Discover Spanish: THE Best Way to Learn Spanish

I took a semester of Spanish in college years ago. When I started using this to brush up for an upcoming trip, I realized how much I remembered. This starts with fairly basic stuff that you will use in introductory conversations. There are topics like introductions, family relationships, eating out, traveling, and numbers. You will have enough vocabulary to get your main point across, but not really go far beyond that.The computer part shows you cartoon scenes with Spanish audio and English or Spanish (you choose) text. The pictures help to give you context. So you get auditory and visual learning tools. There is a matching game that helps with learning vocabulary. The audio CD is good for reinforcing things as you commute or clean the house. I have also supplemented with watching movies dubbed in Spanish. This isn't really helping with building vocabulary yet (when should I need to talk about grenades and knights in Mexico?), but it is helping me to get the rhythm of the language and hear the tenses.I recommend it for some basic vocabulary work, refreshing what you learned in the past, an introduction to Spanish or as a supplement to another program but if you want hard core learning, this isn't it.

Even with limited Spanish language ability, I found it easy to make it through all the exercises. In the end, I picked up a few extra words, but almost no mastery of the language. For the money, not bad. Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.

I bought "Discover Spanish" last October, because I was impressed with the reviews I read, as well as the affordability of it. It has proved to be a very useful tool, as this was my first exposure to learning Spanish. I found the format and lesson set up very easy to follow and is very user friendly. I appreciate the variety of topics they cover and the practicality of the program. One day as I was preparing to do a lesson, I took it out of its case and accidentally broke it and completely cracked it. I was so disappointed, for this was my lifeline to learning Spanish. I wrote the company, "Discover Spanish" to see if they could replace the DVD and sure enough I received a reply the same day. I was highly impressed with their customer service! I highly recommend "Discover Spanish" for anyone starting to learn Spanish.

I confess I did not give this product a fair shake. But there's a reason for that. My suspicion is that some kindergarten teacher decided to teach her kids how to write Flash scripts, and this CD is the result. The cover of the media case says "Ages 9 to 99" but "Ages 5 to 9" is closer to the truth. The style, the tone, the finish, and the approach are all the same: infantile. Maybe one would learn Spanish, but the experience would be about like eating an Egg McMuffin while changing a baby's diaper: yes, one would obtain nourishment, but the experience could hardly be termed pleasant or culinary.I was taken in by an average rating of 4-1/2 stars, 31 reviews, and thus chose to ignore that fact that it only cost $29.95. Caveat emptor: you usually get what you pay for. This product reminded me of an old Japanese science fiction movie from the get-go: cartoon characters with animated mouths that moved independently of the narrator's voice. And the narrator's voice: this sounded like a teenager from Kansas trying to imitate an undocumented farm worker from south of the border. Or maybe Cheech and Chong after sucking down the smoke from a couple of ounces of their dealer's best vintage.

This is a very basic learning tool. The description that I read led me to believe it was more intermediate learning. It is very basic, almost child-like teaching. I believe it would be better for younger children.

My children, both under 10, like this program. They can review each section in any combination of written and spoken Spanish or English. It's great for practice, but it is not a substitute for a Spanish class. I wish there was an accompaying workbook and some formal lessons (building grammar skills) in this same format.

This software didn't live up to my expectations. I do like how it reinforces conversational Spanish, and you have to think about the scenarios pictured to decide how you will reply. It's all multiple choice, though, so you're bound to see an answer that fits without thinking too hard. My main beefs with it are (1) there is only one type of review game (concentration--not actually that fun), and (2) There are only 36 lessons. For the same money, I think I could have done better.

I'm in between beginner and intermediate. This is good especially for one who doesn't know a thing about Spanish. However I think I need a tad more. This is a good start!