Instant Recall Spanish Vocabulary

View other editions of Instant Recall Spanish Vocabulary.
View books by Michael Gruneberg.

Love the crazy associations - Rated
OK, so some of the associations are a bit dodgy, but I actually found this to be really funny, which ultimately helped me to remember the words.

With only 200 words you're not going to become fluent, however I found the vocab to be really useful when used in conjunction with Michel Thomas' 8 disc foundation course (which concentrates more on sentence structure and verbs). My husband didn't use Instant Recall (and only did 6 of the 8 Michel Thomas discs) and it was surprising how much I had to translate/communicate during our recent trip to Cuba.

It concentrates more on Latin American pronunciation, which was good for our purpose. I did find that the translation of a couple of the words didn't quite match up, but this was never a problem during our stay.

In short this is worth the money if you get it for a good price.

Instant Recall Spanish Vocab - Rated
This is a great CD set to learn around 200 Spanish words using word and imagery association. The product review on this page explain the methods quite well. I found the explanations very clear and I was able to picture the images very well, therefore storing the vocab in my memory. Like other reviewers here I suggest you listen to this with your eyes closed to really picture the images in your mind. Some of the links are a touch tenuous, and these are the words I fail to remember, I've found (and recommend) that using my own imagery works better for these words and I'm slowly starting to grasp the remaining few words that previously escaped me. Not only is this course good for learning basic vocab, but it is also good for your brain overall, encouraging memory techniques that can be transferred outside of this course. The speakers on the discs are clear and are pleasant to listen to. Some courses i've done previously have put me off straight away with cheesy music and terrible speakers; this course has none of that. Overall this is a great place to start if you want to learn Spanish to get by on holidays and if you want to get a good grounding before starting night classes. I'd also recommend Michael Grunbergs Spanish association book that compliments this course perfectly and which I picked up on amazon for 2.99. This course is well worth a try.

Does exactly what it says on the.. eh... tin - Rated
If, like me, you spend a lot of time in the car and don't mind folk thinking you are barking mad because you're talking to yourself, this is a great way to learn some spanish vocab. The only reason why I only give it 4 stars not 5 is because I wish there was more of it.
I already had a fair knowledge of spanish thru the excellent Michel Thomas series (very grammar based), but needed to improve my vocab. This is much more fun and really, really works. You don't bneed to keep pausing the cd either, you just rattle thru it. MORE PLEASE!

Excellent beginners tool - Rated
I was a complete beginner and this gave me the confidence to continue. It's quick, it's easy and I wish there was more of it. I can't recommend this enough if it's your very first tool for learning Spanish.

A Quick Jab at Vocab! - Rated
... Instant Recall's definitely worth ... the price.

While its offering of 200 words is a less than ideal, one can go through the course in about 4 hours realistically (including breaks, checking out the blooklet which includes spellings and pronounciations, and about 2 1/2 hours of listening, imagining and testing time).

I found that closing my eyes while listening to the CD, helped in imagining the associations between the Eglish and corresponding Spanish words. While there're no verbs (which is where I think most people would need help) a quick shot of 200 words is bound to help any beginner's confidence.

I picked up the words fast, it's not hard considering they're spilt in categories and fed one at a time, in sets of ten. A word is announced in English (by Alex) and then it's Spanish counterpart (by Isabella), after which Alex asks you to picture an association.

Alex: The word for soup in spanish is...
Isabella: Sopa!
Alex: Imagine a soup that tastes like soap.

You're given some time... enough to work your imagination, and then Alex & Isabella move on to the next word. After a set of ten in a particular category you're tested.

I think the technique works pretty well, but then again that might depend on the individual.

I recommend using this along with the Michel Thomas Spanish Audio CDs.

Neither audio set substitute good one-on-one teaching, but they're definitely good supplements (and should be good for those short of time).

Had it dealt with verbs it would definitely get five stars!