Marketed as an easy way to learn Spanish, the concept behind No-Work Spanish is intriguing. A narrator tells a story by reading a sentence first in English, then repeating it in Spanish. At the end of a chapter, the chapter is re-read entirely in Spanish.
I received Yaks March on Washington and Poster Girl for my review. The narrators of the stories are easy to listen to and are expressive enough to make the stories interesting. I noticed that many of the same words are repeated throughout the story, which helps the listener pick them out more easily. I would have appreciated the Spanish sentences being spoken a bit more slowly, but I understand the need to maintain a normal, conversational speed.
I listened to the cd's while doing chores around the house. While I picked up a few words or phrases the first time through, I am confident that the more often you listen to the story, the more you will find yourself learning. One helpful feature is that the text for the stories can be printed from a PDF file on the cd or from the No-Work Spanish website. I believe that actually sitting down and reading the text while listening to the cd would be highly beneficial.
I would not recommend these particular stories for young children as they are rather long. Older children, however, may find the stories interesting enough to follow along and be learning without even realizing it!
If you would like to see how this program works, you can listen to three chapters of one of their books for free! You can also visit their website to explore various buying options which include audio cd's and music download sites.
This is a Mama Buzz review. The product for this review was provided to me free of charge by No-Work Spanish Audiobooks. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not compensated for them in any other way.
Sounds like a great way to learn Spanish! Can you believe my family lived in Puerto Rico from the time I was 6 months until I was almost 5 and I had to learn some Spanish out of necessity to communicate with the other children. However when we moved back to Texas my parents didn't keep me practicing so I lost it. :( I can pick up a stray word here or there, but could never follow a conversation or attempt one. Bummer!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Jennifer @ http://justpeachyindixie.blogspot.com
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI have wished our daughters could learn another language since it seems to come so easily for children. However, my husband and I don't speak anything other than English fluently, so that hasn't happened.
We're learning Spanish (a program I bought through Christian Light Publications) - this book sounds like an excellent idea for when my children are older, to help them learn the language better. Some people say that going and living in the country of the language you are learning is the best way to learn the language - and that's where this audiobook would be fantastic, because of the conversational Spanish you would be hearing.
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