Wink to Learn Spanish - Should I Toss It?

[Kballent]

I received my Wink to Learn Spanish today and really don't know what to do.  The following is copied from my blog post about it.

"I was SO excited this afternoon, our Wink to Learn Spanish set arrived!  I had to keep myself from bouncing up and down when I opened the package.  I have heard some great things about the Wink to Learn sets and really wanted to formally introduce Spanish to Xander (my mom is from Peru so I grew up in a bilingual household).  When I saw they had released Speak and Read Spanish, I ordered it right away.  Unfortunately, now I am on the fence.

When I first put it in I was happy to see that I had the option to choose between continental and Mexican Spanish.  I ended up watching the same lesson in both version for comparison.  I LOVE the format.  It is similar to Glenn Doman flashcards.  However, my problem is with the grammatical accuracy.  For example, they said "la mano" (the hand) but then showed a picture of two hands.  I think they should have either made it plural or shown only one hand.  Other words also contained singular vs plural discrepancies.  My biggest problem, however, was with "la pierna" (the leg).  They showed a picture of two feet.  Granted there were shins attached to those feet but still.  I am glad I know Spanish so could catch it.  I am going to watch some more lessons and see if they are all as flawed.

I don't know what to do.  Some of the information is great, and I love the presentation.  I would love to have it for Xander, not to mention being out the money if I don't use it.  On the other hand, I don't want to teach him wrong information.  Maybe I will just stick to making him flash cards and videos in Spanish, however time consuming it may be.  I am so disappointed because I have read such great reviews of their Chinese, English, and Encyclopedic Animal sets.  Maybe the only problem is with Spanish?  Sigh."

[reei]

maybe you can try writing to "wink to learn", their customer service is quite good, maybe they'll refund , or modify their dvds and send you new dvds. it is worth a  try.

[LDSMom]

I've never seen the wink to learn stuff, but I do love the way YBCR is designed, and I've heard they've come out with a translated version in Spanish. If you get your money back for the Wink set, you may want to look into it.

[Kballent]

Yes, I have heard of YBCR in Spanish (although I did buy Your Baby Can Speak Spanish because I got 4 glitchy disks).  If I get my money back I might do that, I was just hoping for the faster presentation style offered by WTL.  I am also working on making my own video, it just takes a long time to gather images.

[NadiaD]

I also bought Speak and Read Spanish. I realized the errors in the Body Parts section.
I show this part words only. My DD almost 2 and YBCR is too slow for her. She knows already some Spanish.
So I just show her revision lesson from  Speak and Read Spanish ( picture and word) of level 1 three times a day at the moment.
I am sure WtL will fix the error . It is a great company and I will not be returning my DVDs because it is still valuable resource.

[waterdreamer]

I received my Wink to Learn Spanish today and really don't know what to do.  The following is copied from my blog post about it.

"I was SO excited this afternoon, our Wink to Learn Spanish set arrived!  I had to keep myself from bouncing up and down when I opened the package.  I have heard some great things about the Wink to Learn sets and really wanted to formally introduce Spanish to Xander (my mom is from Peru so I grew up in a bilingual household).  When I saw they had released Speak and Read Spanish, I ordered it right away.  Unfortunately, now I am on the fence.

When I first put it in I was happy to see that I had the option to choose between continental and Mexican Spanish.  I ended up watching the same lesson in both version for comparison.  I LOVE the format.  It is similar to Glenn Doman flashcards.  However, my problem is with the grammatical accuracy.  For example, they said "la mano" (the hand) but then showed a picture of two hands.  I think they should have either made it plural or shown only one hand.  Other words also contained singular vs plural discrepancies.  My biggest problem, however, was with "la pierna" (the leg).  They showed a picture of two feet.  Granted there were shins attached to those feet but still.  I am glad I know Spanish so could catch it.  I am going to watch some more lessons and see if they are all as flawed.

I don't know what to do.  Some of the information is great, and I love the presentation.  I would love to have it for Xander, not to mention being out the money if I don't use it.  On the other hand, I don't want to teach him wrong information.  Maybe I will just stick to making him flash cards and videos in Spanish, however time consuming it may be.  I am so disappointed because I have read such great reviews of their Chinese, English, and Encyclopedic Animal sets.  Maybe the only problem is with Spanish?  Sigh."

Hey! I believe you left a comment asking me the same question on my blog, if its ok I'm going to answer it here.
I looked on the English DVD and with the word hand only one hand is shown and looking a little closer I did notice that the picture for the word leg has two legs. For myself, I think this is not that big of an issue, children will learn singular vs plural while they learn to read. My son used this DVD is and can knows leg means one and legs mean more then one.
If words were misspelled I would be extremely worried, but to through out the DVD over this would be a shame, its still a very valuable teaching tool.
But that being said if it really bothers you contact the company, they have excellent consumer service and I'm sure they can help you.

[WINK to LEARN]

Dear Kballent,

Thank you very much for your kind feedback. We are as concerned as you are with regards to this matter. We definitely like to take this matter up with our product development partner as well as the instructors involved. As mentioned in the email correspondence earlier, we like to seek your kind help to provide those grammatical mistakes that you had found as this will aid our internal discussion.

