Instant Immersion Spanish - Deluxe Version Delightfully Delivers

Instant Immersion Spanish Deluxe is a great product. It will not disappoint. The language-learning DVDs for beginning, intermediate, and advanced learners were developed by Auralog, and subsequently combined by Topics Entertainment with a DVD containing an impressive Lexibase dictionary of 400,000 items by Collins as well as four instructional audio CDs created by Topics Entertainment. Each of the three downloadable language-learning DVDs contains ten lessons, with dozens of activities in each that appeal to every learning style and method of reinforcement and assessment.

The Collins Lexibase is a very valuable tool, even for native speakers who find themselves writing frequently in both languages.  Linked to its searchable dictionary, it indexes 27 topics in a thematic fashion, such as approval, apologies, disagreement, commercial lingo, and even job application jargon and many other practical topics, in both English and Spanish, with contextual examples.

Users can toggle between languages for quick comparisons and alternative expressions. The instructional CDs are good, also arranged with grammar lessons, and there is a huge library of portable lectures with examples. A day

planner program also helps learners set goals and track their progress. The program is great for multiple users at any variety of levels, since it allows them to use the same program and computer--a real plus for families with kids, too.

The voice recognition feature in Instant Immersion Spanish Deluxe is worth the already low purchase price of $39.95. The fields for the waveform patterns are large and the vertical lines indicating pitch and frequency are clear and sharp. The translucent animations of a human head pronouncing the sounds are superb and very useful, like viewing a moving CAT scan! Some users may need to spend some time thinking about how to apply them, but only because we all speak our native languages without reflecting on how we produce sounds and how they can be altered with subtle shifts in position of the tongue, lips, and so on. But the precision of these animations is, to put it one way, medical in its accuracy. This aspect of the program alone, just as with the Collins Lexibase, is also worth the purchase price.

The grammar explanations and verb conjugation tools are superb, except in one way: they do not consistently include the very important fact that Ud. ("you," formal and singular) and Uds. ("you," formal and plural) are second person in meaning but take the third-person form of verbs and share the same forms of object pronouns as the third person. It is mentioned, but not throughout the whole program whenever conjugation is presented.

Another problem is that in the grammar explanation feature, some of the situations, the rough drawings, and comically affected tones of voices, tend to present a picaresque or seedy side of life. The use of dark or sarcastic humor could project an image of Hispanic cultures that I am confident the developers had no intention of creating. Another potential misunderstanding could occur (for example) in the grammar explanation found in the Basic level where tener is presented: Castillian is used in presenting a scene in the desert of Mexico, involving bandits. At best, it is a silly error to place a dialect in a geographical area where it is almost never heard. However, at worst, it could create a negative stereotype and reinforce geographical and dialectical ignorance.

For $39.95, this is the deal of the decade for students of Spanish who cannot afford a more expensive product. There are so many activities for learning, reinforcing, and testing what you are learning that you simply cannot become bored.

Instant Immersion Spanish Deluxe was a snap to install. The only step users will need to watch for is the prompt to put the proper disc (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) in the DVD drive. The Collins Lexibase that comes with the set is incredibly rich, as are the other eight disks for grammar, pronunciation, situational dialogues, vocabulary and so forth.

Topics Entertainment has improved the Auralog program by combining it effectively with the Collins Lexibase dictionary to make learning fun. The voice recognition feature is terrific. The grammar explanations are well organized, concise, sequenced, and grouped according to level. For someone who is less fond of crosswords and other such games than most people, I was hooked! The developers placed a keyboard to enter all the letters, but users can quickly type words using their keyboard, across or down, with great ease (only the accented letters need to be entered into the right position, which you do by clicking on them). The click-and-drag feature for putting words in order to create grammatically correct sentences is also a terrific activity for learners who need to sensitize themselves to the differences between how the words are ordered in English and Spanish sentences. All the other activities were also impressive and easy to use, especially with the drop-down help menu available on each page. The frequent interspersion of cultural workshops (called individually taller cultural) also enriches the learning of the language by helping to psychologically locate the language in terms of geography, artistry, and history. Finally, the ability to work across most modalities and listen and practice pronounciation with relative ease was a real plus, although it took me a while to discover this was possible, more because there is so much to discover than because of any defect in design.

A note regarding the use of Ud. and Uds. (that only appears in explanation of single verbs) should be included in every screen where a verb conjugation is presented, or placed in a conspicuous place when the conjugation tool is activated.

There also is a noticeable disconnect between Auralog's three DVDs for the three learning levels and Topics Entertainments' production of the lecture-mode lessons on grammar in the audio CDs. Castillian ("Spain Spanish") is used on the three DVDs and the Latin American dialect (with a notable American accent) is heard on the audio CDs. The woman's voice on the Topics Entertainment audio CDs is very pleasant and she has an encouraging manner, but she occasionally makes pronunciation or grammar errors. A couple of examples: in one instance, when telling learners to "listen and repeat," she used both the Ud. (formal, singular) and the tú (informal, singular) forms in the same instructional line. Also, when she attempts to exemplify the pure sounds of Spanish vowels in an isolated fashion (a, e, i, o, u), she does so with an audible upglide into a dipthong, a telltale sign of an Anglo-American accent in Spanish.

This product's user interface is superbly designed in terms of sequence, content, and quality, especially when you consider the price and the quality of the features themselves.

Navigating back to previous screens or to a root menu is easy. The program is wisely designed to lead learners, not for learners to lead the program.

If you are ready to learn Spanish, this is a good program to get you started. Its well designed user interface helps ease the learning curve to get you on your way to becoming an accomplished intermediate speaker.

Instant Immersion Spanish Deluxe is easy to use. Trust in the program design to lead you where you need to go and you'll be happy--and learning Spanish in no time.  Users can cut and paste entries in the Collins Lexibase to other applications, a real plus for those who find themselves writing in both languages.

The drop-down help menus are just right; learners can figure out what they need to know then and there, at least for the screen they are on. There is no number to call for tech support, but Topics Entertainment does have a responsive website for this purpose. With some patience, though, most users will probably not need to use it.

I enthusiastically recommend Topics Entertainment's Instant Immersion Spanish, especially if you are not certain that you, or the person you are buying it for, is totally committed to learning Spanish. The depth and breath of activities, the voice recognition feature, the dictionary, the dialogues and assessment tied to activities and day planner, the ability of learners to get grammar explanations, set goals, and do so without technical difficulties make this program a great deal.

If you are wondering about whether you want to study Spanish, but don't want to waste time, fuel, and money going to a community college (or sending your kids there), then buy this program. For $39.95, you, or they, can go a long way. By the time you have learned all from this program that you can, you may well want to invest more in the process, such as spending for a meaningful overseas experience.