Mucho Spanish

Like many other Spanish instructional programs made for the computer, "Mucho Spanish" is best used as a supplement to classroom learning rather than as a complete instructional program. Its best use is to help students learn how to listen to and pronounce Spanish.

The husband-wife team of Aixa Marquez and Dan Fenner set out in 2003 to create an instructional Spanish program that would be both informative and entertaining. Despite a few annoyances in the finished program, they have largely succeeded. "Mucho Spanish" would be a worthy addition to any Spanish classroom.

As CD-ROM instructional programs go, "Mucho Spanish" is fairly simple. Containing three CD-ROMs, it comes in a simply designed case without any written material. There aren't any installation instructions, because none are needed: If your computer has QuickTime 6 installed, it's ready to go; if not, "Mucho Spanish" will ask if you want to install it. Other than the popular QT application (which most computers have or should have anyway), there's nothing to install. Just pop in the CD and play.

The "Mucho Spanish" course consists of about 60 lessons that feature animated characters speaking about the normal things of life — food, family, travel, weather, clothing and school, usually in a light-hearted manner. The characters speak with a Latin American accent, usually at a moderately slow speed. Their words are displayed along with (in smaller type) a more-or-less word-for-word English translation.

Although not a lot of explanation is given, all the major beginner's grammatical concepts addressed: gender, indicative verb tenses, negation, question formation and the differences between ser and estar. Occasionally, more advanced concepts are used in the dialogue without explanation (which isn't a bad thing, because those who are using Spanish in real life while they are learning will encounter that all the time).

There isn't enough explanation of the grammar or systematic enough of an approach to vocabulary to use this as a stand-alone program for learning Spanish. But as a supplement to what is being learned in the classroom, or (less desirably, with one of those expensive, more academically oriented CD-ROM courses), this program fits the bill.

"Mucho Spanish" is appropriate for teenagers and adults. There's no inappropriate content for younger children, but they'd probably find the program boring as it really isn't geared for them.