Muzzy Language System
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Muzzy Language System
Jan 2007
I have recently seen a product called MUZZY geared towards
teaching children a foreign language. I am interested in
teaching my child Spanish. Has anyone had any success or failure
with this product?
Wanting to be bilingual
We used Muzzy Italian when our kids were preschool/kindergarten
age. While we liked it a lot, there were two problems: like most
videos your kids get into, after awhile it got old for them and
they didn't want to watch it anymore. Second, Muzzy is a
monster, and even though he's pretty non-threatening, my son was
scared of him and left the room during any scene featuring
Muzzy. I suggest finding a used copy, or borrowing one and
trying it out before you make the investment.
anon
We tried the Muzzy French CDs and, well, I wouldn't say they were
overwhelmingly successful. They were pretty boring and our kid
was happier watching Baby Einstein or other programs. But if you
really want to give it a try, contact me and maybe we can work
something out with ours...
Best of luck,
Sharma
My kids love Muzzy in German. They are picking up words and
meaning and a few sentences.
Interesting I think it was originaly done in English by the BBC.
Anon
My son loves our German Muzzy DVDs. We started using them when
he turned 3, and it is amazing how, after watching it just a few
times, he was repeating words and then incorporating them
correctly in casual conversation. The quality of the DVD is
definitely a surprise; it must be from the early 1970s and to
adults, it seemes very goofy, but it works. The stories are
organized well, and the language examples make sense in terms of
a learning progression. I think it's a great product.
Leila
Jan 2003
Does anyone have experience with the Muzzy language system,
especially the French videos, cds, or dvds? We've consulted the
old postings but would still like more information.
We're thinking of buying it for our 1 year old, but it seems
rather expensive. Both of us parents speak French, though not
regularly in the home. We'd like to expose our son to a foreign
language earlier rather than later, but aren't sure what age is
appropriate. Thanks!
anon.
We have the Muzzy language program in French, with the Italian
and Spanish add-ons. Our kids did enjoy the program quite a bit,
and they actually did pick up enough to use and understand a fair
amount of basic vocabulary when we travelled a few years ago.
However, they were older, about 5 and 8 years old, and also it
undoubtedly helped I speak French fluently and my husband and I
use French as a ''secret'' language which they often hear; we both
speak passable Italian, I speak Spanish, and the kids hear us
using these languages with friends.
Muzzy is a cartoon - I can't recommend parking a one year old
in front of the television even if the goal is to learn a
language. Babies and toddlers learn through interaction, not
through watching a screen. (As you probably know, the American
Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for ages 2 and under)
The Muzzy program also comes with cassette tapes or CDs, which
you could play to the child, I suppose, but it would just be
meaningless sound. My sister-in-law bought tapes with sounds of
all the languages of the world in hopes that her child would
somehow familiarize herself with them. I don't think it does any
harm but I don't think it does much good either. My graduate work
was in linguistics: language is meant to be a meaningful system of
sounds used for communication and social interaction. Television
can provide exposure to a language but an interactive method is
better. If one of you is truly bilingual, you can choose to speak
to your child in a language other than english, while the other
parent consistently speaks English.
Otherwise, I'd wait until your child is at least two, and
preferably three, before starting with Muzzy. It's a cute
program, engaging for kids, and other than the stereotyped gender
roles (the men are brave, strong, or clever, the women are worried
about their weight and appearance), it's a good introduction to a
language.
Natasha
We have used the French Muzzy system for our 5 year old for the
last 2 years and love it. She uses it quite frenquently. She is
a student at the French American school in Berkeley and Muzzy is
also available in their library. However, I would not recommend
it for a child as young as 1 as the characters Muzzy & Korvacs
(an evil character) may be a bit scary for a child that age. At
3 1/2 our daughter had nightmares about both characters as well
as the story line which involves the capture by Korvacs of the
Princess Slyvie. The story line also leave something to be
desired re the images of women (but that is a whole other
story). We were willing to put up with it with various cautions
to our daughter about the roles of women in the story line. You
may want to try other language programs for your one year old
such as the Jumpstart language series computer programs. Brainy
Baby also makes a French language video for 1-5 year olds which
may be more appropriate for you. You can also get the cartoon
series Caillou in French. You can search for ordering
information on the Web as well as for other resources for French
language learning for kids. There is a ton of information out
there. Just try searching through Google or some other search
engine. Best of luck and enjoy.
Anon
We ordered the Muzzy (French) video tapes on their free 30 day
trial. I have felt on the fence about it, since it's ridiculously
expensive, and we are pretty broke. My son, just 2 when we first
got it, fell in love. (This was also a dilemma for me; we'd
avoided most TV watching up till then, and I was pretty ambivalent
about starting this up.) He wanted Muzzy all the time. We actually
decided to return it (haven't done it yet; it's a long story),
since the audio quality of the video was pretty distorted.
However, I'm now thinking instead of going for the DVD version. I
feel admittedly stupid about this, since - again - the price is
outrageous, and the animation is very low level. The reason I'm
considering keeping it is that in the very short time my son was
watching it, he was picking up a lot of language. I speak French,
and to him, but I'd like him to have more exposure at this age.
