My Spanish Coach Reviews

• Great Language Learning Tool

  
  By A3LQ0BVA05I96H on 2007-11-08
  I'm a college student taking Spanish as a requirement, and I picked this software up hoping that it could help me get through level 2 Spanish. After playing the game today, I'm certain it will be beneficial to my quest to graduate :)
  
  The game first tests you on a range of Spanish vocabulary to see at about what level you are currently testing at, which was excellent since I have some basic Spanish behind me already - no starting from the beginning all over again.
  
  Another great feature in my opinion is the fact that the game forces you to continually re-play the current level you are on, and you earn 'mastery points' as you go - this prevents you from thinking you are 'close enough' to getting it and moving ahead before you might be ready. If you haven't mastered the current level you will not be allowed to move to the next.
  
  The mini-games are enjoyable and the overall presentation of this product is very sharp. The extras almost make it worth the price of the game alone - a searchable phrasebook complete with spoken pronunciations, a English-Spanish dictionary, etc.
  
  I definitely recommend this product and look forward to continuing to use it.
  
  

• A Fun Way to Learn Some Spanish

  
  By A3VBZH8OA7ZTTF on 2007-11-12
  I bought this for my wife and myself so we could learn a little Spanish. She has some Spanish background with a few high school level classes. I have none. But both of us really enjoy the game and are learning new things right from the start.
  
  The first 5 minutes of playing the game asks you to choose what some words mean in Spanish. It starts off with easy ones like Gracias, Uno, etc and then gets harder. The better you do on these the higher level you start in your lessons. So the game can be helpful for anyone learning Spanish.
  
  My wife and I have both played every night since we got it and enjoy it enough that we want to play every day. The lessons are easy enough each time, but have fun games to help you learn them. Plus it can help you learn to speak Spanish too by recording your voice and comparing it to a native speakers pronunciation. You can even compare inflection to make sure you get it right.
  
  

• Some Serious Flaws: MISTRANSLATIONS, mispronunciations, and lack of grammar instruction

  
  By A845PUJO64YID on 2008-02-17
  (If you don't have the time to read this whole review, please at least read #1 in the list below.)
  
  I bought this game feeling confident of its quality due to the positive reviews here, but after putting in many hours of play time, I've concluded that it has some serious flaws. I would not recommend it to Spanish students of any level. Unfortunately, my negative review may be ignored in the midst of all the 5-star reviews, but I feel obligated to take the time to let people know about this game's serious flaws.
  
  First, a bit about my background to assure you that I know what I'm talking about. I took 4 years of Spanish as a public high school student in the United States, and then enough university Spanish to complete a minor in Spanish. I stopped taking formal Spanish courses about 10 years ago and haven't had much chance to practice since. So, while I still know basic and advanced Spanish grammar, I've forgotten a lot of vocabulary.
  
  My Spanish Coach seemed like the perfect game for me: I could spend a few minutes a day learning (or re-learning) vocabulary and reviewing grammar, and I'd get to do it by playing fun games on a portable game system, instead of boring flashcard drills or reading a heavy textbook.
  
  I purchased the game and spent several weeks working through the first 60 lessons. Gradually, the errors I noticed and the misgivings I felt about the game's instruction built up to a point where I had to stop playing. Here are the concerns I have, from most to least serious:
  
  1. Mistranslation of vocabulary:
  This is the most serious error, which cropped up over and over again in the first 600 words of the game. In total I found 15 mistranslated words out of 600--and those were just the ones that I noticed! I'm sure that there were many more mistranslations I didn't notice since I was learning many of the words for the first time. This problem, more than any other, is why I stopped using the game: I don't want to be learning the wrong words! This problem is the fundamental reason why I cannot recommend the game. Even ignoring the game's other errors, it is simply not excusable to teach someone the wrong words, period.
  
  2. Mispronunciation of words:
  My Spanish Coach pronounces each Spanish word for you. You can also record yourself saying the words to compare what you say to the correct pronunciation. Well, you could do that if the words were pronounced correctly--but not all of them are. I'm not talking about dialects, accents, or syllable emphasis. I'm talking about words that are pronounced incorrectly, where whole syllables are added or dropped.
  
