Review of the Berlitz Intermediate Spanish Course
Maybe you, like a lot of Spanish language students, have had a couple of years of Spanish in school. Or maybe you've studied the Spanish language a lot on your own through the use of web sites, books, multimedia packages, and Spanish-speaking friends. If this describes your situation then the Intermediate Spanish course from Berlitz is perfect for you!
With this course, you won't waste time or money on material you already know. You'll hit the ground running with practical, conversational Spanish that you can put to use today. Popular topics like restaurants, at home, vacationing,
And you can't go wrong with Berlitz. It's a good choice of brand name when selecting Spanish learning products -- their 125-year history in the language learning business speaks for itself. When people think of quality products for learning a foreign language, they think of Berlitz.
This Spanish course stays interesting as a variety of professional voices were used to record the 3 audio CDs that come with the set. All the tracks contain a pleasant, professionally recorded introductory music. Every chance to immerse you in Spanish is taken advantage of with a native-speaking Spanish voice working side by side with the English speaking voice to introduce the topics of the tracks and give their meanings in English.
The largest percentage of the audio is authentic Spanish that you can repeat over and over to get the pronunciation of the phrases correct.
Course Format and Features
- Word list or glossary (called a Word Bank)
- Sample dialogue/dialog
- Fill in the blank
- True/false questions
- Pronunciation
- Verb conjugation
- Learning tips
- Where to learn more
- Did you know? (tips and little-known facts) sprinkled throughout the book
Features
Here is a list of some of the main features of this course:
- As you work through the book, they always indicate when audio is included for a certain book section.
- Compatible/can be used with iPod and MP3 players.
- There is a unit review section
- All the answers to the test materials are in the back of the book.
Course Contents
What's in the course? Each unit of the course has the same format, consisting of 3 main lessons and a checkpoints review section. There are extensive tests and reviews so you get an accurate measure of how much you've learned, and how well you've learned it. There's also an appendix with six extra sections of material, as well as an answer section for checking your test responses.
Here is a list of the unit topics:
| Unit | Topic |
| Unit 1 | Talking about your house |
| Unit 2 | Going to a restaurant, food, and eating |
| Unit 3 | Vacations and hotels |
| Unit 4 | Talking about time, weather, and making plans |
| Unit 5 | Making plans to go out, talking about what happened in the past or future |
| Unit 6 | Health and fitness |
Learn Spanish Audio CD Media
Here's a breakdown of what you receive on the CD media. Included is the number of tracks on each CD disk, and the amount of time on each disk.
| Media | Number of Tracks | Total Time |
| CD disk 1 | 8 tracks | 64:32 |
| CD disk 2 | 8 tracks | 61:49 |
| CD disk 3 | 8 tracks | 55:21 |
Suggested Price of the Set
The Suggested Retail Price of the Berlitz Intermediate Spanish Course is $29.95 USD and £19.99 British Pound.
General Comments About the Berlitz Course
- Colorful pictures and photos keep the book fun and interesting to read and study.
- There is 1 book / manual of 93 pages plus extras. The book is colorful and interesting.
- Much focus of the course is placed on comprehension. So rather than just cramming a lot of Spanish vocabulary words and sentences into your head, Berlitz is getting the user working on understanding and communicating of ideas is the Spanish language.
- The course has emphasis on testing in book and audio CD so you can gauge your learning success. In general, the tracks consist of native Spanish speakers and an English-speaking narrator.
- The book includes maps of Spanish speaking countries around the world including Spain, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
- The course references a web site where you can go for additional learning materials.