New Year, New Muzzy

BBC Muzzy is still one of the best and most innovative language courses for kids on the market.   Currently available as a BBC Muzzy 20th Anniversary Edition language course, the program includes ALL five of the languages – French, Spanish, German, Italian and English.  Your child can focus on just one language – or dip in and out of all five.   Read more

Today is Poisson D’Avril!

The 1st of April is called ‘Poisson d’avril’ in France and other French-speaking countries. It means literally ‘Fish of April’ and children try and stick a paper fish on the backs of their family and friends. In other parts of the world, the 1st of April is well-known as April Fools Day and people play practical jokes on each other.

One of the best know April Fools Day spoofs was by the BBC in 1957, supposedly showing a family in Switzerland harvesting from spaghetti trees. Find out more and watch the clip

What practical jokes will you play today?!

BBC MUZZY LANGUAGE COURSES

BBC Muzzy is one of the best and most innovative language courses for kids on the market! Put the DVD on and see your young kids captivated by their new language … and soon they’ll be repeating songs and phrases – and you may be too!   Choose from levels 1 and 2 of the BBC Muzzy 20th Anniversary Edition which includes 5 target languages - French, German, Italian, Spanish and English (ESL).   They’ll get their language advantage!

Buy a BBC Muzzy Language Course for your children in 5 languages from the BBC Shop>>
UK and Europe only *** Please check DVD region is suitable for your country***

Learning a language will never be this easy again. Up to the minute scientific research shows that the brain’s ‘window of opportunity’ for learning a second language is from birth to ages 10 or 12. Experts say early learning enriches overall mental development, including improved memory and better cognitive and listening skills. This could be the most important gift you ever give your child.

This famous BBC language course uses the award-winning character MUZZY, compelling stories and delightful songs to bring language to life. It’s fun and it works. Almost like magic, the proven ‘see-listen-and-learn’ technique engages kids’ natural ability to learn language.

The BBC Muzzy 20th Anniversary Edition language course includes:

3 Muzzy Story DVDs in 5 Target Languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish AND English (ESL)
1 Song DVD in the 5 Target Languages
A 5 Language storybook for parents and kids
2 Vocabulary Builder Program CD
Welcome to Muzzy Parents’ DVD
Parents’ Instructional Guide
Collector Tin Storage Case

Buy a BBC Muzzy Language Course for your children in 5 languages from the BBC Shop>>
UK and Europe only *** Please check DVD region is suitable for your country***

01   BBC Muzzy Language Courses – 20th Anniversary Edition Level 1 for children

level: Children
languages: All five languages – French, German, Italian, Spanish and English (ESL)
media: DVD (Region 2), CD, CD-ROM, book

Buy a BBC Muzzy Language Course Level 1 for your children in 5 languages from the BBC Shop>>
UK and Europe only *** Please check DVD region is suitable for your country***

02 BBC Muzzy Language Courses – 20th Anniversary Edition Level 2 for children

level: Children (includes more new words, phrases, new usage for conversation and construction)
languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish and English (ESL)
media: DVD (Region 2), CD, CD-ROM, book

Buy a BBC Muzzy Language Course Level 2 for your children in 5 languages from the BBC Shop>>
UK and Europe only *** Please check DVD region is suitable for your country***

Other ways to learn a language for kids:
more language courses and dictionaries for children on amazon.co.uk
more language courses and dictionaires for children on amazon.com
more language cd-rom software for children on amazon.co.uk
more language cd-rom software for children on amazon.com

top of page

I WANT TO LEARN … A LANGUAGE FOR MY SUMMER HOLIDAY!

The holiday season is here! Get more from your time away when you learn a bit of the local language.

We’ve selected the best and most innovative quick holiday courses for beginners, so that you can pick up the essentials before you head away – even if you’ve never studied a language before. Or just download a language course onto your ipod or mp3 player … and learn on the plane … on the beach … or at the bar! Don’t just speak English, get the holiday language advantage!

While you’re there:

There are lots of different language courses you can download onto your ipod or mp3 player and take away on holiday with you.

