Customer Reviews

Spanish I - 1st Rev. Ed. (Pimsleur Language Program)

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I've tried many methods over the years to learn Spanish including audio tapes from other trainers, but nothing has worked as well as the Pimsleur Method.

The Pimsleur Method is designed to teach you a foreign language the way you learned your native language: by listening, active listening. When you were a child and you learned your native language, you weren't reading books or writing phrases, you were actively listening to the people around you and learning to respond. These courses are structured in the same way.

I first encountered the Pimsleur Method with a small set of tapes (what's called on Amazon.com as the "basic" set) which I used once daily on my 35-mile commute to and from work. I found a retained more Spanish than at any time before in my many attempts. Since the basic set was working out so well, I went on to purchase the full, unabridged set that you're investigating right now.

I like the CD format because it's more durable and it gives me the ability to create tapes and MiniDiscs of the lessons for my use outside the home.

The lessons are a half-hour daily and the course is designed that you spend only that half-hour listening and responding. If you can stick to the program, you'll find yourself fluent and understanding in a short time.

I'm currently working on "Pimsleur Spanish II" and I'm hoping to become more fluent as time passes.

If you want to learn a foreign language, give these courses a try. If you're really unsure you want to make a heavy financial commitment, try the Basic Set first and see if Pimsleur works as well for you as it's working for me.

I know from reading other reviews of Pimsleur language programs that people are sometimes taken aback by the rather basic vocabulary the program leaves you with and the lack of written material. Bear in mind, the Pimsleur program is an excellent *introduction* to a language. It can't be beat for helping you with pronunciation and with learning the "core" of a language. If you want to become fluent that is going to take work on several fronts besides the Pimsleur course (or any other tape course available), but Pimsleur delivers on what it's designed to do. My experience thus far is with Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I and with Pimsleur Spanish I, II and III. They are superb. When used in combination with vocabulary building work, a grammar book (preferably and old fashioned grammar book ), and practice with a native speaker, you will attain your goals of speaking the language in fairly short order. What can I say? Learning a language is a lot of work and if you're looking for a magic bullet that gives you fluency in "30 minutes a day for 3 months!" you're living in a dream world. But the Pimsleur program will get you well on your way. You will develop an ease for composing sentences, a great pronunciation and an introduction to the vocabulary with their system. After one level of Pimsleur Mandarin I, I've managed to astound a co-worker born and raised in Taiwan with my ability to speak her language. Granted my vocabulary is limited at this point since I haven't done much else besides the Pimsleur tapes in Mandarin, but what I do know, I know very well. Having completed three full levels of Pimsleur Spanish and having worked on vocabulary, grammar, and reading from other sources, my Spanish has reached a very conversant level in only three months. Living in Albuquerque, I have the opportunity to practice my Spanish frequently, and people have commented on how adept I've become. Pimsleur is one of the crucial language learning tools I have to thank for such praise.

To sum up, I believe that Pimsleur programs can be used effectively by several different types of language learners, from those just wanting to pick up a smattering to those that want to become very conversant or even fluent. If you want to pick up some phrases and learn a small but useful vocabulary fluently as well as set up a solid foundation for future efforts, then all you need are the tapes. If you want, on the other hand, to really attack the language and master it, then you'll need more than just the Pimsleur tapes; but the Pimsleur tapes will constitute one of the most helpful tools you have in your language learning bag of tricks.

There are three things that everybody who has taken a Pimsleur course says about it: 1) It's expensive 2) It works, and 3) I wish there was more. If it didn't work, the other two wouldn't matter (and if you are not sure it will work for you try an 8 lesson Basic set). But since for most it does work, it is worth considering the other two items. You will probably want to continue through Spanish II, possibly Spanish III. This costs real money. And even after the full three volume set you are not going to be able to follow the soaps. But it is amazing how quickly you go from saying "Do you speak English?" to being able to understand and express complex ideas in Spanish within a small, but well chosen, vocabulary.

Spanish I covers the present tense, the near future (going to see, etc.), commands, and the present perfect (have seen, etc.; actually more useful than the past tense, if you are only going to learn one), and ends with a brief introduction to the informal (2nd person singular; no 2nd person plural since this is South American Spanish). Plan on doing a lesson every day (even if you just repeat yesterday's lesson). And a small, pocket dictionary is helpful. This is very good. An interesting and painless way to learn a language.

I have found this quite good for learning conversational Spanish. I for one do not have the time or patience to sit at home with a book and struggle through grammar lessons. I pop the tapes into my car and learn while I commute to work and back. I had to buy a cheap tape player to use as I was starting to wear out the player's mechanism in my car from constantly stopping and starting the tape while I formulated my responses.

They don't bore you with grammar lessons, but instead go right into conversations that help you learn, repeat and then apply basic spanish vocabulary in new situations. Most of the program is geared to giving you an English phrase to then say in Spanish, all in the context of some fairly silly conversations. I have benefitted so much from their method that I have already gone through Spanish II and am purchasing Spanish III. The price for each level is pretty hefty, but it takes me months to go through all 15 speaking lessons in just one series, making it a worthwhile investment.

