Search - Spanish for Kids: Learn Spanish Beginner Level 1 Volume 2 on DVD

Glitchy and slow

M. Kim | 10/27/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I would give this DVD 3.5 stars but rounded down because of the DVD's inexcusable glitches.



The acting is quite bad, but that's unfortunately standard in language-learning videos. The little Chihuahua did nothing for me, but I can how the dog would pique a child's interest. The songs are almost embarrassingly bad, especially the one about body parts. And, really, couldn't Language Tree find a better costume than a green T-shirt with a few "leaves" attached?



The DVD's saving graces are its simple repetition (teaching how to make polite requests and telling time, for example) and short conversations. It's unusual to see nearly native-speaker speed in a beginning-level DVD, so it was a refreshing change from the (necessary) slow conversational speed of other DVDs. I found the short conversations extremely helpful in reinforcing vocabulary and sentence structure. Being able to switch subtitles off, to English, and to Spanish is quite nice, but I'd like an additional choice to see BOTH Spanish and English simultaneously.



However, what makes this DVD frustrating is its poor quality. On the title menu, choosing the picture for food sends you to a game about body parts. The scene forward and back navigation buttons are erratic. The animations for the DVD "games" are agonizingly slow, and even if you choose "video play" (meaning that you skip the games) you still have to sit through the slow-paced introduction to every single game. The games are a good idea to encourage active listening, but the slow pace makes it less than enjoyable. The pace for vocabulary review after each conversation is extremely slow, and there is no option to fast-forward.



I borrowed my copy from a library and have used it to study the conversations, but the DVD is not worth the money to purchase as a private copy.



Good luck with your Spanish study! I will look for another edition in this series, but only to borrow. I won't be buying anything from Language Tree soon."