Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts by Fluenz
Software Details
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| Brand: Fluenz |
Media: CD-ROM |
Hardware Platform: PC |
Operating System: Windows Vista |
Description
Discover Spanish through the magic of a great teacher
Fluenz Spanish is based on three principles:
1) There's no substitute for a great tutor. It's often difficult to motivate yourself to learn a language on your own. Having a teacher to challenge and inspire you, while explaining exactly how the language works, makes all the difference.
2) The best way for adults to learn Spanish is with explanations in English. For example, it is impossible to understand the difference between the critical Spanish verbs “ser” and “estar” without a clear explanation in English. With Fluenz, a real tutor guides you in English along a path specifically designed for Spanish.
3) It's best to learn the most relevant words in Spanish right away. Fluenz has you handling a wide range of real-world situations right from the start.
Platforms
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X
Product Features
- 60 sessions of up to two and one-half hours each — the most comprehensive software application covering the first and second levels of Spanish anywhere. Fluenz Spanish 1+2 will guide you in English through the challenges of Spanish with a proven system.
- Language tutor Sonia Gil guides you on video every step of the way, recreating a one-on-one tutoring experience, utilizing explanations in English, placing you in real-world contexts, and immersing you in the culture.
- Fluenz blends beautiful full-motion video with a range of engaging, interactive workouts to improve your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills — including a recording engine to perfect your accent.
- Fluenz's unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies, and students at Harvard Business School and other leading universities.
- Includes Fluenz Spanish 1 and Fluenz Spanish 2 DVD-ROMs, two audio CDs for additional learning (featuring Hollywood star Edgar Ramirez!), exclusive, downloadable podcasts for further practice, and the handy Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of important words and phrases.
Editorial Review
The only interactive language program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of great one-on-one tutoring.
Be Fluent in Spanish
On-screen tutor Sonia Gil, a recent Cornell graduate, and alumni from Harvard and the University of Chicago created Fluenz Spanish to be the kind of application they had always wanted when learning languages. The result of their work is ideal for those who seek common sense explanations, sophisticated workouts that lead to real learning, and who thrive on a great teacher to keep them focused and engaged.
The Most Comprehensive Program to Learn Spanish
Love Spanish, Actually Learn It
The team of passionate language learners behind Fluenz Spanish wanted to move beyond what they felt was wrong with computer language education: simplistic methods that boast a natural, passive way to learn a language, and those that treat adults like children. Instead, Fluenz brings the magic of a great teacher to lead, challenge, and inspire adults and teens with real learning.
An Inspirational Tutor Leads and Delights Learners
Anyone learning a language knows about “the magical moment,” that day out in the real world when you can form a full sentence and actually understand the response. By clearly showing how Spanish works in a way that makes the most sense to English speakers, Fluenz tutor Sonia Gil creates a path to that special moment. Just as importantly, the tutor explains how Spanish works in terms of cultural issues, providing context and anecdotes that make the process meaningful. By making sense of the language, learners actually learn.
Recreating Great One-On-One Tutoring
Fluenz Spanish is divided into sessions that are introduced and led by a tutor on video. After a realistic conversation between native Spanish speakers, the tutor returns to give a full tutorial on all the new words and structures to be learned in that session.
Powerful Workouts
Next comes a series of challenging workouts that provide an ideal training ground for developing the learner's reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities. Each session features a set of clear, common sense tools that make a true difference.
Relevant Learning, Real Communication
The Fluenz approach is based on getting learners to understand how to structure relevant sentences (“I need a taxi”), rather than relying on the association of words and images to learn how to say things like “apple” or “orange,” the more typical fare offered by programs that try to get you to learn like a child. Starting with clear explanations in English and following with extensive workouts, Fluenz builds steadily from useful structures like questions and commands (“Stop here, please”) and useful vocabulary (related to restaurants, transportation, directions, etc.) to more and more complex communication.
Great Audio CDs and Exclusive Podcasts
The Magic of Learning: Audio CDs for Your Car or iPod
Moving beyond typically dry and hollow language learning tapes, the Fluenz team engaged two professionals who could communicate the richness and emotion of Spanish. Fluenz Spanish 1+2 comes with two audio CDs: one recorded by Edgar Ramirez, one of Hollywood's emerging Latino actors, and the other by Ivan Loscher, one of the most recognizable voices in Spanish through his work with HBO Latin America. Edgar starred opposite Keira Knightley in Domino, played the fearsome “asset” in The Bourne Ultimatum, and has worked alongside William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, and Benicio del Toro.
