Learn Language with "Muzzy"... Does it work?

[fruitful vine]

Have you tried learning a language with "Muzzy" from Early Advantage?

Did you/your kids like it?

Did it work?

[momof165]

Hello Jennifer,

 

we have used Muzzy German and my son really liked it. :) However, he was exposed to the German language before we started using Muzzy. For him, it was just a fun way to reinforce what he has learned so far. This program uses only native speakers, so pronunciation is perfect. I just don't know if a child can really learn German from this video course if he/she has not been exposed to the language before.

 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

 

Sonja

[fruitful vine]

Hello Jennifer,

 

we have used Muzzy German and my son really liked it. :) However, he was exposed to the German language before we started using Muzzy. For him, it was just a fun way to reinforce what he has learned so far. This program uses only native speakers, so pronunciation is perfect. I just don't know if a child can really learn German from this video course if he/she has not been exposed to the language before.

 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

 

Sonja

 

Thanks Sonja,

We bought Muzzy a year ago, to teach the kids Spanish. It seemed to be working great the first month we had it, but after that they were just board with it, since it had only the same story over and over. So after that they didn't even want anything to do with it.

Did I do something wrong?

Thanks again!

[apheartsong]

Hi Jennifer,

 

We borrowed the Spanish videos from our library when my son was 6 or 7. He enjoyed them and watched them over and over, but he didn't hear the words/phrases correctly and went around saying odd phrases that were incorrect. I could not understand the speaking well enough to repeat it correctly or help my son. Two years later he doesn't remember anything. He remembers more from his limited exposure to Dora the Explorer than Muzzy.

 

I also thought some of the scenarios were unclear. As an immersion method, they could have been clearer in their presentation. Some of it didn't seem logical to me, so I'm not sure we were getting the right message from the visual. I would borrow them through the library system before making an investment.

 

Hope that helps.

Allison now in TX

[fruitful vine]

Hi Jennifer,

 

We borrowed the Spanish videos from our library when my son was 6 or 7. He enjoyed them and watched them over and over, but he didn't hear the words/phrases correctly and went around saying odd phrases that were incorrect. I could not understand the speaking well enough to repeat it correctly or help my son. Two years later he doesn't remember anything. He remembers more from his limited exposure to Dora the Explorer than Muzzy.

 

I also thought some of the scenarios were unclear. As an immersion method, they could have been clearer in their presentation. Some of it didn't seem logical to me, so I'm not sure we were getting the right message from the visual. I would borrow them through the library system before making an investment.

 

Hope that helps.

Allison now in TX

 

 

That was smart getting them from the library....sadly ours didn't have them.

I hated to put out the money for it, but finally made the jump and now I'm sorry I did.

 

I also thought the words were a bit hard to understand. The "funny" voices made it really difficult to master the true sounds of the words.

And yes I agree, the visual was also unclear.

[Julie in MO]

Hi,

We take French lessons (teacher is master's prepared, although not a native speaker). I asked her about the Muzzy French before purchasing and she said that the program uses excellent pronunciation and she recommends it for younger children. She said that language, in general, is taught best before age 12 when some "hard-wiring" of the brain sets in and make language acquisition more of a thinking skill than a natural progression. She also said that for a less expensive review of French, I could have my dds watch a favorite movie which they are very familiar with (they have Chronicles of Narnia practically memorized) and use the French subbing. It's pretty much the same concept as the Muzzy technique.

 

I did go ahead and buy Muzzy to help my younger daughter keep pace with my older so they could be in the same French class.

 

HTH,

Julie

[Julie in MO]

I just wanted to mention that you can find good used deals on Muzzy - much cheaper than new. I bought mine from e-bay, but have seen them on vegsource and homeschoolclassifieds.com.

 

Julie

[fruitful vine]

Hi,

We take French lessons (teacher is master's prepared, although not a native speaker). I asked her about the Muzzy French before purchasing and she said that the program uses excellent pronunciation and she recommends it for younger children. She said that language, in general, is taught best before age 12 when some "hard-wiring" of the brain sets in and make language acquisition more of a thinking skill than a natural progression. She also said that for a less expensive review of French, I could have my dds watch a favorite movie which they are very familiar with (they have Chronicles of Narnia practically memorized) and use the French subbing. It's pretty much the same concept as the Muzzy technique.

 

I did go ahead and buy Muzzy to help my younger daughter keep pace with my older so they could be in the same French class.

 

HTH,

Julie

 

So you used Muzzy (French) along with a French class? I was hoping for a program that didn't need other sources to help them learn it.

Do you think Muzzy could normally teach the child if the child is not taking a class?

 

Oh, and I like the subbing idea....very good idea.:001_smile:

[fruitful vine]

It sounds like it will help if the child had some experience with the language already, but has anyone used this program alone and had it work well in teaching a language to your child?

[Melinda S in TX]

We did French. They memorized the script and understood the story line but that was it. It didn't transfer over to them being able to say anything but a sentence they had heard in the story. After a while they were board with it. I do catch my littles, two and five, saying some of the words sometimes.

