Spanish (Basic)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent way to learn Spanish!
Review: An all audio learning method, this system turns your driving commute into enjoyable learning lessons. Listen and repeat, then same words different phrases, it is all very easy in that you can replay a lesson or rewind to keep working at it. You really do feel a sense of accomplishment in learning to speak practical tourist Spanish. Learn to speak practical and polite Spanish without being terrified by grammar rules.

Rating:
Summary: The best introduction available
Review: Fantastic series. You begin by listening to a man a woman have a simple conversation. Then you are slowly brought through their dialog and then invited to join in. As the tapes progress the conversations get more and more complex, but what really works with these tapes is that the conversations continue to reinforce what you've already learned. You are not expected to have mastered every piece of the lesson before moving on to the next one. This is a tremendous help because 1. You remember the words through usage and context not rote memorization. 2. Being able to move on quickly helps keep the learning interesting. I found myself becoming more and more involved with the 2 people who speak Spanish on these tapes. Their personalities becoming more and more clear as our conversations become more complex. So overall, I am very happy with this program. My one complaint is that there is only one program in this series. Once the 4 tapes are over that's it, which is too bad.

Rating:
Summary: ¡Ojala lo hubiera tenido hace 10 años!
Review: He estudiado inglés por mi cuenta durante muchos años y mi gramática y compresión eran aceptables pero mi pronunciación era terrible. Tras completar este curso mis amigos ingleses dicen que mi pronunciación, a pesar de ser americana, es buena o muy buena. Es cuestión de fuerza de voluntad, ir lección tras lección, escuchar y repetir y volver a repetir. Mejor que no haya libros ni materiales que estorben el aprendizaje. Después ya habrá tiempo para profundizar más cuando se domine la lengua hablada. En definitiva el mejor método que he encontrado para hablar inglés americano.

Rating:
Summary: Be careful what you ask for
Review: I like the Pimsleur system, it works well, is easy to use. This particular "Quick & Simple" version consists of only 4 tapes, just enough to let you decide you want to learn more Spanish, so you can buy the more complete Spanish I.
If you are going on a trip and want to learn travel Spanish, get the Conversation version by Pimsleur, which has 16 lessons and will do much better.
Some of the reviews for this Quick & Simple version were originally reviews for a longer version that is now discontinued, and they were transfered to this less than filling version. The version that was discontinured was replaced later by the Converstional version.
The Pimsleur system works well, this version is just a light sampling of the language to see if you want to go further.

Rating:
Summary: increase your speed
Review: I'm currently using Pimsleur to learn Japanese and Cantonese, and I'm thrilled with my progress. Pimsleur has a truly effective system for learning language painlessly and effectively.

I've noticed, though, that (some) people say they needed to listen to each tape 4-5 times before they felt they knew the material. Fortunately, that's not necessary. Here's how to make equal progress on just one listening: Each time you're prompted to come up with an answer on your own, *stop the tape* and give yourself time to think before you get interrupted by the soundtrack. If the tape gives you the answer before you've come up with an answer yourself, you haven't learned anything.

Also, as much as I love Pimsleur courses, they're still wildly expensive, even with (...) sometimes-substantial discounts. (...)

Rating:
Summary: Speaking not Repeating
Review: I've made several attempts to pick up Spanish on my own, including some travels in Mexico. After finishing the 8 lessons in this series, I felt more confident using the words I knew because I'd heard how they were used.

One underlying lesson of the tapes is how to sound like a polite, educated visitor.

A second is using the words 'forward and backward'. You don't learn one sentance which demonstrates a word, you hear a word and use it in many different ways... as part of a question, as a statement, about yourself, about others, etc. You also learn different ways to get at the same information.

Today I would feel a lot more comfortable in a restaurant in Mexico than I did last fall, because I would recognize the questions "What would you like?" "Do you want anything?" "What would you like to eat/drink?" (Gratefully, I had patient waiters last fall who could speak English!)

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Summary: Is there a way to get the script for the CDs?
Review: The only complaint i have is it does not come with any script. I think i need to read the script to remember all the vocabulary.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: The Pimsleur family of language courses is probably the best available in the English-speaking world. Unlike most other audio programs, the emphasis is not on mindlessly repeating phrases... but rather on natural conversation. Spanish words and phrases are slowly introduced by the English narrator throughout the conversation, and you then incorporate them into conversation with the Spanish speakers (followed by the "right" response to compare yourself to). This more natural approach makes a huge difference in absorbing and retaining the knowledge.

However, the tried-and-true Pimsleur courses today are owned by the Simon & Schuster corporation... which has made some very corporate-like decisions in marketing them. The classic courses are 16 CD's/cassettes each, three course levels available per language, with all being quite in-depth and quite expensive. Unfortunately, "in-depth and expensive" is not in as high demand as "cheap with just a few phrases to impress your friends". Most people who pick up tapes and CD's at the bookstore are just trying to learn a few phrases so they can have fun with it on some upcoming vacation... they're not trying to gain actual proficiency with a language (and if they are, they're crazy for thinking that's possible with just a handful of lessons!).

Therefore, Simon & Schuster has extended the Pimsleur product line... creating 4-CD and 8-CD sets (in addition to the original 16-CD sets), to market head-to-head against other companies' products in lower price ranges. This 4-CD set is basically just the first four CD's of the original "Spanish I" 16-CD set, and the 8-CD product is just the first eight CD's of that set. There's nothing really new here but the packaging, the company is essentially just trying to squeeze some new money out of an old workhorse.

The problem is that this material wasn't designed to serve as a standalone product, it was designed to be the first four CD's of a 16-CD set. If you're hoping to just learn some travel phrases, you'll probably be a bit disappointed... your needs may be better served by purchasing some other "Repeat after me: Where is the bathroom? ¿Donde esta el baño?" product. If you're more serious and hoping to really gain some proficiency in Spanish, the only real value here is to give you an idea (before you spend allot of money) as to whether or not you want to go all-out and buy the real 16-CD set.

The Pimsleur approach is probably the best out there for learning a foreign language... so I by no means want my mediocre rating here to imply that I wouldn't HIGHLY recommend other Pimsleur products. All I'm saying is that Dr. Pimsleur originally designed courses that were comprehensive programs for serious learners, and that's been twisted around here into a marketing ploy. By itself, this 4-CD sub-set doesn't really seem to do a good job satisfying the needs for anybody.

Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: These CDs are good for people who don't speak any Spanish. I think the purpose of the Quick & Simple program is to get you interested in buying the ... full version. Even though I didn't really benefit from the Quick & Simple version, it did help improve my pronounciation and it did help to improve my speaking ability. This is because you constantly repeat the phrases over and over. You won't learn how to say anything in the past tense; only the present tense is presented. You also don't learn any significant vocabulary. For a beginner, the Quick & Simple program would be very useful. If you know how to speak a little (i.e. if you took one course in high school or college), you won't benefit too much from this.