Rating: 
Summary: Excellent tool-learned a lot!
Review: Due to the dearth of material for the high intermediate/advanced Spanish student, I would say this is a "must-have" The conversations are very helpful; reading along in the book helps cement them in your memory; and the cultural notes and grammatical notes are helpful as well. There have been reviews noting with reason that at times the native speakers speak so rapidly and slur the phrases that some are difficult to understand. (of course, this is how it is in real life!) I have found a useful trick is to listen to the tape on a handheld tape recorder and slow down the playback speed...you will then have no trouble deciphering the phrase, and then can listen at regular speed.
The conversations are lively and emotive. If the price seems prohibitive, check out the zshops and ebay- there are some great deals!
Rating: 
Summary: I wrote this book for...
Review: After many years of teaching Spanish, you get a pretty good idea of what students need to learn. Learning a language is much more than just learning grammar and memorizing vocabulary -- it's a journey into a new culture. In the case of the Spanish language, it's actually a journey throughout many different countries. I wrote this book with 3 different types of students in mind:1) the University student - (usually an aspiring grammarian)wishing to learn the grammar (especially those confounded subjunctive clauses)and to PASS THOSE EXAMS! 2) the Businessperson - wishing to learn about what to DO and what to SAY to those crazy Latin Americans (and Spaniards). 3) the average American - who wants to understand what people are saying on the subways, as well as learn about what being Hispanic really means! I can only hope that everyone will find something useful and learn something new in the imaginary travels on which my book takes you, through that incredible mosa! ic which is the Spanish-speaking world!
Rating: 
Summary: Good grammar review; good ear practice; needs more drills.
Review: Although the course book contains a useful grammar review, I have primarily used the CD portion of the set. I practice my Spanish listening and "conversational" skills during my 30 minute commute. I have advanced Spanish reading skills, but only intermediate conversational skills. I wanted something that helps me keep from losing those few conversational skills that I so painfully acquired through a year in Mexico. This set has not really helped me "learn more," but has kept me from "losing more." There are two sets of 4 CDs. The first set contains the dialogues. The 3-4 minute dialogues are presented in their entirety, and then repeated phrase by phrase, with time for you to repeat the phrases. The second set includes short excerpts from the dialogues followed by other practice drills. As for the dialogues, I have found that the level of the conversations has been right for me. The dialogues use relatively up to date vocabularly and scenarios. They touch on a wide variety of subjects and are set in different Spanish speaking countries. They progress in difficulty at an appropriate rate. As for the grammar drills, these have been helpful as well. But there are two ways that the material could have been more useful. First, I would have appreciated more grammar practice, and less repetition of the dialogues. Second, the course book does not contain a print out of the grammar drills. Unfortunately, many of the grammar drills introduce some new vocabulary and phrasings that aren't otherwise in the course book. While this isn't extensive and I can generally figure it out, I am enough of a "visual learner," that I would have occasionally benefited from a text version of the material. A short, separate pamphlet (they could even publish it "on line") would solve the problem nicely without making the course book too thick. My only other comment is also directed to the course book. I personally haven't found the extensive "business" information sections to be all that useful. I would prefer more on cultural matters. But that's just my personal tastes; the business material seems well put together and would be useful to someone who has such an interest. And there is a fair degree of other cultural information scattered throughout the book. On the whole, I have found this set to be a useful commute companion and can recommend it highly. I may take up another reviewer's advice and purchase the more grammar drill oriented course that that reviewer recommended. But I think that it made more sense for me to have first completed this "survey" type course.
Rating:
Summary: Good content, not enough drills
Review: I completed 4th year college Spanish 20 years ago. I can understand a lot of what I hear on the radio or see on TV but am slow and clumsy when I have to form sentences on my own. The content of this book is on the right level for me. Before I started using the book I reviewed grammar with Dorothy Richmond's Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses. I'm extremely glad I did. The Living Language book has oddly basic grammar information and very little practice. However, the notes to the dialog have good information that I put on flash cards. The dialogs deal with content that's refreshingly far from the stuff I remember having to read in college. The dialogs take place at a book fair in Argentina, a job interview in Venezuela, a political rally in Guatemala City, and so on. I own my own business & like to follow international news, so I'm interested in the business & political info. The recorded dialogs expose you to different accents and go at a realistic pace. However, the repetition exercises go too quickly for me. They'll read a line of the dialog that I'm supposed to repeat, but the line is often so long that I forget the end while I'm repeating the beginning. The book claims it's equivalent to two full years of college-level study. I highly doubt that. There isn't enough practice, unless you make up your own exercises. And it takes me only about an hour to do a lesson, including making my own flashcards, repeating the dialogs twice, and listening to the supplementary info. Since they're charging a lot, I would have expected the publishers to do a better job at laying out and editing the book. For example, there are no running heads. You can't flip through the book easily and know what lesson you're in. There are also a surprising number of typos. Even with these complaints, the content is much more varied & interesting than other courses I've seen. So I'm happy.
Rating: 
Summary: CDs Useless.
Review: I didn't have the patience to listen to all of the CDs, but what I heard was terrible. They repeat every sentance in English, then in Spanish. This is not advanced at all and a jarring way to learning the language. Like other reviewers, I thought this was at most intermediate and not advanced. I'm still looking for a good CD set...
Rating:
Summary: CDs Useless.
Review: I didn't have the patience to listen to all of the CDs, but what I heard was terrible. They repeat every sentance in English, then in Spanish. This is not advanced at all and a jarring way to learning the language. Like other reviewers, I thought this was at most intermediate and not advanced. I'm still looking for a good CD set...