 

Melinda

[fruitful vine]

Thanks Melinda

 

That sounds a like my experience with it!

[Quad Shot Academy]

We did several languages with it and my kids had zero retention from it. I hope that the language "got in their brain" though. I took objection to the story line, but I still let them watch it. They never did pick up on what was happening. We also got lots of videos like Blues Clues in Spanish from the library and they did not learn anything from those either. I start Rosetta Stone in K and they have good retention and carry over with that.

[Julie in MO]

So you used Muzzy (French) along with a French class? I was hoping for a program that didn't need other sources to help them learn it.

Do you think Muzzy could normally teach the child if the child is not taking a class?

 

Oh, and I like the subbing idea....very good idea.:001_smile:

 

I'm not really using Muzzy to supplement the French class. The French class is really for 6th graders and up. The teacher allowed my 4th grader to join since I planned on coming along. She needs the extra boost for her confidence in a "big kid" class.

 

However, Muzzy is an immersion approach to language - not instruction. The characters all speak in the language you buy (French, Spanish, etc.) for the purpose of the child "picking up" what's going on and figuring out the correct words and their pronounciations. Rosetta Stone is more instructive (and probably A Beka and Bob Jones, although I haven't looked at those myself). Muzzy is more of a fun way to learn many words simply.

Hope that helps!

Julie

[clwcain]

Howdy! My first post here, but my wife and I have been using Muzzy Italian with our kids for a couple of years now.

 

I'd say it works as I expected it to. We're very happy with it.

 

It is not, and is not intended, to teach a complete language through immersion. It is not intended as a language course of study.

 

Where Muzzy is most effective is exposure while the children are in the "absorbent stage" as defined by Maria Montessori (although it isn't a Montessori approach).

 

The story is amusing and the songs are fun without being earworms. The set comes with the story in the foreign language on 2 DVDs, the story in English on 1 DVD, a PC-CDROM game, an audio CD of the complete foreign language story, a Vocabulary Builder DVD, and a perfect-bound "guide" that includes the complete text of the episode and vocab builder.

 

I will note that the guidebook and the Vocab Builder CD contain all the European languages they offer. So I can put it on in German, English, Italian, French, etc.

 

Following the recommendations of the Early Advantage folks you simply put it on and let it "work". It becomes part of the young child's environment, like putting on classical music, or hanging lovely art at eye level.

 

You can, as the children age, work with it more formally, but I'm not sure this is an effective use of the program.

 

In terms of teaching a language, it will not do so unless you can reinforce the immersion. For example, have your spouse speak only the immersion language and you speak only English. Thus it is great for reinforcement.

 

If that's not an option, as it isn't for us, I would still recommend that you make use of the songs and games and snippets of dialogue (salutations, etc.) that will be used throughout the cartoon.

 

In my opinion Muzzy is most useful as an introduction to other languages. It does date from an era before the ubiquitous Dora/Blue/etc. franchises with their pseudo-polyglot formats.

 

My almost-five-year-old does know some Italian from his exposure to Muzzy over the last few years. We've reinforced it by using some Italian with him. It is all, in our house, complementary to periodic immersion in Latin.

 

Sorry to be so long winded, and I'm happy to answer any further questions if you still have any.

 

We feel it has worked as advertised, as the first step to a lifelong familiarity with languages. YMMV.

[fruitful vine]

I was looking for a program that would teach a language with no other sources need.

 

I guess MUZZY is not what will work for us.

At least not till I learn more Spanish!

 

Thanks for the info. :001_smile:

[unity]

No one has mentioned them so I thought I'd jump in. If you go to the Early Advantage website you can buy lesson plans, workbooks, reproducible activity sheets, etc. I am on my second time around using Muzzy with all the extras and I find it to be a decent early language-learning course. So far I haven't seen anything that works better, at least. (Although the picture quality and especially the sound drives me crazy). I don't think any child will pick up significant language ability simply from watching videos without any direct instruction. I dunno, maybe if they watched for 8 hours a day...but the tradeoff there would be too great, imo.

 

My daughter really loves it, too. She watches the videos by herself, but I go over the lesson plans, reinforce the vocabulary, play the suggested language games, etc, with her. She doesn't love doing the worksheets, but I think they help reinforce the lessons.

[Guest gdporro19]

Hello!!! I'm an italian lady who is helping taking care of 36 kids in an orphanage in malindi Kenia. I'll be very soon going to visit them and I'm trying to find a mutilingual course at a reasonable prize to bring to them in order to help them in their study. I think it would be so important for them to learn foreign langages in a country that lives on tourism to help them build a better future. These kids have nothing, not a family, no dresses, no toys and very little to eat. I'm trying to help in all these areas and I think education must be taken care too. I already bought a dvd player with some educational dvds but the language courses are so expensive! If you want you can check our facebook page on lea muana orphanage. Can someone help me to find a muzzy used multilingual course in good conditions at a reasonable prize that can be delivered in italy in a fast way? The kids and I would be very grateful for positive and prompt reply!

Bye for now,warm regards and have a nice day!!!

