Customer Reviews
good - By: Aaron Faunch, 28 Jul 2008 
this is a useful cd to have & it does help you to learn spanish wherever, as long as you have a cd player with you.
but if you have time to spare sittingin front of a computer screen i would recomend going to the bbc website first, it offers all that this cd offers & more for free &in a similar format called mi vida loca which not only offers audio( like the cd ) but video & is a hell of a lot more interactive.
Quickstart Spanish - simply brilliant! - By: J. Mortimer, 23 Mar 2008 
I have bought a number of spanish courses, from Michel Thomas (god bless his soul) to GCSE bitesize. Yet still I could not piece together a simple sentence, let alone a conversation. I have one or two friends who are fluentin speaking spanish, but when I tried to speak I turned into a blithering idiot - the words just wouldn't come out, my brain just wouldn't work fast enough. Then I read the reviews on quickstart Spanish & thought - I must give it a go! Even though my bookshelves are already groaning under the weight! However, it's the best thing I've bought so far!I'm not saying that all the other stuff isn't equally as brilliant, but this just pieces together all the bits that are floating aroundin my head. It's fairly basic stuff, like ordering things, & counting, money & time etc, but they way that it is taught suited me down to the ground. You are firstly prepared for what is going to bein the unit, then you hear a conversation, then they pick out bits of the conversation & talk about grammar, then you are encouraged to have a go, & finally you hear the conversation again - at which point you say 'oh my god, I understood every word of that'. Anyway, thats enough rambling on - I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!
An excellent basic introduction to Conversational Spanish - By: LXIX, 07 Mar 2008 
The problem with most language products "for beginners" is that they are prone to being very arbitrary & unstructured, & that they suddenly race ahead round about chapter 2. In doing so, this can often put even the most enthusiastic learner off for life. Thankfully, this product from the BBC does not fall into that category. This is indeed for total beginners & really is a step-by-step guide to learning a decent modicum of transactional & tourist-friendly Spanish.
The product is themed around three friends on a day trip to Barcelona. The layout is clear & user friendly (this is helped by the pocket-sized accompanying booklet).
Repetition is a strong point here. Each section is thoroughly dealt with & there's no disappearing over the horizon with a battery of verb tenses or unusual vocabulary that you'll never actually use.
If you're serious about learning a new language, then I would recommend that you probably get about 6 different products for beginners. If it's Spanish that you're after then this should be one of the 6in your 'starter kit'. The price is also very reasonable.
The only downside for me is that it's on CD & personally I prefer to learn languages from good old-fashioned tapes (as it's much easier to manipulate the track).
Overall, a very good intro & recommended.
Brilliant! - By: Shorty, 02 Oct 2007 I've tried a couple of other CD courses (including Linguaphone) & this one is by far the best. The CD is clear, each conversation is repeated 3 times, they give you tips along the way & unlike other CDs, they tell you what each individual wordin the sentence means as they go, which is really helpful for the next time you hear them. Each conversation is also includedin a booklet, which is really useful for learning the spellings.
If you want to learn some basic Spanish conversation for a holiday or course i really recommend this CD!
A Great and SIMPLE Intro to Spanish - By: Page-turner 123, 14 Aug 2007 Not having much time on my hands & yet wanting to learn some basic conversational Spanishin preparation for my forthcoming holidayin Spain, I bought 'Quickstart' together with a couple of other beginners approaches to the language (on CD).
Compared to the other Audio approaches that I have listened to (Michael Thomas & Pasos) I found Quickstart to be the most straightforward & the simplest & the least boring by FAR!
The tape follows the travels of 3 Spanish friendsin Barcelona & it also covers some basic Spanish cultural tips which are very useful (eg, the common protocols when speakingin shops & where to buy stamps from etc).
A real strength of the approach is the use of native Spanish speakers on the tape (indeed I could listen to Miguel's sexy tone for hours!!!!)
Seriously though, I have found it a simple, quick & fun approach to learning the very basicsin conversation with the added bonus of a little booklet included, showing the written form of all of the conversations. I think that some linguists may frown upon the lack of formal grammar etc... but as a quick & fun intro to some basic converasation it is great! (and not half as boring as Michael Thomas...yawn or the school book approach..Pasos.
