Customer Reviews

Spanish III, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Latin American Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As others have said, Pimsleur is great for developing correct pronunciation and for getting comfortable speaking. In that regard, volumes 1 and 2 are excellent and gradually introduce more complex or idiomatic phrases as well as verb tenses gradually and in a natural way. Also, as others have said, you will not even remotely be able to say much (or understand much) if you ONLY do the Pimsleur lessons. You have to get a good vocabulary book (children's picture books are highly recommended), listen to Univision, etc., but getting grounded solidly in pronunciation and just the initial step of being able to put together sentences confidently is something Pimsleur 1 and 2 will definitely help in greatly. Course number 3, however, is a huge disappointment---it's not just "not good enough", it's actually extremely poorly done. Anyone who gets number 3 presumably has done 1 and 2 and is comfortable with pretty much any basic phrases (Muchas Gracias), how to do introductions (Mucho gusto in concerlo), filler phrases (No importa), etc. but in course 3, you will spend a significant amount of time simply repeating these same phrases over and over. There is also a completely mysterious enormous emphasis on certain phrases that end up taking up in total nearly an entire lesson apiece---for example, "un plato de la especialidad de la casa" (one plate of the specialty of the house). First of all, this is a phrase any reasonably knowledgeable person who has done lessons 1 and 2 could figure out without outside help---you don't need lesson time that you paid for wasted being introduced to something you can figure out yourself. But this phrase took up nearly an entire lesson. Other similar unimportant or phrases easily decipherable without help took up entire lessons. Very little in the way of additional verb tenses were introduced in the entire course number 3, and a very specific set of vocabulary was introduced entirely geared towards foreign engineers making business trips or going to conferences in Latin America (I'm not kidding---that's the vocab you get repeated endlessly and not all that useful outside of very narrow situations). So all in all, number 3 is really terrible and should be avoided even if you get it for free---it simply isn't worth the time. But number 1 and 2 are strongly recommended as good tools for getting to a basic "comfort level" from which you can really develop on your own.

Here's a very honest review. I've been through all 4 levels of the Pimsleur Spanish Language programs (I, II, III, Plus). It took me about 18 months to get through it all with my commute to work. I went through each lesson multiple times, and I can now go back through the CD's and get probably 95% of it correct. It was an enjoyable introduction to the language, and an efficient use of my time (what else am I going to do in my car?). However, my initial hope was that I'd be able to understand Spanish conversations, radio, and TV. And I must tell you I get maybe 10% of it. Was recently in Dallas where there's lots of Spanish spoken, and I don't pick up much. The Mexican guys that painted my house...couldn't understand a word they were saying. I'm not giving up, from here I'll try more audio courses, classes, whatever is available. But if you're like me and read these reviews in the outset, don't be fooled, it's not all they make it out to be. It's ironic, but after going through their "advanced" courses, I'm still at a very beginner level. I wonder if some of these reviews are written by the publisher. And by the way, I found all 4 courses completamente gratis at my local library. Busca ahi primero.

No where in the literature that Pismleur puts out does it claim to be the "end all" Spanish program. I mean, really! It would impossible to put everything you need to know in three short courses. What it claims to do, it does. It gets you to a certain level of SPOKEN FLUENCY and no more and no less. When I did the research for my book, "YOU CAN LEARN SPANISH or Any Language No Matter Your Age or Disposition," what I found was that Americans particularly have the most bizzare idea of what it takes to develop spoken fluency in a second language. The course, "FSI Programmatic Spanish", is one that should be done after the highest level of spoken fluency is achieved. What "FSI Programmatic Spanish" does is address material to the short and long term memory and not to that portion of the brain that develops a "speech center". If you want to know what a "speech center" in your brain is, just note how your six or seven year old child can communicate in his native language BEFORE ever learning what a part of speech is. When I went through the " FSI Programmatic Spanish" course so I could review it for my book, I thought it was dreadfully boring, mind numbing, and did not at all address the development of a Speech Center...Pimsleur, however does. Pimsleur is not "A" method for second language acquisition...it is "THE" method for beginning spoken fluency. One comes before the other. In fact, in my book, avaialable here on Amazon.com, I mention Pimsleur as part of the course of study for developing spoken fluency.