Nothing is perfect and there are a few downsides, however these are more nits than anything else. First, although the series is titled "Speak and Read Essential Spanish", I found the reading lessons virtually useless. The vocabulary you are asked to read has little, if anything, to do with the associated speaking lesson. They include a lot of words or forms of words that are not in the speaking portions. I wound up simply skipping over them. Fortunately, less than 10% of the time is geared towards reading.

Second, while the Pimsleur conversational method is quite good, a few more comments as to why things are said a certain way would help (that boring grammar). I might have been a bit lost had I not taken a couple of basic community education classes first. This is never a bad idea anyway to help augment the learning of a new language.

Finally, I find it a shame that these types of taped lessons do not exercise you more on listening to Spanish phrases and then being asked what they mean in English. These tapes do have you respond to some Spanish phrases, but I found I could answer some without ever really understanding what the guy said.

Again, these downsides are minor in comparison to the value I received from these lessons. I strongly recommend them to anyone who does not have time to sit at home with a book.

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, ... I have a few suggestions to offer that I found helped me get more out of the product.

I would highly recommend buying at least an inexpensive pocket dictionary to keep by your side while doing the lessons. There is no "vocabulary list" that accompanies the program, so you never get to see what the words you're learning actually look like in written form. A Pimsleur principal is that learning by listening in more natural than learning by reading... and while that may be valid, it certainly doesn't hurt to know how to write words after you've learned them. I liked to pause the CD after each new word was introduced, and quickly look it up to see what it looked like. Sometimes when the speaker is talking too fast, you can get confused about a letter or two in the pronunciation... seeing it in writing would always clear up that kind of confusion.

I would also recommend finding some basic grammar book to look over. Another Pimsleur principal is that it's more "natural" to pick up grammar rules by osmosis as you listen to conversation. ... While learning grammar from books alone is counter-productive, I can't count the never of times that something confusing me on the Pimsleur CD's was cleared up INSTANTLY by reading a rule in the grammar book. If you're investing this much time and money into gaining Spanish proficiency, you might as well go the extra few inches and read up on your grammar basics.

The final extra I would recommend is some basic Spanish reader. I don't mean a phrase book... I mean some sort of "Dick and Jane"-style reader where you can learn new words in the context of reading natural text rather than exercises or travel phrases. ... I suppose that the idea here is to teach you how to pronounce written Spanish even when seeing unfamiliar words. However, I enjoy learning Spanish by reading natural text as much by hearing natural dialogue... and there are countless readers out there for beginners.

All in all, you can't go wrong with Pimsleur's courses. Once you've finished the first one, you'll be itching to move on to "Spanish II" and "Spanish III". These aren't designed for people just wanting to learn some travel phrases to impress their friends with... but as a comprehensive program, may be a more effective (and affordable) option for those more serious learners considering night classes.

Let me first say that I wish I could give the Pimsleur Courses 10 Stars!!!! Man oh man do I wish I would've found out about this course a few years ago. I'd be fluent by now, but I guess better late than never.

Anyway, I seriously developed a burning desire to learn how to Speak spanish after a week long vacation that my wife and I had in Puerto Rico about 4 years ago. We were there visiting with some really go friends of ours that live there, and their 2 little boys. Unfortanetly, my wife and I could'nt communicate with the boys because they only knew Spanish (and still do). So our friends acted as translators. Which was okay, but I really had wished I could talk to them on my own accord in Spanish.

Well I'm 5 lessons away from completing Level 3 of Pimsleur Spanish. And I can definetly say that this is the best Spanish Program to use if you really want to learn to speak Spanish with no prior knowledge, or some limited knowledge of the language. After about a year of continually studying and progressing through all levels, I can actually carry on conversations with native Spanish speakers, very well. And they themselves are "very surprised and impressed" at my range of vocabulary and accent. They are totally impressed that I have a desire to speak their language, and that I can actually say more than "un pocito"! LOL. Only thing is that this is completely aural, no writing involved. So many times I was left wondering how to spell certain words. But I do have a pocket English/Spanish dictionary handy. Very helpful and I feel essential.

Trust me. I own the Barrons Spanish course , and I stopped listening to it after about a week because it was too overwhelming for me as a beginner. However I will go back and finish that as well since I've completed all of these Pimsleur lessons. But Pimsleur will work for anyone. The only problem I have now is not knowing more words to use, which will come with time. But even now when I watch "Univision" or "Telemundo", I can actually hear and understand much of what they're saying. They don't sound like they're talking "too fast" anymore. But a big help for me has been speaking to native speakers.

Nothing can replace that for fluency. Don't fool yourself thinking you can speak Spanish by reading a bunch of books. You didn't learn English that way. And you could speak English before you started grade school. So it's more to it than just studying grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation. If that's all it took, then everyone could be fluent in a foreign language. But Pimsleur Spanish will give you a solid foundation for starting.

