Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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145 of 147 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I'd Found this one First!, March 9, 2007
I have spent probably a thousand dollars on courses like Pimsleur (I went through all three levels; heavy on pounding stuff into your head, but not enough vocabulary to write home about), Auralog computer-based Spanish(boring and tends to crash the computer), and "Behind the Wheel Spanish" (inconsistent -- way too slow, then way too fast) in my attempt to learn Spanish. What a waste! Everything I wanted was in "Learning Spanish Like Crazy." I only wish I'd found it first.
The lessons are, like Pimsleur, structured to pound stuff into your head so you won't forget it as soon as you learn it. But LSLC differs from Pimsleur in several key ways.
1. There's enough vocabulary to choke a mule -- and that's good thing.
2. Every verb is fully conjugated in each lesson, so you recognize the patterns and start "absorbing" them faster...but it's done in a conversational style so you barely realize "hey, I'm conjugating a verb" and you don't get grossed out by the fact that you're learning grammar.
3. Brief explanations are given on things that are complicated or irregular so you understand why you are doing what you're doing, instead of learning by rote. (Adult learners need to understand why, trust me.)
4. It moves along at a good pace. It's taken me 10 days to get to Lesson 13 and I've enjoyed every lesson. Lesson 13 introduces the student to reflexive verbs (and you know it because they tell you, "today we're doing reflexive verbs." Pimsleur never tells you what you're doing -- which is fine if you're a kid, but boring and confusing if you're over the age of 40!)
5. Best of all, it isn't boring. There are plenty of reasons to pay attention when attempting to learn a language, but it's easier to say than to do with some courses. LSLC makes it easy to pay attention because there's always something going on.
6. Lessons are logically laid out, with specific groups of related words in each lesson so you can absorb them all; with Pimsleur the words sometimes seem chosen at random and the conversations change ideas from sentence to sentence.
Again, I'm only on Lesson 13, but I like what I'm doing and my vocabulary has increased drastically; I know words for day-to-day functions that Pimsleur never covered although we take such words for granted in English. I've already purchased LSLC level 2. This is great! Highly recommended to anybody who wants to really learn and understand Spanish.
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113 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice product - great for filling 'gaps', May 23, 2007
I bought the product last year and have completed all of the lessons. Trust me - I agree with several of the other reviewers that it is really a great tool - if not the best that I've come across for dealing with everyday conversation. Being a very skeptical person with stuff like this, I admit that this is the only audio course that I have bought, and honestly don't think I'll purchase others. I did a lot of research before I tried the LSLC Level 1 system.
I live in Trinidad and Tobago (unlike any of the other reviewers that I have seen so far). TnT is located just 9km (about 5-6 miles) off of the coast of Venezuela, and 99.5% of the population here knows just a handful of Spanish words. After taking a course at the Venezuelan Embassy here for two years, I still found it quite difficult to understand them when they spoke - especially among themselves! I can read and write it quite well, but still had great difficulty understanding the natives. After studying the first maybe 14 lessons, I visited some friends of mine over there in December, and to my surprise I understood them a heck of a lot more. By the way, these folks speak much faster than Mexicans and Colombians in normal conversation - particularly those from the Eastern part of the country, so most of you have virtually no stress, since most Americans interact with Mexicans or Puerto Ricans. Try conversing with someone from Guiria, Venezuela too see what I'm talking about! The Mexicans I have interacted with speak very clearly compared to most Venezuelans - and the accent is easier to understand. Of course the LSLC instructors were quite easy to understand, and YEAH - it's a CD, so you don't have to ask them to say something again!
I would recommend the course for anyone, but would like to sort of categorize it (hope it helps somewhat):
- Beginners: You need some good reference material and a tutor to work with, alongside the course. The course is not ALL! 501 Spanish Verbs by Christopher Kendris, and Dorothy Richmond's 'Practice Makes Perfect' series of workbooks - these are GREAT! A good dictionary such as the Oxford Spanish Dictionary is a must. NOT a pocket dictionary - at least not for serious learners. The Oxford is bulky, but it contains many idiomatic explanations and context-based translations for virtually all the words it contains, along with explanations of the nuances of using certain words - again, in context. Regional differences are well-covered in this dictionary. There is no dictionary out there that comes close - although the latest Collin's tries really hard. I have lots of reference books, but I have found these outstanding in building stuff clearly so one could understand without boring drills.
- Intermediate: I think the best way to treat this is to relate my own experience. This course helped me to fill the gaps in my understanding of certain annoying things that you don't see in texts and that are not found in other audio courses - stuff like '¿Como?' meaning 'What was that?' or 'What did you say?' in English, clearly explained. Before, I used to say '¿Qué?' and any native speaker would look at me kind of funny, but I never knew my (potentially rude) error until I used the course material in Nivel 1. You can find yourself in some embarassing positions if stuff like that is missed in your speech. I did learn a lot of new stuff with the course as well, such as a few idiomatic expressions that you can't really translate directly. And yes - your accent becomes really HOT! My friends told me they were amazed at how I sounded when I visited. Of course I felt great, even though I knew that I still have much more work to do.
