Pimsleur Spanish Level 1 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Latin American Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (1) (Comprehensive) (English and Spanish Edition)
Product ID: 5433187
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The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Spanish Did you know that Spanish is the worldโs second most commonly spoken language? For Americans, itโs one of the easiest to learn, and you wonโt find anything faster or easier than the Pimsleurยฎ Method. Even knowing a little bit of Spanish will make travel to Latin America or Spanish-speaking countries a breeze. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of whatโs going on in the world around you, learning Spanish will expand your horizons and immeasurably enrich your life. The best part is that it doesnโt have to be difficult or take years to master. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes, and we get you speaking right from the first day. Pimsleur courses use a scientifically-proven method that puts you in control of your learning. If youโve tried other language learning methods but found they simply didnโt stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try. Why Pimsleur? - Quick + Easy โ Only 30 minutes a day. - Portable + Flexible โ Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. - Proven Method โ Works when other methods fail. - Self-Paced โ Go fast or go slow โ itโs up to you. - Based in Science โ Developed using proven research on memory and learning. - Cost-effective โ Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. - Genius โ Triggers your brainโs natural aptitude to learn. - Works for everyone โ Recommended for ages 13 and above. Whatโs Included? - 30, 30-minute audio lessons - 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you with an introduction to reading Spanish designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent - in total, 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers - a Reading Booklet and Userโs Guide What Youโll Learn In the first 10 lessons, youโll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. Youโll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills. In the next 10 lessons, youโll build on what youโve learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. Youโll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. In the final 10 lessons, youโll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. Youโll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. Reading Lessons are included at the end of Lesson 30 to provide you with an introduction to reading Spanish. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. The Pimsleur Method We make no secret of what makes this powerful method work so well. Paul Pimsleur spent his career researching and perfecting the precise elements anyone can use to learn a language quickly and easily. Here are a few of his โsecretsโ: The Principle of Anticipation In the nanosecond between a cue and your response, your brain has to work to come up with the right word. Having to do this boosts retention, and cements the word in your mind. Core Vocabulary Words, phrases, and sentences are selected for their usefulness in everyday conversation. We donโt overwhelm you with too much, but steadily increase your ability with every lesson. Graduated Interval Recall Reminders of new words and structures come up at the exact interval for maximum retention and storage into your long-term memory. Organic Learning You work on multiple aspects of the language simultaneously. We integrate grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, melody, and intonation into every lesson, which allows you to experience the language as a living, expressive form of human culture. Learning in Context Research has shown that learning new words in context dramatically accelerates your ability to remember. Every scene in every Pimsleur lesson is set inside a conversation between two people. There are no drills, and no memorization necessary for success. Active Participation The Pimsleur Method + active learner participation = success. This method works with every language and every learner who follows it. You gain the power to recall and use what you know, and to add new words easily, exactly as you do in English. The Spanish Language Spanish is the official language of 19 Latin American nations, as well as Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Further, itโs one of the six official languages recognized by the United Nations. Pimsleur's Spanish programs teach an educated Latin American Spanish, featuring speakers from Colombia and Mexico. Students can expect to understand the lessons clearly and to be understood by Spanish speakers everywhere. Tech Talk - CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player. Review: great for building beginning conversational skills - I have gone thru all but the last 3 cd's now in the set. Overall I am quite happy with the purchase. Generally, the way the lessons work is, first the narrator will introduce you to a new expression or word. You will repeat it a couple of times, use it in conjunction with some words and expressions that you have already been taught. Then, the lesson will move on to new words and expressions. The new words and expressions will be taught in context, using many examples that include all the knowledge you have been taught to that point. So the lessons will repeatedly go backwards and forward thru spanish you have learned, getting you to constantly reuse your knowledge and apply it. When I was learning french, on my own, I would make flash cards and subject myself to constant repetition until I knew the words and expressions (and conjugations...) by heart. The technique used on these lessons is the same, except that you also have the benefit of listening to the Spanish speakers. I cannot say anything about the quality of the spanish speakers choosen, except that the speakers switch back and forth between a male and female speaker. They are supposed to have "neutral" accents - somewhere between european spanish and latin american. I find the lessons are perfect for listening to in the car while commuting. With a little attention each day, I am slowly learning spanish. Sometimes I get a little bored. But I am happy with the results. I am also reading a book in spanish and watching TV in spanish, plus speaking it every chance I get (at least 2 times a week here in dallas TX). I find that I am slowly advancing. This product helps a little with learning the sound of spanish speakers, and at conversational ability. You will not learn a lot of vocabulary from this product, but you will learn the basic grammar and pronounciation very well. The lessons