Now when my wife and I travel back to Puerto Rico, we'll both be able to communicate as necessary. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I took French all through high school, and forgot all of it. My wife took Spanish all through high school. Within the first 8 lessons of Pimsleur, I was teaching her Spanish that she didn't know, and she took it for 4 years! That alone convinced her how good this course is as well as for myself.

For various reasons, I decided a couple of years ago to start learning Spanish. I'd heard of the Pimsleur method and decided to buy the whole thing, all three comprehensive courses. I can say I was not disappointed. This has to be the easiest and most effective way to learn a language ever devised. Dr. Pimsleur really knew what he was doing. After about 45 days I was comfortable enough in Spanish to be conversant and to understand the Spanish news broadcast. It was worth every penny (all 82,500 of them actually).

That said, I don't think the Pimsleur course is for everyone. For one, many people will balk at the price. And secondly, it takes discipline. It's absolutely essential that you devote 30 minutes a day without fail to learn the language or you'll be disappointed. It also may not be the best method of learning for some people. If you're more visual oriented than audio oriented, you may get frustrated.

I also think it would help if the course included a supplemental book to show things like spelling, sentence structure and conjugation of verbs. But overall, I found this course extremely effective and after 90 days feel that my Spanish is just a step under complete fluency. I'm very satisfied and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a second language.

In fact, I was so satisfied with the Spanish course that I bought the beginner Italian course for my vacation this summer and it was immensely helpful.

This program is not cheap, but it really worked for me. I loved the fact that you don't need a book -- I listened to the tapes in the car. Because I was driving, I listened to most lessons twice: once in the A.M. commute and once in the P.M.

The speakers are clear and reasonably easy to understand. I did eventually buy a book so I could look up words (and because a few times I had a hard time distinguishing between "d" and "t" on the tape, for example). However, you don't need to study -- just do the tapes. The lessons will repeat and reinforce the words as you learn.

I liked this so much that I bought the next two levels as well. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to learn to speak a language. I was a definite beginner with Spanish; now I speak more and better than my husband who took Spanish for years in school. So far, I have spent 3 months in the program, listening to an average of 4 lessons each week.

First off, you can rent this at recordedbooks dot-com for $15, for the first half of Spanish I; for another $15 you can get the second half, so it would cost you $30 plus shipping to listen to the whole Spanish I course. This cost is for the CDs; they also rent the audio cassette version.

This course was at just the right level for me. The first few lessons have quite a bit of repetition in them, which is good if you've never learned any Spanish at all, like me. As the lessons progress, and you are more comfortable with it, it's not quite as repetitive, and the course throws a lot more words at you in each lesson. This worked out well for me. Sometimes, I had to listen to a lesson a second time. Each lesson is 30 minutes long, and if you rent part A of Spanish I, then you're getting 7 CDs, each with two lessons, plus an instruction manual on a separate CD, and a 'reading book' on CD.

First, re the review below by "joedge39" who said, "Good, but don't get ripped," and "I bought mine at B&N for under $50", well, unless that reviewer got a highly unusual "closeout-sale" item (in which case congratulations are in order!), then MOST LIKELY what they ACTUALLY purchased was merely the abbreviated, "retail" version that only includes the first few (not all 30) thirty-minute lessons. Those "abbreviated" sets are woefully incomplete and are obviously sold as mere "enticements" to encourage the buyer to (subsequently) shell out the requisite big bucks for the FULL (30-lesson) edition(s).
Moreover, to really begin to achieve fluency at the (so-called) "intermediate-plus" level, you will ALSO need, eventually, to purchase Pimsleur's "Spanish II" and "Spanish III" sets (each of which comprise 30 additional thirty-minute lessons). And EVEN THEN you will be FAR from "fully fluent" in Spanish.
Having said this, let me add that I've tried virtually ALL the available Spanish audio, video, and software products that are "mass marketed," and the Pimsleur series (albeit costly!) is, by far, the best single item of them all. This is because you can really "interact" with realistic dialogues, AND the material is very, very carefully and strategically sequenced. I must add, however, that because the Pimsleur approach teaches you (essentially) NO *written* words, well, if you're like me, you'll find yourself wanting to occasionally "pause" the current tape to go look up a newly introduced word in a Spanish dictionary, just to be sure you've heard the native speaker's intonation correctly and are repeating the proper consonants/vowels. (For this purpose, you could do worse than to employ the "Word Ace" (speaking-dictionary/verb-conjugator) software by Transparent Language, makers of the well-known "Spanish Now!" software "bundles" that often have a "Word Ace" CD included "free"). But even a mere paperback Spanish dictionary could be a useful supplement to the Pimsleur "audio-only" approach. After all, even though it's true that SPOKEN language is "primary", sooner or later you obviously will also need to be able to READ some basic words and expressions.
Finally, as a significant "second-best" program (to the excellent Pimsleur "audio-only" series), The Rosetta Stone software is worthy of your consideration, provided (again) that you opt for the FULL set of discs, not merely an "introductory" disc containing the first few lessons.
In my opinion, almost all OTHER "audio/visual/software" foreign-language-learning products on the market--despite their impressive "bells and whistles"--are *chiefly* useful as "supplemental" (not your "primary") learning media.