Germaine Broadbent, Head of Language Training with Cactus Language Training, tests six teach-yourself-Spanish-kits.
1. EUROTALK INTERACTIVE LEARN SPANISH £24.99
(020 7371 7711)
This clever CD-Rom knew my name when I put it on my PC. The people on screen are obviously speaking English dubbed with Spanish, but when I answered a question correctly they praised me and were cheery, which I liked. Ten topic sections mean there's loads of vocabulary here. You won't learn grammar and structure, but this could be a fun support to other forms of language learning.
SCORE: 7/10
2. TEACH YOURSELF BEGINNER'S SPANISH £20.99
(020 7873 6000)
This box set feels really substantial. There's a reassuring how-to-use section, and it's a solid learning resource with explanations, exercises and vocabulary, but it's a little too complicated to pick up two weeks before your Spanish hols.
SCORE: 6/10
3. SPANISH WITH MICHEL THOMAS £70
(020 7873 6000)
Michel's picture looks unpromising, and he sounds like an avuncular Austrian. His accent isn't very natural, but in the end you forgive him because of his no-frills approach. He repeats a lot, and throws Spanish into English sentences, which was interesting. The lack of music is a plus factor. A positive first experience.
SCORE: 8/10
4. LINGUAPHONE SPANISH EXPLORER £49.95
(0800 136 973)
This is a nightmare to download, and I had to agree to pages of terms and conditions, which made me nervous. The space-age music was irritating, but the basic listen-and-repeat exercises were good. This was immediately confidence-building and I'd be happy to use it again.
SCORE: 7/10
5. BERLITZ SPANISH GUARANTEED £12.99
(01476 541 080)
There's an offputting American woman on the CD, who speaks v-e-r-y- s-l-o-w-l-y. She says you don't need a pen and paper, but I immediately forgot all the questions to look out for in the dialogue. When the CD asks for your response, it praises you with a 'that's right!' even if you don't say anything. The format's samey, and there's too much info too quickly. Uninspiring.
SCORE: 4/10
6. COLLINS SPANISH-ENGLISH TALKING DICTIONARY £17.99
(AVAILABLE AT WWW. AMAZON.CO.UK)
Plenty of music and what sounds like Anne Robinson doing the voiceover here. The idea is to install this CD on your desktop and use it whenever you need a quick translation, but I work on a PC every day and I couldn't get it to work, even using the help section. Once it got started, the CD had a masculine feel with a white flag 'surrender' icon when I didn't know a word. Not for me, but if you have a good level of Spanish, it does have some useful information -if you ever succeed in getting it to work, that is.
SCORE: 5/10
For details of Cactus Language Training call 0845 130 4775.