriate for young learners. It was recommended for Middle/High school but its use of certain language, "alcohol" and "crazy" depictions are really inappropriate.

This video is a great extra for leaning those tricky verbs, not to mention "las muy bellas!"

I've never seen a course as bad as this one. I mean, i love the idea of learning a language in a colourful multimedia style, but it's the actual content of the course that i have a problem with.

Truthfully, this DVD captured my imagination BEFORE I bought it. When I watched it, I tried to forward the DVD player onto part two, of the 10 or 12 episodes that I THOUGHT would be there.

But no...there aren't any other episodes.. and the program that I thought was just the introduction is actually the whole course. I already know what "vaca" is. And any idiot knows that "muy bien" is very good.

So, If you're at that level, then god bless you.

In fairness, I almost learned more Spanish from watching Sesame street. I bought this product, because it was fun, colourful, interesting and funky. It is, but it's also cheap, and tacky and you don't learn anything that you couldn't learn on the internet for free in 5 minutes. In terms of presentation, I found that it was fast and well edited with good presenters.

Ever read the first chapter of a children's language book? Well - that's what the whole DVD is like. Very little information. This product has very little educational value to anyone over the age of 12.

The female presenters are quite attractive though, so I gave it 1 star.

I had my doubts about this dvd, but once I started the lessons, it was hard to stop. Very detailed vocabulary and grammar lessons that are easy to follow. This dvd is for someone who doesn't know a word of Spanish because it really gets down to the basics, but it is never boring. It also includes reviews and short exams which will help you know what you need to back over and review. You will also find a little humour in the lessons which is nice. You will learn a lot in a short time. Note: Have a notebook and pen handy - you will want to pause the lessons from time to time and take notes.