  3. Nouns--gender not specified:
  In Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine. It's important to know the gender of a noun, because it affects the words that go along with it. Adjectives take different forms depending on the gender of the noun that they modify. One rule of thumb in Spanish is that nouns that end in "o" are (usually) masculine, and nouns that end in "a" are generally feminine. However, there are exceptions to this rule, as well as many, many Spanish nouns that do not end in "o" or "a." For these nouns, students need to memorize the gender. My Spanish Coach does not specify the gender of any of the nouns it teaches. Any Spanish dictionary or textbook would give the gender of nouns--it's an essential thing to know, but My Spanish Coach neglects this crucial information about the nouns it teaches.
  
  4. Verbs--irregularities not specified:
  Some Spanish verbs are "regular," meaning that they can be conjugated by following a basic formula. Others are "irregular," which means that you have to memorize the verb conjugations, because they don't follow a formula. Still others are somewhat irregular, called "stem-changing," which change slightly when conjugated, but otherwise follow the formula. So when learning a new verb, it's important to know which kind it is. Again, here is a situation where any Spanish dictionary or textbook would give this information, because you can't conjugate irregular or stem-changing verbs correctly without it. My Spanish Coach doesn't bother to give this crucial information about the verbs it teaches.
  
  5. Inappropriate vocabulary:
  In the first 40 lessons of the game, players are taken through lessons that have vocabulary grouped into categories: for example, there's a lesson in which the vocabulary is all about clothing. After the first 40 lessons, the vocabulary words in each lesson have nothing to do with each other. This wouldn't be so bad if the words were at least appropriate for the level of play, but they aren't. In lesson 40, for example, after students have mastered only about 400 Spanish words, the word for "oriole" is introduced. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think that "oriole" even makes it into the 1000 most important words to know, much less the top 400. What's even more ludicrous is that the word for "bird" hasn't even been covered at that point in the game. A few lessons later, the word for "foothills" is introduced, before students have learned the more basic geography words for "mountain" or "hill."
  
  6. General lack of grammar instruction:
  While players of My Spanish Coach can learn all 10,000 words in the game's dictionary, knowing vocabulary is not all there is to learning a language. The game has 1000 lessons, but what it doesn't tell you on the box is that only the first 40 lessons have any grammar instruction. The rest of the lessons are just groups of unrelated vocabulary words to master. Even in the 40 lessons that contain grammar instruction, very little is taught. Some basic phrases are taught, and a few verbs are conjugated in the present tense. No instruction is given on the basic types of verbs (-ar, -er, -ir) and how to conjugate them. Essentially, the present tense of verbs is talked about, but not taught, and no other verb tenses are even mentioned. Adjective/noun agreement is not mentioned. Word order in sentences is not mentioned. If someone made it through all or many of the lessons in My Spanish Coach, s/he might know a lot of Spanish words, but would be unable to string them together into any kind of meaningful conversation or written communication.
  
  Overall, I'm very disappointed in this game. The idea of learning 10,000 Spanish words was appealing, and I'd hoped to later buy the French game from the same company. However, I can't convince myself to proceed with the game after finding out how much of the vocabulary it teaches is simply wrong.
  
  

• Very impressed with this game

  
  By A3PGIRULVPBJ1 on 2007-12-02
  I expected this game to mimic your typical book where it is all about repetition. Instead I found a very interactive and quite engrossing game based upon teaching you spanish. One fear I had was that as someone who knows a little about spanish I would have to sit through beginner stuff for hours before getting to the content that really suits me. The game handles this potential issue brilliantly by having you take a 50 question placement test. I got up to question 35 before missing twice in a row which automatically ends the test. For this performance I was moved straight to lesson 8. Amazingly there are around 1000 lessons. I played lesson 8 and immediately learned what I missed on the test and more importantly learned new words and the context in which they they are used in sentences. At the end of each lesson you take a timed multiple choice test where you accumulate Mastering points which enable you to unlock future areas. It really does give you a sense of accomplishment and also makes this really seem like a game.
  
