Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Here are my thoughts on Fluenz after having gone through level 1 and most of level 2:
1. Leverage your English - The teaching style has been covered extensively in reviews of Fluenz Version F2: Spanish 1+2 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Spanish with the latest upgrade., so I won't go into it too much. I will just point out that an important part of adult learning is making connections to existing knowledge.This is why learning subsequent languages is easier than learning your first foreign language - you have more vocabulary and structures to refer back to.As far as I know, Fluenz is the only program that actively leverages your knowledge of English for learning Spanish, and it makes retaining the information so much easier.
2. Human Touch - Sonia gives encouraging comments, explains difficult concepts clearly, and even cracks a joke here and there. This human touch makes a huge difference as far as staying motivated goes.
3. Useful Language - Nothing is more frustrating than hitting a lesson in a traditional program that goes over useless information ('the door is red', 'the car is not yellow' , etc).No amount of brownie points can motivate you to move forward in such a situation.I am nearly done with level 2, and so far I haven't found a single lesson that I didn't feel was useful.Every single sentence and every structure is something I can go out and apply immediately.For me, this is the greatest motivation to continue learning.
4. Cost - You get what you pay for.Period.Sure there are plenty of cheap and free methods out there, but the learning model isn't nearly as effective, and the most common outcome with these programs is to get frustrated and give up.Think of it like this:the cost per credit hour at a US university ranges from roughly 100 to 500 dollars.One semester of a language class is 3 or 4 credits.It will probably take you two or three semesters to learn what you will get out of Fluenz 1+2+3, and you won't get the control and personalization you get with Fluenz.The cost of Fluenz is a small price to pay for communication.
5. Previously Mentioned Flaws - All of the errors mentioned in reviews of Spanish 1+2 (before Nov 09) have been addressed as far as I can see (please correct me if I'm wrong) in the new F2 release.Typo's have been fixed and the interface has been optimized so that it runs smoothly.Kudos to the desing team at Fluenz - somehow they managed to incorporate the most requested features into the new version without making the program any more cluttered or less intuitive.
6. Suggestion - My only suggestion would be to have a dedicated vocabulary building module.Fluenz has done a masterful job maximizing the level of fluency you achieve while minimizing the amount of vocabulary you have to memorize (I believe there are roughly 300 words per level).This is great - this is how I think it should be in the beginning.However, if you really want to be fluent, you will eventually have to suck it up and learn the vocabulary.Fluenz, I hope you can find a way to make vocabulary building as engaging as you have made the rest of language learning and perhaps create a separate program for this.In the mean time, there are vast resources for vocabulary building already available either for free or at a very low cost.
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Fluenz Version F2: Spanish 1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and PodcastsProduct Description: The only interactive language program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of great one-on-one tutoring.
A Great Teacher on Your Computer Discover Spanish through the power of a great teacher with the comprehensive 1+2+3 program. The Fluenz custom-made approach guides you in English every step of the way through the challenges of Spanish, while immersing you in the beauty of the culture.
A Proven Track Record Fluenz's unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies, and students at Harvard Business School and other leading universities.
How Fluenz gets you there:
A real on-screen tutor who guides you every step of the way.
Using English explanations so you never get lost.
Immersing you in the culture of the language.
f2 is the newest version of Fluenz, containing hundreds of small yet significant improvements over all prior versions of the program. f2is a hybrid Mac/Win system which can run directly from the hard drive, offering superior audio and video quality, more powerful tools for targeting the areas where you need the most work, and enhanced navigation to give you complete control over the learning process. The Most Comprehensive Program to Learn SpanishSpanish 1+2+3 This comprehensive program will guide you through Spanish in 90 sessions that take up to two and a half hours each to complete. Each session is led from beginning to end by a tutor who guides learners step-by-step with explanations, strategies, tactics, and tips to help English speakers reach a level of conversational Spanish in the least amount of time.
The Fluenz Difference Designed by recent graduates of Harvard, Brown and Cornell, along with veterans in language learning and high technology, Fluenz addresses the critical issues for adults and teens to reach fluency: 1) clear explanations in plain English, 2) the motivation only a great teacher can provide, and 3) hundreds of hours of focused practice specifically tailored to help English speakers master Spanish.
No Substitute for a Great Tutor Fluenz offers a great teacher to challenge and inspire you. Instead of matching pictures with Spanish words over and over again, fluency can be reached more quickly by having someone actually explain to you in English how the language works. That's why every Fluenz session is built around a tutor who leads you through the learning process.
Adults Should Be Taught Like Adults Linguistic research shows that adults learn languages differently than children. Adults really benefit from having clear explanations of how the language works. Instead of focusing on childlike phrases such as "red apple, green apple," Fluenz has you ordering food, giving directions to a taxi driver, making hotel reservations, and handling a wide range of other real-world situations right from the start.