Fluenz Podcasts: Download to Learn on the Go
Continuing a tradition at the Fluenz Lab, Fluenz Spanish now offers exclusive podcasts made by the same team that created the interactive program. These downloadable podcasts supplement the training work offered by the audio CDs, while providing a more informal, relaxed window into the world of Spanish and the actual learning of the language.
The Fluenz Phrase Book Navigator
Fluenz Spanish also comes with the Phrase Book Navigator, a useful quick-reference guide for travelers.
What You Learn, Step By Step
1. First, Fluenz Won't Treat You Like a Kid
Fluenz was specifically designed for English speakers to gain fluency in Spanish. After much research and testing, the team behind the program found specific structures (certain verbs, nouns, and constructions) that would be easy to learn for English speakers and would accelerate their Spanish communication. The Fluenz team believes that treating adults with intelligence, rather than like children, speeds up the learning process and makes fluency a real goal.
2. Building a Useful Foundation
Fluenz Spanish begins by teaching how to form questions and statements that are useful on day one, and that share the same word order in English and Spanish (i.e. “The check, please,” “I want this dish”). The team felt this was more relevant than phrases such as “The apple is green,” found in other programs. For example, after only the first four sessions, learners are already able to have meaningful conversations in a restaurant.
3. Describing Location and Where You're Going
The program then shifts to describing and asking about location. In this way users can learn both the basics of how crucial verbs work, while advancing their vocabulary related to transportation and travel. Instead of memorizing words and pictures, Fluenz users actually get to understand how questions and phrases such as “Where is the hotel?” and “I'm going to the museum” both work and are used in everyday life.
4. Gain Confidence With Your Verbs
Verbs are the action words of language. In Spanish, verb forms change depending on whom they refer to, resulting in an infamous number of conjugations. Because passive memorization won't do, Fluenz thoroughly covers Spanish verbs by emphasizing the most useful ones, explaining in English how they work, and providing plenty of practice to make sure you can use them when you really need to.
5. More Ways to Power Your Communication
Another great structure that can easily be understood by English speakers is the formation of Spanish possessives (“The hotel's restaurant,” “The museum's entrance”). Using possessives is a simple way to add precision and sophistication to your Spanish.
6. Great Descriptive Terms
Language without description lacks life and color, particularly in a language as vivid as Spanish. Fluenz puts great emphasis on teaching how to add this important dimension to your interactions. Plus, when traveling through a country, nothing is going to be more helpful than “bigger,” “smaller,” “less expensive,” and those other adjectives that both make sense to English speakers and are easily used in forming sentences.
7. A Deep Foundation for Sophisticated Communication
Since the key to fluency in Spanish is being able to use all of the most common parts of speech, Fluenz covers a wide range of central grammar issues. From pronouns and prepositions to word order and commands, you'll be able to correctly form complex sentences and express yourself with solid, confident Spanish.
8. Getting There, Faster
Giving and receiving directions is both a way to continue building the essential tools of Spanish communication and a way to develop the skills anyone traveling will always need. Fluenz creates a path that gives English speakers complete control over the critical vocabulary and structures for asking questions, indicating directions, and explaining locations.
9. Easily Handle Numbers and Time
After thorough workouts enabling learners to talk about location with ease, Fluenz makes sure you master numbers and, therefore, time. From counting up to 999,999 to telling the time, Fluenz users gain control over a wide range of time-specific communication. Once time and location are joined, it becomes possible to form complex questions and statements in a variety of situations, such as planning trips or making appointments.
10. Confident Shopping and Negotiation
Throughout the program, your ability to interact in shopping situations is steadily improved. Fluenz works on the critical verb “to want” in the very beginning, and soon enough you learn how to ask about prices, make comparisons between different items, and express exactly what you're looking for. By the end of the program, you'll be able to handle shopping, price negotiations, and purchasing situations with ease.
Ideal for Communicating Wherever People Speak Spanish
Fluenz gives you the tools to communicate in all of the most important and common situations you're bound to face while in the Spanish-speaking world. Whether you are traveling or need to talk to a client, student, or patient, Fluenz Spanish 1+2 provides the strongest possible foundation.
What's in the Box
More Details
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| Publisher: Fluenz |
Category: Foreign Languages |
Binding: DVD-ROM |