  For anyone looking to either learn a new language, or test their current knowledge, this series of games is awesome.
  
  

• Unexpected Gem

  
  By A19XJ49WJVPN99 on 2007-11-19
  I wasn't expecting much when I bought the game but to my surprise it turned out to be fun and educational. I have some rudimentary knowledge of Spanish so I trully appreciated the evaluation at the beginning of the game. I didn't have to go through stuff I alrady had a grasp on. The mini games include a whack a mole type game, that I enjoyed. I'm actually contemplating on getting the French coach next. This is great for people who want to brush up on their high school Spanish or would like to find a fun way of learning a new language without much pressure. Vaya con Dios mi amigos!
  
  
• Unacceptable mispronunciations! Ridiculous vocabulary!
  By AJCT7OFZ4ZLZ9 on 2008-02-29
  Although this game is fun at first, after a while I started to realize that even though the pronunciations sounded as though done by a native speaker, some of them are so off as to be laughable! For example the word "ratio" is pronounced "ratito" by the speaker! "Utensilios" is pronounced "UNtensilios", and so on. And why would one wish to learn the word for "sliver" ("astillo") without having first learned the word for "little" ("poco") or other size-oriented words first? Not recommended! The mispronunciations are totally unacceptable for a language program.
  
  
• Good for beginners but lacks any depth.
  By AFP3XJCEXD2HC on 2008-01-09
  The game is great as an introduction to Spanish and for learning new vocabulary. However, I was very disappointed with the amount of grammar that the product teaches.
  
  It was annoying to reach lesson 40 and then be told that from now on I would just be learning vocabulary - the game does teaches a few regular verbs and irregular verbs in the present tense, but not really enough.
  
  Probably a good product as an addition if you are taking some beginner Spanish lessons.
  
  Also being able to listen to the pronunciation and compare it against your voice is a nice feature.
  
  If anyone is interested in purchasing My Spanish Coach Level 2 then be warned - it is only about learning new vocabulary.
  
  
• Not Worth Buying
  By A3PUXB8X9SGUSO on 2008-06-23
  I had a lot of faith in this game when I bought it. I thought to myself, "of course this will be great. They can write books to teach you Spanish, they can make audio cds and they can make movies; so, obviously, they can make a video game that will work just as well or better." I was sadly mistaken. First of all, this game is boring. I could not stay dedicated to it. I love video games, but this is not fun at all. What makes this even worse is that I really enjoy reading books to practice my Spanish. A practice book is a lot more fun and costs less. That is really sad. The most important reason why you should not buy this game is that your Spanish will get worse. This game teaches improper Spanish. As an example, they say that to say "My name is..." you would say "Me llamo es..." That is what a gringo would say. "Me llamo es..." means "I call myself is..." That does not make sense in any language. The correct way to say it is "Me llamo..." which means "I call myself..." Fortunately, the game does have it's pluses; I learned a few words I did not know. Unfortunately, some of the words I do know, they have a confusing definition. For example, the definition of "ir" is "to go", but according to them, the definition is "go". This is a big difference because "go" can be a command which would require the Spanish word "vaya".
  In conclusion, do not buy this game. Especially do not buy this game if you do not have prior understanding of Spanish. I bought this to help me keep up with my Spanish. If you do not know very much Spanish, this game will hurt you. You should spend your money on other Spanish-learning tools. The Practice Makes Perfect books, as an example, are "fenomenal."
  
  
• A great buy!
  By AYK9SDERY3SNC on 2007-11-24
  I've always been interested in learning languages and when this game came out I rushed to buy it. I've played it for a few hours and so far have increased my spanish vocabulary, but have not learned how to conjugate verbs. The games are enjoyable and really test your knowledge, but as an adult, it was harder to retain the information without writing it down and looking at it for longer than a few minutes. A good buy for adults, but this would probably be better for younger kids since they absorb more. Gracias!
  
