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Some Serious Flaws: MISTRANSLATIONS, mispronunciations, and lack of grammar instruction

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 44 / 50
Date: February 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

(If you don't have the time to read this whole review, please at least read #1 in the list below.)

I bought this game feeling confident of its quality due to the positive reviews here, but after putting in many hours of play time, I've concluded that it has some serious flaws. I would not recommend it to Spanish students of any level. Unfortunately, my negative review may be ignored in the midst of all the 5-star reviews, but I feel obligated to take the time to let people know about this game's serious flaws.

First, a bit about my background to assure you that I know what I'm talking about. I took 4 years of Spanish as a public high school student in the United States, and then enough university Spanish to complete a minor in Spanish. I stopped taking formal Spanish courses about 10 years ago and haven't had much chance to practice since. So, while I still know basic and advanced Spanish grammar, I've forgotten a lot of vocabulary.

My Spanish Coach seemed like the perfect game for me: I could spend a few minutes a day learning (or re-learning) vocabulary and reviewing grammar, and I'd get to do it by playing fun games on a portable game system, instead of boring flashcard drills or reading a heavy textbook.

I purchased the game and spent several weeks working through the first 60 lessons. Gradually, the errors I noticed and the misgivings I felt about the game's instruction built up to a point where I had to stop playing. Here are the concerns I have, from most to least serious:

1. Mistranslation of vocabulary:
This is the most serious error, which cropped up over and over again in the first 600 words of the game. In total I found 15 mistranslated words out of 600--and those were just the ones that I noticed! I'm sure that there were many more mistranslations I didn't notice since I was learning many of the words for the first time. This problem, more than any other, is why I stopped using the game: I don't want to be learning the wrong words! This problem is the fundamental reason why I cannot recommend the game. Even ignoring the game's other errors, it is simply not excusable to teach someone the wrong words, period.

2. Mispronunciation of words:
My Spanish Coach pronounces each Spanish word for you. You can also record yourself saying the words to compare what you say to the correct pronunciation. Well, you could do that if the words were pronounced correctly--but not all of them are. I'm not talking about dialects, accents, or syllable emphasis. I'm talking about words that are pronounced incorrectly, where whole syllables are added or dropped.

3. Nouns--gender not specified:
In Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine. It's important to know the gender of a noun, because it affects the words that go along with it. Adjectives take different forms depending on the gender of the noun that they modify. One rule of thumb in Spanish is that nouns that end in "o" are (usually) masculine, and nouns that end in "a" are generally feminine. However, there are exceptions to this rule, as well as many, many Spanish nouns that do not end in "o" or "a." For these nouns, students need to memorize the gender. My Spanish Coach does not specify the gender of any of the nouns it teaches. Any Spanish dictionary or textbook would give the gender of nouns--it's an essential thing to know, but My Spanish Coach neglects this crucial information about the nouns it teaches.

4. Verbs--irregularities not specified:
Some Spanish verbs are "regular," meaning that they can be conjugated by following a basic formula. Others are "irregular," which means that you have to memorize the verb conjugations, because they don't follow a formula. Still others are somewhat irregular, called "stem-changing," which change slightly when conjugated, but otherwise follow the formula. So when learning a new verb, it's important to know which kind it is. Again, here is a situation where any Spanish dictionary or textbook would give this information, because you can't conjugate irregular or stem-changing verbs correctly without it. My Spanish Coach doesn't bother to give this crucial information about the verbs it teaches.

5. Inappropriate vocabulary:
In the first 40 lessons of the game, players are taken through lessons that have vocabulary grouped into categories: for example, there's a lesson in which the vocabulary is all about clothing. After the first 40 lessons, the vocabulary words in each lesson have nothing to do with each other. This wouldn't be so bad if the words were at least appropriate for the level of play, but they aren't. In lesson 40, for example, after students have mastered only about 400 Spanish words, the word for "oriole" is introduced. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think that "oriole" even makes it into the 1000 most important words to know, much less the top 400. What's even more ludicrous is that the word for "bird" hasn't even been covered at that point in the game. A few lessons later, the word for "foothills" is introduced, before students have learned the more basic geography words for "mountain" or "hill."

6. General lack of grammar instruction:
While players of My Spanish Coach can learn all 10,000 words in the game's dictionary, knowing vocabulary is not all there is to learning a language. The game has 1000 lessons, but what it doesn't tell you on the box is that only the first 40 lessons have any grammar instruction. The rest of the lessons are just groups of unrelated vocabulary words to master. Even in the 40 lessons that contain grammar instruction, very little is taught. Some basic phrases are taught, and a few verbs are conjugated in the present tense. No instruction is given on the basic types of verbs (-ar, -er, -ir) and how to conjugate them. Essentially, the present tense of verbs is talked about, but not taught, and no other verb tenses are even mentioned. Adjective/noun agreement is not mentioned. Word order in sentences is not mentioned. If someone made it through all or many of the lessons in My Spanish Coach, s/he might know a lot of Spanish words, but would be unable to string them together into any kind of meaningful conversation or written communication.

Overall, I'm very disappointed in this game. The idea of learning 10,000 Spanish words was appealing, and I'd hoped to later buy the French game from the same company. However, I can't convince myself to proceed with the game after finding out how much of the vocabulary it teaches is simply wrong.

