Advantages: Great course. Plenty of extras from the BBC
Disadvantages: Lack of opportunity to speak when learning alone. Need for sustained motivation

...an exercise book separately (£5.99 from the BBC shop) and taped the Sueños programmes off the BBC2 channel (the BBC website contains information of when these are played, which is quite regularly.) Add to this the Sueños websites which has video and audio clips, vocabulary, exercises and transcripts of the TV series and you get a very varied, multimedia course. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/suenos/). The only thing missing is the opportunity to speak the language, other than talk to yourself or the cat (See picture :-) ). But I will come back to this aspect when I describe the course itself. The pack then... The book and Cd's are held in a plastic case and the whole thing looks rather attractive. One small reservation here: The Cd's are supposed to be lodged in a shape moulded out of the plastic but they never seem to stay in... Read review

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Advantages: Cast, script, most things really
Disadvantages: A bit slow at times

...Pillow Talk is a wonderful romantic comedy which has hardly aged a bit in the decades since its release. Remade a couple of years ago into the excellent Down With Love, this one can still hold its head up high (and though I personally still like the latter film more, I know that many prefer the original.) Jan Morrow (Doris Day) is a highly successful career woman, who is unfortunate in that she has to share a party phone line with playboy Brad Allen (Rock Hudson). The phone company is working hard to give everybody their own individual lines, but no-nobody other than Jan herself considers his constant wooing of different women over the phone to be a problem. The phone company do actually send over an inspector after Jan makes a complaint, but since the inspector is a woman… well, she doesn't see any problem with him whatsoever... Read review

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Advantages: Moving and dramatic, bizarre and disturbing, with excellent performances
Disadvantages: Not clearly defined

...Pedro Almodovar's TALK TO HER (Hable Con Ella) was released in 2002 after its controversial Spanish director's last film, and biggest international hit, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER. I say controversial because in Spain, the most self-critical of countries, that's what he is. Heavily criticised for his often perverse and anarchic subject matter, Almodovar is simply a dramatist, a romantic dramatist who has a knack for hiding a world of sophistication and compassion underneath carefully crafted layers of modern melodrama. Eclectic, indeed, is a word best fitted to this gifted filmmaker. From travesties (KIKA, HIGH HEELS, THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET, LIVE FLESH) to the sublimely brilliant (WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN and LABYRINTH OF PASSION) Almodovar is a filmmaker always on the move with ideas. In fact, for me, the only thing... Read review

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Advantages: For the beginner more than a solid base from which to understand the language
Disadvantages: None as far as grammar goes

...Since coming to live in Spain I have bought several text books and audio language courses. The practice makes perfect seriesof books: Complete Spanish Grammar - (Gilda Nissenberg), Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions - (Dorothy Richmond), Spanish Verb Tenses - ( Dorothy Richmond), I found to be of great value and clearly stated instruction. An understaning of the verb tenses is for me an essential part of learning to speak Spanish intelligently, and therefore, the first book I bought in this series was Spanish Verb Tenses. I was impressed with the clarity of tuition and of the many opportunities I was given to practise, thus hammering home each lesson which, with the answers provided gave an indication of how well, or badly, I was progressing. I soon added to my collection the other two books in the series and from then on I used... Read review

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Advantages: Good for building confidence and constructing general sentences
Disadvantages: Focuses on conversation; no specific vocabulary fields

...The Spanish Language Builder is intended as a follow-on to Michel Thomas's initial eight-hour course as well as his advanced course in Spanish. It comprises two hour-long CDs and, unlike the beginners' course, this time there is a thirty-two page booklet, pages 9 to 28 of which actually list expressions in Spanish. The aim of the Language Builder is to increase your vocabulary and boost your confidence in conversation. Having an interest in learning foreign languages and having learned some Spanish in the past, I thought the Language Builder would be a good way of picking up my Spanish again. I know quite a few people who have found Michel Thomas's French beginners' course useful but perhaps not sufficient as a stand-alone method of language learning. I don't hide the fact that I am very sceptical of learning any language without... Read review

