Rating: 
Summary: Effective and therefor a good value
Review: After working through Pimsleur I and II I can now with confidence have a conversation in Spanish, feeling like I am being not only understood but courteous. This has been useful in my work (legal) and in traveling. The 30 minute lesson length fit my attention span and ability to retain new material. It also, fortunately, fit my commute. Yes, it is relatively expensive, compared to other available books. It is very inexpensive compared to tuition at a local community college, plus it is much more interesting, and I was much more motivated to actually complete the sequence than I would have been had I signed up for a course across town two nights a week. A very fair price for the results obtained, in my opinion. The only downside is that I have not listened to NPR news for the last three months, because I have preferred to listen to these CDs in my car.
Rating:
Summary: Aprende mas espanol
Review: Consider why you want to learn Spanish. If you are looking for a way to communicate in your work and daily life with Spanish speaking people, then you would be making a mistake to not investigate this series. If you are pursuing purely academic interests, then you might want to explore other options.
Rating:
Summary: Spanish II
Review: Great method for learning. Cost of program is high though. My local library had all programs available for checkout. I even found out that recordedbooks dot com rents all lessons on tape and CD.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly effective!!!
Review: I have just completed the first sixty lessons (Spanish I - 30 lessons, Spanish II - 30 lessons) of this 90 lesson course and tonight placed my order for the last 30 lessons (Spanish III).This course follows the teaching method of the late Dr. Paul Pimsleur and is, without a doubt, the most effective method I have found for learning a new language. Having done some preliminary reading on Dr. Pimsleur before ordering the first course, I was struck by the wisdom of his "graduated interval recall" method. What's interesting is that, as you go through the taped lessons, you are actually learning Spanish (or Japanese, German, Italian, etc.) in much the same way you learned your native language. Think about it! We all learned to speak our native language YEARS before we ever learned to write. We learned by listening, watching, and emulating. The advantage you have with these tapes is that, understanding English, you can now be clearly TOLD what each word means, rather than having to learn by watching and associating like we did as small children. Simply by listening, the tapes feed and TEST you on an ever increasing list of phrases, gradually increasing the length of time between testing until, finally, you LEARN. At the same time, you are forced to recombine the words you learn into NEW phrases, further testing and reinforcing your new knowledge. Additionally, as you progress through the tapes, the native speakers gradually increase their speed. Not surprisingly, your ability to understand increases with it! It is already amazing how far I have come. I am now comfortably (if somewhat haltingly) speaking in present, past, AND future tenses, with a large set of commonly used verbs, nouns and adjectives. I am really excited to "dig in" to the last 30 lessons. One final note: This course is only intended to teach you to SPEAK the language. Reading practice is extremely limited. The fact is, I have almost NO IDEA how to write or spell most of the words I'm using (again, just like children). For me, that is not a problem. I am told by native speakers that my pronunciation is EXCELLENT! For now, that feels like a huge success!
Rating:
Summary: The definitive way to learn a language while you commute
Review: I have tried other tapes (10 years ago, anyway) and found that they all required books, or live lessons, or were just rote phrases. But this is a GREAT way of learning a language. You can convince yourself of this by looking at the high resale price of used copies on eBay. Anyway, all you do is listen and speak. Each tape is a half an hour. They are consistently good and easy to progress. Occasionally, they throw in a stinker tape (Lesson 24) but usually, they're really good about challenging you without making it impossible. I'd recommend listening to them at least twice. I personally listen to each side of each tape a total of 3 times. If you have a 30 minute commute, they are perfect. I listen to them on the way to work every day and have progressed to midway through level 3. I'm obviously not fluent in Spanish, but at least now I can understand some of Univision (as long as they're showing chiquitas in bikinis).
Rating:
Summary: The definitive way to learn a language while you commute
Review: I have tried other tapes (10 years ago, anyway) and found that they all required books, or live lessons, or were just rote phrases. But this is a GREAT way of learning a language. You can convince yourself of this by looking at the high resale price of used copies on eBay. Anyway, all you do is listen and speak. Each tape is a half an hour. They are consistently good and easy to progress. Occasionally, they throw in a stinker tape (Lesson 24) but usually, they're really good about challenging you without making it impossible. I'd recommend listening to them at least twice. I personally listen to each side of each tape a total of 3 times. If you have a 30 minute commute, they are perfect. I listen to them on the way to work every day and have progressed to midway through level 3. I'm obviously not fluent in Spanish, but at least now I can understand some of Univision (as long as they're showing chiquitas in bikinis).
Rating: 
Summary: Well, certainly better than nothing.
Review: I seem to be less overwhelmed by the quality of this course than other reviewers. It has both strong and weak points. POSITIVE POINTS: The segments are skillfully overlapped so that you're not starting from scratch every new lesson. Also, if you repeat the phrases when you're supposed to, you'll get a lot of valuable pronunciation practice. The course requires lots of listening and speaking, which is exactly how it should be. LESS THAN POSITIVE POINTS: There's too much repetition focused on nonessentials and not enough focus on useful idioms. For example, when a practice dialogue mentions "un cassette con los últimos éxitos" (a cassette of the latest hits), the listener is instructed to translate the following: "Hits.
Hits.
Latest hits.
The latest hits.
Cassette.
A cassette with the latest hits.
A cassette with the latest hits.
The latest hits.
A cassette with the latest hits." This degree of repetition is great if you're planning on traveling to Mexico and striking up a conversation about cassettes with the greatest hits. However, if you plan on engaging in normal communication, this will not help you much. In my opinion, misplaced focus is a problem throughout the course. Also, many of the topics of conversation (e.g. several dialogues re: arranging for quick turnaround time at the dry cleaners) are probably not particularly pertinent to people who would be using this course. Overall I would say the course is helpful, but for this price I think it could be better.
Rating:
Summary: Well, certainly better than nothing.
Review: I seem to be less overwhelmed by the quality of this course than other reviewers. It has both strong and weak points. POSITIVE POINTS: The segments are skillfully overlapped so that you're not starting from scratch every new lesson. Also, if you repeat the phrases when you're supposed to, you'll get a lot of valuable pronunciation practice. The course requires lots of listening and speaking, which is exactly how it should be. LESS THAN POSITIVE POINTS: There's too much repetition focused on nonessentials and not enough focus on useful idioms. For example, when a practice dialogue mentions "un cassette con los últimos éxitos" (a cassette of the latest hits), the listener is instructed to translate the following: "Hits.
Hits.
Latest hits.
The latest hits.
Cassette.
A cassette with the latest hits.
A cassette with the latest hits.
The latest hits.
A cassette with the latest hits." This degree of repetition is great if you're planning on traveling to Mexico and striking up a conversation about cassettes with the greatest hits. However, if you plan on engaging in normal communication, this will not help you much. In my opinion, misplaced focus is a problem throughout the course. Also, many of the topics of conversation (e.g. several dialogues re: arranging for quick turnaround time at the dry cleaners) are probably not particularly pertinent to people who would be using this course. Overall I would say the course is helpful, but for this price I think it could be better.
Rating:
Summary: a few tips
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 on many Pimsleur reviews here on Amazon, 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 Amazon's sometimes-substantial discounts. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: I'm glad I didn't waste my time taking a Spanish class first. If you are disciplined enough to practice every day, this is the best way. I may take a class when I'm done with all 3.
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