Journey Into Spanish: Spanish the Easy Way

California, chili, armadillo...what do these words share in common? That's correct, they are all words which might conceivably appear in a John Wayne film (as in, "Hey pilgrim, how about passin' over some of that California chili for my armadillo friend here?"). Of course, they also share another common thread, namely ancestral, in that all of the words are of Spanish origin. Dr. Elliot Glass (see Accent Correction/Reduction) is the host for this introduction to Spanish which uses vignettes and drills to...well...drill Spanish words and phrases into the memory of the viewer. Unfortunately, the instruction (or instrucción) is rather rote. Most of the first volume is given over to scrolling text recitation of cognates (borrowed words) and various English and Spanish suffixes. The program also features skits which are a) a bit labored and b) occasionally busy (extra background noise may be fine for a Schwarzenegger flick, but you do not want these features in a language instruction video). A fill-in-the-blank workbook is included with the series, but is not essential. Habla! (reviewed in VL-7/94 as Video Tutor Program: Spanish) is still the most comprehensive Spanish tutorial we've seen and is a much better choice. Journey Into Spanish is an optional purchase, at best. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)