18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great source for Vocabulary, but...., December 13, 2005
This review is from: Subliminal Spanish (Book and CD) (Audio CD)
The book is great- it is filled with a ton of vocabulary words and useful phrases, BUT the subliminal part is a hoax (at least for me). I went through the entire first CD and I can remember nothing, except for the few words I already knew! Maybe I'm not able to be influenced subliminally, but I think it is a publicity scheme. Fast food commercials work on me, but this CD doesn't! I'm now using the book as a source for vocab words. I'm making flashcards from it and learning a lot. If you're looking for a miracle learning method, look elsewhere.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great Supplement when used in conjunction with other studying, December 27, 2008
This review is from: Subliminal Spanish (Book and CD) (Audio CD)
I picked this product up at local borders roughly four years ago. I was searching through the Spanish books on Amazon, and came across this. I thought I would review it, because as a supplement to your Spanish studies, I think this product is great. If one thinks they are going to learn the entire language and expect to become fluent from it, don't waste your time. If one is already studying Spanish, and is using a variety of methods -- be it through school or on one's own personal time -- then this is a great supplement. I noticed there are other subliminal type products for languages out there, and I really don't buy into that stuff. This product is very different from those, in my opinion, and there is some benefit to using a program like this.
Breakdown:
What's inside:
There are 3 cds and a booklet with all the words and phrases on the cd. Each CD has a list of words.
How it works:
Fairly simple. The tracks will play and you will hear the spanish word through the left or right channel of your earphone, and you will hear the english translation through the left or right of your earphone. The spanish word will repeat in a random order switching from left to right earphone, and the english translation will switch to the left or right of your earphone. For each word, it does this process several times within each track or two and in random order.
The idea, I suppose, is that when your brain hears the word ¨iglesia¨ it also hears ¨church¨ at the same time. When you hear this several times, you are able to tie it together, or your brain is able to tie the two together, without much work. Then, to further solidify your remembering of these words, you also have a work booklet that has everything on the cd in the same order. Use the book in conjunction with the cd and the results will be better. That's the claim that this product makes anyway. Or, if your in school or studying on your own, just see if you can identify these words in your daily studies and use them.
Word choice:
As a native English speaker who has studied Spanish for almost seven years, and am pretty fluent, I think the word choice is great because they are very common words and phrases. The makers of this product did a good job in selecting them. I myself still review these cds (on my ipod anyway) when I just want to review basic stuff.
Verbs, Phrases:
The cds also include some commonly used verbs, already conjugated in some of the most common tenses. For example, some verbs phrases, with their english equivalent are conjugated in both the present indicative and preterite. Be warned, though, the focus of this is common nouns. Don't expect a verb workout. On the flipside, for somebody who is just starting their Spanish studies, I think learning all of the basic nouns can be far more effective than worrying about verb conjugations, if you need to start communicating as quickly as possible. Not saying that verbs are not important, but this product might be a good jumpstart for beginners who are already studying and just need some sort of aid to help boost their remembering of basic nouns.
Effectiveness?
In my opinion, this product is a great as a supplement. The subliminal aspect, in my opinion, works good, but I have to wonder if it would be less effective had I not put in years of study before picking up this product. How good? Who knows. One could say that it may just be all in my head, a placebo, if you will. Perhaps. However, I do really feel it has helped me remember a lot of the key words far better, and more easily, than some other methods. If you already know a lot of nouns and need something to review, and wanna try something different, this product may help you remember better. For certain words, the replaying of the english and spanish at the same time really enforced a lot of words in my head.
Should you use it?
Well, really, I think it is at least worth a try. It will not solve all of your Spanish problems or make you fluent, but in my own opinion, it will help you remember some of the most common words a lot better. I think it helps if you really try to be active when listening to these. Visualize the words as they are being played in your ear; the words you do remember, use them as often as possible in your daily adventures; use the included workbook. If you don't use what you remember, you will lose it. When I picked this up, I was already studying on a daily basis, so I used what I remembered from these cds. If you are in school and studying and/or on your own, these would be a great supplement. But if you just want to use this by itself, don't even waste your time.
For those studying, it is only 10-20 bucks, so it is at least worth a shot.
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