  
• Great Educational Game
  By A3UQH9E5JALBSE on 2007-12-11
  I think the DS makes a great educational tool for students. I'm glad to see that more companies are starting to create games for the DS that help kids learn!
  
  I purchased My Spanish Coach a week a ago for my son who has been taking Spanish for a few years in school. I never took Spanish, so I decided to try this game out to see how good of a teacher it is. After an initial test, I was placed at "baby" level and started to learn basic vocabulary words; numbers, colors, days of the week, months...I worked my way through the toddler, kindergarten and first grade levels. My vocabulary is now pushing 300 words and I'm getting a feel for making sentences and spelling Spanish words. I love that I can hear the pronunciation, can record myself to hear how I compare to a native speaker, and most of the games are actually quite fun!
  
  I really only have 2 complaints about the game:
  1) the cartoon "teacher" is clad in a skin-tight tank top. I know most game developers think they have to create their characters with over-the-top physiques and nothing-left-to-the-imagination clothing. This is an educational game, not a teen-age shoot-em-up game. Let the teacher dress professionally like a real teacher.
  
  2) when learning the verb "to be", the program put it together with words like "happy, sad, angry, worried...". I was kind of taken aback when the word "drunk" appeared along with the emotion words. The sample sentence was something like, "my father is drunk". Maybe alcoholism is prevelent in Mexico and South America, but is this really a word that beginning Spanish students need to learn at a kindergarten/first grade level?
  
  Despite my complaints, I still believe that this program has enormous educational value!
  
  
• Great overall...but has mistakes...
  By A2AZQQCXXPHPMB on 2008-01-18
  I bought this game for my wife to help her learn Spanish, however, I have found some mistakes in translation. For example, knee is translated as rodillo, which means rolling pin instead of rodilla; so if one has any doubts have a good dictionary handy.
  
  
• Good if you need a refresher, but only until lesson 38!
  By ALS2QUYFYCRFS on 2008-07-20
  If you do not know Spanish, do not get this game! It is useful as a supplement to a beginning Spanish course, but by itself it will not help you learn the language correctly.
  
  I was very impressed by the first lessons - I tested into lesson 22 and I was pleased by the structure of the lessons...until I got to lesson 38. There it goes from lovely structure to random choices of 10 words. These words come from all over the dictionary, and the fact that they are not even remotely related makes them harder to remember. Also, at this point, the game stops introducing new sentences.
  
  PROS:
  - The first 38 lessons (of 1000) are nice!
  - The games are very useful for memorization.
  - The ability to record your own voice and compare to the Spanish pronunciation is fabulous for working on your accent.
  
  CONS:
  - The "random word" lessons are tiresome.
  - The definitions are not 100% accurate.
  - Sentence-making stops after lesson 38.
  
  
  If you are using this to expand your vocabulary, this can be a useful tool. This game will not magically teach you Spanish, but it can help.
  
  
• For children only
  By A1I5W2PMK36DW7 on 2008-03-15
  My Spanish Coach was very dissappointing, although it might be because I am adult. It is definitely designed only for children which is not necessarily a bad thing. This game rewards "points" for silly achievements and not for any kind of real learning. The games themselves are structured poorly for understanding or memory and are more focused on playing with the toy. It is definitely a more educational game than most, but not something to be taken seriously for learning Spanish.
  
  
  
• Simple to Follow, Quick Learning
  By A2O9NU8P1PHZMY on 2007-11-28
  I just purchased this last night and played for a while this afternoon. I had previously purchased CD Spanish sets, but this seems to be a more relaxed way to learn. I`would reccomend this to any person with reading knowledge.
  
  
• My son has FUN learning Spanish!!
  By A2NX6MFZP8TM6S on 2007-12-20
  Not that Spanish isn't a fun language. But my son is 11 and taking a foreign language in middle school wasn't exactly his idea of fun. BUT NOW IT IS!!! I can't believe that he actually ENJOYS learning Spanish by playing the games and practicing on his DS with "My Spanish Coach." A great concept very well executed. I knew there had to be more constructive uses for the DS besides games. ;-) (Just kidding. The games are great, too!)
  