01 Michel Thomas

One of our favourite download courses is the Michel Thomas Method, which is available in all your favourite holiday languages from Spanish to Portuguese.

languages: Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

Learn a language on your iPod ® in the UK>>

02 Teach Yourself One-Day

Teach Yourself cover lots of levels and lots of languages – but these short courses are a perfect way to get learning for your holiday.

languages: French, German, Greek, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish

Learn a language on your iPod ® in the UK>>

03 BBC Quickstart

BBC Quickstart is for you if you are going away on a weekend or short European break and want to grasp the basics of the language, without having to master any complicated grammar or phrases.

languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish

Learn a language on your iPod ® in the UK>>

---

Before you go:

01 Teach Yourself One-Day

If you’re a complete (and we mean complete) beginner, then these may be the courses that get you started with French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish in just one-day. Perfect for that holiday or weekend break. Much better than just speaking English.

languages: French, German, Greek, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish

method: audio cd, booklet, dvd (French, Spanish only)

more information and to buy  Teach Yourself one-day from our Teach Yourself shop [UK and Europe]>>

more information and to buy  Teach Yourself one-day from our Teach Yourself store [USA and Americas]>>

02 Pimsleur Quick & Simple

Eight quick and simple audio lessons from Pimsleur to give you a start in conversation in your new language.   It’s like learning a language when you were a kid – slowing building up key words and phrases.   Just do 30 minutes a day and you’ll see progress in no time at all.

languages: Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Greek (Modern), Hebrew, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish

method: audio cd

more information and to buy  Pimsleur Quick & Simple [USA and Amercias]>>

Poisson D’Avril

1st April is called ‘Poisson d’avril’ in France and other French-speaking countries.   It means literally ‘Fish of April’ and children try and stick a paper fish on the backs of their family and friends.   In other parts of the world, 1st April is well-known as April Fools Day and people play practical jokes on each other.

One of the best know April Fools Day spoofs was by the BBC in 1957, supposedly showing a family in Switzerland harvesting from spaghetti trees.   Find out more and watch the clip>>

Muzzy Is The Bestselling Language Course For Kids

BBC Muzzy is one of the best and most innovative language courses for kids on the market.   Just put on the DVD and see your young kids captivated by their new language … soon they’ll be repeating songs and phrases – and you may be too!   This could be the most important gift you ever give your child. They’ll get their language advantage! Read more

BBC TALK PORTUGUESE ON-LINE REVIEW

An independent language course review by Sarah Maddocks

Talk Portuguese is an on-line introduction to Portuguese set in Portugal and Brazil. It is divided into 10 short sections with slideshows, video clips, useful phrases and quizzes. The course covers 10 subjects such as your typical topics i.e. greetings, introducing yourself and others, describing yourself, in a cafe, directions, food shopping, accommodation, getting around, in a restaurant and hobbies). The website suggests that you also try out (alongside the course) the TV series, a book and audio cassettes and also if you are a tutor to look at the tutor notes with added activities. To be honest, once you’ve done the on-line course you don’t have to buy the BBC Talk language pack, unless you want to do the above away from your computer if you’re on your way to work. The TV series might be good to see what you can understand though. The internet course is in a step-by-step layout and easy to navigate around, although one thing to be aware of is you have to double click on the arrows otherwise you will be waiting 5 minutes for it to load (don’t want to own up to doing that as looking back it does sound like a very stupid thing to do!)

I think the best thing for me to do is to get the negatives out of the way (there’re not many so please don’t stop reading here and not try out the course because it sounds bad!!). I found that the most annoying thing about the on-line course is that you can’t see the dialogue from the slideshows in both English and Portuguese. You can see them side by side in the useful phrases section, but I would have liked to hear and read the phrases in both languages at the same time. The quiz is sometimes irritating as there are an assortment of answer types (that’s not the irritating thing) and some of them are fill in the blanks. This is especially difficult seeing as the word is not actually in the useful phrases (i.e. vocé is you – sorry have just told you one of the answers!) and so you are not told how to spell this beforehand. The only way you would know what the answer is would be to sit down, take notes from the slideshow (which would be easier if both languages were on the same screen) and then learn the notes (I know I sound like I’m moaning on a bit too much about this but it has annoyed me, plus if I wanted to do a course where I had to write things down then I would have chosen to do a paper course and not an on-line one!).