Custom-Made For English Speakers Cookie-cutter approaches based on matching pictures and words follow the same script from language to language. But using the same script to teach both Spanish and Swahili doesn't make sense. Each language is unique, and each one presents its own unique challenges to an English speaker. For example, it is impossible to understand the difference between the critical Spanish verbs "ser" and "estar" without an explanation in English. Fluenz makes a difference because a real tutor guides you along a path specifically designed for you to learn Spanish.
Three Steps Towards Fluency With Spanish 1+2+3, you'll start out by building a strong foundation in how the language works from pronunciation to grammatical structures. Right away, you'll learn how to form useful questions and statements ("The check, please"), and from there you'll begin to construct more complex sentences in a variety of situations, using the past, present and future tenses. The third level of the program takes your Spanish to a whole new level, enhancing the complexity and subtlety of your speech with in-depth work on reflexive verbs, verb complements, conjugations, functional expressions, and extensive vocabulary that greatly expands the range of conversations you can engage in with Spanish speakers. You'll be introduced to more nuanced tenses, like the present progressive and conditional, that give your Spanish more flexibility and fluidity, and with this you'll move beyond canned phrases to being able to participate in natural, unrehearsed conversation.
How It Works Fluenz Spanish is organized around one-one on tutoring sessions that each take up to two and a half hours to complete.
How Fluenz Begins The Fluenz tutor begins each session with a brief introduction. This provides an understanding of how the new material will take you a step closer to fluency, while immersing you in the cultural context and the experiences of everyday Spanish.
Introducing useful, everyday language This is followed by a realistic conversation between native speakers that uses all the words and structures to be learned in the session. These conversations place you in the most common, everyday situations right from the very beginning.
Immersive one-on-one tutorial Immediately after the conversation, the tutor presents a full tutorial explaining in detail and in English how every single new word and structure works. Beyond in-depth explanations, these tutorials offer strategies, tactics and personal experiences that give you valuable insights.
Workout to fluency After each tutorial, the program turns to over a dozen different types of increasingly challenging workouts that cover reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These workouts reinforce and expand your communication at the same time.
Coaching you forward At the end of the session, the Fluenz tutor returns to offer a conclusion, along with the kind of inspiration only a human teacher can provide.
The Path to Fluency 1+2+31. Build a Strong Foundation Fluenz Spanish begins by teaching how to form questions and statements that are useful on day one, and that share the same word order in English and Spanish (i.e. "The check, please," "I want this dish"). The Fluenz team felt this was more relevant than phrases such as "The horse is jumping," found in other programs. For example, after only the first four sessions of level one, learners are already able to have effective conversations in a restaurant.
2. Describe Location and Directions The program then shifts to describing and asking about location. In this way users can learn the basics of how crucial verbs work while advancing their vocabulary related to transportation and travel. Instead of memorizing words and pictures, Fluenz users actually get to understand how questions and phrases such as "Where is the hotel?" and "I'm going to the museum" both work and are used in everyday life.
3. Gain Confidence With Your Verbs Verbs are the action words of language. In Spanish, verb forms change depending on whom they refer to, resulting in an infamous number of conjugations. Because passive memorization won't do, Fluenz thoroughly covers Spanish verbs by emphasizing the most useful ones, explaining in English how they work, and providing plenty of practice to make sure you can use them when you really need to.
4. Employ Spanish Possessives Another great structure that can easily be understood by English speakers is the formation of Spanish possessives ("The hotel's restaurant," "The museum's entrance"). Using possessives is a simple way to add precision and sophistication to your Spanish.
5. Valuable Descriptive Terms Because language without description lacks life and color, Fluenz puts great emphasis on how to add this important dimension to your interactions. Plus, when traveling through a country, nothing is going to be more helpful than "bigger," "smaller," "less expensive," and those other adjectives that both make sense to English speakers and are easily used in forming sentences.
6. Building Blocks of Sophisticated Communication Since the key to fluency in Spanish is being able to use all of the most common parts of speech, Fluenz covers a wide range of central grammar issues. From pronouns and prepositions to word order and commands, you'll be able to correctly form complex sentences and express yourself with solid, confident Spanish.
7. Understand Directions and Transportation Giving and receiving directions is both a way to continue building the essential tools of Spanish communication and a way to develop the skills anyone traveling will always need. Fluenz creates a path that gives English speakers complete control over the critical vocabulary and structures for asking questions, indicating directions, negotiating transportation, and explaining locations.
