Berlitz Spanish Premier (PC/Mac) (8 CD Set - Windows & Macintosh)

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Customer reviews

review by: Legal Eagle date: 2008-12-17 rating:
iHola!
I was a touch sceptical about computer based language programmes before I got this. And, it turns out, for good reason. I don't think it is bad for what it is, but it becomes quite annoyingly prescriptive and doesn't seem to enhance learning all that much.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems there is no short cut to picking up foreign language skills.

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review by: date: 2008-12-11 rating:
Good value for money, but a bit shambolic
Having spent a few years learning Spanish, I thought this might be a useful package. I have a long history of purchasing study aids for Spanish (would be nice if you could buy your way to fluency!), so can usually tell quite quickly the value of learning aids.

However, having installed it, I'm now not quite sure what to make of it. For the price of the package, you get an impressive array of material. Hefty manual (rare thing to see these days), installers for Windows/Mac/Palm, mp3s, it's all pretty good.

The exercises are quite interesting, and covers quite a range, from beginner to a low intermediate.

Unfortunately, this turns out to be a bit of a failing. There is too much, and it's just not tied together properly.
I've found over the years that part of the problem of learning Spanish (or any language) isn't finding ways to practice - there are obviously millions of web pages in Spanish, it's easy to find musics and films in Spanish - the problem is finding a useful structure, and one that you will actually practice.

To be truly useful, this course really needs a structured exercise plan tying it all together, and a better way to track your progress. It's just all a bit random, and I could see how it could easily end up gathering dust (and trust me, I've a full shelf of Spanish products gathering dust!).

In summary, it's what you make of it. I've given it 3 stars, as it really could be structured so much better, but in terms of value for money for the material you get, it's pretty good.

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review by: date: 2008-11-26 rating:
Berlitz Spanish Premier.
The Berlitz Spanish Premier set comes neatly packaged with driver software for mac/PC, and also for palm devices. I was slightly perturbed on receiving the set when I saw the words emblazoned on the front, "Macintosh version", but rest assured it comes with the drivers for both!

In the pack we have a 182 page user guide, which is all in English, and is generic for the Berlitz language software courses and is not a language learning tool in itself. There are also 4 audio CDs for use in the car etc, and ipod/MP3 exercises as well as material for the computer, so pretty much all the bases are covered with regards to finding excuses for not doing some learning!

To the review: it was easy to install on my somewhat antiquated laptop, and once installed the interface was fairly intuitive. I only referred to the user guide very briefly, so it's easy to get stuck in. I haven't really studies Spanish before but I found the material easy to grasp (unsurprising really, given that it's Berlitz and they have a good long history of getting across language basics). The one thing that would improve this would be to have a native Spanish speaker on hand to practice normal conversation with!

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review by: hmcni date: 2008-11-25 rating:
Versatile and fun...
This is another great little package from Berlitz. This is a company that has been doing language tuition for many, many years - so they must know a thing or two about it by know!

And know a thing or two they do! This package offers great flexibility by letting you learn Spanish in a variety of ways and using a range of media. You can learn in the car, on the PC or on your MP3 plus there's even software for your Pocket PC/Palm! Not only that but a range of different ability levels are catered for - from beginnier to advanced! There are also a variety of fun games and software innovations to help you along as you learn (e.g. vocabulary building screensaver)

What more could you want from a language tuition pack!


review by: date: 2008-11-25 rating:
Learning Spanish
I finally got around to installing the disc on my computer and started to use it.

It is jam packed full of things to do. But once you have browsed through it you will need to set yourself little targets, and have a clear idea of what parts you want to learn first.

There are a lot of CDs included in the package; some are MP3s so you can learn while you are out and about.

It has also taken me some time to get used to the different buttons the video clips, which as you would expect, are cheesier than the cheesiest cheese ever!

But I am going to have to put some time aside and go through the set seriously; otherwise I will just leave it on the shelf. All it will take is time and patience. There is also a part on the PC/MAC version where using sound waves you can see what the words should sound like and compare it to how you say them. And there are a lot more features that I haven't used yet, like the flashcards and the screensaver.

You can't expect to learn a new language in a few weeks, look how long it took us to learn to talk in the first place.

For the price, you really can't ask for anything more. I would recommend this package above other ones on the market, mainly for the interactive features and the audio CDs.

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