Spanish II, 3rd Ed. (Compr.) [CD]

Rating:
Summary: More of the Good (and the Bad) of Pimsleur Spanish I
Review: Admittedly, I am somewhat of a Pimsleur Spanish fan, having purchased all 3 Pimsleur learning Spanish courses and the Spanish plus. But the Level II makes the same mistakes as the Level I Pimsleur Spanish lessons. Not enough vocabulary and far too formal. Overall, Pimsluer Spanish is not a bad choice. But if you want to know how to learn Spanish, you will need a couple of tools to compensate for the Pimluer Spanish course's lack of vocabulary and unnecessary formality. For coping with the excessive formality, you can try the Learning Spanish Like Crazy Spanish lesson plan at www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com For vocabulary, I highly recommend the Think Spanish Flash Cards over at www.audioforum.com They cost $25 a piece for level one and level two. I got both levels several years ago when they were only $14.95 per set. I go through them at least twice a year to brush up on my learning Spanish vocabulary.

Rating:
Summary: excellent as usual
Review: Continues on the excellent track from the first series of CD's. You may have to listen a few times to the CD's, but if it was too easy, you'd probably regret the high price tag. This is my third Pimsleur series and I continue to be impressed.

Might want to pick this one up used to make this on a bit more affordable.

Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur Method Has its Flaws
Review: I agree with the reviewer that said the Pimsleur method is flawed. I did Pimsleur I and II (I almost finished with III now), I am disappointed with the amount of vocabulary that I have learned. At work, when I try to assist people, very often I find myself standing there looking dumbfounded while searching for the right words to say in Spanish when communicating with Latinos. In part, I blame this on Pimsleur's method which did not provide text with the audio which would have enabled me to remember more vocabulary. I also blame it on the fact that Pimsleur simply does not give you enough vocabulary.

I also agree with the other reviewer and believe that FSI Programmatic Spanish is a better course than Pimsluer because they give you the written word to go with the audio lessons. If FSI Programmatic Spanish is good enough for the U.S. Department of State to use to teach diplomats how to speak Spanish, then it's good enough for me. The bad part about FSI is that it's about as expensive as Pimsleur.

Since everyone else seems to be doing that new Spanish course, Learning Spanish Like Crazy, and making progress with it, a couple of days ago, I decided to buy it as well. I was very pleased to find out that both FSI Programmatic Spanish I and II come as bonus gifts with the Learning Spanish Like Crazy lessons.

I have one more complaint about Pimsleur. It just scratches the surface on the topic of the subjunctive verb tense. The subjunctive verb tense is perhaps the most difficult verb tense for English speakers learning Spanish. It should be covered very thoroughly in any "comprehensive" Spanish course. In my opinion, that's something that Pimsleur fails to do. FSI Programmatic Spanish spends nearly the whole Level Two teaching the subjunctive, and it does an excellent job covering the subjunctive.



Rating:
Summary: excellent as usual
Review: I used the previous edition of Pimsleur Spanish II, but I'm sure this edition is only improved.

Pimsleur's level two Spanish lessons continue the excellence of level one. Each lesson begins with a dialogue in Spanish to sharpen your listening comprehension. Then it proceeds to a combination of techniques. You are given a sentence in English to recite in Spanish, or instructed in Spanish to say something in Spanish, changing the verbs to fit your response. When new words or phrases are introduced, they are repeated and used in different contexts so you can remember them. The tapes give you time to repeat out loud to fix the words, sentences or phrases in your mind. The pauses aren't long enough for you to translate from English to Spanish in your mind; you have to respond somewhat quickly in Spanish, as you would in a conversation with a Spanish speaker.

These lessons make adroit use of repetition. If a word or phrase is introduced at the beginning of a lesson, it will pop up again toward the end. Grammatical points and vocabulary introduced in earlier lessons will come up again in later lessons, to give you a chance to recall them. These techniques make Pimsleur superior to other language self-study programs.

This is a wonderful program, and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the money
Review: I used the previous edition of Pimsleur Spanish II, but I'm sure this edition is only improved.

Pimsleur's level two Spanish lessons continue the excellence of level one. Each lesson begins with a dialogue in Spanish to sharpen your listening comprehension. Then it proceeds to a combination of techniques. You are given a sentence in English to recite in Spanish, or instructed in Spanish to say something in Spanish, changing the verbs to fit your response. When new words or phrases are introduced, they are repeated and used in different contexts so you can remember them. The tapes give you time to repeat out loud to fix the words, sentences or phrases in your mind. The pauses aren't long enough for you to translate from English to Spanish in your mind; you have to respond somewhat quickly in Spanish, as you would in a conversation with a Spanish speaker.

These lessons make adroit use of repetition. If a word or phrase is introduced at the beginning of a lesson, it will pop up again toward the end. Grammatical points and vocabulary introduced in earlier lessons will come up again in later lessons, to give you a chance to recall them. These techniques make Pimsleur superior to other language self-study programs.

This is a wonderful program, and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it, rent it
Review: You can rent the cassette or CD at recordedbooks dot-com for less than a tenth of the purchase price.