Fluenz Spanish Review: Lessons 11 to 14

Lesson 11 of Fluenz Spanish is a review session. It follows the same format as the first ten lessons: Sonia Gil introduces the lesson and gives you some idea what to expect.

Next, there is a dialogue, which they suggest you listen to three times, once with the English and the Spanish subtitles showing, once with just the Spanish ones, and once with no subtitles. Normally there are a lot of new words but for this review lesson, the words you have already learned are put together in new ways. Here’s an example:

Spanish has two different verbs – ser and estar – which mean “to be.” It’s not easy for native English speakers to get them straight, and just the other day a Mexican friend of mine was commenting that she has an Italian friend who mixes them up too, despite otherwise speaking excellent Spanish. I really like how Fluenz Spanish is teaching you phrases like the one you see on the screen – Este amigo es de aqui – and you are absorbing the correct use of the verbs by osmosis.

In the wrap-up discussion of this lesson, Sonia Gil comments that speed training is an element of learning Spanish that is perhaps as important as vocabulary or grammar. How do you get up to speed? By repeated practice. Comments like this are part of the attention to detail that I like in the Fluenz programs.

In Lesson 12, you go places with the verb ir and a conversation with a taxi driver. Lessons 13 and 14 involve shopping for cell phones and learning adjectives and the use of “going to.” I like this one because you can say all kinds of things in the future without knowing future conjugations if you just know the infinitive. I’m going to eat, I’m going to shop, and so on. Lesson 14 also provides more about the subtleties of ser and estar.

To get more of an overview of Fluenz Spanish, see my review at that link.  Or here is the first level on Amazon.com.