Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, and free online learning Audiobook CD – Unabridged Author: Living Language | Language: English | ISBN:
0307478599 | Format: EPUB
Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, and free online learning Audiobook CD – Unabridged Description
Amazon.com Review
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
"The Living Language Platinum series has dragged the world of language learning into the 21st century."
-
Newsday --This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
- Series: Complete
- Audio CD: 336 pages
- Publisher: Living Language; Com/Pap/Ps edition (August 9, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307478599
- ISBN-13: 978-0307478597
- Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.7 x 3.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I bought this set after seeing a friend's copy of the French edition. I really like the set up and I do feel that I am learning a lot (though the first book seemed mostly a refresher of items I learned in high school and college).
Positives:
-Division of chapters is clear and the companion cds read almost every word on the page. (Which makes it easy to read along with the chapter or use it as extra practice on your drive to work as I do.
-The book is written in a way that seems more organic to learning conversational Spanish. Instead of just learning a bunch of words and how to conjugate them or just a set of general vocabulary each chapter is topic based. This means the the number section isn't just "uno, dos, tres." It also includes "Tengo dos gatos" and "Ella tiene tres perros." (I have two cats. She has three dogs.) Slowly interspersing new vocabulary, sentence structure, gender-dominance of the terms, and of course conjugation.
Negatives: (why I did not give it 5 stars)
-You have to come in with a basic knowledge of the Spanish alphabet and sometimes the pronunciation doesn't seem as clear in writing.
-Sometimes some of the most important/interesting vocabulary is thrown into the summary paragraph at the end of the chapter giving the reader only one chance to familiarize with that set of vocabulary before it is either not referenced again or thrown into another part of the following chapter. (The cd does read this chapter to you but does not give you the option to repeat those words.)
-The cd can really only be used after reading the chapter for extra study. I tried to use some of the lessons ahead of where I was in the book. (Only the next lesson, not far in advance.) And I found myself tongue tied.
This year my son started Rosetta Stone's Spanish. At the same time I got this set, so there will be some comparison.
1) COST - obviously paying $125 for this program vs. $500 for Rosetta Stone is a huge bonus for me.
2) LEARING PROCESS - This system focuses on reading through chapters with exercises and listening to audio files to support the chapters. The content in the audio files is just like the book. Where audio files help the most is if you don't know how to pronounce the words it helps to hear it and hit rewind over and over again.
Rosetta stone, requires a computer as it uses visual queues (pictures), audio files and in version 3.x it lets you speak into a mic and measures if you are speaking the word correctly or not. I tried this with the Chinese lesson once - which Chinese has different tones of the same word - the program allowed me to continue even though my pronunciation was off. Thus this feature becomes worthless on some levels.
Having lived in foreign countries, learning a language comes through repetition. Since we all have MP3 players and can take them wherever we are, then this system works fine for replaying the phrases and words over and over again.
Thus for the impatient person who doesn't want to spend the time practicing, then maybe not only is this program not for you but learning a language in general is not for you. Similar to learning the guitar...I know a bunch of chords but I can't play songs by memory without practice, practice, practice.
3) TRAVELLING - The Essentials book, has a Spanish-English and English-Spanish glossary in the back. The book is thin enough and light enough you could throw it in a bag and take it with you when travelling.
Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, and free online learning Audiobook CD – Unabridged Preview
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