As a resident of Florida, I desire very much to become acquainted with the language, histories, and cultures of my Spanish-speaking neighbors and co-workers. I studied French in high school but as of today cannot speak or understand it.

Because of my work schedule, at this time attending night school or living in a Spanish-speaking country is not practical. I am attempting to learn Spanish on my own. I have bought all three levels of Pimsleur and have no regrets. For anyone who may balk at the price, you should consider that the tuition at a university or a community college may exceed the cost of one level of Pimsleur.

Pimsleur is an excellent start for a beginning Spanish student. Pimsleur effectively teaches you the technique of listening to a sentence in English, translating out loud in Spanish, hearing the phrase in Spanish, and repeating it. The pauses between the sentences are long enough to translate out loud in Spanish. You may have to repeat a lesson several times so that you translate accurately and quickly enough during the pauses. However, the lessons are never dull, and the sound in audio CDs is clear and easy to understand.

I use supplemental grammar materials to read and write Spanish and to learn grammar. But the Pimsleur CDs teach you to speak useful and interesting words, sentences, and phrases for real-life situations - ordering in a restaurant, asking for street directions, asking about one's family and health, and discussing the weather. These CDs are never boring.

In addition, if I have an especially busy day and do not have time or energy to do a reading or writing lesson, I can still find 30 minutes in a day to do a Pimsleur lesson.

Even with the three levels of Pimsleur, you will not be fluent in Spanish. I am starting the FSI Spanish series once I complete Pimsleur. I recommend that for those who are serious about achieving fluency Spanish, they take the multitrack approach - watch Univision, listen to Spanish radio, practice speaking with native speakers, etc.

But for those new to Spanish, I wholeheartedly endorse the Pimsleur series.

If you're thinking about buying Pimsleur 3, you need to know why to buy this as opposed to other programs. I will admit that there are a lot of situation specific phrases that are repeated over and over again. Its very difficult not only to find a good language learning program but also to create one. This program was designed so that you can interchange all of the terms relating to the engineering field with terms from another field. Unless they made category specific programs for different popular career fields, I'd say this is probably the best way to teach you the way you need to speak. There is a lot I won't need to know from the program because I'm not going down to South America on business. But, there are others who won't need much of the informal stuff because they are only going to South America on business. I'm completely satisfied with the language you learn in the program and how you can interchange the language from your own field into it.

If you've already done the other two Pimsleur programs, this teaches you how to have longer conversations. Sure, you repeat phrases initially that seem like it would be strange for them to spend time on (la especialidad de la casa) but they're training your brain and your tongue to speak in longer segments. That's much of the true value of this program. You come out of Pimsleur II speaking in segments and fragments. Pimsleur III helps you put the fragments together in order to have long conversations that are fluid and versatile.

Another large piece of value you'll receive from this program is how to build on conversations speaking in past tense. You'll learn the right way to discuss something that has happened or that you've done (or someone else has). I needed extra help learning this so I made flash cards as well. Many programs teach you overwhelming amounts of past and future tense Spanish. This program teaches you what will be most useful and beneficial to know.

If you plan on using Pimsleur, another thing I'd suggest is getting a program or workbook for Spanish vocabulary. While Pimsleur is easily the best conversational spanish program out there, it unfortunately won't teach you a large vocabulary base. I use Rosetta Stone for my vocab but I've heard others using workbooks or picture books. I'd also get flash cards for phrases you don't totally catch on to the first time around. Some phrases are only used in a couple lessons and could be very valuable to you if you take the time to commit them to long term memory.

The last suggestion I have for this program (and all Pimsleur programs) is to use a translator while you're going through the program to make sure you know what words are being used and you can recognize them if you saw them in a book or a sign. Unlike many other programs, Pimsleur is designed so that you can use the program on the go and anywhere. With that said, there isn't much reading or word recognition in the program. If I cared more about being able to read Spanish, I might say its the biggest flaw of the system. However, to me, speaking Spanish is truly the most valuable and that's the goal of this program; to teach you how to speak Spanish fluidly.

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). Pimsleur is one of the most trusted brands when it comes to comprehensive language learning. Devised by one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics, the Pimsleur method immerses the student in a language and uses proven techniques which help you to learn and retain the information.

