Spanish Now! 8.0

by Transparent Language

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.8 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004NHL1
• Item model number: SE-R08-2-CD
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 15, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,974 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Spanish is the most widely spoken of all the Romance languages in terms of the number of speakers and the number of countries that claim Spanish as their official language. Learn Spanish Now! includes four language-learning titles: Fundamental Spanish (with dialogue practice), Survival Phrases for Spanish (with dialogue practice), Conversations in Spanish (with dialogue practice and video), and A Spanish Adventure with Andrés (with dialogue practice and video).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

222 of 226 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good coversation practice, April 29, 2000

By 

Belinda Frost - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spanish Now! 8.0 (CD-ROM)

This is not a program for those who want a grammar based way to learn a language. Actually I don't have version 8 but I have version 7. I think their concept is the same, though-learn language through conversation practice, not grammar exercises. If you have had some Spanish and want to improve your speaking abilities, this is a good program for you, but if you have never had Spanish and would like to understand grammar concepts, this program will not provide a chapter based grammar, learning program.

142 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Lot Of Research Gets You The Best, May 29, 2001

By 

Kim Gordon (Venice.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spanish Now! 8.0 (CD-ROM)

I surfed the internet for language software. It was a soupy mess! GAZILLIONS to choose from!! In the end, after reading different reviews I decided to buy this one. It is NOT the kind of language learning where you memorize nouns by nouns and verbs by verbs which is just too monotonous!. This program is like jumping in without checking how the water is first.. The way REAL people talk.. how you would talk back. And it is NOT intimidating at all; I mean, how great to talk to your computer all alone on a Wednesday night with nobody to hear how bad you are? An example of how this software works: we follow this guy from the airport in Madrid greeted by his aunt and uncle. A little movie shows him walking through the airport, etc. There is also a box which translates it for you in english. Then you have choices on your screen to choose how you want to break these words or conversations down: 1. You can slow down the pace of the speech. 2. You can click on any one word and hear it said 3. You can click on one word, hear it said, then use the microphone (provided for PC users only, Mac must use the Plain Talk mic) which records your voice and you play it back. A little meter rates how you sound compared to the local guy.. 4.You can also click on a whole phrase, hear the guy say it then you can repeat it and compare.. 5. You can also click on the 'game' icon where you have a choice of 5 games to practice with as well (also called 'sneaky learning..' ). Whatever screen you are looking at you can click on the '?' (help) button and it will show you EVERYTHING that you need to know. Like the little turtle on the screen, I kept thinking 'what the heck is that little turtle for?' I clicked on the '?' button, which opened up a sample of the page I was just on, then I clicked on the turtle. Voila! Click on this to slow up or down the speech .. Duh. guess I shoulda known. I didn't know how to work the microphone thing; click help, then the icon, it tells me to hold down my mouse while speaking..

One of the reviewers of this software said that it was just way too advanced for him. I just don't think he gave it (or himself) a chance. I was TERRIFIED of buying software.. I know nothing about computers and kept thinking it would be a huge waste. I'd never figure it out. I have to tell you that I stuck it in, clicked around, READ THE '?' HELP SECTION and completely got the hang of it and am learning like mad!!

The question for those who are looking to buy language software is the question of grammer based learning or jumping in and doing it. I think it's better jumping in. People say that you should just move to a country where you want to learn a language -- and who can do that?? So I'm thinking software like this is the next best thing. I have high school level spanish (which was 15 some odd years ago) and I live in Los Angeles so I know a bunch of words but couldn't figure out the whole verb meets sentence structure thing. This software is EXACTLY what I needed. No matter what you choose, you have to do is stick with it and commit to learning. You won't learn unless you use it.

Oh, and the ... rebate didn't hurt, either!!

111 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read before you buy!, June 25, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spanish Now! 8.0 (CD-ROM)

This program is not for beginners! If you are an intermediate to advanced Spanish learner, then you may get some good use out of the program. As a beginner with very limited Spanish knowledge, I wasted my money trying to learn anything from this program. The speakers in the video talk way to fast to understand and when you slow the speech down, it garbles the audio.