I think this is a great way of really learning the spoken accent and knowing what to expect if (or when) you visit the country.

Right, I think I have done enough ranting and raving on the bad parts,so it’s now time for the good bit. I found that the video clips were good because they used native speakers, so at first it is hard to understand the accent but once you have listened a couple of times you can really hear and understand what is being said. I think this is a great way of really learning the spoken accent and knowing what to expect if (or when) you visit the country. I thought the quiz was good as it allows you to fill in the blanks without having to worry about accents on the words, it accepts the word without accents typed in, this is very handy as it often takes me about 10 minutes to find the right accent for certain letters (this is also unusual for online courses to do this, instead they just flash an incorrect on the screen with the correct version of the word – of course with accents!).

Another great thing about this course is that the sections are short and fun. I seemed to absorb more vocabulary and information by doing one unit a day rather than cramming them all into one session. Each section took me around 15-20 minutes which I found was the right amount of time to actually remember what I had learnt the next day. This is fab especially if you work, you can just come home, turn the computer on, do 15 minutes of Portuguese a night (time that would be spent watching half an episode of Neighbours!) and hey presto in about 2 weeks you would have completed a beginners’ Portuguese language course (the miracle of modern technology never ceases to amaze!) The course needs Flash in order for the video clips to work. The BBC website offers a link to get this downloaded for free, and it is worth doing this as it is good to watch the video clips with sound.

One thing you should remember if trying this course out is that it is better to have a fast internet connection as it could take a while for each screen to load (this however is not a must have but if you are like me and slightly inpatient it is probably better to have a speedy one). The site also mentions the fact that you may have problems connecting to the video course if the internet is too busy. I’ve tried this site at various times of the day and so far (touch wood) have had no problems, so don’t let that put you off!

And did I forget to mention this? The on-line Talk Portuguese course is free. Yes, you pay nothing … thank you BBC Education.

Overall I would recommend people to try this course. At the end of the day, it takes 15 minutes to do one session which is hardly a lifetime – and in exchange you get to speak a little Portuguese from doing it. And did I forget to mention this? The on-line Talk Portuguese course is free. Yes, you pay nothing … thank you BBC Education. All I have to do now is track down somewhere I can go and speak to people in my newly acquired language!!

to find out more about BBC language courses>>

top of page

BBC SUENOS WORLD SPANISH 2 REVIEW

An independent language course review by Sarah Maddocks

Suenos World Spanish 2 is the follow on Spanish language course from Suenos World Spanish 1. It is £39.99 which again is a reasonable price as you are getting a course book as well as 4 CDs with authentic Spanish conversations and not staged ones.

The course book is divided into 10 units and each of these units has four main sections: asi se habla 1 (where new language is given and presented), asi se habla 2 (building on the language you already know), un paso mas (listening to spoken Spanish and understanding written Spanish) and temas (cultural aspects of Spain and Latin America). This is one aspect that makes the BBC Suenos course stands out as it doesn’t just talk about Spain, but other Spanish speaking countries too which many other courses tend to leave out.

Following the 10 units there is a reference section which includes self tests, reference grammar, answer keys, transcripts of what you have listened to on the CD and a Spanish to English glossary – in other words you get a lot of extras for your money.

The ‘presenter’ who take you through the course are Julio and Carmella (even their names sound genuinely Spanish) and they both have convincing Spanish accents.The BBC have adapted the tasks so that you can continue to learn Spanish without the book, meaning you could take it on the bus with you to do or sit down and have a go during your lunch hour without necessarily dragging the book along with you.

The dialogues on the CDs are in Spanish and then afterwards you have the English repeated. After the English the Spanish is repeated and then you have to repeat and practice saying it. After this second repetition, instead of repeating the exact same thing they change the dialogue to the other way round. For example: why would people in England want to learn Spanish has turned to why would Spanish people learn English? They then pose questions to which you have to give the answers. I think this is a great way of learning without actually realising how much you have learnt. The repetition really makes the new words and phrases stick in your head and you remember a lot more than you think you do.