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Advantages: wonderful food, flavours and atmosphere
Disadvantages: check your bill

...La Flamenca An Authentic Spanish Restaurant in Bath 12A North Parade Bath BA2 4AL Tele; 01225 463626 Fax; 01225 463676 Web-site www.la-flamenca.com This Tapas bar / restaurant can now by seen on Sky Channel 160 - Britain's Best Breaks. TV Travel Show. I do not have Sky TV so can't comment on the coverage of this but have visited the restaurant a few times so here is my review based on the first experience of this little bit of Spain within an historical City. LOCATION The restaurant is situated in the heart of the city, within a 5 min walking distance of the railway station. North Parade is the street that runs between the Sports Centre (Cricket ground) and Pierrepont Street (A3039). It is also about a 5 min walk to Bath Abbey, The famous Sally Lunn's and the Great Bath Rugby club. PARKING Although parking... Read review

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Advantages: Price, Good value
Disadvantages: Sweetness for some

...This is Sainsbury’s version of a Spanish Sweet White and its only £2.99 a bottle is it another bargain or just more cheap plonk? Where does it come from? Well Spain has impressed me with some recent gigantic leaps in wine quality especially its Rioja variety and its sparkling wine known as Cava, which is great for party celebrations and a lot cheaper than champagne. Spain’s northwest has a cool coastal climate where regions like Galicia are creating some delicious fresh whites from a variety called Albarino. Inland Spain is where you find the vineyards producing Rioja and even here some well-made whites are starting to be developed, I can’t wait to try them all. Central Spain is hot and here is where we find the La Mancha region, south of Madrid, which is a source of vast quantities of easy drinking reds... Read review

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Advantages: There are lot's of beatiful songs on this album well worth your £12.99
Disadvantages: There are a lot of ballads all good but a bit more of the pop would be nice

...French / Canadian and not able to speak a word of English until the age of 12 and Celine Dion is now one of the worlds biggest selling female artists with number ones in over 20 countries all over the world, including the UK and the USA. I am about to review her third English Multi Platinum CD Let’s ‘Talk About Love’, on this album we see Celine collaborate with huge names in the music industry on several tracks as producers or as duets. These names include ‘The Bee Gees’, ‘Barbara Streisand’ and ‘Luciano Pavarotti’ to name only but a few. The album is very much what you would expect from Celine with a bit of hip-hop and funk thrown in along the way, however, it works very well and the least expected tracks are placed in all the right places to give you a break of consider to be Celine’s constant whaling! This album took Celine... Read review

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Advantages: Nothing wrong with the football, just not quite HD
Disadvantages: These guys should be in the Prem league, and diving

... HOLA! Week in, week out, we hear about how the English domestic league is the best in the world, but there is no denying there has always been an attraction to another league in our continent. As through the doom and gloom of our country, there is a brighter and more attractive euro to be made in Spain and it's La Liga football league. Sky Sports therefore decides to bring us the best of spanish football and with timeslots to fill on a saturday and sunday evening, this is the best time to bring us live easy to watch viewing. "THE LEAGUE" You'd think that we wouldn't go so far abroad for our fix of extra football, especially considering when you have a perfectly good foreign football battle between Celtic and Rangers up north, but it appears that nothing can beat the appeal of some of the biggest clubs... Read review

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Advantages: Learn words and phrases quickly and easily.
Disadvantages: Your landed with the responsibily in speaking ALL the Spanish on holiday

...I study Spanish at school, but still wanted to get an advantage for my first trip there. I bought this CD from play.com. I uploaded it onto my iPod and listened to it all the way there. Earworms uses a unique method of music (don't worry it's not a great spanish sing along) there is a voice that speaks over a beat like this Hello (beat beat) Hola (beat beat) Hello etc. It progresses onto much harder things towards the end of the C.D. And the great thing is, it dosen't even feel as if you have to try to learn it. I was greatly supprised when I arrived in Spain having learnt a great deal of words. Although it did mean I was landed the responsibility of ordering all the food on holiday. A really productive and affordable way to learn Spanish, there is also a second volume featuring more complex words and phrases.... Read review

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