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You have to know basic Spanish to be able to use this CD effectively. This is a set of ten brief dialogues (about 3 minutes each) of Latin American Spanish. There are also grammar notes and vocabulary lists for each dialogue. I find this to be a useful tool for improving my listening comprehension. Such support for a product is rare these days. Although I am not a native speaker, the dialogues sound authentic and are spoken at the same rate and with the same intonation you would hear in South America.
The customer support is excellent. There are transcripts of the dialogues in Spanish with English translations. You can't begin to learn Spanish with this CD. The advantage is that you can practice listening to the real thing rather than to carefully scripted dialogues spoken in clear and slowed down Spanish by professional actors. The voices on this CD sound like real people rather than actors. I contacted Brianys Ferrer Visbal at Supreme Spanish via their website with a grammar question and received a quick and detailed response.
Actually I purchased the product directly from Supreme Spanish as a download of MP3s and PDF files rather that buy the much more expensive CD and hard copy set.
I think there should be an official definition for "intermediate" and "advanced" because although I have been studying at the official DELE intermediate level this product is nowhere near that standard. Also, for what you get - short CD and a booklet, the price is outrageous. And, some of the Spanish to English translations in the booklet are really bad - we would never say things like "It's been months that we haven't seen each other". Hopefully the Spanish is better.
This is an important issue and one that should be addressed by these programs. It has helped me. For the most part it's not done here. But, more should have been included.First, a general comment. One of the difficulties I've had in understanding spoken Spanish in conversation, or listening to mp's or videos, is becoming quickly listening fatigued re understanding as the conversation/mp3 procedes. They have been a help to me, but they can be only one small aspect of a much broader program that includes a much more extensive range of listening material, significant vocabulary acquisition including idioms, informalities, etc., and, (gasp). That is, as it would be used in perfectly normal conversation.
actually conversing with native speakers. (More bluntly: get real). (The many available on-line language exchanges provide this opportunity).Back to the product.There are ten conversations. For example, stories by Garcia Márquez and Juan Rulfo are available, as are also the first three chapters (one mp3, total 12 minutes) of Ernesto Sábato's existential novel, El Túnel.Note: if you buy this directly from amazon you are sent the actual CD and a booklet with the conversation transcripts and other written material (grammar, vocabulary, idioms) relevant to the conversations.
Overall this is an good product. For example, one character says: "Mándame un mensaje de texto apenas estén llegando".The shortcoming of the product, in addition to the minor one of the occasional stilted scripting, is that for the price there's not enough. There should be more and, more importantly, longer conversations. That is, after only a couple of minutes I often find my ability to understand significantly diminished. The scripts OK. Not quite the same as conversation, but it yields the additional benefit of forcing you to do a translation and learn a lot more vocabulary. Anyone who thinks that by studying these conversations they will become "fluent" in understanding spoken Spanish: good luck, Charley. At normal speed eight of the conversations are below 3 minutes, one at 3:09 and the last clocks in at 4:31.
Each has both a normal and slow speed.The actors are sufficiently animated. Of course, there's the usual stilted "I want to travel to Spanish speaking countries so I can improve my Spanish", etc., in the conversations, revealing a certain poverty of imagination on the part of the writers.One excellent feature of the conversations is the extensive, but unforced, use of the subjunctive. Of course, this criticism applies equally to most of the other Spanish conversational aids I've used.To help with this, btw, one can find on-line free mp's of Latin American short stories by renown authors. However, I wanted the printed material in computer format so I contacted the company and they very promptly emailed me the files.
This is a great program for conversational based immersion. The last reviewer neglected to read the product description, so naturally that person would find it difficult to keep up with. Regardless, I really enjoyed it and recommend it highly to anyone who wants to advance their listening comprehension and mastery of the language.
I was disappointed in this DVD. Learning Spanish from this program would be extremely hard. It speaks only Spanish so you are constantly looking in the book to see what is being said. It is difficult to keep up with.
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