Not so revolutionary Language Revolution
I picked up Tony Buzan's Language Revolution - Spanish more with an eye to whether its methods could be adapted to more exotic languages (Dari and Old Irish - don't ask) than for learning Spanish since it's a beginner book and I already mangle basic Spanish just fine. What I would say, first, is that it looks better in the bookstore when you're thinking about buying it than it does at home when you sit down to work through it. It's not that it won't work, just that there's not much there. If you're planning on a trip and want some nouns and adjectives to toss out there to get what you want in some everyday situation, this is great. It might be really great if you're one of those people who can't pick up those basics by scanning a phrase book. However, it teaches vocabulary, not Spanish.
The biggest disappointment, however, comes in the marketing. This is sold as Language Learning meets Mind Mapping. The concluding paragraph of the introduction includes the following:
Collins makes some nice stuff and Tony Buzan has some good ideas. But this particular package oversells itself. With a scaled down version of the software easily located at the Collins website, I might have gotten hooked enough to try to the full-scale product. Directing me off-site for a trial of a tool the promotes as one of the great things the book's web support has to offer just makes me wary of the whole package.
I'll be giving the whole thing a little bit of a look and if it seems to have more to offer than what I'm sensing here, I'll post on it. But if you're planning to go to Spain for a week and just want some words and phrases, I'm going to recommend Week One of Speak in a Week and Elisabeth Smith's One Day Spanish as a better way to go.
Info on the book and the reservations I've expressed is welcome in the comments; note that comments are moderated and may not be approved for a few days.
The biggest disappointment, however, comes in the marketing. This is sold as Language Learning meets Mind Mapping. The concluding paragraph of the introduction includes the following:
You will be able to modify and expand all the Mind Maps in the book to help you test and reinforce your learning. First you will need to download and install the iMindMap(TM) software on your computer.Maybe I'm reading deficient, but when I stumble over those sentences in a book that sings the praises of its website support, I get the impression that you can download iMindMap(TM) software, or at least a scaled down version of it, at the website. Otherwise, what would would be the point of a language book that teaches you to think creatively about learning languages using the author's mind maps as a springboard to forming your own associations? However, so far I've only discovered a link to another Tony Buzan site where you can download the iMindMap(TM) software for a free trial. I haven't investigated that yet; will do so later. If the Language Revolution site has a special version of the software for users of the book, they've hidden it well. This makes it feel, frankly, like what purports to be a revolution is just another gimmick for driving you to Tony Buzan's other products.
Collins makes some nice stuff and Tony Buzan has some good ideas. But this particular package oversells itself. With a scaled down version of the software easily located at the Collins website, I might have gotten hooked enough to try to the full-scale product. Directing me off-site for a trial of a tool the promotes as one of the great things the book's web support has to offer just makes me wary of the whole package.
I'll be giving the whole thing a little bit of a look and if it seems to have more to offer than what I'm sensing here, I'll post on it. But if you're planning to go to Spain for a week and just want some words and phrases, I'm going to recommend Week One of Speak in a Week and Elisabeth Smith's One Day Spanish as a better way to go.
Info on the book and the reservations I've expressed is welcome in the comments; note that comments are moderated and may not be approved for a few days.
2 Comments:
If the book said it was great for use in your car, would you expect them to give you a car?
I don't see that the purchase of a book that uses a tool means they have to give you the tool, even a cheap restricted version of it.
Yes, it's nice to let you discover if the tool is really for you, but that's what the free trial is for.
William,
Point taken. I likewise know that just because my car dealer tells me that such in such model corners really great with Goodyear tires doesn't mean that I should expect to have Goodyear tires without an extra charge. The question is whether Tony Buzan wants me to think of him and his product lines the way I think about my car dealer. The wording in the book is just ambiguous enough to make the case that just because downloading the software is mentioned in the same context as downloading other things from the book's website doesn't mean it's actually included. But a sentence like this - "Download and try the iMindMap(tm) software free for seven days and you'll see how much it helps" - somewhere in that paragraph would have been a damn site more open about what the book actually did and didn't include.
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