Just Listen 'n Learn Spanish [With Paperback]

Although I would have preferred a faster moving and more advanced tape, this Spanish instructional tape helped me strengthen my Spanish speaking and especially my listening skills. A great tool for a novice who is trying to learn Spanish, yet it also helped me, a student who has completed three years of Spanish, to better pronunciate my words.

After borrowing this book from our public library, I have struggled first through the textbook and then started listening to the tapes while commuting. Of course, in the first days, I understood only about 10%, however, this has finally increased to about 95%. The recodings have a real life quality, both in terms of speed and content. I like this course very much and recommend it to anyone who wants to understand spoken Spanish. The explanations of grammar are only minimal, however, you can combine this with any other textbook that gives a more thorough background in the Spanish grammar. The great value of this course is its emphasis on listening comprehension of the real spoken Spanish.

First some context. I own and use "Just Listen and Learn Spanish" and also "Just Listen and Learn Spanish Plus." I listen to these tapes while commuting, and read the text during my lunch hour or at home. At the same time I am using a grammar text "Spanish Now" to learn grammar. Listening in my car means I can't follow the directions to stop and do a reading or written exercise. I'm a bit out of sync with the design of the course.Second a statement on immersion. I don't understand most of what I hear. That's how I learned English. That's how I learned French when I lived in an French home. It doesn't mean I'm not learning.Why "Just Listen and Learn Spanish" fills the bill. The tape is 90% Spanish with enough English guidance to keep a general orientation. It ranges from scripted dialogs those not fluent in Spanish to radio programs. You have to tolerate the fact that not everything is translated and you mostly don't understand. But what a pleasure when you go back to something that a few weeks earlier you understood practically none of and you now get 85-90%. This is after less than three months of studying Spanish.

This is not a bad introduction to Spanish. Dialogues are as real as they get in an entry level language book. The book covers the basics needed for a traveller who is about to visit Spain (it is NOT the Latin-American Spanish). The problems I had with this book: VERY light on grammar (past and future tenses are introduced in the last two chapters), some grammatical structures are used which are never explained - you have to memorize them without understanding, the short dictionary at the end of the book does not include all the words used in the course - in fact some words and expressions used are NEVER translated in the book, dialogues are supposed to be authentic, but it is just impossible to understand some of them - speakers mumble at the speed of light - what is the point of including those in the entry level course? Use this to get you going quickly, then, if you want to, move on to something serious... Oh, and DO NOT get the "plus" stuff, things get even worse there...

Of all the Spanish-learning books and tape courses I've studied or considered studying, this is by far my favorite. A listening-based course, it has short, interesting conversations, some involving children, and enough English before and after each dialog to keep the brain from wearing out. Since it's designed for British tourists going to Spain, and I'm studying Spanish for conversation, some of the material (on shopping, hotels, trains, etc.) didn't appeal to me. Even so, it's still my favorite course, and covers everyday vocabulary.