This set of CDs contain over 16 hours of lessons along with a book of plenty of reading samples to help your general comprehension skills. Level III builds on the language that you learned in levels I and II. It is designed to add much more vocabulary, allow you to form longer and more complex sentences and converse in a near native fluency with the correct accent. The book brings your reading skills up to the same level as your speaking, rounding out your Spanish language education.

One of the reasons that Pimsleur courses work so well is that the student is responsible for the original translation. An English phrase is said, and then there is a pause for you to repeat it in Spanish before the Spanish is given to you. In this way, you have to really think about the translation, rather than just waiting to hear it and then repeating what you have heard. After listening to the CD a few times you will quickly discover how effective this method is.

The recordings are clear and easy to understand, and the scenarios are interesting. They vary from every day situations to specific scenarios that you might not encounter, encouraging you to improvise with the provided vocabulary to suit your needs, rather than relying on a memorized set of phrases.

Rather than just giving you vocabulary, the Pimsleur method trains your brain to use it, almost without you realizing it. The course is painless and easy to follow, allowing you to stop and start as needed, studying whenever time allows. Although regular practice is the key to success, the lessons are short, so you can see results with as little as thirty minutes each day. Repeating the lessons will help them to sink in.

This course is well worth the investment if you are serious about learning Spanish. The only downside of Pimsleur III (which may be a plus for many) is that Pimsleur III, just like But I still prefer the Pimsleur method over many of the competitors' methods. The only reason why I am only giving the product 3 stars is because despite being a good course, I do feel that it is overpriced.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasant to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one mainly because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish. According to him, this is the "standard" among university level Spanish professors.

I purchased the Pimsleur I, II and III series because I wanted to learn Spanish by audio while walking my dogs.

Each lesson is 30 minutes long and I listened to the same lesson over and over again until I felt that I had mastered it then I moved to the next lesson. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson and they work!

I have just returned from a week in Barcelona and I was able to communicate fine in Spanish with the people there. Although Catalan is the most popular language in Barcelona most of the people there also speak Castillian Spanish.

I was completely comfortable alone wandering the city. I knew enough to get around. You only have to ask the locals to speak slowly for you and they will. :) No entiendo, habla mas dispacio por favor. Many of the people I met there had the same problem understanding English when we speak to fast too. So they were not at all bothered by speaking slower for me.

One night at dinner my co-workers made me speak entirely in Spanish for the entire dinner. They were surprised at how much I knew. During my trip strangers were telling me that my Spanish and my pronunication was perfect. I know that if I had the opportunity to spend more time in Spain I would learn faster too with the base of knowledge that these tapes have provided to me. (En Espanol - Sé que si tuviera la oportunidad de pasar más tiempo en España aprendería más rápidamente también con la base del conocimiento que estas CD's me han proporcionado).

I highly recommend these series if you want to learn by audio.

My only regret with these tapes is that there is no Spanish IV, V or VI to learn from. They are wonderful!

I have seen and worked with the other Spanish learning products on the market. These are the best!

I found the product to be quite pricey, but having completed Pimsleur Spanish level II, I felt that I had made such progress and had gained such confidence in speaking that I knew I had to make the sacrifice and move on to the next level.

Real learning takes place, not from repeatitive drills where you regurgitate the conguation of verbs or tenses, but from everyday conversation and every lesson includes something new and something you have learned from the previous lessons so you are not likely to forget what you have learned. I think the people at Pimsleur understand how people learn. The more you respond/speak in the interactive conversations, the more you feel a sense of accomplishment and progress.

I highly, recommend this product. If you can't afford it, then borrow the tapes from your local library.

I have completed Pimsleur's Spanish 2 and found it to be very helpful in teaching me conversation useage! I have now begun Spanish 3 and find it to be equally valuable! I find it best do listen to the lesson every day until I have mastered about 80% just as the instructions suggest. It takes me about a week. The chief advantage for me in using the Pimsleur method is that I gain confidence in my ability to converse in Spanish and not worry when I make mistakes.

This is definitely worth the investment of money and time!

I love these tapes; I've used several of the Pimsleur series and they're fantastic. By stressing *listening* over reading, these tapes lead to excellent pronunciation, and the "graduated recall" system seems to improve retention. The one thing I missed was that another tape set offered mnemonic devices (e.g., in spanish "bathtub" is "tina", so you imagine a girl named tina in a bathtub to help recall), so with Pimsleur I just make up my own as I listen.