8. Easily Handle Numbers and Time After thorough workouts enabling learners to talk about location with ease, Fluenz makes sure you master numbers and, therefore, time. From counting up to 999,999 to telling the time, Fluenz users gain control over a wide range of time-specific communication. Once time and location are joined, it becomes possible to form complex questions and statements in a variety of situations, such as planning trips or making appointments.
9. Confident Shopping and Negotiation Throughout the program, your ability to interact in shopping situations is steadily improved. Fluenz works on the critical verb "to want" in the very beginning, and soon enough you learn how to ask about prices, make comparisons between different items, and express exactly what you're looking for. By the end of the program, you'll be able to handle shopping, price negotiations, and purchasing situations with ease.
10. Conquer Irregular and Reflexive Verbs Spanish verbs often present the greatest challenge to English speakers, but with clear explanations and focused practice, you'll not only be able to understand the most common verbs but also use them effectively yourself. The conjugation of irregular verbs in the past, present and future tenses takes your Spanish to a new level of sophistication. At the same time, reflexive verbs, which don't exist in English, can add a whole repertoire of action to your speech.
11. Make Plans with Conditions and Possibilities Fluenz gives you the tools to make detailed plans, whether a lunch date with a friend, a business meeting, or travel abroad, using the nuanced tenses and adverbs that allow you to express condition and possibility. The program focuses on the uses of "I would like" and "I might" to form expressions of possibility. The incorporation of conditional sentences using "if," as well as the introduction of new vocabulary pertaining to a variety of activities, will give your Spanish the precision and flexibility needed to handle almost any arrangement.
12. Discuss Family and Describe People As your Spanish becomes more complex and flexible, conversations will move from basic needs and wants to sharing personal stories and background. Beyond telling stories, however, the vocabulary used to describe family can translate into a multiplicity of scenarios and give you the capacity to describe people whether looking for someone in a restaurant or talking about your favorite movie star.
13. Express Opinions and Preferences From dining situations to making plans with friends, being able to express your opinions and preferences is a key component to everyday language. The program introduces the verbs "to believe/think," "to prefer," "to wish," and the expression "it's true that..." will empower you in shopping situations ("I prefer the blue one"), making plans ("I think we should go tomorrow if it isn't raining"), and discussing an endless number of topics from politics to sports ("I wish I could play tennis, but I think I'm a good soccer player").
14. Spanish for the Workplace Fluenz is currently being used by public health professionals, executives at Fortune 500 companies, priests of Spanish-speaking parishes, senior personnel at the UN, firefighters, social workers, lawyers, and law enforcement officers. Fluenz Spanish is also used by elite units of the US Navy in Virginia. Whether your work engages in the Spanish-speaking communities of the US or takes you on business to Latin America or Spain, Fluenz equips you with the tools to handle scheduling, negotiation and formal conversations, while providing you with the strongest possible foundation in the language from which to expand your vocabulary to suite your field of expertise. Most importantly, you'll be learning how to engage in conversations from day one, which means you can start using your Spanish in the workplace right away.
15. Speak Naturally Wherever You Go Spanish is a beautiful, vibrant language. Once you've established a foundation in how the language works, it is time to add more life to your Spanish by expanding not only your vocabulary, but also your comfort with a variety of familiar expressions and sentence structures. As the program progresses, you'll discover the conjunctions, interjections and adverbs that make your Spanish flow naturally.Spanish 1+2+3 is not just about "getting by" in a language; it is about giving you the tools to hold conversations with multiple verb tenses, the relevant vocabulary and the confidence to engage what you know in a real-life setting.
Ideal for Communicating Wherever People Speak Spanish Fluenz Spanish 1+2+3 provides a comprehensive understanding in the fundamentals of the Spanish language and develops, step-by-step, the vocabulary, flexible sentence structures and verb forms to engage in unrehearsed conversations wherever you find yourself speaking Spanish. Fluenz has been successfully used for work, travel and in local communities.
Great Audio CDs and Exclusive PodcastsAudio CDs: Spanish for Your Car or iPod Moving beyond typically dry and hollow language learning tapes, the Fluenz team engaged two professionals who could communicate the richness and emotion of Spanish. Fluenz Spanish 1+2+3 comes with three audio CDs that feature the voices of Hollywood actor Edgar Ramirez, HBO Latin America star Ivan Loscher, and Fluenz tutor Sonia Gil.
Fluenz Podcasts: Download to Learn on the Go Continuing a tradition at the Fluenz Lab, Fluenz Spanish offers exclusive podcasts made by the same team that created the interactive program. These downloadable podcasts supplement the training work offered by the audio CDs, while providing a more informal, relaxed window into the world of Spanish and the actual learning of the language.
The Fluenz Navigator: Your Essential Phrase Book Fluenz Spanish also comes with the Fluenz Navigator, a useful quick-reference guide for travelers with all the most critical words and phrases for getting by abroad.
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