Spanish (L.A.) II - 2nd Ed.

Pimsleur programs may be most valuable for people who are having hard time pronouncing words correctly - and when you're learning languages with which you are completely unfamiliar. Pimsleur program will make it practically an effortless experience. I don't know what kind of a problem the previous reviewer had with CDs - mine play perfectly. I did get all three levels of Spanish and am very happy with the entire set. I also got numerous other programs, but out of the entire variety my favorite additional program was Platiquemos. It is somewhat cheaper and you can learn much more and faster. The truth is I love them both.

After working through Pimsleur I and II I can now with confidence have a conversation in Spanish, feeling like I am being not only understood but courteous. This has been useful in my work (legal) and in traveling. The 30 minute lesson length fit my attention span and ability to retain new material. It also, fortunately, fit my commute. Yes, it is relatively expensive, compared to other available books. It is very inexpensive compared to tuition at a local community college, plus it is much more interesting, and I was much more motivated to actually complete the sequence than I would have been had I signed up for a course across town two nights a week. A very fair price for the results obtained, in my opinion. The only downside is that I have not listened to NPR news for the last three months, because I have preferred to listen to these CDs in my car.

Consider why you want to learn Spanish. If you are looking for a way to communicate in your work and daily life with Spanish speaking people, then you would be making a mistake to not investigate this series. If you are pursuing purely academic interests, then you might want to explore other options.

If you liked Comprehensive I, you will like Comprehensive II. Interesting, interactive lessons add new vocabulary while reviewing the old. Conversations are at normal speaking speed. This helps your brain learn to cope with real speech, but if you need to pause and review frequently, it can make the lessons take much more than a half hour.This set of lessons covers informal usage, the past tense, the conditional tense (could, would), should and must, and ends with the present progressive (am talking, etc.).

I have just completed the first sixty lessons (Spanish I - 30 lessons, Spanish II - 30 lessons) of this 90 lesson course and tonight placed my order for the last 30 lessons (Spanish III).This course follows the teaching method of the late Dr. Paul Pimsleur and is, without a doubt, the most effective method I have found for learning a new language. Having done some preliminary reading on Dr. Pimsleur before ordering the first course, I was struck by the wisdom of his "graduated interval recall" method. What's interesting is that, as you go through the taped lessons, you are actually learning Spanish (or Japanese, German, Italian, etc.) in much the same way you learned your native language. Think about it! We all learned to speak our native language YEARS before we ever learned to write. We learned by listening, watching, and emulating. The advantage you have with these tapes is that, understanding English, you can now be clearly TOLD what each word means, rather than having to learn by watching and associating like we did as small children. Simply by listening, the tapes feed and TEST you on an ever increasing list of phrases, gradually increasing the length of time between testing until, finally, you LEARN. At the same time, you are forced to recombine the words you learn into NEW phrases, further testing and reinforcing your new knowledge. Additionally, as you progress through the tapes, the native speakers gradually increase their speed. Not surprisingly, your ability to understand increases with it! It is already amazing how far I have come. I am now comfortably (if somewhat haltingly) speaking in present, past, AND future tenses, with a large set of commonly used verbs, nouns and adjectives. I am really excited to "dig in" to the last 30 lessons.One final note: This course is only intended to teach you to SPEAK the language. Reading practice is extremely limited. The fact is, I have almost NO IDEA how to write or spell most of the words I'm using (again, just like children). For me, that is not a problem. I am told by native speakers that my pronunciation is EXCELLENT! For now, that feels like a huge success!