Pertaining the singular and plural nouns, we had indeed consulted many early learning experts and they felt that it's important to start off a child with singular nouns and this is why we had only introduce singular nouns in our flashcard programs. Likewise, the intent of the pictures is merely to introduce the meaning of the word to the child. During the development stage, we had also referred to many early learning children books by some major publishers and apparently this way of presentation is acceptable as well.

Nevertheless, please email your comments to us so that I am able to assist with the feedback process asap. We care for our programs as each of them is like a child to us. Appreciate your kind revert very much.

Kind regards,
Hazel
Customer Service

[Karen84]

Hm, thanks for the informative post for others considering buying this product!

I wouldn't be too hard on the set though. I have not bought it myself but am considering it and am not put off by the issues you raised. I don't think the discrepancies you mentioned are significant enough to throw a child's understanding. I have used similar methods for learning French as an adult and often the pictures are a fairly poor example of the word but are nonetheless valuable.

If this is your only concern I still think the vids are probably quite good, especially if you watch the videos with your child and you can help clarify. I would by no means toss the set based on those minor discrepancies but if you continue to find more serious errors please let us know!

[Boca Beth]

Hola / Hi ~

I would never toss something that has such educational merit and value!  You are so fortunate to be able to help your child navigate through the few errors you have found.  Like you said, you love the format.

Use what they have spent a lot of time, experience and money developing, and customize it to your liking for you and your son.

Why reinvent the wheel?  They got the entire thing built - now you just have to make it work great for your family.

[mybabyian]

I had a similar dilemma in principle and I agree you should not toss the program.  The program will provide your child with an introduction to the language which will allow him to have many more meaningful experiences with it.  Those experiences will be possible because of what he has learned even if he does learn a few things that are not quite right. 

Further, his brain is wired to look for patterns.  You may find that he already understands the difference between “la mano” and “las manos” even though he has been hearing it wrong because he has heard other examples of singular versus plural, e.g. “la oreja” and “las orejas.”  This is why kids often say irregular words wrong even though they hear it right.  Their brains pick up the pattern.  But, with constant exposure to the language from multiple sources they learn certain words don’t always follow the rules.  Similarly, they learn certain speakers (videos, books, etc.) don’t always get it right!  He will learn to pick up the difference.

That was my dilemma.  I wondered should I speak to my baby in Spanish at all even though I sometimes make grammar mistakes and have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds (rr!).  I decided I would in order to provide him with a foundation of meaning.  This would serve him to be able to participate in other experiences with the language.  The combination of all his experiences with the language will refine what he learns. 

My husband is also from Peru!  I also make videos to help my son.  There is a wonderful children’s singer from Peru whose songs I am using.  I try to use lots of large text to help him learn written Spanish as well.  I am posting my videos to YouTube.  Maybe they will serve you too.  Right now I only have one but hope to add more!
http://www.youtube.com/user/mindymarissa?feature=mhee

Mindy

[Corinne2011]

Mindy, I just watched your farm video and can't wait to show it to my daughter.  May I ask what program you used t make the videos?  I want to make some of my own with large print that either highlights as the word is said or prints out as the word is said ( or even a big arrow like YBCR).  Just anything other than a block of text with no way to tell what word is being said.

[mybabyian]

Hi Corrine,

I am glad you like my videos!  I used adobe aftereffects.  It's a bit difficult to learn and a bit pricey, but I guess that is relative.  I am not really familiar with anything else so I can't recommend anything.  Little Reader has the arrow underneath of course, but it is not so much for making videos.  Although you can add videos to Little Reader. 

If you like the videos you might find this app useful too.  This is from my blog:
http://earlylearning4fun.blogspot.com/2013/04/learn-names-of-animals-in-spanish.html

 

[nuria2012]

Hi Kaballent,

I have the English version and had the same problems... I was excited when I opened the packet. It is what I wished: basic vocabulary that I  could use with my LO very often. They are very useful and practical to introduce vocabulary. Later, I observed some terrible mistakes as far as singular and plural is concerned. I am happy that WTL sees your message. It is a good way to change wrong things. The programme is very good, but there are some details that should be changed. Anyway, don´t toss it.

[Corinne2011]

I know the original poster started this thread a while ago, but in wink to learn users advise to get wink to learn spanish, (french or english)?  I followed their company years ago eagerly awaiting their Chinese release, but then people said that it is not standard dialect.  I didn't want to confuse my (still future!) little one so never bought it.  Then later they came out with other languages and did use native speakers.  There really is nothing else like it on the market.  Even Little Pim seems all over the place.  It doesn't start with single words, then phrases, then sentences.  I am especially keen to use the spanish version of wink to learn since there is no little reader spanish.

And thanks Kballent.  I did order Kid start thanks to your review.  It is set to arrive any day now.
Mindy, thanks for the software name.  I am looking for easy!   But I will certainly check out adobe aftereffects. Your videos are simply gorgeous.  I wouldn't even need that much, just simple captions...that I could make large, and highlight word by word or appear on screen word by word.

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