  
• Decent vocabulary builder, but requires self-discipline
  By A19V38O2SV01ZJ on 2008-07-18
  I started the Pimsleur Essential Spanish audio series in June of 2007, and began using My Spanish Coach in tandem with it in March 2008. While My Spanish Coach can't hold a candle to a professional language learning program, it is good for teaching you new words and expanding your vocabulary, not to mention being a whole heck of a lot cheaper than "real" courses. But it's pretty easy to cheat, and you have to have a lot of self-discipline to get the most benefit out of it.
  
  Presented in the form of lessons, games, and reference material, My Spanish Coach tries hard to teach you the language. It starts you off with a quiz to see how much Spanish you know. I initially tested pretty highly, so it threw me into slightly more advanced lessons that assumed I already knew a bunch of words from easier lessons. I didn't, so I erased my data and started again. This time, I deliberately bricked the test so I could start from the beginning.
  
  The lessons present a series of words - about 10 per lesson - that are related to each other in some way. Things like colors, months, seasons, emotions, words a tourist needs to know, directions, etc. The game walks you through a few screens that introduce these words and use them in simple sentences. Then, it's off to the games. Activities like flash cards, word search, sentence builder, fill-in-the-blank, and many others are presented to help reinforce the words in your mind.
  
  As you play these educational games, the program keeps track of your progress. Finish enough games successfully, and you're moved on to the next level.
  
  The presentation of the game is about as lighthearted and fun as you're likely to find in a program that teaches something as complicated as a new language. Your progress is graphically measured by a trail that starts at the United States / Mexico border, and slowly meanders down through Mexico and on into South America. I'm not entirely sure where it goes after that, as I'm only about halfway through Brazil.
  
  The games themselves are fun and creative, but there's a problem - the way they're set up, you can pretty easily guess and bluff your way through the lessons. For example, if you're multiple choice and the word is "winter," your 4 choices may be Junio, tio, anaranjado, and invierno. Now, if you can't remember that invierno is winter, but you know for a fact that Junio is June and tio is uncle and anaranjado is some sort of color (orange), then you can choose the right word by the process of elimination.
  
  Then too, in order to keep the pace up and hold your attention, the game doesn't make you labor over each lesson very long. Once you've earned the requisite number of points to move on, then by golly, you're moving on, and you'll probably not see much more of the words you just learned in the previous lesson, ever again.
  
  I'm not exactly the world's quickest learner, but still, I wonder how much a person can really retain when the words and phrases are presented so quickly. Oftentimes I find myself spending a session simply playing the games over and over again using words from previous lessons, rather than opting to move on to the next lesson. I find this to be a little tedious, but it's really the best way for me to keep the words I've already learned fixed in my mind.
  
  The game also includes a reference dictionary that helps you translate between English and Spanish, either way. It has a feature that allows you to record your own pronunciation of a Spanish word, then compare that to the way the word is supposed to be pronounced. I think I used this once. Hey, I'm tall and white - I doubt a native Spanish speaker will expect me to pronounce everything like I was born and raised in Zihuatanejo. Besides, Pimsleur helps my pronunciation much more effectively.
  
  Overall, this would be a good purchase if you're looking to make like those old Highlights For Children magazines - fun with a purpose. It's doubtful this game alone will make you a great Spanish speaker, no more than eating only Lucky Charms for breakfast every day will keep you healthy. Rather, just like Lucky Charms needs toast, juice, milk, and a multi-vitamin to make it a well-rounded meal, so too does My Spanish Coach need other teaching programs to help you learn to better communicate with our hispanic and latino neighbors.
  
  
• Great way to learn Spanish!
  By A2Q43E8789XZHD on 2007-12-13
  I LOVE "MY SPANISH COACH!" I am 46 and took my last Spanish class way back in high school. I am now trying to brush up on my Spanish (which I had all but forgotten). MY SPANISH COACH rocks! The lessons are great and the games really keep you engaged. I had been using Rosetta Stone (which is also a great product), but extremely expensive in comparison to MY SPANISH COACH. Also, with MY SPANISH COACH, I find myself genuinely looking forward to learning each new lesson and unlocking each new game -the games REALLY reinforce the new material presented in each lesson and are really quite fun. I would recommend this product to anyone trying to learn or brush up on their Spanish!
  
