¿Habla usted español? Spanish is the second most spoken language on earth, second only to Mandarin, and growing in use every day. This specialization is designed for the beginner who may have no experience with learning a second language but who wants to be able to read, write and speak Spanish for personal, travel or business use, or who just wants to learn a second language and build cultural awareness. The topical approach of each course allows learners to develop sets of vocabularies that will form the foundation for a broad understanding of the language. Learners will start with the basics, including common expressions, pronunciation and grammar, and work toward building a functional vocabulary of the 1500 most commonly used Spanish words. The specialization includes 4 courses that progressively build on the skills learned previously, and culminates in a project that allows learners to apply their knowledge and language skills.
Although it took me a while to warm to the idea of doing peer review exercises, and having to video record and upload work, actually I think this is an important part of the course and really useful.
Course is challenging and rewarding. I am a Spanish speaker who has little experience with writing and grammar. Being able to take this course and refine those skills has been rewarding.
Don't hesitate to get this course, is very helpful to develop your grammar and your vocabularies.
Learning a language is a time consuming process, But the expertise you handled is appreciable.Buena suerte, Gracias
An effective language learning method. I can have an overview of basic Spanish language grammar and vocabulary.
Really loved this course. I already started learning the basics before enrolling for this course, but still I found this course really useful. I'll definitely finish all the courses in this series.
It's Very helpful to me.precise but effective. Exercise part is good but in the writing practice section there should give feedback like vocabulary section.
Nice course. I like the three week format. Muchos gracias.
I thank Dr. Blake for devoting his time to let us learn more about Spanish Language and Culture
Awesome and Impressive specialization for novice learners, I highly recommended :)
Hola! Mi nombre es Allan. This basic course is very helpful. I have learned a lot of new vocabulary words at the same time learned how spanish grammar structure forms. Gracias UC Davis!
Challenging but good, definitely requires lots of practice and understanding. The discussion forum came in really handy in helping me understood certain things.
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This course is sadly very frustrating and I have had Spanish and French previously. I don't know how anyone with no Spanish experience would be able to finish the first week's worth of lessons without a lot of outside help and reference. I would expect that a course such as this would have all the reference you'd need to help you translate the material for the practice sessions. It seems like the reference and the practice were created at different times without any continuity. I have dropped this course and will continue with my other audio course.
Description states no previous Spanish lessons required to complete this course which is false. Attempting this course and it was painfully clear that basic Spanish is required to even understand the beginning lessons. This being said it probably is a great class for intermediate students - not beginners
this is not ideal for beginners
Although it took me a while to warm to the idea of doing peer review exercises, and having to video record and upload work, actually I think this is an important part of the course and really useful.
Would not recommend this course or the whole specialization. The courses lack enough examples to drive home the main points of the language usage, especially where the grammar is concerned. The courses also rely heavily on peer graded assignments and most peers are very poor graders even when given specific rubrics. I have repeatedly had peers said I did not do something and dock me points for it while the thing is very clearly done but they did not understand and were unable to follow the directions given. Also the course expects language beginners to effectively judge each other's pronunciation which is plainly a laughable idea. Very disappointed!
not very helpful instructor. every thing we have to google. the content where the instructor speeks is veeeeerryyyyyyyy little.
Just tried this course. I have been using Rosetta Stone and it is good but I wanted more. Tried the first 20 minutes of this course and the scaffolding is very poor. It dropped me in WAY above my level with no guided instruction. I am an educator so I understand how to do this. Sorry, gotta drop it.
This course moves way too fast, and is incredibly demanding and frustrating. I have studied Spanish quite a bit before, but even I found this confusing.
Such a great course, with a very good professor Mr. Robert Blake, all the thanks to him and to the University of California, Davis for this great opportunity... don't hesitate to start the course !!
Got lost. The very first module had me lost. Thought this course was meant for beginners but wasn't offered any introductions
The course is good. But I think the peer grading assignment is unfair. Some peers downgrade you just because they have an opportunity to review someone and for their own guilty pleasure of letting others down. I respected the criterion of the assessment however one of the peers gave absolute dishonest review and unnecessarily deducted marks.
The course is very useful with good structure and enables you to be greatly engaged and learn fast and with ease. Keep in mind that also it is necessary to combined it with other learning activity.
Generally speaking I think the course content is good, but I rated this course average because of three main reasons.
1). I think a little more effort to organize the material would go a long way. For example, the grammar presentations refer to new vocabulary words that were not introduced in the vocabulary list, and the vocabulary exams refer to content in the grammar section. It would be nice if the curriculum were designed so that you could study the vocabulary, take the vocabulary exam, then review the grammar and leverage what you learned in the vocabulary section to re-enforce your learning.
2). I also think that some of the topics deserve additional clarifications, and the presentations themselves are very short. I appreciate the length of the presentations when reviewing the presentations to refresh my memory, but difficult concepts sometimes require more attention than they are given. In some cases, it seems as though an elegant choice of words to describe a difficult concept is more important than taking the time to deconstruct that concept into simple phrases.
3). Lastly, there are errors in the presentations and exams, and little to no involvement from the professor to clarify points and/or correct those issues. I have noticed comments from students who have reported the same issues for the past two years, and those issues are still not corrected. I used to comment on the message boards for clarifications and to report errors, but after getting zero responses from the professor I stopped participating.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think it's a good course - it provides a good structure for learning the Spanish language despite the above shortcomings. Although they appear very simple to address, I see the same shortcomings exhibited by every course in the series.
This course is perfect for people looking to learn a new language. A lot depends on your enthusiasm to learn but the clarity offered in this course regarding the basics of Spanish is unparalleled.
i strongly recommend to please teach spanish vocabulary first by video lectures provided by other professionals. I get tired of searching of lectures but i found nothing. In Week 1 only the person who dont know a single word of spanish get to give practical and match the following sentence ( how would i know man which word is matching with which sentence) until unless i am taught the words of spanish. To answer the question i have used Google translator if i have to use translator why would i pay so much money on this course.
I tried to contact Help Centre but there is no head where you can chose to take help regarding course criteria.
I am highly dissatisfied with course, don't know how this course have 4.6 rating.
I'd give 4.5 but it's not available, so went with 5 :)
The course is really useful, but in forums, even though the administrators encourage to communicate with one another, learners are not that eager to communicate. And the major part of language learning is communication! If you don't use what you've learned and don't listen to others, the learning process stretches and you tend to forget some words here and there. Perhaps making 5% of the whole course requirement to be on forums and communicate with others, not just keep posting your paragraphs that you were required as an assignment.
Thanks to the professor and the administration!
It's easy and clear to understand, the lecturer explained everything very well! This course further ignites my interest to continue learning Spanish. A perfect and fun course for Spanish beginners.
The course is amazing! The best one I have seen till now. The videos are short and helpful. Dr. Blake explains slowly and carefully. It is worth the time and effort!
Thank you!
Not appropriately organized for online beginners. Quizzes deal with topics that haven't even really been introduced yet. One seems to be expected to pick up relatively complex Spanish by osmosis. I was planning to take this course as a refresher (I took Spanish many years ago and still remember a fair amount), and I don't necessarily need hand-holding, but it is a frustrating experience even with prior knowledge.
This course is not worth taking, especially if you have to pay for it! It is boring and you hardly learn anything. Do not take this class, it is not worth your money.