Rating: 
Summary: Major drawbacks
Review: I have completed this course as well as Ultimate French and Italian Advanced. Ultimate Spanish is by far the poorest of the three.
Like all of these courses there is, in my opinion, a very major flaw. There is no transcript for the "Learn on the Go" tapes or CD's which comprise half of the audio material. The sentences spoken are often complex and are spoken at normal speed. No matter how many times I listened to some of them, I was unable to decipher them. I also found that for them to be of any value that I had to transcribe the "Learn on the Go" material myself--a very time consuming task. It took me at least a couple of hours per lesson--and I am a very advanced student of languages.
I was sometimes unable to make out the words even with repeated listening. (Of the three courses I was able to transcribe completely the Italian--a language in which I have near native fluency--and even that with difficulty. French stumped me once or twice. But Spanish...)
Another aggravating peculiarity of the course was the continual use of the future subjunctive--so beloved of examination writers of the 1950's but of little practical value. Also, dialectical froms such as "vos" received undue emphasis as did the second personal plural form "vosotros" which is absent in Latin American Spanish.
There were also a number of editing errors. The most egregious one appeared in the "Apuntes" section of chaper 13 wherein it states that the Basques are "direct descendants of the Celts." That is, of course, completely false. The Basques and their language are as far as ever has been determined are totally unrelated to any others.
I would also agree with other reviewers as to the limited value of the business information and the exercises.
All in all, Ultimate Spanish Advanced is not without value as long as one is wary of the many pitfalls. You do get a lot of material for the money--especially if it is bought at the discounts offered by amazon.com and elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Major drawbacks
Review: I have completed this course as well as Ultimate French and Italian Advanced. Ultimate Spanish is by far the poorest of the three.
Like all of these courses there is, in my opinion, a very major flaw. There is no transcript for the "Learn on the Go" tapes or CD's which comprise half of the audio material. The sentences spoken are often complex and are spoken at normal speed. No matter how many times I listened to some of them, I was unable to decipher them. I also found that for them to be of any value that I had to transcribe the "Learn on the Go" material myself--a very time consuming task. It took me at least a couple of hours per lesson--and I am a very advanced student of languages.
I was sometimes unable to make out the words even with repeated listening. (Of the three courses I was able to transcribe completely the Italian--a language in which I have near native fluency--and even that with difficulty. French stumped me once or twice. But Spanish...)
Another aggravating peculiarity of the course was the continual use of the future subjunctive--so beloved of examination writers of the 1950's but of little practical value. Also, dialectical froms such as "vos" received undue emphasis as did the second personal plural form "vosotros" which is absent in Latin American Spanish.
There were also a number of editing errors. The most egregious one appeared in the "Apuntes" section of chaper 13 wherein it states that the Basques are "direct descendants of the Celts." That is, of course, completely false. The Basques and their language are as far as ever has been determined are totally unrelated to any others.
I would also agree with other reviewers as to the limited value of the business information and the exercises.
All in all, Ultimate Spanish Advanced is not without value as long as one is wary of the many pitfalls. You do get a lot of material for the money--especially if it is bought at the discounts offered by amazon.com and elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent grammar supplemented with culture and essays
Review: I spend a lot of my time looking at diffierent language materials and this is one of the best books I've found for that INTERMEDIATE stage of learning Spanish. I doubt the title "Advanced" but perhaps my standards for learning a foreign language are too high. As a side note, I do not recommend purchasing the CD set which goes along with the book. While it allows you to hear the essays printed in the book, a much better use of the same amt of money is Berlitz's US Foreign Service Program, level 2, which provides grammar drills along with oppotunities to improve accent.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the Neophytes
Review: My wife and I have an older cassette version of this course ( which I find rather puzzling since I see reviews here from people that purchased their course before we did and they have the CD version of the course).
Ultimate Spanish Advanced is one of the best courses that I know for advanced students that are looking to improve their listening comprehension skills. I guess that's not a difficult task to accomplish when there are very few Spanish courses for advanced students. By the way, you are reading a review by a couple that has completed all three Pimsleur Spanish courses as well as both Rosetta Stone levels.
Pimsleur Spanish Level 3 and Rosetta Stone Level 2 are nowhere near as advanced as the vocabulary found in this course. The objective of those courses is to teach you how to "communicate" in Spanish. The objective of Ultimate Spanish Advanced seems to prepare you to lecture to a group of graduate students in Spanish. Of course that's an exaggeration but I am sure that you get the picture. For example, the most advanced Pimsleur Spanish just touches the subject of the "subjunctive." On the other hand, this course covers the imperfect subjunctive, future subjunctive, etc.
If you are a beginner, my best advice is to stay from this course. It's not for you. A beginner using this course is about the equivalent of someone wanting to learn how to box and stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson for their first sparring session. They'll get battered so bad that they'll lose all desire to learn. This course is truly for the advanced. If you are a beginner, focus on building a strong foundation in Spanish vocabulary and grammar before buying this course. If you want to build a strong foundation without losing your shirt, skip the Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. Buy Learning Spanish Like Crazy at www.LearningSpanishLikeCrazy.com or FSI Programmatic Spanish. You'll build a stronger foundation that way and for a lot less money. After you've built a foundation in Spanish vocabulary and grammar with one of those two courses, buy the first Living Language course in this series: Ultimate Spanish: Basic-Intermediate. And then you'll be able to tackle '' Ultimate Spanish Advanced.
| 
