anyone used Synergyspanish's course?
has anyone had experience with the course by SynergySpanish? It appears to deemphasize the grammar element significantly, which is EXACTLY what I want - I need to sink my teeth into the language a bit before ANY grammar will make sense to me.
I poked around and couldn't find too many reviews of it. most of them were either good, or very critical of the lack of grammar taught and basically said it was useless unless you only ever wanted to ask for a cup of tea. (which once again, is not a drawback to me, for my intended purpose of getting my feet wet before tackling grammar)
-Francis
7 Answers
I tried that... jaja, nothing to refresh!!
(no really, I mean it, I never learned anything to refresh past the elementary level noun, verb, and adjectives.
Trying to read up on it now... painful at best. It just doesn't make any sense, because It literally means nothing to me.
My basic premise is this: If I was able to effectively learn English grammar in this manner (which is a significantly more convoluted language than Spanish), then why not learn Spanish like this'
I had to go to an English grammar site in order to refresh my memory on language terminology.
thanks for the responses everyone =)
I should qualify my reasoning as to -why- I am looking for this type of product.
As a child, I did not learn English grammar, but I was a voracious reader. As a result, I learned over 90% of my English grammar strictly from reading it and learning how the language should "sound" when it is spoken or read. I do not consider this to necessarily be a bad thing, as my English grammar and vocabulary is very good, however, this means that when you tell me its a "regular verb" in Spanish, that means absolutely NOTHING to me, since I don't even know what that is in English!
So in a nutshell, since I have no concept of English grammar, trying to give me a "foundation" in Spanish grammar really is next to useless. I'm not looking for a quick fix as much as I'm looking for something to get my feet wet a bit and become more comfortable reading Spanish (not comprehending, just reading). I am very confident I'll pick up the language fast after reading it a bit, my mind works like that!
My main concern however is if it teaches INCORRECT grammar or a similar issue that would cause problems later on in having to UN-learn something incorrectly taught.
-Francis
I don't know this method, but I do have a thought. All children learn to speak before they learn grammar, in fact you can speak without ever having gone to school. So maybe they are on to something.
Once you know how to speak however, you might have to relearn in order to speak the language with proper grammar.
I completly agree with Eddy... grammar is essential when you are learning a language.
Hi Francis
One of the problems with these quick fix products, and this sounds like one, is that they initially serve a purpose but further down the line there is some sort of payback. In my experience, it doesn't matter what you do in life, it is essential to build a solid foundation. In language, grammar is very important. Later on, if you continue with Spanish and you take my advice, you will be grateful that you made grammar an important part of the learning process.
I don't know this method. Hav you had a look at our lessons on this site'
