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The legend on the tape box reads "An exciting new way to learn spoken and written Spanish." I didn't actually find it thrilling and if you are aiming to achieve fluent command of the language I wouldn't really advise starting here. Essentially, it is a computerised phrase book, with a novel feature. The cassette tape has the program on one side (transferrable to disc) and audio recordings on the other

When loaded, the program gives you a menu of 19 different topics. When you first choose one you are instructed to fast forward the tape, remove din plugs and play on audio. You are further advised to use your tape counter to log each of the 19 sections. Then you get a single screen page of phrases accompanied by the audio demo for that section. You are then tested on each phrase in turn, the computer presenting the English and giving you 10 seconds to think of the Spanish before it's revealed.

Apart from this last feature the computer is really doing little more than turn pages for you. One snag is that there is far less text than in a printed book. Another is that you can't carry your micro around the Costa del Sol in case you forget how to order an ice-cream.

In short, the BBC micro has many useful applications, but this isn't one of them. If you want a Spanish phrase book, buy the old-fashioned sort made of paper!