Spanish

Rating:
Summary: Closest Thing to Castillian - I Love It
Review: I am very recently retired and was looking to spend more time with my favorite hobby (traveling). Since Madrid and Barcelona are my favorite places and I have never had the time before to become proficient in Spanish, I thought now would be the ideal time. I had my neighbor who teaches college level Spanish give me these Pimsluers tapes to borrow. She also gave me some CDs from www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com Since it seems as if the whole world is taking that course now, I felt compelled to compare the two.

Pimsleur is definitely my favorite without a doubt. I prefer Pimsleur because the Spanish is very formal. I have learned phrases such as "Yo Hablo Castellano" instead of the common Yo Hablo Espanol found in every Spanish class or Spanish course. "Yo Hablo Castellano" makes me appear as an educated and sophisticated traveler. For that reason the formality of Pimsleur Spanish is perfect for me.

I need to know how to speak Spanish when I travel to Spain and wish to communicate with Spaniards. The Pimsleur Spanish is more suited for that purpose. Learning Spanish Like Crazy is designed for the person that wants to or needs to engage in everyday conversation with Latin Americans whether for employment, business, or dating. That's just not my purpose for learning Spanish. I actually think it could hinder my communications when traveling to Spain.

The only thing that I didn't like about Pimsleur Spanish was that the speakers all seemed lifeless. The Speakers in Learning Spanish Like Crazy actually have personality. The narrator has an abundance of personality. The "senorita" Maria and the "senor" Rene are also terrific. You'll walk away from that course actually knowing their names. The methods of the two courses are apparently very similar. One advantage that I did notice with Learning Spanish Like Crazy was that the woman spoke slower and pronounced everything a lot clearer than the male. It was if she was teaching you how to pronounce it. The male on the other hand, spoke very fast as if to prepare you with the way that it would actually sound when you heard Latin Americans say it. The speakers in Pimsleur Spanish seemed to always speak slower than Latinos actually speak. And I am not sure how well that will prepare you for realistic dialog. But as I mentioned earlier, if you are sincere about learning formal Spanish and wish to communicate with Spaniards, I highly recommend Pimsleur. It may not be Castillian Spanish, but it's certainly close.



Rating:
Summary: First exposure to Spanish tapes
Review: I have familiarity with several languages. I decided about 6 months ago to start learning Spanish. I got Spanish for dummies to read (an okay text, but not great). My wife picked up this audio set (tapes) for me. I concur with most all that the other reviewers have said, but I found these tapes to be extremely useful. I only listened to them on my way to work and back. The method is very good at building on previous information and reviewing it naturally- not by rote. They don't recommend using books with it, but I found the combination to be much more helpful. While I was learning conjugations in the books, I was seeing them in action on the tapes. I enrolled in a Spanish II class in a few months not knowing if I could handle it, but it worked out great. I think the audio helped immensely with speaking ability. Many members of the class had more vocabulary, but didn't have the skills you can learn from the conversation tapes. When I want to review, I can just stick in the last couple of lessons and review a large portion of the entire set. It is true that this won't get you to the advanced stages, but it is a very quick method to get some good learning in and prepare you for further study. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: First exposure to Spanish tapes
Review: I have familiarity with several languages. I decided about 6 months ago to start learning Spanish. I got Spanish for dummies to read (an okay text, but not great). My wife picked up this audio set (tapes) for me. I concur with most all that the other reviewers have said, but I found these tapes to be extremely useful. I only listened to them on my way to work and back. The method is very good at building on previous information and reviewing it naturally- not by rote. They don't recommend using books with it, but I found the combination to be much more helpful. While I was learning conjugations in the books, I was seeing them in action on the tapes. I enrolled in a Spanish II class in a few months not knowing if I could handle it, but it worked out great. I think the audio helped immensely with speaking ability. Many members of the class had more vocabulary, but didn't have the skills you can learn from the conversation tapes. When I want to review, I can just stick in the last couple of lessons and review a large portion of the entire set. It is true that this won't get you to the advanced stages, but it is a very quick method to get some good learning in and prepare you for further study. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Lowers your risk
Review: The other reviews that criticize this product make some good points - especially in that you need to go through the whole series to see results. However lets remember one thing about foreign language products that also holds true for exercise equipment, books you think you'll someday read, etc. After initial burst of motivation, most of them end up collecting dust. Buying this set lets you see if you like the Pimsleur format, which may be different from what you are used to. But more importantly, you can find out if you can stick with it everyday for 16 days before spending [money] for complete Level I. Its would not always possible for me to put in 30 minutes at home to study Spanish - and I predict that I might eventually slack. I am "fortunate" to have a 30 minute commute each way to work during which I listen to Pimsleur CDs and others such as VocabuLearn. Give it a try!

Rating:
Summary: The odd-man-out in the Pimsleur Spanish family
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. The 4-CD set is basically just the first four CD's of the original "Spanish I" 16-CD set, and this 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 eight 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 as to whether or not you want to go all-out and buy the real 16-CD set... and there's a rebate offer included if you decide to go on to the full "Spanish I" program. However, I still don't see the point in going this route. If you're just wanting an inexpensive "test drive", the 4-CD set may be a better option. If, however, you really want to dive in... go ahead and buy the full "Spanish I", the rebate offer included here basically just takes the price down to the level Amazon sells it for anyway.

The Pimsleur approach is probably the best out there for learning a foreign language... so I by no means want my poor 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 sub-set doesn't really seem to do a good job satisfying the needs for anybody.

Rating:
Summary: The odd-man-out in the Pimsleur Spanish family
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. The 4-CD set is basically just the first four CD's of the original "Spanish I" 16-CD set, and this 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 eight 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 as to whether or not you want to go all-out and buy the real 16-CD set... and there's a rebate offer included if you decide to go on to the full "Spanish I" program. However, I still don't see the point in going this route. If you're just wanting an inexpensive "test drive", the 4-CD set may be a better option. If, however, you really want to dive in... go ahead and buy the full "Spanish I", the rebate offer included here basically just takes the price down to the level Amazon sells it for anyway.

The Pimsleur approach is probably the best out there for learning a foreign language... so I by no means want my poor 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 sub-set doesn't really seem to do a good job satisfying the needs for anybody.

Rating:
Summary: Commit fully or don't commit at all!
Review: The previous review by Steve Perkins is EXCELLENT. Please read it before buying this product. These edited, shorter Pimsleur products are "throwaway" products. If you're SERIOUS and dedicated about language learning, you will bite the bullet and buy the full, very [spendy] Pimsleur product.

But how do you KNOW you'll like the full, [spendy] set without trying a baby set like this one first? Call libraries in your area. MANY have copies of these baby editions. Borrow one, even if it's not in the language you're interested in, and try it for a day or two. You'll very quickly know whether or not you appreciate the Pimsleur approach, and can then buy the big set, or move on to another product if the approach didn't resonate with you.