  
• My Spanish Coach
  By A20ON7I9D9PXD2 on 2007-12-18
  I've always loved languages so I naturally picked this game up. I just got this game and so far it seems like fun and I can see how in the future it can be helpful. I only have two complaints. The first is about the placement test at the beginning. They show you 50 words (really really simple words) such as months, days, and numbers then ask you to match them. Easy enough. But, a little too easy. I got all 50 right and they put me on the preschool level which is good for review but I'm much more advanced than learning greetings! So I wish the placement test was more comprehensive and challenging so I could find my true level at the moment. The next complaint would be Word Searches! I don't see how you learn anything from finding vocabulary words in a word search and how finding all of them somehow means you "mastered" those vocab words..but oh well.
  
  This is a good game overall and I am looking forward to the more challenging things to come. After a few minutes of playing this I was already hoping they would come out with more in other languages!
  
  
• Great for newbies
  By A10STQSC3MDEPT on 2007-12-28
  I din't expect much when I purchased this game, but I am pleasantly surprised! It's great for a beginner like me and I am really enjoying it! They need to make a sequel so we can advance beyond this game!
  
  
• Not Exactly What I Expected
  By A1L19BZNAOO6MA on 2008-03-30
  It has been a good many years since I took Spanish in High School, so I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could brush up on a little of the language since it is becoming more common here in the United States. Although I don't really intend to do a lot of speaking of the language, I thought that at least being able to read and understand the printed word would be very useful.
  
  As far as the basics ... the numbers, months, days and other vocabulary words are helpful to know, I'm not sure that they will be all that useful in the future for me. And, I'm still so rusty at this, that the verbal pronunciations seem to rattle along so fast that I can't seem to understand what is being said. Maybe I just need to practice more.
  
  I wouldn't trust myself if I were to attempt to get by on a trip to a Spanish speaking country. It's almost funny - some of the phrases they give you to use in just such a situation, I can't ever see saying to anyone on a trip ... in English, let alone Spanish!
  
  But, it is better than nothing and I'm glad I bought the Spanish Coach. It just wasn't as extensive or as helpful as I had expected.
  
  
  
  
• She's having fun, but not for younger children!
  By A3N7KT0EUP7K3O on 2008-08-14
  I bought this for my 3rd year Spanish student as a refresher before school starts up again. When she took the assessment, she scored in the kindergarten grade, which made us all laugh since she was clearly offended by it! However, she's been working on it since avidly and is appreciating the diversity of the challenges it's giving her. She likes the help with pronouncing the words and it has been a challenge for her. She's now recommending it to her friends and she's the first to tell you "I LOVE IT!".
  
  WARNING FOR PARENTS: Some of the phrases are NOT appropriate for younger children. As a kindergarten rating, one of the phrases it taught my 16-yr-old was "I am drunk" and "you are just jealous". She hasn't let me know about any other "funny ones" (in her mind), but if that's the "conversational" Spanish it's teaching, I wouldn't recommended it for pre-teens.
  
  
• Great for the first 50 lessons, then a disaster.
  By A2JL7G6A66ADZG on 2008-09-23
  I am a native English speaker who learned French last year. THis got me very excited about languages, and I decided I really wanted to learn Spanish. I thought this Spanish coach would be a great place to start. And I have to say, for the first 50 lessons, it is a fun and effective way to get into the language. However, after the first 50 lessons (they take maybe 8 hours to complete and to really feel like you've learned everything in them), the game goes into what it calls the "Open Lessons"). This is how it works:
  
  Starting with lesson 51, you get 10 words per lesson to "master." You get no phrases, no conjugations, NO GRAMMAR. The words are seemingly chosen at random, though they are set in the game in that order, so you can't change it. I went through about 15 of these "Open Lessons" (there are I think 1,000 in the end!), and found them to be utterly ridiculous. Instead of learning useful vocabulary like "bird," you learn the word for "ORIOLE." Instead of "to say," you learn "to utter." Things like that. Essentially, you learn words that are not used in every day language. I kept doing the next lesson, certain that things would level out, but each lesson I was presented with words that I can't even imagine using even in English. I've read similar reviews to mine, and they were right.
  
