In Lessons 8 through 10 of Fluenz Spanish, the dialogues are:
- A conversation between two women, one a visitor to the city, the other a colleague of someone the visitor is looking for
- An airport discussion with an official, covering names, passports, luggage, and more
- A conversation with a taxi driver while going from the airport to the hotel
At the start of Lesson Eight, Sonia Gil comments that you are going to be learning words related to truth and beauty, and she explains how this is really very practical. It turns out that estar and ser are explored further, with some succinct explanation given, in this set of lessons. Sonia also explains why Fluenz Spanish doesn’t force you to learn accent marks, something I had discussed in my review of Lesson Four.
In Lesson Nine, you learn some words and phrases based on meeting an official at an international airport. Sonia Gil explains that this lesson is based directly on the experiences of Fluenz team member Rachel Margolin, who traveled in Spanish-speaking countries without knowing any Spanish, as preparation for creating this learn-Spanish software. (Tough job, but somebody’s got to do it! Actually, I bet it was a challenge. I’ve traveled in quite a few countries where I didn’t speak the language, and things can get complicated, specially when you are tired or confused. But Rachel at the same time had to be thinking all the time about what should go into Fluenz Spanish! Kudos to her.)
Lesson Ten goes back to a theme introduced earlier, that of a conversation with a taxi driver. I’ve often found that if I say to a Mexican taxi driver that I like their city or country, I get a delighted rapid-fire response that I am lucky to follow. Happily for you, this conversation in the lesson is easier to understand.
I did have to laugh when the male taxi driver asked the solitary female passenger if she was alone. A very Latin question! (She says no, she isn’t. That is the correct answer, no matter what the truth is.)
You can see the Spanish and English above, but the settings allow you to watch the lesson with just Spanish or with no subtitles as well. They suggest you watch it three times, once each way.
The lessons follow the same process of workouts as I’ve described in earlier reviews. I happened to notice that one of the tabs during the interactive workouts said “Words.” I clicked it and found a simple glossary of the words you have learned so far. Handy.
For more, see review of Fluenz Spanish or look at the first level of Fluenz Spanish on amazon.com.