This CD course is great as it doesn’t use only Castillian … Spanish … , but also Mexican Spanish … I think this is a good way of hearing the different accents side by side.

The units in the book work alongside the CDs. There are exercises where you have to listen to the dialogues and then answer the questions. I found this really useful as you had to listen and answer the questions rather than just listen and not really take anything in. Sometimes the answers to the questions were said a little fast, and before I got a chance to answer myself, but I just stopped the CD and skipped back to the start. I think the speed of the dialogues were right as they were real Spanish people speaking. In real life, this is what you would hear if you asked someone in the street or were having a telephone conversation with someone. In other words this Spanish language course prepares you for real life situations rather than just making you learn words and grammar constructions.

The CDs and the associated exercises obviously get harder as you go along, CD1 acted more of a revision of the previous course and you weren’t introduced to a huge amount of new words or grammar. However, as you get further along with the course, the dialogues do get longer and while there are still English repetitions, there are not as many and only when the new vocabulary is learnt.

This intermediate level Spanish language course was everything that I expected from BBC languages and I am glad they didn’t let me down with this course. Although it is a comprehensive course, I enjoyed learning and it didn’t feel like a chore.

Buena suerte!

to buy BBC Suenos World Spanish 2 [UK]>>
to buy BBC Suenos World Spanish 2 [USA]>>
to find out more about BBC language courses>>

top of page

BBC SUENOS WORLD SPANISH 1 REVIEW

An independent language course review by Sarah Maddocks

Suenos World Spanish is a beginner Spanish course, complete with 4 cassettes and coursebook. The pack is £39.99 which I think is reasonable as you are getting a traditional coursebook as well as real Spanish on cassettes.

The coursebook has 20 units each with a language learning section divided into three parts, a cultural section, and a review and revision section. At the end of each unit there is a checklist so you can record your progress. After every five units there is a set of revision exercises so you can make sure you can practise the Spanish language you have already learnt.

I found it best to concentrate on five units at a time, as I could re-test the knowledge I had gained in the revision exercise. I didn’t want to try and do anymore that this, as I thought I would be learning too much at one time. The great thing about this course is that you can do as much or as little as you want to do.

The units in the book work alongside the audio tapes. There are exercises where you have to listen to the dialogues and then answer the questions. I found this helped me to really do the course, as with the question and answer sections you learn the language and don’t get bored as you are reading, writing and listening all at the same time. I find the courses that are just reading or just listening hard to complete as there is nothing to ‘engage my brain’.

There are exercises … which … helped me to really do the course, as with the question and answer sections you learn the language and don’t get bored.

In the coursebook, the BBC introduce cultural elements by using songs, or facts about certain Spanish-speaking countries. This is fun, as it gives you a break from the course but you are still learning important and interesting things to do with Spain. At the back of the book you have the answers to the questions, so you can check on your progress and see what you are getting wrong and how to correct it. There are also transcripts of the tapes, which again helps as sometimes I found it hard to fully understand the tapes (so I used the transcript to see what it was I didn’t understand and then listened to the tape again). In the section ‘word groups’, you have a list of words grouped into different topics to act as a very handy reference point, in case you have a memory block whilst doing the course (I had a lot of these!). Finally, you have the common English-Spanish glossary (in other words a dictionary). There’s a lot there!

The tapes are 75 minutes long and can be used separately as well as with the book. I found it easier to work along with the units in the coursebook rather than just listen to one full tape at a time. But as I mentioned earlier, the great thing about this course is you can do it exactly how and when you want to (although I think the book is slightly too big to be able to take on a bus!).

