Hi,
Just bought the first ten lessons of level 2 and I have to say that I am really rather disappointed so far, to put it mildly.
I find the decision to use this topic absolutely bizarre.
Moreover, however, there is no visual cue this time around. I believe that having that visual cue available (at least for the first pass through) facilitates and enables much quicker learning than not having it available at all. It would be better for it to be left up to the individual learner to decide whether or not to use the visual cue.
I am hoping for an improvement in lessons 11 - 20.
David
Iâm very sorry youâre not enjoying these lessons - @kinetic, could you refund David his ÂŁ10 for these lessons?
Well, quite a few people have children - but the key point here, of course, is that these structures are getting you used to plurals in general.
The videos are a very recent addition, and we will be doing the work to add them to Level 2. It takes time, though. But we have no evidence to date that the videos accelerate the learning process - in fact, we suspect itâs the other way round - the sense of familiarity they give you is easily mistaken for learning, but (see research on âdesirable difficultyâ or âinterleavingâ) often not the same thing at allâŚ
Refund issued!
And yeah, Level 1 Spanish is the only part of any of our material which so far has videos available, since theyâre such a recent addition - SSi courses have always been traditionally audio-only, and audio remains at the heart of the method. But in any case, things are definitely already in motion to get the same thing added to Level 2 - Iâm just not quite there yet. 
1 Like
I am surprised and puzzled by your email/post today (Monday, 28 August 2017).
I was not looking for and do not want a refund.
Moreover, I deleted my original post first thing on Saturday, 26 August 2017!!!
Iâm not really a fan of deleted posts, to be honest - and particularly not when they express disappointment, which is very important for us to hear about.
I know you didnât ask for a refund, but itâs important to us not to take money from people who arenât happy with what they get in return. Iâm sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable - if it does, you could always pass it on to the next homeless or struggling person you seeâŚ
1 Like
As you know Iâve been re-visiting the lessons over the past couple of weeks and when I first saw the videos on level one I was quite excited, I thought it would make it easier. But I ended up âswitching them offâ by just listening to the audio on my mp3 player instead. Iâm sure you can explain why it didnât work so well better than me but I found it just didnât work as well.
The stuff Iâve learned from audio only seems to have really sunk in - the bits where Iâve relied on the videos I still remember but differently, I have to visualise the word / spelling etc in my head before I can recall it, so itâs slower.
That probably doesnât make much sense but itâs my experience lol.
Anyway not revisiting level one anymore and, as you said, there isnât that option with level two.
1 Like
The best work Iâm aware of in this particular area is Dr Robert Bjork at the University of California on what he calls âdesirable difficultyâ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtmMMR7SJKw and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desirable_difficulty - so the fact that itâs a bit easier when you see the words may actually undermine (although not actually stop!) the learning process - and itâs very interesting that youâve been conscious of the difference, because weâre often not all that good at spotting what is really workingâŚ
2 Likes