- Advanced: Heck, you don't really need this stuff - this is for newbies and the peeps like me who are still striving toward fluency! Anyway, I think that even advanced non-native speakers may pick up something small in here, maybe as revision or something.
Dive in, folks. For those of you who have used the more antiquated products that focus on mainland (Spain) Spanish, you'll really appreciate this stuff. The use of different people from at least two countries really helps you differentiate the accents. Remember, my problem was lack of listening skill (and still is to a great extent), so that's how I addressed it. LSLC allows you to attack both speaking and listening at the same time, so if they're your squeeze, get the course. The FSI material included is wonderful for rigorous reinforcement, but it's not as much fun as the LSLC. It's actually quite mechanical, BUT has serious material, so it should be used too.
Hey, a tip I have tried is to buy some music in at least one genre that you really love, performed strictly in Spanish, and listen to it over and over. You will be amazed at how well your listening will improve and you'll be checking that dictionary pretty often too. I have several albums that I listen to, and I tell you - they've helped plenty. This also seems to reinforce your ability to hear words slumped together as individual or logical groups, and at least for me, allows you to start to figure out missed or unclear words based on the other words around them.
Now handle yuh scene!
Sweet TnT!!
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168 of 181 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good product,but could have been better...., February 22, 2006
This was actually the first learning spanish course that I bought.I remember on the webpage for LSLC,the owner says that if his friends would teach on the cd's,that he would show the best method for learning,that he has found.For anyone who has done pimsleur,it is pretty obvious that this is the method that he chose to use.
So I went through level 1 of lslc really easy,but then from there I struggled.I just felt like there was just to much information per each lesson.
However,I kept reading about how great and easy pimsleur spanish is,etc etc.So after I struggled but made it to lesson 5 on lslc, I decided to buy pimsleur 1,to see what the big deal was.
Wow,what a difference.
With pimsleur,you only learn about 4-6 words per lesson.However there are 2 special things about the words you learn.
1.After you learn the couple of words,you use them many times over and over,and in many different combinations.
So if you learn:I have,you have,and,but,1,2,3..the lesson would look like this:I have one.You have three.I have two,but you have one.I have one and two,but you have three ETC.
2.You use the words frequently for the next 2-4 lessons.And each time you learn a couple more words,you use the words in various combinations,with words from the previous lesson(s).So if in the next lessons you learn:I want,you want,dollars..You would say phrases like:I have 2 but I want 3.I have 3,do you want 1.I have 2,but I want 3,and you want 1 ETC ETC ETC.
With pimsleur everything is just so simple,.I have been doing 2 lessons a day with no problems.I have only had to review one lesson twice,and I am almost done with pimsleur 1(30 lessons).
As a reviewer said on here,you probably learn more in 30 lessons of lslc than you do in 3 times the lessons and time of pimsleur.But that is where the problem is,the lslc team has crammed so much info per lesson,that I had to review some of the lessons 7-8 times to get it down greatly.After reviewing the text for the lessons,some times they conjugate 3-4 verbs,plus teaches some nouns and other stuff.
The only other problem I have is that they have decided to put info in the lessons by grammer patters(ar verbs in these lessons , er verbs in these lessons,possesive nouns in these lessons etc.)Once again unlike pimsleur that rolls on smoothly lesson to lesson,with LSLC you learn how to talk about possesive pronouns,and then in the next lesson your learning how to start a conversation,and then in the next your learning how to conjugate ir verbs ETC.So you kind of start learning one thing, then start learning another thing ETC ETC.
Also,unlike pimsleur where you may use a word20-30 times or more, you sometimes only use a word 2-3 times with lslc.
So why am I giving 4 stars?
Well because despite it not being as easy and natural as pimsleur,everything else is great.The voice and sound clarity is top notch.You learn the grammer rules easily,and some good patterns of the language(for instance in lesson 1 you learn how to conjugate regular AR verbs,and just by learning the unconjugated verbs,with a little thinking,you could conjugate them).
Plus,While it can be just to much at times,there is alot of words and information to learn.From reviewing the text(which is also a great benefit,you get the text for them words you are just not sure of)I can see it teaches alot of everything verbs, lots of nouns ETC.
Plus,as promised,you get to learn all the informal phrases and the tu conjugation of each verb.
If I was the driving force behind LSLC,I would make each 1 30 minute lesson into 3 or 4 shorter lessons.This way it would be alot easier to learn and absorb the info,and they could still get away with cramming tons of information in 15 hours.
One more thing.Besides pimsleur and fsi spanish(and its variations),I dont think that there is any program out there that teaches anywhere near what this one will(And I have rocketspanish,synergyspanish and a few other products).
So in a nutshell,this product is great,but it is difficult to try to learn that much in 30 minutes,and without repeating the words alot.
I still recommend you buy it,just wanted to give an honest opinion.
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