Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-7–The components of the kit teach basic Spanish words and phrases as
well as short conversations. The parents' guide has instructions on using
the kit, then plunges into articles, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and
more—all in 16 small pages. Adults unfamiliar with the language will be
overwhelmed. The bilingual dictionary does a nice job of listing basic
words, first in English with Spanish equivalents, then the reverse. The
English-Spanish section includes Spanish pronunciations, designates the
definite article for nouns, and gives both masculine and feminine forms for
the adjectives. There's also a section for verbs and a list of common
phrases, days of the week, and months of the year. The picture wordbook and
flashcards feature attractive photos showing diverse children and families
engaged in daily tasks as well as pictures of animals, food, clothing,
numbers, and more. The flashcards have a photo on one side and the Spanish
word on the back as well as the English equivalent. The problem is the CD
and activity book. Both are divided into 37 sections, beginning with basic
greetings and progressing through various social situations. Students listen
to the CD and are encouraged to follow along in the activity book. The
Spanish is clearly pronounced, but it is disconcerting when an adult male
voice reads the words attributed to a young girl in the activity book. More
problematic is the imperfect matching of the text in the activity book with
the CD, which most frequently happens in the English translations. For
example, in one segment, enfrente is translated as opposite in the activity
book, but the more correct across from on the CD. In another section, the
entire CD lesson on this and that is undermined in the activity book because
instead of eso, esto is used. There are numerous other inconsistencies as
well. This is a pity, since the activity book has fun games and puzzles that
reinforce the lessons. Under teacher supervision, some of the errors could
be corrected and the considerable strengths of the pictorial presentation
could be emphasized.– Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
Product Description
These pocket dictionaries give business and vacation travelers everything
they need for a smooth, successful trip. Organized by subject, the traveler
can quickly find the vocabulary relevant to the situation, whether
transportation, hotels, meals, shopping, post offices and banks, sports, or
health care, accompanied by a pronunciation guide. At the end of each phrase
book is a 2,000-word mini-dictionary. Fully updated from the original
editions to reflect currency changes such as the Euro and new vocabulary
such as e-tickets.
Product Details
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: DK ADULT; Bilingual edition (March 17, 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0789494930
- ISBN-13: 978-0789494931
- Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 3.7 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
- Average Customer Review:
  (1
customer review)
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
EXCELLENT., April 4, 2005
First I should say I went overboard and bought 5 (yes FIVE!) different
spanish audio CD kits... I did this because:
1) They are cheap enough to,
2) I thought if I got bored of one I could listen to a different CD from another
kit, rather than listening to the same CD 5 times over, and
3) Hardly any reviews have been written and you just don't know what you're
buying (meaning: I couldn't decide, so I bought them all!).
I can tell you they are not created equal. For a single CD + phrase book I'd
rate the DK kit in the top two. The other good one being the Collins Gem phrase
book + audio CD. If you can afford it, and you're looking for an easy
introduction to spanish, I'd buy both before tackling a more detailed spanish
audio program. Both this kit and the collins gem kit complement eachother very
well.
____________________________________
I am just beginning to learn spanish & I think you need to hear the spoken
language before you can really begin to learn it. It's best if you can repeat
the words to yourself. Now on to the info about this set...
The 70 minute CD has a bit of an intro, which is good, rather than just jumping
straight into it like some of the other spanish audio CDs. I find this pschs you
up for it more so! It's nice to hear: "Welcome to the Dorling Kindersley spanish
travel pack..." and something like "here are some numbers starting on page
19..." at the beginning of most tracks, etc. This is followed by any important
notes.
The english speaking host is a female, with a british accent, which I find easy
to listen to. The spanish voice is provided by a male, and it is pleasing to
hear as well. In the beginning, the word or phrase is 1st said in english,
followed slowly in spanish, and finally spanish @ normal pace. This is followed
by a brief pause to allow you to repeat the word. At about the halfway mark,
they ditch the slow spanish. Even so, there is quite a lot of material to be
covered here, and it is presented at just the right pace (if it seems like a
case of brain overload the 1st time, listen to that section again). It was never
fast enough to get fed up with it, and not to slow to start skipping tracks (but
then finding yourself getting overwhelmed). I thought I would be able to listen
to it in one sitting, but there is too much to learn. I found it took me about 3
hours to listen to it over 2 or 3 days.
The CD is good because, like the collins kit, they cover appropriate, essential
& simple words first. This may seem obvious but some of the other kits don't do
this - they start with the most odd words and phrases (or worse, they rattle on
for 5 minutes a load of spanish words with no english translations). It is 30
minutes longer than the collins one which is a definite plus.
Another plus: It does not include any unnecessary stupid-sounding melodies!
(The berlitz CD was the worst offender in that department)
Yet another plus: None of those annoying american accents, which the rest of us
can't stand to listen to. ;-)
Still yet another plus: The words on this CD are clearly spoken, and the
recording is clear during the pauses... (in contrast the "Learn in Your Car
Spanish" 3 CD set sounded like it was copied from tapes, or from a computer with
a dodgey audio card).
Sadly, there is a dark cloud in this sunny sky: The DK phrasebook is just merely
satisfactory; it lacks a spanish-english section. So if you want to look up a
word in spanish, you can't. The phrase book included in this kit is also
monochrome (meaning BLACK text only), whereas the collins gem one has two
colours: black for english, blue for spanish. Needless to say, I prefer the
collins gem phrase book.... Preferably the separate one listed below...
I also have the larger collins spanish phrase book with the orange cover (see my
review) That phrase book has glossy pages (this one has matt pages- but at this
price none of kits with audio have glossy pages). It is easier to peruse through
because it has various important bits outlined in colour boxes, and more, so I'd
recommend that as well.
V Hope this was helpful to you, and I wish you good luck with learning spanish!
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