Mastering Spanish: Level Two [With Textbook]

Product looked good. Appeared new. Came in a timely manner. Was sent away as a gift. Haven't heard that person's review, if all is new as advertised but it appeared to be.

In general I found this course excellent. I have a few criticisms which in my view reduce it's rating from 4.5/5 to 4 star. They are: The print size and apparent random font selection. The print is often too small and the font changes are a little irritating. The quality of the CDs is excellent but it would have been much more convenient to the user if each lesson had a separate CD. This would probably have required only one additional CD. An "open flat" binding would have made the book easier to use and more durable for frequent and on-going use. On each page a phonetic rendering of the Spanish text is given which occupies almost 50% of the book. At this level, phonetic support should be unnecessary and by omitting it the size of the book could be much reduced or the freed up space used more productively. For some reason, only the narrative following lesson 16 is recorded. For little extra CD space all the post-lesson dialogues could have been recorded with considerable benefit to the student. The quality of the paper could be better to reduce wear and tear. However, in spite of comments above, a really good course, which motivated me over many months and is excellent value for money, even at the original full price.

GENERAL: This is the continuation of the Level One course. All of the comments to this course apply to level one. The course starts with the introduction of the subjuntive mood via drills. STRENGTHS: This audio is excellent in terms of verbal drills. The exercises train the mind and body in applying grammatical rules. By replaying sections of the CD, it is possible to train not only the mind, but the tongue and mouth to speak Spanish clearly with minimum English accent. Being forced to vary sentence structure in the exercises, translate from English to Spanish and build sentences using phrases are exemplary in inculcating Spanish into the subconscious. The lessons present many nuiances of speaking Spanish, particularly intonation patterns, which are not presented in any other course. WEAKNESSES: Readers are primarily Mexican and have strong Mexican accents. Voice tones of a couple of the readers are very similar and it is difficult to differentiate which character is speaking. The reading presentations are often stiff; the readers are definately not trained actors. The lack of verbal emotion make contextual understanding a little difficult. There is no practice in the Vosotros forms. The grammatical explanations of the textbook are weak. This course should be used following or in conjunction with a rigorous grammar training course. SUMMARY: An essential supplement to rigorous grammar course, but it is not a stand alone course.