Learn in Your Car Spanish Complete Language Course (Spanish Edition)

I've just finished the 3rd disc(and, hence level 1) and have learned quite a bit thus far. The first level has 44 lessons ranging from buenos dias in lesson 1 to conjugating verbs such as tener in present, near future, and past tense in lesson 44. Perhaps the only minor annoyances are the lessons on trains and the OVERLY loud incessant chime ring that occurs at the beginning of each lesson.


Your car may need a jump start   August 22, 2004
 125 out of 131 found this review helpful

Penton Learn In Your Car Spanish is a strong program and an excellent value under one very important condition: you will struggle with this mightily unless you have some prior background in the language. Key disclosure: I last studied Spanish in high school over 30 years ago, but during the past few years I've taught myself Italian using predominantly the Pimsleur Series, which I'll talk more about later. The fact that I took six years of Spanish in school and more recently studied Italian were pivotal factors in my ability to use the Penton materials effectively.



The Penton package comes with 9 language CD's (three each for beginning, intermediate and advanced levels), several printed booklets that contain transcripts of the CD's, 3 'bonus' CD's I guess I'd call them that present the series philosophy on how to learn a foreign language, and a compact and rugged travel case that conveniently houses everything above. While in a sense the inclusion of printed materials is antithetical to a product called learn in your car,' their presence is extremely helpful as a reference when you can't quite hear what's being said on the audio track, and also to explain some basic grammatical concepts that would be incomprehensible otherwise. Both the booklets and the carrying case are factors in why I rate this package as an excellent value.



Like many similar do it yourself courses, Penton relies on trying to ask you in English to say something in the language you're learning. On the surface there is no rhyme or reason to the order of what they present or the way it sequences through the progress of the course, but over time the subtle reinforcement builds knowledge and confidence. On the plus side, they pack a lot of grammar and vocabulary into these nine CD's. I found the treatment of verb conjugations and tenses to be especially thorough. You'll get credible exposure to present, past, imperfect, conditional, future, and imperative tenses, which was way beyond my expectations in such a low-cost product. It's a terrific refresher and I think it worked great for me since I was able to connect back to both Spanish and Italian, even if the Spanish was buried deep in the attic of my mind.



On the negative side, as previously expressed, I believe newcomers to the language will find themselves baffled by the presentation. You first hear a sentence in English, then there is a very short pause, then the sentence is rendered in Spanish, followed by another short pause, and then repeated in Spanish followed by a final pause. You are supposed to repeat the Spanish each time you hear it. This is the basic methodology behind the entire course. The instructions would have you believe that just by listening to it over and over again you will start to internalize the Spanish and it will all make sense. I just don't think this works very well. It requires an enormous leap of faith reminiscent of the 'Think Method' employed by the scam artist Dr. Harold Hill in The Music Man. However, if you've previously studied Spanish or a similar Romance language, you can quickly get a grip on what's going on and have it make sense from the beginning. The other frustrating issue is that it's a natural tendency to want to be able to say something immediately after you hear the English for the first time. But they don't give you enough time to do that so even on a repeat listening you're frequently talking over the speakers.



I suspect that the underlying construction of the Penton series required the inventor to supply the three ObonusO CD's that explain how to learn a foreign language. These are entirely generic and apply to any language you might want to study. The narrator sounds exactly like the 'Zen Guy' in the Joe Frank radio broadcasts. You may well disagree with me, but I found these three discs to be virtually useless and almost insulting. If the course materials themselves are good, I don't need to hear some guy droning on about how he himself learned 18 languages while controlling his breathing and standing on his head.



Back to Pimsleur for a moment. The Pimsleur CD's I bought to study Italian (Levels 2 and 3 are also reviewed by me on Amazon) cost roughly five times more each than this Penton program. I found the Pimsleur approach, while fundamentally similar from a teaching methodology, to build more logically and therefore to make it easier to learn from scratch. But despite the manufacturer claims, in either case you can't really succeed if you don't supplement the work in your car with printed materials. At least Penton recognizes this overtly while Pimsleur doesn't, and I think you'll find the transcripts that come with Penton to be of considerable help.