  I rarely leave online reviews for products, but I felt that I needed to say something about this game. It really isn't worth the money in the end, and it is a shame because if they put more time into this game they could be much better. I think the whole series follows this same formula. They really need to rework these games and re-release them. I sincerely hope they do!
  
  
• Great for increasing your Spanish vocabulary!
  By AQMUXDDCLJSSV on 2008-09-09
  I took some Spanish in middle school and high school, so I knew just a little bit when I got the game - I wasn't totally in the dark, but close. I think the minigames are great fun! I actually wish there were a few more of them, for variety. They don't seem to really hammer the words into you for very long before moving onto the next lesson, but I've found myself retaining more vocabulary than expected.
  
  The only thing I wish it had is more information on how to conjugate verbs. There is one game that asks you to spell the correct conjugations, but they never tell you up front how to do it - they just let you get it wrong! It is possible to pick up some information by playing it over and over and paying attention when you get corrected, but I would have loved having Correct Verb Conjugations as part of the reference. That's the only reason I'd give it 4 stars rather than 5.
  
  I've had the game since last Christmas and I still find myself going back to it for learning and for fun! It's a great little diversion, and I feel like I'm expanding my vocabulary just a bit each day. That's a lot of benefit for $[...], well worth it!
  
  
• Very good.
  By A2HZ996D0ORKQ0 on 2008-09-10
  
  I think this title is very good, I definately increased my knowledge of Spanish. I completed 50 lessons. I am by no means 'fluent' because of this game, not even close, but definately learned a lot.
  
  There are 8 different game types. Two of them, Flash Cards and Multiple Choice, are great for vocabulary. The 'Whack A mole' mini-game is modestly fun but once you know the word you're not really learning past that.
  
  I think the best mini-game was one called 'Bridge Builder', where you actually make sentences. I really wish that aspect was emphasised more.
  
  What makes this game great is the portability of the DS, plus the move-at-your-own-pace interaction.
  
  
  
  
  
• Good, not great
  By A1WH2ZPFXOH4JK on 2008-05-05
  I am a college student, but I have been taking spanish classes for years. I went to Spain last year and realized all those years of spanish taught me virtually nothing. I decided to get this game based on the reviews and I am somewhat impressed. Players start off with a quiz to see where to start in their spanish training, but even though I got every question right on the test I still started on lesson 17 or something (I don't remember exactly), and many of the future lessons were filled with words I already knew. Also, some of the translations of words I have never heard before, for example the game uses "auto" as the word for car. I have learned this word year after year to be "coche" or "carro." I'm sure auto would be understood, but it's not the correct or prominent word. I did enjoy that words are primarily taught through games becuase it's makes it more fun though. If you are looking to learn the whole language, you won't learn it from this game, but if you are looking for a few phrases for a job or a short trip, this will help you get your points across. It's deffinitly worth the price!
  
  Pros:
  -games teach words, making it more fun to learn
  -voice comparision to compare your pronounciation with theirs
  -large amount of lessons and vocab are taught
  -words from previous lessons are often repeated in future ones
  Cons:
  -some of the words are inncorrect translations
  -if you already know a good amount of spanish, you can't skip over all the lessons you already know. You can skip some, but not all.
  -some of the pronounciations are off
  
  
• wow!
  By AULYG4CP4MFZE on 2008-07-14
  i bought this the other day and haven't wanted to put it down! I love how it gives you a placement test, and still allows you to go back and review all you skipped for review. It's easy to use, hearing the words helps a lot. This is for anyone who has no knowledge or medium knowledge! I definitely recommend this game!
  
