Spanish Plus

Rating:
Summary: for pimlseur addicts
Review: first - see the review for the cassette version of this product for additional info. Now, I am a big Pimsleur fan, own several of their products, think it's the best system to teach spoken language. But, it is obvious to me that Spanish Plus was developed as an in-house product - all of the new vocuabulary and situations are related to publishing. I don't mind that they made an in-house focused product available for sale - I'm enough of a Pimsleur addict to want it. But, they charge the same for it as for the heavy duty courses that really teach you - I, II, III - in Amazon prices about [dollar amount] per CD. I would have felt better paying less - say [dollar amount] per disc since it's obvious that the normal consumer is not its focus. This is nowhere near as educational for the majority of people as the main program. It's fine to run through some new combinations of the words and grammar that you know, but the new content vocabulary is all publishing. What I REALLY want from Pimsleur is a review of the verbs and vocab of I,II,III together with new vocabulary related to broader content. And with a little less repitition of simple things that are already well learned.

Rating:
Summary: No lo recomiendo
Review: I can't be as kind as some of the other reviewers. This course is just awful. The packaging says "At the completion of this course, you will be able to speak and understand Spanish at an advanced level". But this is not true at all. The main focus of this 10-unit course is on conversations related to the publishing industry. There are many words that you are asked to repeat, which were already introduced in the Pimsleur beginner-level courses. How many times do you need to repeat "Vivo en Estados Unidos" before you understand it? Also, I can't imagine why the designers of this course think it's useful, at an advanced level (or any level for that matter), to repeat place names such as "Montevideo, Uruguay" using a Spanish accent. This course may give you the opportunity to practice some of the Spanish you've already learned in earlier courses, but you will learn very little that's useful in the real world, unless you're planning to become an editor, or to write and publish a novel.

Rating:
Summary: for Pimsleur addicts
Review: I confess, I am a Pimsleur addict, so I don't regret buying these in CD format. However, I must warn that these lessons were obviously developed for in-house publishing employees. The content is completely centered on the world of publishing, and will add very little new and useful vocabulary for others. Except that you will learn to discuss the novel you are reading with others. It does give you more experience with putting together the grammar you know, and adds a few new general phrases. But, it is not really providing much new material past level three. I wish Pimsleur would develop a true level IV with more grammer and content, or even "vocabulary supplemental" with the past grammar and tenses, but with lots broader conversational content.

Rating:
Summary: More great conversation practice with Pimsleur
Review: I love Pimsleur but I have to agree with the other reviewers. The vocabulary in the Plus series is a poor choice. However, it is another ten lessons of conversational practice and there are a few good nuggets presented as well.

So in short it is a something of a let down after the first three series but it is still worth it especially if you pick it up used.

Rating:
Summary: More great conversation practice with Pimsleur
Review: Spanish Plus was produced with the same high production quality as the first three levels of Pimsleur spanish, but the reason i can only give it two stars is that it is much too centered around the publishing industry rather than the general conversation paterns of the first three levels. Also i was expecting more generalized coverage of the subjunctive tenses consdering how important they are in spanish as in other romance languages. The future tense could have been introduced also. It can be expressed with the verb "ir" but understanding it will be difficult without practice. In a nutshell, not enough new general material was introduced and too much time spent on a very narrow area. As happy as i was with the levels I, II, and III, i regret purhasing this one.

Rating:
Summary: too specialized
Review: Spanish Plus was produced with the same high production quality as the first three levels of Pimsleur spanish, but the reason i can only give it two stars is that it is much too centered around the publishing industry rather than the general conversation paterns of the first three levels. Also i was expecting more generalized coverage of the subjunctive tenses consdering how important they are in spanish as in other romance languages. The future tense could have been introduced also. It can be expressed with the verb "ir" but understanding it will be difficult without practice. In a nutshell, not enough new general material was introduced and too much time spent on a very narrow area. As happy as i was with the levels I, II, and III, i regret purhasing this one.

Rating:
Summary: Good, some room for improvement
Review: This course is intended to be used after the Pimsleur Spanish III comprehensive course. It consists of 10 audio only lessons, each around 30 minutes. There are no reading lessons. In general, the lessons seemed to be slightly less challenging than the lessons in the earlier courses

The lessons pick up approximately where Spanish III left off, introducing new vocabulary and phrases and reviewing the material covered in the earlier lessons and courses. However, it seems that much of the material presented towards the end of Spanish III is never really reviewed.

An additional complaint I have is that a fair amount of the new vocabulary is pretty specific to the publishing industry, such as "publishing house", "book fair", "author's rights", and so on. It seems there are a lot of other words and phrases that would be much more useful to most people.

Something which is different than the earlier courses is that there are two different sets of spanish speakers. The female speaker in lessons 1-5 seems to have a different, or perhaps stronger, accent than the other spanish speakers. I found her speech somewhat more difficult to follow. But on the other hand, it provided good practice in understanding slightly different pronunciation.

All in all, I found the Pimsleur method to be an extremely effective and painless way of building and retaining a strong and practical foundation in Spanish. I think this Spanish Plus course is a bit less useful than the other courses in this series, but is still worthwhile, and will provide some additional knowledge and practice beyond Spanish III.