Following about 4-6 weeks of more or less daily listening to Penton, I went to Mexico with my family for a vacation. I started in the moment we arrived with a lively discussion with the young man driving us to our hotel from the airport. Even in a resort where most of the employees were supposed to speak some English, I was largely able to conduct my conversations in Spanish and received a lot of compliments and a few incredulous looks when I ventured to try something more ambitious than the present tense. I give the Penton product a lot of credit for my performance, but again, it's hard to know how it would have worked out if I was coming to the language for the first time.



To sum it up, I don't think you can go wrong with this if you've ever studied Spanish before, even if just a year or two. But if you haven't, all I can say is, 'muy buena suerte,' cause I think you're going to have to work really hard and you'll need all the luck you can get.


For the language student, not the traveler   March 16, 2004
 86 out of 87 found this review helpful

This series is formatted differently from other beginning language courses, such as those from Living Language and Berlitz. It's not a series of phrases designed for the traveler, but a more complete course for people who have aspirations of fluency. Hence, I'd recommend this course to anyone who was serious about learning the Spanish language, but not to the occasional traveler. Plan on spending several months going over the material.

The early part of the course involves a considerable amount of basic vocabulary. Sentences and phrases come later. Once they do, they build upon each other quickly, so you'll be glad you learned the vocabulary. The advantage of this approach is that when the sentences come, you have a better chance of understanding and remembering them. The downside is that you really have to force yourself thru the early part of the course without any sense that you're getting anywhere.

The material is perfectly suited to anyone with a long commute. What's needed is about 45 minutes per day of uninterrupted listening -- over and over and over and over. You don't even need to listen that hard. It's more like singing along with the radio. Just the constant repetition, with you repeating the words and phrases, is enough to implant the material in your brain. After a while, you'll know the language and not know how you know it.

One great advantage of the presentation over other similar courses is that there is a slight pause between the English speaker and the Spanish translation. This pause allows you to say the Spanish word or phrase before the Spanish speaker, if you know it. This seemingly insignificant detail is actually critical for learning. Other courses put the Spanish translation immediately after the English speaker, without a pause, and you never really build the kind of recall that you need. Another advantage of the course is that it presents both Spanish and Latin American versions of words and phrases, when there is a difference.


Good Car Spanish Course Overall * Some Drawbacks   November 23, 2005
 73 out of 74 found this review helpful

'Spanish Complete: The Complete Language Course' by Henry N. Raymond is an overall good solid Spanish course.
When compared to courses such as Berlitz, Living Language and especially Pimsleur I would say that 'Spanish Complete' is an excellent value for the money.
What I like about 'Spanish Complete' is the amount of vocabulary that they present in the course as well as the number of verb tenses that are taught. The voices on the CDs are extremely clear and the method used is effective, to a point.
This is where I feel some improvement may be needed.
There really is no effort on the behalf of the creators of this fine course to provide the learner with some means of expanding their ability to create their own authentic sentences.
The 'canned' sentence approach where the student simply repeats sentences with vocabulary, however useful and relevant, is much less effective in achieving the goal of fluency in a language than a course that would emphasize sentence 'creation' based on the individuals needs and goals. This emphasis on 'real' as opposed to 'rote' learning is the optimal way to learn to speak a foreign language. Few courses have it and 'Learn in Your Car' is no exception.
Still, it must be said that the sheer amount of material that is presented in this course in an effective, pleasant and clear manner makes this an outstanding value for the money.
Tip: Supplement this course with one or two other 'car courses' which feature different teaching approaches. I would stay away from Pimsleur courses because of the limited vocabulary and excessive price. There are many other good Spanish courses out there.
Buena Suerte (Good Luck)
Mark Frobose/Author
Driving Towards Fluency and Behind the Wheel in Spanish/French/Italian/Portuguese/German/Arabic/Mandarin Chinese/Japanese/English for Spanish Speakers