The Think ___ sets of study cards are inexpensive supplements for any Spanish, French, German, or Russian course. I'll refer to the Spanish cards I reviewed, although cards are similar for other languages.
Level I contains 400 flash cards and a cassette tape. 200 of the cards, called Concept Cards, have cartoon-type pictures with a question in Spanish on one side. The answer, also in Spanish, is on the reverse. A featured vocabulary word heads the reverse of the card (e.g., a noun with its article). Irregular words show the regular form beneath so you can find them in a dictionary, if necessary. The cartoon situations provide clues to the sentences, but they are not entirely self-explanatory. You need to have a beginning Spanish vocabulary to start using these cards or you will be frustratedly looking up 90% of the words. The cassette tape is over an hour long and features native Spanish speakers reciting the sentences from the concept cards to help with pronunciation. The other 200 cards deal with grammatical constructions, with questions on one side, and answers on the reverse. They are designed for practice in usage with an emphasis on verb forms. I would suggest that you not begin using Think Spanish until you have studied Spanish for at least three months and have a foundation. (Suggestion: The concept cards could later be used along with a game board—answer correctly and move ahead.) Level I covers the content of one year of high school Spanish or one semester of a college course. Level II covers a second-year high school course or second semester college course.