are light on vocabulary, and more focused on learning grammar, proper conjutation of just a few words, and some idiomatic expressions. This product is not about bredth, but reinforcing a couple of key topics. Another proof that it works : often while listening to this CD, my daughter (who is 3) was in the car with me. Often later in the day she would start spouting spanish, especially if she heard in English one of the phrases used in the book. The first half of the CD's are basically translation exercises, and kids seem to pick up on this pretty quick. My only complaint, and it's a pretty odd one, is that for some reason many many of the example conversations involve asking someone to go to a restaurant with you to have a beer. After practicing the lessons a couple of times, I found myself having a huge craving for a XX, and I don't drink! Review: Pimsleur is a great way to begin learning foreign languages - Since I travel a lot, I need a way to learn languages the easiest, most efficient, and fastest way possible. Nothing beats being able to practice with and learn from a native speaker of a language. However, when I'm driving, flying, or just don't have access to a native speaker to practice with, I still need a way to practice and learn. I tried most language programs out there and I found Pimsleur's and Michel Thomas' methods to be the most suitable for me. Here are the strong points of Pimsleur's approach: 1) It's perhaps the easiest way to learn pronunciation of all the programs out there. They teach pronunciation by saying words slowly syllable by syllable until you put together the whole word. It's especially useful if you want to learn a language like Arabic, Chinese, or any hard-to-pronounce language. 2) The program begins with a simple conversation and they keep building on it lesson by lesson. 3) The conversations are based on real life scenarios so many of the things you learn you can put to use. 4) You don't need to get a lesson 100% before moving on to the next. They're great with reviewing the contents of previous lessons while teaching you new things. So you can just keep moving on with the lessons and you'll see that by the end of lesson 3 for example, you've got most of lessons 1 and 2 down. 5) No rote repetitions are necessary with their method. No writing, note taking, etc, just listen to the CDs. 6) If you love their method, you'll be able to learn the basics of many languages easily. I used their programs to begin learning Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Arabic. Downside of Pimsleur: 1) If you're natural at picking up foreign languages, you'll find their method very slow. 2) Even after you finish all the levels for a particular language, you're still at the beginning stages of the language, and you'll need to continue with other more advanced programs. Or better yet, with a native speaker if you can. 3) The transcripts don't come with the program. You'll have to do a Google search for those if you want them. 4) They're more expensive than many other programs. I want to emphasize that language learning is a highly individual process and other programs may end up working better for you. If you can, it's definitely worth buying the beginning version of other programs to see how much you relate to their teaching methods. To see if you like Pimsleur's approach, you can get a used copy of the Quick and Simple program for less than $10. I found the cheapest way to get the full copy of Pimsleur's I, II, and III programs is by buying the MP3-only version on audible.com with an annual subscription. Each program costs 5 credits which comes out to be less than $50 for each level with the annual platinum membership.
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,354,200 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3,844 in Books on CD #43,732 in Schools & Teaching (Books) #76,200 in Libros en espaรฑol (Special Features Stores) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 249 Reviews |
J**P
great for building beginning conversational skills
I have gone thru all but the last 3 cd's now in the set. Overall I am quite happy with the purchase. Generally, the way the lessons work is, first the narrator will introduce you to a new expression or word. You will repeat it a couple of times, use it in conjunction with some words and expressions that you have already been taught. Then, the lesson will move on to new words and expressions. The new words and expressions will be taught in context, using many examples that include all the knowledge you have been taught to that point. So the lessons will repeatedly go backwards and forward thru spanish you have learned, getting you to constantly reuse your knowledge and apply it. When I was learning french, on my own, I would make flash cards and subject myself to constant repetition until I knew the words and expressions (and conjugations...) by heart. The technique used on these lessons is the same, except that you also have the benefit of listening to the Spanish speakers. I cannot say anything about the quality of the spanish speakers choosen, except that the speakers switch back and forth between a male and female speaker. They are supposed to have "neutral" accents - somewhere between european spanish and latin american. I find the lessons are perfect for listening to in the car while commuting. With a little attention each day, I am slowly learning spanish. Sometimes I get a little bored. But I am happy with the results. I am also reading a book in spanish and watching TV in spanish, plus speaking it every chance I get (at least 2 times a week here in dallas TX). I find that I am slowly advancing. This product helps a little with learning the sound of spanish speakers, and at conversational ability. You will not learn a lot of vocabulary from this product, but you will learn the basic grammar and pronounciation very well. The lessons are light on vocabulary, and more focused on learning grammar, proper conjutation of just a few words, and some idiomatic expressions. This product is not about bredth, but reinforcing a couple of key topics. Another proof that it works : often while listening to this CD, my daughter (who is 3) was in the car with me. Often later in the day she would start spouting spanish, especially if she heard in English one of the phrases used in the book. The first half of the CD's are basically translation exercises, and kids seem to pick up on this pretty quick. My only complaint, and it's a pretty odd one, is that for some reason many many of the example conversations involve asking someone to go to a restaurant with you to have a beer. After practicing the lessons a couple of times, I found myself having a huge craving for a XX, and I don't drink!
