Spanish by Living Language Reviews – Page 4
4/5 rating based on 56 reviews. Read all reviews for Spanish by Living Language for iPhone.
Spanish by Living Language is free iOS app published by Random House LLC
Great Learning Tool
The Reviewer Man
I'm using this in conjunction to Rosetta Stone. It is a good learning tool. To use the accents, simply hold the letter on the virtual keyboard and a slew of different accented characters will show. I did find that some vocabulary lesson games have words from a future lesson; just move ahead on learning--go back and complete the game once you find the word--not too difficult of a work around. I assume this will be addressed in a future update. Overall I would recommend this app to anyone learning on the go.
Fairly solid, however...
Taylor2344566
The memory game is just annoying and not helpful whatsoever. I'm not a beginner but I imagine this would be an excellent learning tool for those who are. Worth $20.
Not ready to buy yet
Dmrey73
Please read the whole review... especially you (Living Language). As much as I can appreciate much of the work that went into creating this very beautifully packaged app, it has two major glaring errors that should not exist in the trial version... and definitely not in the paid version. First off... I would love to pay for this app, but based on my initial experience with the sample version, I can see that it needs to go back to Research and Development for a small overhaul. Just as others have said before: as you progress step by step through the basic lessons, specifically Basic lesson 2, you review a dozen words and phrases related to "Hay" ("There is/are") in Vocabulary 1. The next module for Hay then has many questions about things like "Aquí está" and nephews and nieces which were NOT part of the information just learned in Vocabulary 1 and is not covered until the next section (Vocabulary 2). This is pure nonsense. Do not test me on something I did not review up to this point. This is a glaring error to everyone who is learning Spanish for the first time. It shows a lack of quality control from an otherwise potentially very good product. If the trial app has this kind of problem in Lesson 2, what do the other 40+ lessons look like (are they equally poorly thought out and assembled?!). Secondly, before beginning drills where it is necessary to utilize accents (á, é, í, ó, ú) and tildes (ñ) to correctly spell a word, it is necessary... no... ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL, that the student is properly introduced and tested on the ability to understand this concept, including why and how they are used, and ESPECIALLY how to enter them via the keyboard. It is awfully thoughtful <sarcasm intended> of you to include a little blue question mark that tells the end user how to enter accents, but the student should have known that he/she is expected to know how to exactly spell a word with proper accents BEFORE the fill-in-the blank exercise begins. Why is there not an introduction to the alphabet or even how accents and tildes work and affect pronunciation? This is a second example of how you have devalued your potentially excellent product by short circuiting the learning process (pushing for instant immersion and failing to provide the student with an essential understanding of the alphabet and pronunciation so that they could properly enter a word exactly how it should be spelled). Any student that is new to Spanish is (and has been) instantly frustrated and turned off by your sample app and that is why I (along with many others) refuse to pay for the real thing because we already know you did not take the time to do any quality control with a group of new spanish students to see if they had problems with the app. You have a potentially great revenue stream here, but it fails miserably and it is obvious to any new language student that this product isn't worth their time or money if it has these types of errors. Fix it... and I will seriously consider sending you my hard earned money and changing my review. Until then, I am forced to look elsewhere for my Spanish education.
Disappointing
GussieMom
Lessons are fine. One of the fill in the blanks tests is aggravating. You fill in the correct word and it comes back and says wrong. You go back and look up the word, type it in exactly as in the lesson and comes back wrong. I'm going to keep looking for another app.
Learning Again
LWB84
I enjoy using this program because it allows me to review the basics and advance to the next level. It's interactive and gives pronunciations. I have recommended it to others.
Love this App!
AfutileEffort
This app is great for me because I needed remedial Spanish, as I was fluent in the language 30 years ago. This app has helped me to regain my strength in verb tenses, vocabulary and proper noun/subject agreement. Great App!!
Goes along with course
CC in NC
This is a good complement to the book and audio CDs so far (just finished lesson 5). I like the flash cards and games. I took 3 years of HS Spanish in the late 80s/early 90s, so these early lessons were kind of a refresher. Not sure how helpful the app will be later or for someone who is starting from scratch, but I suspect it will continue to help reinforce what I'm learning from the book.
Great app!
1john519
I already had basic understanding of Spanish but this has helped increase my vocabulary and bring to mind what I had forgotten over the years.