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BBC
Quickstart Spanish is a 140-minute audio language course on 2 CDs,
designed to be an all listening, little reading, no writing kind
of course. It's aimed at people who want to learn the basic 'holidaying'
vocabulary and who don't want to know the ins and outs of the grammar.
The Spanish CD follows three friends, Susana, Miguel & Alex
for 24 hours around Madrid. The 24-hour 'language adventure' is
split into sections, each one dealing with a different situation
that you are likely to come across when travelling.
When I first
plugged my headphones in I couldn't wait to get started as I hadn't
studied Spanish for a very long time and wanted a refresher course
before booking a holiday. As soon as I pressed play I decided that
maybe I should have waited! The CD greeted me with the typical language
learning music, supposedly from the country whose language you are
learning (cue the flamenco guitar playing!!), and the corny joke
of "Susana & Miguel, two friends, purely platonic"
(cue fake laughter). It really made me think that this was going
to be a tacky learning course which I wouldn't be able to listen
to for one minute let alone 140 of them! But I'm pleased that I
didn't press stop and give up. I managed to learn to block the music
and the bad jokes out of my head long enough to learn some new Spanish
and refresh the old Spanish that I already had.
The CDs each
have seven episodes with two conversations on each. The episodes
are split into four separate sections, "time to listen"
(listening to the conversations), "time to reflect" (explaining
the conversation) "time to kickstart" (practicing pronunciation
& language) and "time to recap" (seeing what you have
learnt). These sections are overall well-structured and useful when
learning the language. The only thing that does get irritating is
the repetition of "right, now it's time to kickstart your Spanish"
(by the way it's a play on 'quickstart'. Pure genius!).
The subjects of the sections are typical day-to-day topics which
will be needed when in the country, i.e. CD1 covers everything from
"hola (hello)" to buying postcards & stamps, while
CD2 covers going out and dealing with any problems you might come
across.
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...
they don't overload you with the grammar, but they give you
enough to get by if people ask you something that isn't included
on the course.
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In the "time to reflect" section, there are often very
basic grammar tips. This is ace as they don't overload you with
the grammar, but they give you just enough to get by and adapt what
is on the CD if people ask you something that isn't included on
the course. By the end of episode two, you already know two of the
pronouns and verb endings for one of the most commonly used verbs.
But don't get too excited, as you still have the corniness of language
learning CDs shining thorough in this section ("now do you
think you've got a few greetings under your belt" is just a
little taster of what you have to come)! Obviously the grammar isn't
a huge part of the course, as this is primarily an audio course.
It would defeat the object if you had to write down all the grammar.
I think this is a fab way of doing grammar, as I always used to
get unbelievably bored doing verb drills. This way you learn the
most common verbs without having to do the boring bit.
The course is accompanied by a small phrasebook and a transcript
of all the conversations. This is very helpful when doing the course
as you can also learn to recognise the Spanish words written down,
rather than just recognising them from speaking. Some phrases are
a little obscure if you're only spending 24 hours in Spain. For
example the BBC have included "te quiero" meaning I love
you - I'm not 100% sure if this is the BBC implying that you will
find love if you know Spanish and are on holiday!
As far as the
speaking on the CD is concerned, the Spanish is not too fast and
not too slow. There is a slight change in the speed of the Spanish
after Episode 1, but the narrators do not jump straight into reeling
off Spanish so fast that the only words that you get are the first
and last ones. On the contrary, the speed is slow enough to hear
the intonation and the way the individual letters are spoken by
native speakers. Each episode also gives you the chance to repeat
what has been said straight after the native speaker. This is good,
but I couldn't help thinking that maybe I was pronouncing it wrong
(but to me it sounds exactly like the CD!). I suppose the only way
I could try this out was to go to Spain. So I'll let you know how
it goes and if people understand my Bristolian turned Spanish accent!
Overall I think
this course is an effective and fast way of learning basic touristy
Spanish. It also gives a starter block to go on into more in depth
Spanish (bear in mind this may be more grammar!!). The course is
available in other languages such as French, German and Italian
and I will definitely consider the Italian CDs. I'm not sure how
well a Bristolian accent would sound trying to be Italian, but I
suppose there's only one way to find out.
BBC Quickstart is aimed at the growing number of people going away
on weekend or short European breaks who want to grasp the basics
of the language beforehand, without having to master any complicated
grammar or phrases. The courses in French, German, Italian and Spanish
follow three friends around Nice, Hamburg, Turin and Barcelona respectively.
BBC Quickstart concentrates only on essential language required
for a short break abroad, breaking it down into short, easy to learn
categories. Each section allows you time to listen to the conversations,
time to reflect with a step-by-step explanation of the dialogue,
time to kickstart which lets you practise your pronunciation and
language and time to recap so you can listen again and see how much
you have picked up.
Each Quickstart CD/cassette pack also contains a booklet which features
lots of useful language tips and all the conversations that are
featured on the audio.
review in association with BBC Languages 2005
Click
here for more information and to purchase BBC
Quickstart language courses.
The BBC Quickstart audio-only language courses are available in
French, German, Italian and Spanish on CD or cassette.
Click
here for more information about all BBC
Languages courses.
Click here for more information about other Spanish
language courses.
If
you require any further information,
please contact us!
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