Spanish Plus: Learn to Speak and Understand Latin American Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs
Posted on 11. Jun, 2010 by Learn Language Free in General Learning Language Articles
Product Description
Spanish Plus, the next level in the Pimsleur Language Program. These 10-lessons provide an additional, sophisticated level of language that build upon the language skills acquired in Levels I, II, & III. Upon completion of the Plus program, you will be able to: • move into a more interpersonal exchange of language at a higher level, • converse in a clearly participatory fashion, • use diverse language strategies. For everyone who has completed t… More >>
Spanish Plus: Learn to Speak and Understand Latin American Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs
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Best way to learn Spanish! My husband, a doctor who uses Spanish in his work, and my dayghter, who is a 5th-year Spanish student, have both loved the Pimsleur language programs.
Rating: 5 / 5
I used Pimsleur Spanish levels 2 through 4. Both 2 and 3 were excellent and I listen to them repeatedly to keep up my fluency. They are a much better choice than the more heavily advertised Rosetta Stone. However, as many other reviewers have noted, level 4 is specific to the publishing industry and it really doesn’t teach you that much additional grammar or vocabulary. A bit more on the imperative, and some idiomatic phrases, but really rather thin. I have searched and searched through resources. The two very best I’ve found are Show Time Spanish by linguaphone.com which is geared to the intermediate to advanced student (their Coffee Time Spanish is for lower level students), and LoMasTV.com. Lo Mas is a library of video clips arranged by difficulty level from beginning to very rapid idiomatic Spanish, and it features a variety of Spanish accents and includes useful features like a choice of both Spanish and English subtitles (or none at all), a flash card feature, and a fill in the blank game. It also includes a slow mode with intonation correction so you can slow down some of the real motor mouths. All speakers are native speakers. I find LoMas more helpful for learning specific words, especially how to write them. On the other hand, I like to use Show Time Spanish when I’m exercising or walking around and am not sitting in front of a computer. I also like it because each podcast is almost half an hour of fluent Spanish, with very little English interruption and the material is structured to focus on certain grammatical or idiomatic features. The host, Mark, is Scottish, and you hear his strong accent when he speaks English, but his Castilian accent is almost native speaker perfect, and he often features guests from Latin American countries so you can hear both main accents. They speak rapidly, but take care to intonate clearly, which is not always the case in the telenovela clips at LoMas, for example. Both LoMas and Show Time have free sample videos and podcasts respectively, so you can check them out. I subscribed to LoMas about three months ago, and just subscribed to Show Time now that I have an Itouch. A two season subscription to Show Time is about the same cost as Pimsleur 4, and you will learn a lot more. LoMas is also about the same amount. They are both excellent resources, and both companies feature additional languages if you want to add a third or fourth language to your toolkit.
Rating: 3 / 5
Aside from the narrow focus of content area (others have commented about being stuck in the publishing world–which could be worse, I suppose: now I can proudly say “author’s rights” in Spanish), I have criticisms about the method, at least as it is applied to what is allegedly an advanced level course. We are told that this course will not be effective unless we’ve taken Pimsleur 1, 2, and 3. What nonsense. The coverage of grammar is narrow (present and preterit, with a smattering of past perfect, applied to a handful of verbs) as is the vocabulary. It’s as though Pimsleur doesn’t trust its own method. Surely, if someone has “graduated” all previous levels, one wouldn’t have to be drilled in words like “vivir,” “autor,” “novela,” “leyo,” etc. The drills not only consist of multiple repetitions of many words, but may include repetitions of the syllables of the word, as well. There are also drills of Spanish names for such foreign cities and countries as Melbourne and England. Even if a Pimsleur “graduate” student hadn’t come across those before (not likely in the case of England), wouldn’t their ear have been trained well enough to “get it” the first or second time? In short, much time is wasted. I’d estimate that the material, which is quite skimpy, could be condensed into half the audio space and another 50% of content added, without sacrificing the benefits of the interactive method.
On the plus side, the diversity of Hispanic speakers–speaking clearly and at a moderate pace (though for the advanced student, a slighly faster pace might have been more appropriate, at least further along)–is quite enjoyable, though with one exception. That is the use of a speaker from Argentina, with all the idiosyncracies of that accent to muddy the waters. Unless one is already familiar with Spanish as spoken in Argentina, how is one supposed to hear, “eja” as ella? What is the instructional value of such a choice (added to the fact that the speaker has, to my ears, an slightly shrill, nasal sound)? If the country were just south of the border, OK, that would make sense. The result is, that you have, for example, an odd situation where the Argentinean speaker asks (in her fashion) her publishing colleague if he speaks “Castellano [pron: castejano].” Another reviewer has commented on this inappropriate use of a term used exclusively in Spain, so Pimsleur now combines questionable usage with irrelevant accent.
I’m pleased (if that’s the word) to say that I rented this set from the library and so didn’t have to waste my money as well as my time.
Rating: 1 / 5
I rated the first three Pimsleur cd’s very highly. This one however seems to have been done for their own employees as its almost solely about publishing. So if you are a publisher then the new vocabulary will be helpful, otherwise I don’t think you will find the new vocabulary particularly useful.
Rating: 2 / 5
Over the years I’ve tried one sit down Spanish class, two CD-ROM classes, several books, and two audio-classes in Spanish. The Pimsleur Spanish I, II, and III have been the best for actually learning to communicate orally, and I’m a great fan of the series.
While there were some good things about Spanish Plus (which is supposed to go after Spanish III) I was slightly disappointed. The good things are that you hear a greater variety of native speakers here than in the first three courses, which is helpful in improving your ear, and the format is the same excellent Pimsleur format. The not-so-good is that the choice of topics was not great. The whole thing is about books and authors, and while you gain some useful vocabulary incidentally, I would have been happier if they had filled in some of the big holes in the series as far as practical language goes, like how to tell your doctor what’s wrong with you, or grocery store dialogues, etc., rather than talking about detective novels, publishing companies and editors. If you do the Pimsleur tapes, you will immediately be able to communicate orally to some extent, which is more than than I can say for a lot of Spanish courses. But be prepared to supplement the vocabulary and grammar with other books if you want a reasonably complete working vocabulary.
A better choice of topics for these Spanish Plus tapes would have made them more useful.
Rating: 3 / 5