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| Spanish: Beginner (Collins Language Revolution) | 
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| Authors: Tony Buzan, Carmen Garcia Del Rio
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: £19.99
Buy Used: £10.07
You Save: £9.92 (50%)
New (23) from £11.07
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 9291
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 0007255357
EAN: 9780007255351
ASIN: 0007255357
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: case is broked but other wise in perfect order in stock in the UK despatched next business day by Royal Mail
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
Great Package But Only You Can Do The Learning ! August 22, 2008
The packaging is great to look at and is also very practical - the book and CD's fit neatly back into place. The new `Mind-mapping' is not really new, it's just been given a name (colour coding groups of words). I'm not saying it isn't a good idea if sticking masses of paper with groups of words in different colours makes you learn it better than just reading it from the book, but I personally don't want additional papers everywhere when it's all in the book anyway.
Another of the books methods of learning words is traffic lights where green is `go ahead' - the words are the same or nearly the same in English, amber is `wait and think' - not as close as green words but there will be a connection to English words, and red `stop, think, make a link' - nothing like the English word. One of the examples of red words is orange juice/zumo de naranja - the book says to remember this imagine a sumo wrestler with a bright orange hat, squeezing an enormous orange with his big hands. This is one of the shortest examples in the book and I decided in every example that I couldn't remember the `imagined situation' and why not just remember the two words.
I've tried three other language learning systems with both books and CD's/tapes, and with each one I have the same problems and to be honest this one is no different.
Problem 1. novelty & boredom - novelty because it's new and shiny and feel `I'm really going to do this' but boredom because within minutes I realise that it's not magic and will not just `go into me', it needs learning, and repeating over and over.
Problem 2. construction of sentences, or rather the lack of construction. I find that I pick up lots of words but can't construct a sentence or at least not without five minutes thinking about it.
Problem 3. non-conformity - the Spanish just do not say what the book/CD tells you they will say. For example, if you want to ring up and book a table in a restaurant the books invariably say that you will be asked `for how many people, which day and what time for. WRONG - they ask or say things like `have you eaten here before, we do not do childrens menus, would you like a table inside or out, smoking or non-smoking, we do not open on that day'. Then there are a dozen different colloquial ways of taking your order- `are you ready to order yet, what can I get you, what you would like, what do you want or even yes love'. You might think that this doesn't much matter because the waiter obviously wants to take your order but when you mis-hear a few quickly spoken words which you don't understand he/she might have just asked you to change tables and in reply you ask him/her for `two bowls of mussels and bread, please'.
Problem 4. pronunciation. So many CD's are made by South Americans with their pronunciations which will probably be understood but doesn't sound good. I speak my very limited Spanish in the Catalan areas which has quite different pronunciation from all the CD's/tapes I've used and this Collins one is no different. (I do mean Castilian language pronunciation, not Catalan language). None of the books I've used, including this one, pronounce words the same way as the people I try to converse with.
The CD to listen to anywhere (the book suggests the car) is a little difficult if you've not already learnt the words from the book and other CD. I found using the CD in the car totally distracting from driving - or rather the other way round - I had to stop the CD because it's just not possible to concentrate on the language and filling in blanks when negotiating road signs, junctions, and roundabouts.
One little niggle I have with this package is that there is no alphabet. If there was an alphabet with pronunciation on the CD, many English speakers would get better pronunciation because we tend to elongate our vowels (`a' as in ape rather `a' as in apple). As the Spanish only have the one style of alphabet rather than our two this could be a great help.
To sum up, this learning system is no better or worse than any others, it needs to be repeated and repeated until you are absolutely sick of hearing it and know every chapter word for word. Because you own the product it doesn't mean you will be able to speak Spanish, you will have to do all the hard work yourself. The best way to learn any language is to live in that country and better still to have a native speaking partner.
An easy way to learn basic Spanish June 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a simple language course that gave a basic grasp of holiday Spanish. The audio cd was great to listen to in the car and repeating the words (with the windows wound up). The layout of the book was easy to follow and combined with the cd, gives you an opportunity to learn some basic words, useful for a holiday.
 This did not add to my knowledge of Spanish, (and I don't know that much) June 19, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This package comes in 3 out of 4 parts; 2 CDs, 1 book with the 4th part being accessed via the Internet.
CD1 entitled "Use me with the book" - containing 99 tracks, based on the 10 sections in the book.
CD2 entitled "Listen to me anywhere" - containing 73 tracks, again based on the book.
1 multi-coloured book
(The book contains the website address).
Those are the physical properties, now for the product itself; first I have to disagree with the previous 4 + 5 star reviews - this is NOT a 'language' learning package, it's a 'noun' learning one.
I started off with CD2 as it says it can be listened to anytime, independently from the book so I popped it in the car and listened while I drove to work and discovered that claim is nonsense. If you're new to Spanish and haven't already used the book, this CD won't help much as it primarily provides lists of nouns in Spanish without giving their English equivalents. It gives little in the way of explanations so I thought that information must be stored on CD1.
After a few days I tried CD1, and found it gives even less information, but even more lists of nouns! (For clarity, that's the same nouns repeated, not lists of new nouns). This CD works ONLY in conjunction with the book. Even though there are 99 tracks here, they're not that great, e.g. some tracks are only 2 words long.
The book has 10 themed sections spread out over 208 multi-coloured pages with large colourful writing; this may well be a useful learning aid but it also helps to disguise the fact there's not a whole lot of information on each page. In all, it has the overall feel of an infant school book.
And this brings us to the crux, this course feels more about promoting Mind Maps (Trademarked by Tony Buzan, who claims he invented them but what he really invented was the name - now that's crafty marketing for you!). However, Mind Maps for me aren't the be all and end all of learning techniques - to be frank - I find Tony's style of Mind Map to be quite garish and so don't work so well for me as other less colourful, more simplified spider diagrams.
Nonetheless, I still hadn't tried out the internet link, which I thought was a neat twist to make the learning genuinely more interactive but sadly is was just more of the same; in digital instead of on paper.
It's a shame because this package seemed to offer something special but in the end it's not much better than a rehash of other, better done work by others.
This book gives no information on Tony's own language ability, which is interesting as I'd like to know how many languages he's managed to learn using his 'revolutionary technique'. I suspect not as many as he'd like us to believe. I also suspect Carmen Garcia del Rio, who's named briefly inside the book but not on either the book cover or outer box, is the real Spanish brains behind the text in this book.
I've given this 2 stars instead of 1 because it tries to be inventive with a multimedia approach.
Great Way to get Started May 16, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have tried to learn Spanish before and have always switched off.
The Mindmap method worked really well for me as it allowed me to visualise how the words fit together.
Highly recommended for anyone starting out to learn spanish.
 Did not work for me I'm afraid April 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The packaging is fine, the approach to learning the language is however, a personal thing & sadly, it just didn't work for me.
Not much else I can say, there are so many other comparable "learn a language" packages on the market. You pays your money you takes your choice.
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