Customer Reviews

The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish - Building on the Basics

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

 

 

While it's true that I wouldn't label the DVD "Advanced Spanish" I also wouldn't label it "Spanish Review for Kids." In fact, it is more like an intermediate Spanish review. While I already knew everything they teach, they still use some tips I wish I had heard when I was taking formal college courses. The visual element is compelling - far more useful for imparting and retaining information than audio tapes and textbooks alone. I bought the whole series, and I almost felt like I had gotten to know the actors personally. I hated it when the last DVD came to an end. Sure they speak with American accents - they're mostly Americans! It's not like they're unintelligible. By the time you get to the end of this DVD, you're speaking some pretty darned sophisticated Spanish. The interactive element is great - there are opportunities for self-testing and the DVD format offers chances to review sections much easier than with VCR tapes. I would like to see another DVD that covers past subjunctive, conditional, and the other perfect tenses that were left out of the series. Also, I'd like to see a discussion of por versus para and other tricky grammatical constructions. There's definitely room for at least one more DVD in the series. How about it Standard Deviants? Make it and it will sell.

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 this if you already own Advanced Spanish - Verbs. Other than this, I would be very careful buying from this company.

Is is difficult to review this DVD because there are so few video language DVD's on the market. The valuable part of this dvd are a few troublesome area's of Spanish, such as 'direct and indirect pronouns'. I found that section to be most valuable. For example, as best I recall, they explain how to convert ' Juan escribe unas cartas a Marie y Jose', into 'Se los escribe'. These pronoun substitutions are a tricky yet prevalent part of the language.

As for the remainder of the DVD, there were alot of grammer lessons which I found a bit boring. I'm not sure what audience this dvd was written for, at times too easy. However, I did find a few sections to be useful, therefore, I would have to say that you should consider buying this dvd if you want alot of stuffy grammer lessons, or if you want to improve areas like indirect pronouns. Overall, I would recommend this dvd.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to learn a language from a source that is not accurate! These people try hard but they mispronounce or stress the wrong syllable in many words. I would not recommend this product to anyone learning or reviewing spanish.

The term "advanced spanish" is a relative term. I would equate the level of this Lesson to a Spanish "101" to Spanish "102" college level. I would consider this more of a basics level.

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 series is a little off the wall. Big deal! (in response to some other reviewers).

I have taken 4 years of spanish: 2 in HS and 2 in college (with all A's) and I still found this to be useful. There were some tips in here that really clarified some tricky topics like direct and indirect objects. I didn't mind the "mundane" parts at all. Review is always good to make sure that the student is on the same page as the instructors. Also, it gave me time to take some notes from the meatier subjects.

Overall it really is quite goofy but a good series no less!

it didnt teach me that much. it was all about rules not much more..i want to know how to talk with people. basic/every day conconversation

I guess I was looking for more help with advanced sentence structure and verb tenses. This DVD, while helpful for some, didn't even go into the preterite much less the subjunctive. Also, I noticed numerous pronunciation errors from the non-natives, which were off-putting. Overall, entertaining and well put together but not really advanced.

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".