Unacceptable mispronunciations! Ridiculous vocabulary!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: February 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Although this game is fun at first, after a while I started to realize that even though the pronunciations sounded as though done by a native speaker, some of them are so off as to be laughable! For example the word "ratio" is pronounced "ratito" by the speaker! "Utensilios" is pronounced "UNtensilios", and so on. And why would one wish to learn the word for "sliver" ("astillo") without having first learned the word for "little" ("poco") or other size-oriented words first? Not recommended! The mispronunciations are totally unacceptable for a language program.

For children only

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 14
Date: March 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My Spanish Coach was very dissappointing, although it might be because I am adult. It is definitely designed only for children which is not necessarily a bad thing. This game rewards "points" for silly achievements and not for any kind of real learning. The games themselves are structured poorly for understanding or memory and are more focused on playing with the toy. It is definitely a more educational game than most, but not something to be taken seriously for learning Spanish.

Good for beginners but lacks any depth.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: January 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is great as an introduction to Spanish and for learning new vocabulary. However, I was very disappointed with the amount of grammar that the product teaches.

It was annoying to reach lesson 40 and then be told that from now on I would just be learning vocabulary - the game does teaches a few regular verbs and irregular verbs in the present tense, but not really enough.

Probably a good product as an addition if you are taking some beginner Spanish lessons.

Also being able to listen to the pronunciation and compare it against your voice is a nice feature.

If anyone is interested in purchasing My Spanish Coach Level 2 then be warned - it is only about learning new vocabulary.

Not Exactly What I Expected

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It has been a good many years since I took Spanish in High School, so I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could brush up on a little of the language since it is becoming more common here in the United States. Although I don't really intend to do a lot of speaking of the language, I thought that at least being able to read and understand the printed word would be very useful.

As far as the basics ... the numbers, months, days and other vocabulary words are helpful to know, I'm not sure that they will be all that useful in the future for me. And, I'm still so rusty at this, that the verbal pronunciations seem to rattle along so fast that I can't seem to understand what is being said. Maybe I just need to practice more.

I wouldn't trust myself if I were to attempt to get by on a trip to a Spanish speaking country. It's almost funny - some of the phrases they give you to use in just such a situation, I can't ever see saying to anyone on a trip ... in English, let alone Spanish!

But, it is better than nothing and I'm glad I bought the Spanish Coach. It just wasn't as extensive or as helpful as I had expected.

Great Language Learning Tool

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 127 / 127
Date: November 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm a college student taking Spanish as a requirement, and I picked this software up hoping that it could help me get through level 2 Spanish. After playing the game today, I'm certain it will be beneficial to my quest to graduate :)

The game first tests you on a range of Spanish vocabulary to see at about what level you are currently testing at, which was excellent since I have some basic Spanish behind me already - no starting from the beginning all over again.

Another great feature in my opinion is the fact that the game forces you to continually re-play the current level you are on, and you earn 'mastery points' as you go - this prevents you from thinking you are 'close enough' to getting it and moving ahead before you might be ready. If you haven't mastered the current level you will not be allowed to move to the next.

The mini-games are enjoyable and the overall presentation of this product is very sharp. The extras almost make it worth the price of the game alone - a searchable phrasebook complete with spoken pronunciations, a English-Spanish dictionary, etc.

I definitely recommend this product and look forward to continuing to use it.

A Fun Way to Learn Some Spanish

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 85 / 86
Date: November 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my wife and myself so we could learn a little Spanish. She has some Spanish background with a few high school level classes. I have none. But both of us really enjoy the game and are learning new things right from the start.

The first 5 minutes of playing the game asks you to choose what some words mean in Spanish. It starts off with easy ones like Gracias, Uno, etc and then gets harder. The better you do on these the higher level you start in your lessons. So the game can be helpful for anyone learning Spanish.

My wife and I have both played every night since we got it and enjoy it enough that we want to play every day. The lessons are easy enough each time, but have fun games to help you learn them. Plus it can help you learn to speak Spanish too by recording your voice and comparing it to a native speakers pronunciation. You can even compare inflection to make sure you get it right.

Unexpected Gem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 24 / 24
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't expecting much when I bought the game but to my surprise it turned out to be fun and educational. I have some rudimentary knowledge of Spanish so I trully appreciated the evaluation at the beginning of the game. I didn't have to go through stuff I alrady had a grasp on. The mini games include a whack a mole type game, that I enjoyed. I'm actually contemplating on getting the French coach next. This is great for people who want to brush up on their high school Spanish or would like to find a fun way of learning a new language without much pressure. Vaya con Dios mi amigos!

A great buy!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've always been interested in learning languages and when this game came out I rushed to buy it. I've played it for a few hours and so far have increased my spanish vocabulary, but have not learned how to conjugate verbs. The games are enjoyable and really test your knowledge, but as an adult, it was harder to retain the information without writing it down and looking at it for longer than a few minutes. A good buy for adults, but this would probably be better for younger kids since they absorb more. Gracias!

My Spanish Coach

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've always loved languages so I naturally picked this game up. I just got this game and so far it seems like fun and I can see how in the future it can be helpful. I only have two complaints. The first is about the placement test at the beginning. They show you 50 words (really really simple words) such as months, days, and numbers then ask you to match them. Easy enough. But, a little too easy. I got all 50 right and they put me on the preschool level which is good for review but I'm much more advanced than learning greetings! So I wish the placement test was more comprehensive and challenging so I could find my true level at the moment. The next complaint would be Word Searches! I don't see how you learn anything from finding vocabulary words in a word search and how finding all of them somehow means you "mastered" those vocab words..but oh well.

This is a good game overall and I am looking forward to the more challenging things to come. After a few minutes of playing this I was already hoping they would come out with more in other languages!

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