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Quickstart Spanish

Publisher: BBC Active
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł13.00~~
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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

5 reviews
Sales Rank: 599

Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6

ISBN: 0563471077
Dewey Decimal Number: 420
EAN: 9780563471073
ASIN: 0563471077

Publication Date: March 6, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 3 - 4 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Quickstart Spanish - simply brilliant! March 23, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I have bought a number of spanish courses, from Michel Thomas (god bless his soul) to GCSE bitesize. Yet still I could not piece together a simple sentence, let alone a conversation. I have one or two friends who are fluent in speaking spanish, but when I tried to speak I turned into a blithering idiot - the words just wouldn't come out, my brain just wouldn't work fast enough. Then I read the reviews on quickstart Spanish and thought - I must give it a go! Even though my bookshelves are already groaning under the weight! However, it's the best thing I've bought so far!I'm not saying that all the other stuff isn't equally as brilliant, but this just pieces together all the bits that are floating around in my head. It's fairly basic stuff, like ordering things, and counting, money and time etc, but they way that it is taught suited me down to the ground. You are firstly prepared for what is going to be in the unit, then you hear a conversation, then they pick out bits of the conversation and talk about grammar, then you are encouraged to have a go, and finally you hear the conversation again - at which point you say 'oh my god, I understood every word of that'. Anyway, thats enough rambling on - I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

4 out of 5 stars

An excellent basic introduction to Conversational Spanish March 7, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

The problem with most language products "for beginners" is that they are prone to being very arbitrary and unstructured, and that they suddenly race ahead round about chapter 2. In doing so, this can often put even the most enthusiastic learner off for life. Thankfully, this product from the BBC does not fall into that category. This is indeed for total beginners and really is a step-by-step guide to learning a decent modicum of transactional and tourist-friendly Spanish.

The product is themed around three friends on a day trip to Barcelona. The layout is clear and user friendly (this is helped by the pocket-sized accompanying booklet).

Repetition is a strong point here. Each section is thoroughly dealt with and there's no disappearing over the horizon with a battery of verb tenses or unusual vocabulary that you'll never actually use.

If you're serious about learning a new language, then I would recommend that you probably get about 6 different products for beginners. If it's Spanish that you're after then this should be one of the 6 in your 'starter kit'. The price is also very reasonable.

The only downside for me is that it's on CD and personally I prefer to learn languages from good old-fashioned tapes (as it's much easier to manipulate the track).

Overall, a very good intro and recommended.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant! October 2, 2007
29 out of 29 found this review helpful

I've tried a couple of other CD courses (including Linguaphone) and this one is by far the best. The CD is clear, each conversation is repeated 3 times, they give you tips along the way and unlike other CDs, they tell you what each individual word in the sentence means as they go, which is really helpful for the next time you hear them. Each conversation is also included in a booklet, which is really useful for learning the spellings.

If you want to learn some basic Spanish conversation for a holiday or course i really recommend this CD!

5 out of 5 stars

A Great and SIMPLE Intro to Spanish August 14, 2007
29 out of 30 found this review helpful

Not having much time on my hands and yet wanting to learn some basic conversational Spanish in preparation for my forthcoming holiday in Spain, I bought 'Quickstart' together with a couple of other beginners approaches to the language (on CD).

Compared to the other Audio approaches that I have listened to (Michael Thomas and Pasos) I found Quickstart to be the most straightforward and the simplest and the least boring by FAR!

The tape follows the travels of 3 Spanish friends in Barcelona and it also covers some basic Spanish cultural tips which are very useful (eg, the common protocols when speaking in shops and where to buy stamps from etc).

A real strength of the approach is the use of native Spanish speakers on the tape (indeed I could listen to Miguel's sexy tone for hours!!!!)

Seriously though, I have found it a simple, quick and fun approach to learning the very basics in conversation with the added bonus of a little booklet included, showing the written form of all of the conversations. I think that some linguists may frown upon the lack of formal grammar etc... but as a quick and fun intro to some basic converasation it is great! (and not half as boring as Michael Thomas...yawn or the school book approach..Pasos.

5 out of 5 stars

Use it when you pop over to Spain July 22, 2005
134 out of 140 found this review helpful

I love languages and although I'm not yet fluent, I hope to be especially after As-levels, A2s and Uni. This passion has probably led me to my mini-hatred of people who soley rely on their english to get by in a foreign country. Yes, fine if you are going to the States etc but bad manners if you are going anywhere else.
Anyway, 2 yers ago, I went to Spain with my best friend and thought I'd by this cd pack to help me learn Spanish. I soon found out it was money well spent and I learnt enough to get by and also managed to combat the infamous 'Spanish Pronouciation' (the phonetic bit of the phrases in my otherwise faultless Collins Phrasebook made my Spanish seem very anglicised and led to some laughs from the Spanish gap student when I tried it out.)

The programme follows Spanish friends around a stay in Barcelona in a sort of story. There are various senarios which may come up in your holiday like buying stuff, problems with the hotel for example, accidents etc.
Each of the 14 sections are divided into 4 parts; 1st (after a short intro) all the language you need for this section, 2nd: Step by step explanation, some basic grammar etc, 3rd: Over to You and finally, 4th, a recap.

I listened to this everyday for a week before I went to Spain and it was invaluble help. 2 years on, I can still remember basic greetings and numbers up to 20 which is pretty good seeing as I haven't had time to concentrate on my Spanish. Most of the sections came in useful and although my friend learns Spanish at school (I learn German), I was able to keep up with her. Without showing off, I was probably better conversationally and it was left to me to do much of the small talk, ordering drinks, buying stamps etc and I put the fact that I got what I wanted and the Spainish didn't raise their eyebrows in a funny way down to this package. (However, concerning my mate, it's not her fault, at school we never really learn pure conversation and she is more science based.)

If you are going on holiday, this is the thing to buy. Helped me a lot and next year I am taking up Spanish because of my new found love for the lingo. If you are learning Spanish as part of a class, I really have no idea but this may not be enough once you get into it. It is good for the basics though and comes with a helpful book with all the conversations (con slow pronounciations), vocab, grammar written in the sections you hear on the cd. (This is more of a reference as it never goes too fast.)

The same package is avaliable in French, Italian and German. I plan to buy the Italian as I already learn the other two and hopefully it will be as helpful as this Spanish one!