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Original poster

Muzzy Spanish for Beginners

19 replies

Dingbatgirl · 12/03/2009 09:38

My ds age 6 is learning Spanish at school, and he enjoys the language, he counts to 10, says hola and knows his colours. I have seen Muzzy recommended on TV. Has anyone got Muzzy, and is it any good?

OP posts:
Madsometimes · 12/03/2009 10:35

We bought Muzzy, but we have not used it very much. We got it on DVD, but I found the sound quality quite poor. Some of the male voices were very deep, which was difficult for us to understand. I was quite disappointed. My dc are also learning Spanish at school, so we may go back to it.

notagrannyyet · 12/03/2009 17:55

We had french dvd. Very poor sound quality. I wouldn't bother if I were you.

smartiejake · 12/03/2009 18:40

We also had the French one. It is dire. Overpriced, old fashioned, boring. They lose interest very quickly then it stays in a drawer gathering dust until a primary school teacher who doesn't speak French is told she has to teach it to her year 3s...

MadameCastafiore · 12/03/2009 18:42

Muzzy es una carga de basura!

Muzzy est une charge de déchets!

Muzzy ist eine Menge Müll!

Or Muzzy is a load of rubbish!

Bloody waste of money that I could have spent on shoes!

amidaiwish · 12/03/2009 18:43

does anyone recommend any of the other systems? DD1 is always selecting the foreign language options on her Disney/Baby einstein etc. DVDs - french, spanish and sometimes chinese and dutch. odd ball she is!

paranoidmother · 12/03/2009 18:59

We have muzzy and it scared the living daylights out of my 2.

They picked up more from Dora the explorer.

dd is 4 and ds is 2.

ladypinky · 12/03/2009 21:28

www.skoldo.com/en/sitemap/default.asp I have tried the french one seems very good and cheap too

Original poster
Dingbatgirl · 12/03/2009 22:56

Thanks mumsnetters for your advice, it seems everyone has been disappointed by Muzzy. I would expect something really good for the money! Thanks for the link Ladypinky, that's really helpful. While I am here, can anybody also recommend a simple introduction to Spanish for adults, a book and CD set maybe? I am learning French, but it would be good to learn some Spanish along with ds.

OP posts:
dilemma456 · 13/03/2009 13:14

Message withdrawn

CoteDAzur · 13/03/2009 13:23

My experience learning languages is that it is not enough to hear. You also observe the face and especially the mouth of a native speaker to properly learn a language. (English is my second language, French is my third)

This is not possible when watching a furry gorilla.

Summersoon · 13/03/2009 13:37

We didn't like Muzzy either.

We do like Rosetta Stone - expensive but works for our 11-year old. It is a very clever software which uses voice recognition. It is easy to manage for an 11 year old, but the logistics of it might be too much for a six-year old. Content would fine for a young child. Lots of pictures and speaking.

Suggest you try and listen to a demo to see whether you like it - and if it doesn't suit your child now, it might do so in a couple of years. Meanwhile, I would ditch Muzzy!

loobyloos · 23/04/2009 17:06

I recently bought Muzzy and yes it is a little old fashioned, but I hardly think that a 3 year old would think that! The sound is not particularly clear,and it is quite expensive.
I speak Spanish and my son's father is South American so he doesn't have to rely on it to learn the language. However, I have watched all of it and think it is a good way for children to learn the basics. (Alphabet, days of the week, numbers, months and alot more. Somebody mentioned that the male voices are very deep and difficult to understand .... that's how alot of them speak! What's the point of learning an unrealistic accent?
Although it's quite expensive, the recent dvds have 4 languages on them, so I think it would be helpful in the future if my son or I wanted to learn Italian/German or French instead.
I'd say give it a go.

Jianning · 26/04/2009 07:34

I bought the Chinese one for the kids - sound quality was rubbish and they just wanted to watch the English version. Waste of (a lot of ££). Will I never learn? Also too disorganised to return during 'no qs asked' return period so only myself to blame for this colossal waste of ££. Ever time I see the damn thing I feel guilty - could have had a holiday instead.

hellywobs · 06/05/2009 18:29

If you do buy Muzzy, get it second-hand. It may be ok for your child (my son likes it) but it's too expensive and I paid full price for it like a mug. Maybe even be cheeky and post on your local freecycle site - you never know, someone might even give it to you!

basementbear · 06/05/2009 18:31

Definitely a waste of money - mine got bored of it before they learned anything and the characters all have sill voices so it is quite hard to understand I found. Totally agree with hellywobs!

hellywobs · 06/05/2009 18:32

My son liked the CD and we listened to it in the car. But you can't buy it on its own.

BarkisIsWilling · 23/01/2010 18:47

thinking of getting Rosetta Stone, personally...

what do you think?

Tinuviel · 24/01/2010 13:34

I have friends who use Rosetta Stone and find it brilliant. We can't afford it . For a cheap way of learning French or Spanish, I found Skoldo (recommended by a PP) excellent. We used the Elementary book for both and I've seen the Book 1 French, which is fine (but very similar to the Elementary book. I wouldn't recommend Book 2 at all - it's too muddled and is, at best, a random collection of worksheets. Sadly they only do the Elementary book in Spanish.

BarkisIsWilling · 24/01/2010 15:14

Thanks for that, Tinuviel. They are doing some offers and I might take them up on them.

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