Customer Reviews
Not Worth Buying 
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."
Excellent 1 on 1 coaching 
2008-06-13
We got this game to help my husband learn Spanish. He knows a fair amount but this was a challenging game. The drills, repetition, and hearing the pronunciation of the words are excellent. The game does recommend to practice your new vocabulary outside of the game, which is easy for us since my native language is Spanish. This is not the easiest game but it is worth the effort.
Perfect... for returning students. 2008-06-13
First of all, this game is a fun way to learn Spanish. It teaches vocab very well. It does not, however, introduce sentence structure and grammar very well. In fact, I think it'd be fairly confusing to someone new to Spanish..
That being said, this game is great for learning.. if you already have the basics down.
Kind of glitchy, but still good! 
2008-06-12
I took Spanish in high school, many, many, many moons ago. I have noticed that some words may not be the Spanish I learned and maybe they are more Spain based as opposed to Mexico based Spanish, which is what they teach you in Texas.
I love the program, the games are fun and the point scale kind of forces you to learn the words, you have to score so many points before you can move on to the next lesson. A lot of people complain about this, but if you think about it, it is actually a good tool in helping you learn the words. I bought my copy used and there are a few glitches, but nothing to make me want to return it. It is a game that you will use to learn Spanish.
I highly recommend this game, I've even told friends about it, in the hopes we can learn together. I take it everywhere and play with it as much as I can. Compared to the programs I have for my computer, you have to be at home boot up your computer put the disk in, change the disk, this is just way cooler and it also gives you a grade level, I'm in 3rd so far.
I also have the French version too, the only thing that annoys me is the games are the same, I was hoping they would be different from game to game, but they are not. Still overall a fun learning tool and definitely a good choice for any student learning a foreign language. I can't wait till the Italian version comes out.
Good, not great 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
Great Learning Device 2008-07-22
I really love this game. Each lesson has ten words to be mastered. There are great games for helping you master these words. In addition you hear the native speaker and you can also record your voice to compare your pronunciation and even hear the native speaker and your pronunciation simultaneously.
With the multiple choice games, you can choose not to look at the multiple choices and see if you can come up with the word in your head first. I always choose easy rather than hard since it gives you more time to come up with the word first and pronounce it before looking at the choices and choosing the word. There are even sentence building games that help with learning sentence structure.
It teaches a little bit of grammar though I would have liked more. At the half way point (which is where I am at), somewhere around lesson 38, they stopped with grammar tips and had only one game for mastering the words instead of two. I was a bit disappointed at that but am hoping that in later lessons they will again give grammar pointers. Even so I give the program five stars because of all it does for the price and the fact that you can use it anywhere instead of being tied to a computer. I definitely recommend it.
Good if you need a refresher, but only until lesson 38! 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.
Decent vocabulary builder, but requires self-discipline 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 and easy way to learn spanish! 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.
wow! 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!