  
• great and easy way to learn spanish!
  By AS5KS7L9VNEMC on 2008-07-17
  I have found this a very fun and great way to learn spanish. It is way more portable than getting rosetta stone- and cheaper too! If you spend enough time with it everyday you can really remember words. Just have to make sure you practice with someone once it's turned off so you can really learn to use what you learn in the game.
  would definitely recommend to anyone.
  
  
• a fun way to learn a new language
  By A30SSZPY79D4TB on 2008-09-06
  I strongly disagree with the first reviewer. I bought this game with low expectations, thinking this could hardly be "fun", but at best I was hoping for a somewhat less-than-boring way to learn Spanish. I was delightfully surprised to find this program was quite engaging and enjoyable! After giving a guick assessment of my current knowledge of Spanish, the game began at an appropriate level for learning new words. Answering the multiple choice questions was in a game format. It was easy to understand the speakers. The reinforcement of new learning was fun. You can back up and review or go forward and continue to higher levels. I think it's great for kids and adults. And probably a great way to reinforce Spanish learning for grade school kids, too. I highly recommend this.
  
  
• An interesting way to learn
  By A3URUQ7U5XS6KG on 2008-09-07
  I can absolutely see where many reviewers are coming from when they say this title is more entertainment for kids than a learning tool, but I would counter that the entertainment is where `My Spanish Coach' derives its learning. In university now, I took two years of Spanish during high school and (now at lesson #6) have learned more in the few hours playing this game than both previous years of formal education. As I see it, this is solely because the game shifts the learning atmosphere from just memorizing words to becoming familiar and coherent in the words purpose and meaning.
  
  All-in-All, Absolutely worth a try, and well worth the $30 investment. I can't wait for the Chinese version... hoping for a Arabic.
  
  
  
• Shame on You, Nintendo and Amazon!
  By A2DB720I9XRX7K on 2008-11-18
  
  "Only 15 to 20 minutes practice a day is all you need to become fluent..." This has got to be the most misleading, patently false bit of advertisement which I have seen on Amazon. Even if you do away with the outright language mistakes, (see review by "goldbug"), the less-than perfect language teaching method you could NEVER attain fluency in a foreign language by playing a game for 20 minutes a day!
  
  EVEN IF "My Spanish Coach" were perfect in every way--fix all the language errors and reduce or eliminate the use of "translating" to teach foreign language--the most you could expect would be a beginning understanding of some aspects of the language. I don't doubt that this would help you with your beginning Spanish courses in high school or college, but, don't expect to be able to speak, read or understand the Spanish language "fluently". Fluency requires a lot more work, and TIME, mostly: time spent studying, of course, but also time spent in the classroom speaking ONLY Spanish--at least five days a week, and, most importantly, immersion time with native speakers--at least one semester hearing and speaking only Spanish.
  
  I am a college-level instructor of German, and I have worked several years with freshmen learning German for the first time. I speak German fluently. I had studied two years in college and then spent over a year in Germany in order to get to this point. There is no way around it. I've taken some college Spanish here recently, but I know that if you plunked me down in Mexico, I wouldn't be able to speak and understand fluently for a few weeks, at best.
  
  "Goldbug", a reviewer who has studied Spanish for several years has found many frank errors in MSC: mistranslations of words, mispronunciations, lacking conjugations of irregular verbs, lacking gender of nouns, among others. This is inexcusable. On the question of gender: most students underestimate the importance of learning the gender of nouns because we are so used to calling objects "it". Spanish nouns have TWO genders--he or she. (German has three) It is absolutely imperative than the student learn the gender along with the noun. Nothing sets off the "Gringo" alarm so much as gender.
  
  On the issue of teaching: in order to learn a language, let alone become fluent in it, you MUST learn to THINK in the language. Translating from English to the target language is not a way to learn this. There ARE ways to teach even beginners by using only the new language. Using pictures is one way. A good language teacher or program uses these types of methods.
  
  MSC got lots of 5-star reviews, so lots of people liked it, but it's not fair to lead them to believe that they are getting something that they are not!!!
  
  
  

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