Spanish: Level 1 (Learn in Your Car)

The recordings are made with English in one channel (right) and Spanish in the other (left). Every English word or phrase is then repeated in Spanish from the other speaker (twice, with a pause between each for you to repeat it). So either the reviewer had their balance knob turned just to the one channel, or they had a dodgy cassette machine. My CD version works fine and it seems a very effective way of learning. I would still suggest listening the first few times with the booklet in front of you (not in your car!) so that you can visualise the spelling of the words you are trying to say, but thereafter you can make valuable use of that lost time sitting in traffic jams by practicing your Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation.

How can you learn in your car and read at the same time. I expected that someone would say the word in English then in Spanish, but it is just a tape recording of Spanish. So in other words I have to read and memorise the words while not driving in my car, which is not at all what i expected. Why couldn't they have said this before i bought the book. I am sure i can learn Spanish from this book, but not just while driving at all, unless i learn to read and drive at the same time, which is impossible.

I must say first that not every technique of learning works for everybody, especially when it comes to languages. But "Learn in your car Spanish" worked perfectly for me. It kept me studying even when I didn't make time to study.

I've been living and working in Barcelona for almost four years now, and from the very start, I felt fairly confident of my Spanish. Of course, it wasn't the only thing I used, but it formed a strong base for me in vocabulary and "ear". Later, when I had more time to study Spanish grammer, things fell into place much more easily for me. For the price, it really was a pretty good bet. I realize some folks with a more academic background might bristle at the thought of repeating phrases to learn them, but my actual experience was that this served me quite well.

My only problem with the tapes was that they were recorded in American Spanish (that is, Mexican vs. Spanish). It took me a while to work the edges off of my pronunciation when I got to Spain (for example, I pronounced "Hace calor" like "A-sey calor" instead of "A-they calor"). This is not a big deal for most, though. I wish they had produced a Spanish Spanish version, but the market for that sort of thing must be quite small.

An easy to learn study guide but you must be wary of the accent, for example I=you but is said by the announcer d-yo.
Other than that it's quite good and has the booklet included with writen words so you can see how they are writen. But does anyone really need to say "The girl is going to cut the meat"?

EASY TO LEARN BECAUSE SINGLE WORDS ARE TAUGHT THEN SEVERAL WORDS ARE LINKED TOGETHER. PHRASES ARE LEARNED IN A WAY THAT THE STUDENT CAN RECOMBINE SENTENCES. TRAVEL-RELATED WORDS ARE TAUGHT FIRST.