So you want to learn how to speak Spanish! Is Fluenz Spanish the best choice for you? I was very impressed with the company’s website, and so I decided to work my way through the program. I speak enough Spanish that I figured I wouldn’t learn much, but I was curious how they would teach.
Lesson One begins with some remarks by tutor Sonia Gil. Then you listen to a dialogue three times, or of course more if you wish. The dialogue is presented in three ways:
- With both English and Spanish subtitles
- With only Spanish subtitles
- Without subtitles
This is the order that most people will use to practice the dialogue, but it’s up to you.
After the dialogue, Sonia Gil goes through it, word by word. Here I got a surprise: I have never been able to pronounce a good rolled r. My husband teases me mercilessly about this, as his is excellent, and since I love dogs I often talk with Mexicans about perros, mispronouncing the word.
Sonia Gil doesn’t throw you right into rolling your rs, but she does show you how to pronounce the word tarde, which means “afternoon,” with a hint that immediately had my pronunciation of the r sound better than it had been before. Hey, doing these reviews may be more useful to my Spanish than I ever expected!
The lesson continues with an interesting variety of exercises, typically with beautiful backgrounds, which I imagine were photographed in various parts of the Spanish-speaking world. This learn-Spanish software is really designed to engage your attention. By the end of the session, I’m sure someone who didn’t know most of the words to start with would be very comfortable with them.
I noticed as I did this first lesson that I was using my mouse quite a lot. I know that can be problematic for people with carpal tunnel or other problems. Hmm, was this going to be a problem in my recommending the program?
No problem! I looked in the little white booklet that came in my package, and discovered that the Fluenz people had thought of that too. There are various keyboard shortcuts you can use instead of the mouse. I was pleased to see that I could control the forward motion of the dialogue by using my right arrow key, and that if I wanted to go back to the previous phrase, I could simply do that with the left arrow key. All the keyboard shortcuts are easily available from the help files as you watch the program.
So at the end of the first lesson, I was more enthusiastic than ever… and a bit humbled that with my years in Spain and Mexico, I had still learned something in lesson one! Do go read my full review of Fluenz Spanish.
