Willkommen El aleman a su alcance (poor MT knock-off)

[Speakeasy]

Not long ago, I accepted a very generous offer to explore a “multi-platform” CEFR A2-Level German course, by Vaughn Systems, entitled “Willkommen El aleman a su alcance.” Although the course is available from a Spanish base only, given that the audio recordings are estimated to exceed 50 hours, and feeling that my knowledge of the L1 and L2 languages would be sufficient to see me through any difficulties, I jumped at the opportunity to look under the hood, kick the tires, and take it for a spin. For those of you who are not yet familiar with this course, I have attached, below, an image that I recovered from various offers for physical copies of this course on eBay. I would add that, while searching the Internet for additional information on this course, I came across numerous sources for streaming/downloading the MP3 and PDF files. It is even available on Memrise.

It is obvious from the sheer quantity of materials, as well as the excellent production values, that the people who conceived, produced, and edited this course were very serious in their attempts at creating and publishing a modern CEFR A2-Level German course for speakers of Spanish. And yet, my overall impression is that the result was a poorly-conceived knock-off of the Michel Thomas Method. I did not make it all the way through this course. Rather, I worked through the first five of the 50-plus modules and, based on what-for-me-had-been a jarringly annoying experience, I began leap-frogging towards the middle and, finally, to the end-of-course summary.

As for the Michel Thomas method, there is an instructor and, in this case, one student. Although the course mimics, to a large extent, an “all audio” format, it includes apparently ample printed materials. I say “apparently” because, while the documentation is voluminous, it is also needlessly repetitive, whereas the salient information seems to be almost buried in the text. In my view, the documentation could have been reduced by at least two thirds had the editor exercised better control. The two Spanish speakers giggle, laugh, tease and cajole one another, with the female speaker often acting particularly coyly, they try too hard to be cool, and they ramble on endlessly. The audio files begin with superfluous, L-O-U-D Rock and Reggae music which is so annoying that, following repeated exposure to it, I began to cringe in anticipation of what-for-me-felt-like being Tasered. Nevertheless, I persevered (in leap-frog fashion) in the forlorn hope of discovering something worthwhile. To my dismay, the German portion of the audio recordings represents perhaps only a quarter of the total purported 50 hours. In addition, there are relatively few opportunities for practicing the target language. Quite frankly, despite the obvious good intentions of the people who produced this course, I came away with the impression that the designers were working from the premise that the ultimate users -- presumably tragically-hip millennials -- could not possibly concentrate on something so easy and so laughingly enjoyable as learning a foreign language unless the materials included their endless and ever-so-charming interjections.

Okay, I did not enjoy the experience of trying to work through this course and I’ve said as much. I invite anyone having experience with the “Willkommen El aleman a su alcance” course to express their own views.

EDITED: typos