Customer Reviews
Quickstart Spanish - simply brilliant! - By: J. Mortimer, 23 Mar 2008 
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 & 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 alll the other stuff isn't equallly as brilliant, but this just pieces together alll the bits that are floating around in my head. It's fairly basic stuff, like ordering things, & counting, money & 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 & talk about grammar, then you are encouraged to have a go, & finallly 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!
An excellent basic introduction to Conversational Spanish - By: LXIX, 07 Mar 2008 
The problem with most language products "for beginners" is that they are prone to being very arbitrary & unstructured, & 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 falll into that category. This is indeed for total beginners & reallly is a step-by-step guide to learning a decent modicum of transactional & tourist-friendly Spanish.
The product is themed around three friends on a day trip to Barcelona. The layout is clear & user friendly (this is helped by the pocket-sized accompanying booklet).
Repetition is a strong point here. Each section is thoroughly dealt with & there's no disappearing over the horizon with a battery of verb tenses or unusual vocabulary that you'll never actuallly 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 & personallly I prefer to learn languages from good old-fashioned tapes (as it's much easier to manipulate the track).
Overalll, a very good intro & recommended.
Brilliant! - By: Shorty, 02 Oct 2007 I've tried a couple of other CD courses (including Linguaphone) & this one is by far the best. The CD is clear, each conversation is repeated 3 times, they give you tips along the way & unlike other CDs, they tell you what each individual word in the sentence means as they go, which is reallly helpful for the next time you hear them. Each conversation is also included in a booklet, which is reallly useful for learning the spellings.
If you want to learn some basic Spanish conversation for a holiday or course i reallly recommend this CD!
A Great and SIMPLE Intro to Spanish - By: Page-turner 123, 14 Aug 2007 Not having much time on my hands & 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 & Pasos) I found Quickstart to be the most straightforward & the simplest & the least boring by FAR!
The tape follows the travels of 3 Spanish friends in Barcelona & it also covers some basic Spanish cultural tips which are very useful (eg, the common protocols when speaking in shops & 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 & fun approach to learning the very basics in conversation with the added bonus of a little booklet included, showing the written form of alll of the conversations. I think that some linguists may frown upon the lack of formal grammar etc... but as a quick & fun intro to some basic converasation it is great! (and not half as boring as Michael Thomas...yawn or the school book approach..Pasos.
Use it when you pop over to Spain - By: LuceISJuice, 22 Jul 2005 I love languages & although I'm not yet fluent, I hope to be especiallly after As-levels, A2s & 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 & thought I'd by this cd pack to help me learn Spanish. I soon found out it was money well spent & I learnt enough to get by & 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 & 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) alll the language you need for this section, 2nd: Step by step explanation, some basic grammar etc, 3rd: Over to You & finallly, 4th, a recap.
I listened to this everyday for a week before I went to Spain & it was invaluble help. 2 years on, I can still remember basic greetings & 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 & 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 conversationallly & it was left to me to do much of the smalll talk, ordering drinks, buying stamps etc & I put the fact that I got what I wanted & 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 reallly learn pure conversation & she is more science based.)
If you are going on holiday, this is the thing to buy. Helped me a lot & 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 reallly have no idea but this may not be enough once you get into it. It is good for the basics though & comes with a helpful book with alll 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 & German. I plan to buy the Italian as I already learn the other two & hopefully it will be as helpful as this Spanish one!