While the visuals leave a lot to be desired (except for a
delightful character who interjects lessons throughout), the songs
are not bad - important, since you'll have them stuck in your head
all day. I think one of my main complaints is that the story line
is pretty sexist. When introducing the characters, the male
characters get to be ''brave'', ''courageous'', and ''clever'', while the female ones get to be ''fat'', and ''beautiful''. This still burns me. I just hope that I can have discussions about this with my son as he becomes more aware. I think when it comes down to it, I'll keep it since I have not come up with any better replacements, and I really do want him exposed to another language at an early age. Please contact me if you want more input!
Jenny
My daughter (2.5) loves the Muzzy videos, and now I am hearing
her sing the songs and use words in Spanish. Mainly, she is
testing out what she has learned. For me, it is great. I speak
Spanish, but with a horrible accent, and I don't have the self-
discipline to do it regularly. The Muzzy tapes give us a place
to start. She tests out what she learns, and then we talk about
the tape in Spanish. (Yes - there is the whole sexist thing,
but that theme is in a LOT of children's stuff, so we just work
hard to point out better role models and show that all people
have different interests regardless of gender. If she doesn't
see the stereotypes in Muzzy, she will see them somewhere else,
so we have to counteract it anyway!)
However, for a 1 year old, it might not be that exciting. When
my daughter was 1, she loved the Bilingual Baby series. It is
all live-action with clips of children doing everyday
activities. They first introduce words, then phrases, then
complete sentences. This is all accompanied by classical
music. My daughter learned to count to ten in Japanese with
this tape before she turned two. She still loves to watch it
too! The series comes in 12 languages now. http://small-fry.com/bilingualbaby.html
Jaime
May 2000
Is anyone familiar with the Muzzy Language system? I'd like any positive or negative
reviews, also looking for a second-hand French Level 1 edition (assuming it's worthwhile).
Nancy
My daughter has been using Muzzy for a year or so. We don't use it very
diligently but she really enjoys the tapes. She really isn't speaking
spanish but she definately understands what is going on when she watches the
video. I would reccommend it but it does require a good deal of discipline
on the part of the parent.
Gabrielle
Muzzy is great! My 3 year old loves her Level 1 Spanish set. (My 15 year old
used the Muzzy Tapes 7 or 8 years ago in her Spanish Immersion classes
in Davis.) After about 3 months, my younger daughter is starting to speak
the occasional word in Spanish. We have used the videos fairly regularly
(though not as often as the first week, where she refused to watch anything
else!).
We haven't yet used the CD rom, though I should get that out now that her
computer is functional. We also read to her in Spanish (Harold and The Purple
Crayon, and Harry the Dirty Dog among others), and they study it a bit in
her Preschool. With even more support, she'd probably make even more progress.
But we think it's all working fairly well. I recommend them.
Dawn
I bought Muzzy Level 1 for my 4 year old. I felt it was quite expensive
for what we got, essentially 2 30 minute video cassettes.Extras include
the videos in english (which you are not supposed to watch), a
vocabulary video (which we don't watch at this point), audiocassettes
(of the same story) in spanish and also a cd rom.
However, my son loves watching Muzzy and has picked up some spanish.
The videos are divided into 10 minute segments and we have incorporated
them into our bedtime routine. we watch a single muzzy episode for an
entire week; repetition is important. We've been watching the same six
segments for about 6 months now, and he still greatly enjoys them. One
night a week, we watch the english version. I decided to do this
because I felt my son needed some context for understanding it. We have
really limited his tv viewing and i felt some of the storyline was maybe
out of his experience: the princess loves the gardener and the gardener
has to go to jail.
I think watching the video has accostumed his ear to hearing Spanish and
that has been valuable; I don't have a good place for him to be exposed
much to the Spanish language at this point, so that is valuable.
I've been thinking of taping Dragontales in Spanish (on PBS), and doing
the same thing with the repetition. That might be a cheaper option.
Muzzy is the BBC Language Course, aimed at children from 1-10 years old.
It's available in Spanish, French, German, and Italian (and a limited
selection of items in Irish Gaelic, Welsh, and Japanese). You can get more
information and order it from their web site: http://www.early-advantage.com/
Dawn
We looked at the Muzzy tapes for German- the videos themselves (Level 1 &
2) are well done and captivate the interest of at least a toddler (don't
have older kids). The accompanying CDs (computer games) were pretty
useless and the "vocabulary builder" was dreadfully dull... in short, part
of it was worthwhile, but not worth the overall price, which is something
like $150 for each level. If you can get it used, it's probably worth it.
We got the Muzzy tapes (Spanish) for our 2yo. The story is quite accessible
to a wide range of age groups. I don't expect that our daughter will learn
much Spanish, but she will learn that other languages exist, enjoy watching
the tapes, and pick up a few words and phrases. I think that the cognitive
process involved in associated more than one phrase for a single concept
(English and Spanish) is of benefit in itself.
The tapes cover the hardest parts: prepositions, the verb 'to be' and some
questions (who, what, where). I think that more depth is required if one
were to try to learn a language seriously.
The tapes come with a CD-ROM. Be warned that it's windows only. I called
them and they promised a Mac OS version "soon".
John
this page was last updated: Aug 23, 2010
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