T**S
Pimsleur is a great way to begin learning foreign languages
Since I travel a lot, I need a way to learn languages the easiest, most efficient, and fastest way possible. Nothing beats being able to practice with and learn from a native speaker of a language. However, when I'm driving, flying, or just don't have access to a native speaker to practice with, I still need a way to practice and learn. I tried most language programs out there and I found Pimsleur's and Michel Thomas' methods to be the most suitable for me. Here are the strong points of Pimsleur's approach: 1) It's perhaps the easiest way to learn pronunciation of all the programs out there. They teach pronunciation by saying words slowly syllable by syllable until you put together the whole word. It's especially useful if you want to learn a language like Arabic, Chinese, or any hard-to-pronounce language. 2) The program begins with a simple conversation and they keep building on it lesson by lesson. 3) The conversations are based on real life scenarios so many of the things you learn you can put to use. 4) You don't need to get a lesson 100% before moving on to the next. They're great with reviewing the contents of previous lessons while teaching you new things. So you can just keep moving on with the lessons and you'll see that by the end of lesson 3 for example, you've got most of lessons 1 and 2 down. 5) No rote repetitions are necessary with their method. No writing, note taking, etc, just listen to the CDs. 6) If you love their method, you'll be able to learn the basics of many languages easily. I used their programs to begin learning Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Arabic. Downside of Pimsleur: 1) If you're natural at picking up foreign languages, you'll find their method very slow. 2) Even after you finish all the levels for a particular language, you're still at the beginning stages of the language, and you'll need to continue with other more advanced programs. Or better yet, with a native speaker if you can. 3) The transcripts don't come with the program. You'll have to do a Google search for those if you want them. 4) They're more expensive than many other programs. I want to emphasize that language learning is a highly individual process and other programs may end up working better for you. If you can, it's definitely worth buying the beginning version of other programs to see how much you relate to their teaching methods. To see if you like Pimsleur's approach, you can get a used copy of the Quick and Simple program for less than $10. I found the cheapest way to get the full copy of Pimsleur's I, II, and III programs is by buying the MP3-only version on audible.com with an annual subscription. Each program costs 5 credits which comes out to be less than $50 for each level with the annual platinum membership.
J**R
A great introduction to Spanish
Pimsleur Spanish I is an excellent introduction to Spanish. You'll learn the present tense of a few key verbs, as well as the "going to ----" form of future tense and the "have -----ed" (past participle) form of the past tense for most of the same verbs. You'll learn basic greetings and farewells, numbers into the hundreds, how to tell the time, and how to ask for and understand directions. You'll be introduced to pronouns. The course is, of course, 30 half hour lessons, or 15 hours total. It's ideal for listening to in the car, if your commute is 30 minutes or longer. Trust me, the time flies by when you're trying to remember how to say this or that. I don't know of any other Spanish learning program that can be used as effectively as Pimsleur in the car. The price is kind of steep, at $200. However, if you buy from a third party vendor, you're down to $145. Buying used brings you down to $120. That comes out to less than $10 an hour, assuming you listen to each CD only once. In my opinion, that's not bad. Learning Spanish is going to take a lot of time, and your time is valuable, so it's worth using a good system. If you've never tried Pimsleur before, I suggest spending $17 and trying "Basic Spanish" first. Pimsleur Spanish I has 30 lessons. Basic Spanish is the first 10 lessons, and Conversational Spanish is the first 15 lessons. Basic Spanish will help you decide whether you like the Pimsleur method and want to invest in the full course. I've used both Pimsleur Spanish and Japanese. I have found Pimsleur Spanish much easer than Japanese. I found I needed to listen to most lessons only once, and a few of the later lessons twice. If you have no background at all in Spanish or other romance languages, you'll probably find you need to listen to many or most lessons twice to get to 80% correct responses. I suggest trying to cover at least one lesson every two days. If you go any slower than that, you'll begin forgetting things, and you will probably eventually give up. If you're really serious about learning Spanish, I think it's necessary to use other tools in conjunction with Pimsleur. I've also been using Spanish with Ease by Assimil and reading children's books in Spanish; these two things have helped greatly with my vocabulary. Pimsleur's greatest weakness is probably that vocabulary is somewhat limited. Good luck!
