My Spanish Coach - Nintendo DS

I would gladly buy a second or third one of these if the excellence of the program persisted past lesson 40 / present tense. I can't imagine why they couldn't have added another 20 or 40 lessons that were ORGANIZED and covered past tense or future tense verb forms. Organization for first 40 lessons is fine -- for example, lessons on the present tense verb forms for 'to be', 'to want', 'to be able to'; food menu selections; common verbs; adjectives; places; etc. -- and leaves you able to say "I want to go to a restaurant" or "My head hurts." or "Where is the hospital?", for example. But after 40 lessons or so, they switch to an 'open mode' which seems to be random selections from the dictionary. Hence you learn the Spanish word for the bumper of a car (salpicadera) or smallpox (viruela) but you may never learn how to say 'wanted' or 'was', because they are past tense.Awesome for complete beginners or as a refresher, great for vocabulary building for diligent advanced students, but the middle ground is absent. Pretty addictive and useful overall.

I purchased this for my grandchildren to enhance their school studies. Since they so love their Nintendo DS games and learning, I thought they would use this often and forge they were learning. AND it gave back some time to me from drilling vocabulary, etc, after their study time during their stay with me this summer. I was worried that they would fight over sharing it, but that seems to work out as well. The 8 and 9 year old girl and boy happily report each section they complete, and since she is a bit ahead of him, I enjoy hearing her run to him and tell him about a new game or it's points earned when she comes across them. She got especially excited when she was able to use her mike and hear her own pronunciations alone and compared as well as matched with the teachers so that she could correct it if necessary. She hears hers, then theirs, then both, if I remember correctly. The grandbees competition over who has the most points is what is making this Spanish Coach work so well. I am pleased and would recommend it.

At first I thought this game might be too cutesy for me, and it didn't grab me while I was initially viewing the vocabulary - let me give you some advice, despite the placement test, start at the very beginning, otherwise you might miss words the game thinks you know. The ones you do know will breeze by. Once I got serious about learning the language, I really got into the game, and found that not only was it challenging, but that I really was remembering vocabulary. The mole game especially might be off the wall, but it helps! The only one that doesn't is probably the word search, it's easier to hunt for any word than translate the list.The challenge and the fun both increase quickly, and if you work at it, you can quickly feel confident conversing with a native speaker. The recordings are very easy to understand, and seem to get faster as you progress. Even early on, each lesson includes basic phrases, though I wish it had gone more in-depth at some point, like questions/answers. The list of words is nearly endless! You will never be able to learn them all at once, but if you pick up the game twice a week after mastering all of the basics, you can treat it as a sort of word-a-day learning tool and not get burnt out.Also, very important, don't neglect looking through the dictionary to practice conjugations of verbs and tenses - the game rarely has you do this - and the phrasebook, which is full of neatly categorized ways to get you through the day.A couple of things that I wish were different - I wish the game would separate "passing" and "mastering", because even once I learn them, there are some words and phrases that give me trouble. Allowing you to prioritize or ignore words in games would be very helpful once you've progressed far enough to have a large vocabulary - it's not possible to review from only the last 3-4 lessons, for instance. Other than that, I just wish the cultural aspects were a bit more pronounced, that irregular verbs were pointed out more, and that it had speech-recognition so that you could speak answers. Worse, it honestly feels like after the main lessons they ran out of time to finish the game and just threw more words in without rhyme or reason.I wouldn't say this is a substitute for a Spanish course - it'll teach you quite a bit, but obviously doesn't involve direct interaction with other people, and is only slightly immersing in Latin culture. Take a course! If a course isn't possible, I'd combine it with Spanish books and television for a bigger experience. You'll be amazed at how much you understand even by the time you're done with the primary lessons!Viva la Ubisoft!

I recently moved to a Spanish speaking country and MUST learn Spanish. This game is contributing greatly to my learning of the vocabulary. The game alone is certainly not enough to learn to speak Spanish. It is a fun way to learn a lot of new words with some reinforcement of basic grammar rules.There are many, many words with a lot of repetition as you go through the games. Just what an older learner needs. I expect this game is really good as a brain exercise as well.I gave it 4 stars because, while I highly recommend it, the claim that you can learn Spanish in just a few minutes a day without other study methods, it not realistic.I bought a used Nintendo game player along with this game. You do not need the fancy new 3D version of Nintendo because the game is not available in 3D.

this game is a great companion to a spanish course of any kind. using it by it self however may be a bit hard. it's easy to follow, has lots of different sub games and the record your voice to hear how your pronouncing words is useful. the over all entertainment value of the game is minimal.hence the 3 out of 5 stars, but what can you expect from a teaching game. this would be useful for both kids of about 11 on. i'm 34 and using to help me in my spanish classes. the repetition from the mini games helps a lot in remembering vocab.

first it tests your knowledge of Spanish words, and determines where to start your lesson from your results. There are 3 mini games that help you learn and understand the words, and once you master each word in a level, you move up to the next one, with harder and more challenging words to learn and understand. Its a great game to learn from, and its helped me get better at Spanish. You're brain learns the words by playing the games, and sometimes it doesnt even feel like learning, it can be so fun.Next one on my list is Japanese Coach... i highly recommend this game series to anyone who wants to learn a new language in a fun way

Recieved w/o box, was a little disappointed.

A lot of Spanish and a lot of fun!

Fun while learning.....a great combo!

Amazing