Do all the lessons have a lot of English? Is there any placement test?

Hey there. I'm new to this platform and I'm not sure what I expected. Whatever I imagined, it was not this. I'm not ready to give up just yet. I started at Level 2 and am half way through the first recording. I was truly shocked by how much English is in the recording. I was also puzzled by how SLOWLY everyone talks (even in English).

Can someone tell me if all of the lessons have so much English in them? Is there any way to speed up the audio playback? I think I'm going to kill myself if I have to listen to 20 minutes of such slow speech!

I was also disappointed in the "bench mark" option. The controls are not intuitive. The testing seems more random than anything else.  I had hoped to find a way to accurately place myself in the lessons as this first lesson is too basic for me. But I know that I'm not at an advanced level either.

Hi CoraP, 

Thank you for your message and feedback. 

Yes, the amount of English you'll find in the course in about the same that you have encountered already. The conversation in the audio lesson is broken down and explained in English, that's why you'll hear plenty of English.

Unfortunately, there is no way to speed up the pace of the audio recordings, I apologize; they are not supposed to be that slow though, the pace of the conversation may not be at normal speed, so that the words are pronounced correctly, but not too slow either. 

The Benchmark is an overall test taken from the lessons within that level; it is not a general test to gauge Spanish knowledge overall. 

Kind Regards

Thank you for your prompt and honest response. I just wish that I could better gauge where I should begin in the program. The first lesson for Level 2 was much too easy for me. But when I took the benchmark test, I did very poorly. So I hesitate to jump forward. I have taken Spanish in college (in fact, I'm auditing a course right now). My biggest problem is making the switch to thinking in Spanish and being able to respond to a question/comment in Spanish without first having to translate it in my mind. I'll try a few more lessons.