M**.
An Excellent Program if You Have Backup
A couple of years ago I bought Madrigal's Magic Key to learn Spanish, and I posted a review of it that I thought it was fine. But recently I decided that I needed something more, something that would give me correct pronounciation as well as grammar rules and conjugating verbs. After reading many reviews here on amazon.com, I went with Pimsleur, and I'm quite happy that I did. The lessons make sense and the conversations are cheeky and entertaining. [...]and bought the Quick and Simple program first; I loved it and it worked for me, so I went ahead and invested in the Comprehensive I program (I bought it from amazon.com's New and Used marketplace because otherwise it's far too expensive for me). I've just finished it and I have to say, it's a quality program. As I posted in my Madrigal review, I'm a foreign-language-dummy, and find it exceedingly difficult to learn languages, even one as relatively simple as Spanish. But with Pimsleur I feel I learned a lot in just 30 half-hour lessons, and will definitely buy Levels II and III. However, it's not a perfect system. I fully admit that if my live-in fiancรฉ was not Cuban-American and fluent in Spanish, I might not have stuck with this program. Because he listened to most of my lessons, he knew what I was learning and could ask me questions from my lessons at random, and this helped me immensely. I could also ask him questions if something didn't quite make sense to me; and I admit that once, towards the end of the lessons, I had to reference a certain grammar rule in Madrigal to figure out what the lesson was all about. Although the program advises doing a lesson a day straight through, I did have to take a day off now and then, and I recently had to take the entire week off. Life is just like that. It didn't seem to have any large, adverse affects on my learning. I did find that when I did do my lessons I had to devote all my attention to them; trying to engage in mindless activity, even just getting up to get a glass of water, while doing the lessons threw me off and made me make silly mistakes. If you're serious about learning a foreign language, I can think of no better at-home system than Pimsleur; even university classes and private tutoring I've invested in aren't as good as this. But I'd definitely get some backup, such as a grammar book (Madrigal is great). If there is someone close to you who speaks fluent Spanish, then definitely use them as a resource. If Pimselur is all you have, then I really don't think you'll learn as much as you should, but if you're serious about learning and you invest a little extra time (and possibly money) outside the Pimsleur program, you'll be speaking Spanish in no time.
D**C
For the fun of it!
Don't have a lot of experience with other programs to compare, but this approach has been very useful for me. I can listen on my PC, my truck radio, or my iPhone & engage in continuous conversation in Spanish. My confidence is building & I'm driving my wife crazy. But I know she will be grateful when we get to Mexico next month & puedo ordenar de eso menรบ, besides being able to point to the baรฑo. I am on lesson 21, so haven't finished the program but appreciate how it intuitively anticipates the learning difficulties I may have and reinforces the correct way to say it. For example, I had the worst time with confusing tambiรฉn e temprano. The program drills these words so often that I finally was able to automatically say the correct word in context. The pace is also very helpful. It doesn't give the listener a lot of time to try to remember the phrase or word before it says it. This forces me to try to beat the clock. And if I draw a blank I know I'm going to hear it quickly & reinforce it as I follow the speaker. The only "weakness" I have noted is that unless you download a Spanish dictionary, such as Bravolo, you will not always know what the words actually look like in print. For example, the first time I saw cerveza in print I had no idea it was the same word that I imagined looked like "cedabesa." They don't recommend you use other helps but for me, I have found them essential. While I have studied three ancient and two modern languages the traditional way, I can speak in none of them. This is my first foray into a language with no intentions beyond being able to communicate. For this old guy (72 next mo) it has been fun and exciting.