I just love how the BBC give you music at the start of each course. You can almost guarantee that you will hear flamenco or maracas when you switch on a BBC Spanish course (thankfully this one didn’t fail). The tape has a man and a woman who go through the steps of Spanish with you. They give you the words in Spanish and then repeat the same sentence in English. You then have pauses in the tape so you can repeat what you have learnt. I found the pauses to be the right length of time and so there is no need to stop or rewind the tape. You are asked questions for example “are the speakers well?”. You don’t actually answer the questions, it’s more to make you think and then the narrators on the tape answer for you and go on to give you other examples of words you could use. I think I would have found it more helpful if I could have answered the questions and then got their answer. In order to do this, I stopped the tape and then pressed play once I answered to see if I had the correct answer. The tape also provides you with a basic grammar section including, for example, the use of tu and usted. I found this useful as I learn more when I hear it rather than read it, so I found I learnt these grammar sections faster and could remember them easily. The tape is so easy to use alongside the book – it’s great. They also explain cultural things such as two surnames, or certain dates important in Spanish culture.

As you get closer to the end of the cassettes they do get harder (as expected), and on the fourth cassette there are more paragraphs of spoken Spanish instead of a Spanish sentence and then an English one. You don’t have to answer any questions on the paragraphs but it is good practise for your listening skills.

The tapes combine learning new Spanish with learning other areas of Spanish, such as history or culture. For example in Unit 15, you have a listening exercise where you have to match the dates to the events that are said on the tape. This is really good practise for your numbers and you are also learning new things about Spanish history.

BBC Suenos World Spanish doesn’t give you just the basics, it gives you much much more and is definitely worth a go.

This course is for beginners and gives you a good solid level of Spanish, as it really tests you and makes you work. The BBC know how to do language courses and they have not failed with this one. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn Spanish in a more traditional way, but who also want to carry on their Spanish language studies after they have done this course. It doesn’t give you just the basics, it gives you much much more and is definitely worth a go.

to buy BBC Buongiorno Italia [UK]>>
to buy BBC Buongiorno Italia [USA]>>
to find out more about BBC language courses>>

top of page

BBC STEPS ON-LINE REVIEW

An independent language course review by Sarah Maddocks

The BBC ‘Steps’ language course is a free beginner language course available on the BBC website in the language section, where you can choose from four languages; French, German, Spanish or Italian.

The website is easy to navigate around (even for someone like me who is not exactly up on all the new whiz technology) and has a simple layout. The content of the course is 24 parts, divided into six small sections. I know this sounds like a lot of time sat at a computer, but it’s really not as the sections are short and easy to do. The syllabus of the course follows the Common European Framework Level One which seems more or less like the equivalent of the UK GCSE examination content.

The site offers many extras on top of the course, such as learning logs where you can record your marks from the various end of session tests, grammar tips (very basic grammar tips) and a pronunciation section. The pronunciation practice was better than I thought it would be, as I wasn’t really looking forward to hearing a robotic voice attempt to speak the language. However, on this site they actually use native speakers, so it sounds exactly like what you would hear people using if you were in the country.

The site also offers the chance for people who have already studied the language to do a fast track session, which is essentially a test where you complete the questions on-line. If you get everything right, you get a pat on the back and if you are wrong, you get offered a revision session.

This BBC Steps courses also has a fact file section. In order to check that this was useful and accurate, I went into French Steps and checked it out as I’d spent quite a bit of time in Paris and know what there is, how to get around and so on. Most of the information here was correct, although some of it was slightly off i.e. it said that you could easily walk around Paris. This comment made me question whether the writer had even been to Paris and if so, had actually tried to walk around! But then it made me question whether it was just me and I was lazy when i went there!?

I found everything on this site so straightforward and self-explanatory that I think even my mum could do it (she nearly sheds a tear when she has to use a computer!).

I could pick and choose what I wanted to learn. This was fab as it was as though I was choosing what I wanted to learn and not what someone wanted to teach me.

The layout of the course was great, as I could pick and choose what I wanted to learn. This was fab as it was as though I was choosing what I wanted to learn and not what someone wanted to teach me.

I would recommend these BBC Steps on-line language courses for people who want to literally ‘step’ into a language (hence the name of the course!). It is a fab beginner guide and the sections take hardly anytime at all to do. Depending on whether you want to do a quick refresher course or to really learn simple vocabulary, you can do the sections as and when you please and from anywhere that you can get onto the internet. I found this worked really well for me, as I could come home from work and do one section a night and woohoo in 24 ‘steps’ I can speak (well beginner-speak) a new language.

to find out more about BBC language courses>>

top of page

Next Page »