I just had a chance to experiment a bit with program called “Learn to Speak Spanish.” I was at a friend’s house and she mentioned she had it on her computer. Well, I only paused a moment before asking if I could play with it for a few minutes. She knows about this website and said sure.
In a nutshell, it’s an inexpensive program that I didn’t think was all that great, but when I poked around online, some reviewers at Amazon loved it. If you find it at a yard sale, you might want it.
The lessons began with the letters of the alphabet. You learn to pronounce “ah” “bay” “say” and so on. You click on a letter of the alphabet and the program says it. There is a feature where you can say it into a microphone, but my friend hasn’t done that.
Next, you learn to pronounce individual vowels, by seeing a list of words and clicking on them to hear how they should be pronounced. After you’ve done individual vowels you do the vowels in combination. I did find a couple of words here that I was mispronouncing. Then it goes on to individual consonants and then consonants combined.
Y-a-w-n.
This is not bad for review if you already know some Spanish (and oops I had forgotten how to pronounced a few of the letters, so I got something from it) but I don’t think it’s a good way to start a Spanish course.
Next, there is a twenty-question pre-test you can take to see if you should start with their basic or their intermediate level. I aced the first ten questions, but the second ten required a microphone. Luckily, I could still move around in the different levels
Their lessons were on different topics: you could choose between phrases for everyday life, for travel, or for business. This seems better than Rosetta Stone, where you are taught things like “he is under the table.” The only people I can think of who would need to know that early on in learning Spanish are the really heavy drinkers!
I did think the program ran easily enough, aside from having to switch CDs for the more advanced lessons. And the screen shots were clear. Recommended for someone who with little money and a poor internet connection, or none, as you can do it without one.
Click on the image to see it at Amazon.com.