Giovanna

[3lilreds in NC]

I have not used Muzzy, but my sister in law has spent a lot of time and effort to teach her son Spanish, and they have it. She said the Spanish in Muzzy is a little strange - not what you'd normally learn. The vocabulary is going to be a little wonky just because of the story it tells. She said my nephew likes it, but he's done a lot of other Spanish.

 

She really likes Speekee. My nephew really likes it too.

 

I also had a friend tell me once that Muzzy works well if it's ALL you watch on TV. For example, every time the kids want to watch something, in goes the Muzzy. If you're willing to do that, it could work, I suppose.

 

I think, as you've noted, Muzzy would be a good supplement.

[mom2bee]

In my experience, Muzzy is of supplemental but beneficial value around here. We borrow Muzzy Level 1 from the library on VHS every now and then (so we don't have it too often) and it comes with the workbook and such. In the past, I used the workbook and watched with the kids. I'd clarify during the vocabulary sections using the workbook.

 

The audio isn't all that clear or loud, its much more 'naturally' spoken, I guess.

(Do the DVD's have a better audio on them?)

 

All my primary students like Muzzy. Readerboy loves himself some Muzzy, but I like to keep him wanting it. He's asked me to buy it for him and I've been looking on ebay and such, I'd like to get both complete levels for him with the workbooks, but right now the budget, such as it is, is maxed out, 103%.

 

Of all the children I teach/tutor, only 2 of them dislike Muzzy. (the 3yo prefers Tom and Jerry, and Cali doesn't like 2d animation). The others like it, enjoy it passively or it doesn't bother or benefit them.

 

I'm on the list to borrow Muzzy again sometime later this month from the library. This time LilGal and I will use the workbooks together and see how it goes, I'm hoping some more viewings will help cement some more vocabulary and basic grammar for her.

[mom2bee]

Hello!!! I'm an italian lady who is helping taking care of 36 kids in an orphanage in malindi Kenia. I'll be very soon going to visit them and I'm trying to find a mutilingual course at a reasonable prize to bring to them in order to help them in their study. I think it would be so important for them to learn foreign langages in a country that lives on tourism to help them build a better future. These kids have nothing, not a family, no dresses, no toys and very little to eat. I'm trying to help in all these areas and I think education must be taken care too. I already bought a dvd player with some educational dvds but the language courses are so expensive! If you want you can check our facebook page on lea muana orphanage. Can someone help me to find a muzzy used multilingual course in good conditions at a reasonable prize that can be delivered in italy in a fast way? The kids and I would be very grateful for positive and prompt reply!

Bye for now,warm regards and have a nice day!!!

Giovanna

Welcome to the forum. Have you tried Ebay?

 

Look for brands like Little Pim and Muzzy. I'm sure you can find someone who ships worldwide...Also, it seems like Europe would have much better/more varied language courses than the States, so you may want to do some internet searches for 'Italian for Kids' and 'Italian for Beginners' in Italian, French, or Spanish.

 

I know of a few books with CD...Italian for Beginners, The Usborne Picture Dictionary in Italian, and the Adventures With Nicholas books in Italian....

I'm sure there are more.

 

Also, give Living Languages a look, older children may be able to use them if they can read English. Or a teacher can use the materials with the students, etc...

Good luck.

[jenbrdsly]

Here's my review of Muzzy Spanish: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/05/16/muzzy-a-review/

 

Bottom line, it's worth it if your library has a copy or you can get it off of Ebay. I hadn't heard about the free online lesson plans, so thanks whoever mentioned that.

[Finnella]

We did French. They memorized the script and understood the story line but that was it. It didn't transfer over to them being able to say anything but a sentence they had heard in the story. After a while they were board with it.

Melinda

 

This is what happened when we tried it. They didn't retain anything, not even phrases or a few words. And soon, they found it boring and got upset when I tried to play it.

 

It was a complete waste for us.

[Steven]

The fundamental problem with Muzzy is that it was created to teach English. The story line and plot developments are designed to teach features of English grammar. The foreign language versions of Muzzy simply dub the videos into the respective language. If a language has features that English does not have (e.g., gender and case endings in German) they will not be illustrated within the story.

 

We did buy Muzzy DVD part 1 for our daughter when she was 18-months old. They tried to get me to buy the 2nd part at the same time, which I did not do. I find it very telling that they never contacted us again about buying the second half. My suspicion is that few parents waste their money on the second half once they have actually used the first half. It later turned out that my father-in-law had bought the video tapes back in the 1990s for my wife's nephew, so my daughter did end up with both halves of the program.

 

Because both my wife and I spoke German with our daughter, Muzzy worked for us, in that it was easy for a young child to understand and gave us something to talk to her in German about. But it is way overpriced. Even on E-bay, the DVDs are overpriced for what it is (but you can't blame parents for trying to recoup their investment). If you want to give it a try, buy old video tapes off of E-bay. Buy a set that comes with no CD-Roms, or other computerized discs. I bought a set of old Spanish tapes for about $15, but the ones with the CD-Roms usually sell at a premium that is not justified by the utility of the discs.

 

Quite frankly, Muzzy should be a free down-load on You-Tube.