A**R
Pimsleur Spanish Level 1 CD review
Pimsleur language courses are the best. I've used Pimsleur French 1 thru 4 and Pimsleur Italian 1 thru 4. When I travelled to those countries, I was able to get along quite well even though I wasn't totally fluent. Pimsleur Spanish follows the exact same teaching method as the others. Also, I prefer the CD courses more than the newer online lessons.
A**N
Tbe Best Language Program - Don't Look Further.....
This is the best language program I have found. I run on treadmill daily and have been trying all sorts of language program during my workout. Without naming Pimsleur's competitors by names, I found Pimsleur's instruction perfect for language challenged people like me. Prior to Spanish I, I completed Pimsleur's Brasilian Portugues I and II (in cassette tapes) and have no problem roaming around Brasil with my Pimsleur's Portugues (constantly got complimented by Brsailian of my "good" Portugese). I've just completed this Spanish I program. Pimsleur's standard of excellence continues and I enjoyed the program thoroughly and learned a lot. I humbly disagree with some reviewers who stated that Pimsleur's Spanish program only offers "general" Spanish and not culture specific. I actually consider this as Pimsleur's strength. Firstly, I am planning trips to Argentina and Colombia. Never had interest to visit Mexico. If this program is Mexican specific, it will certainly be a big turn off for me. Secondly, if my experience with Pimsleur's Brasilian Portuguese is any good reference, even Brasilian Portugese has its regional differences, so the opportunity is tremendous that one can pick up more culture specific expressions when visiting the country. Thirdly, I did try the "Encantada" with my Mexican friends. Instead of laughing at me, they are extremely appreciated and impressed that I take the effort to learn their language, albeit a bit gringo stype. So, Castellano de Gringo actually wins points. Again, bottomline, go buy this program. This is the best investment you can do for your social life. -:)
D**K
My Personal experience
I have given this five starts because this thing is that good. When you finish level 1 you will quickly see that though you still have quite a way to go in learning the language (as I have seen when I finished) you appreciate the fact that you are MILES (AND I DO MEAN MILES!!) ahead of where you started from. If ANYONE thinks that Pimsleur level 1 Spanish will help them know the ENTIRE Spanish language then they have been mislead and this is not for them. In fact, when you complete this entire course you will find that you will BARELY be able to hold basic (and I mean VERY BASIC being limited to things that are important. This course helps you to focus on things you would need to know if you were dropped in Spanish country and needed help. You are limited to things like ''what time is it? where's the bathroom, where is she? how is she doing? how are you doing? I need a doctor! and much much much more, but they are all emergency based knowledge) conversations in Spanish. But you WILL be fluent in what you do know. Pimsleur is GREAT at helping to ELIMINATE the accents that we tend to put on words of foreign languages. Follow the instructions and study for AT LEAST 30 minutes a day, and you should be fine. you will learn quickly with this course.
ใพ**ใก
ไผ่ฉฑ็ทด็ฟใซใฏๆ้ฉ
1่ชฒ30ๅใจ็ก็ใชใ็ถใใใใ้ทใใงใๅญฆใใ ๅ ๅฎนใๆ้ใใใใฆ็นฐใ่ฟใๅบใฆใใใฎใงใใกใใจๅฎ็ใใพใใ ไผ่ฉฑใป็บ้ณใฎ็ทด็ฟใจใใฆใฏ็ด ๆดใใใๆๆใ ใจๆใใพใใ ใใ ใใใใ ใใงในใใคใณ่ชใใในใฟใผใงใใใใใงใฏใชใใใใใพใงใๅบ็ค็ใชๆฅๅธธไผ่ฉฑใใงใใใใใซใชใ็จๅบฆใงใๆๆณใป่ชๅฝใใพใCDใชใฎใงๅฝ็ถ่ชญใฟๆธใใฏไธๅใซใใผใใใพใใใ ใกใชใฟใซใ่งฃ่ชฌใ่ฑ่ชใชใฎใงใๆณจๆใใ
C**K
Learning in the Vehicle
This is the real deal! Good. Challenging. Formatted well for learning. I am on the road a lot so CDs is the only way for me to learn this has worked great.
T**E
To leearn spanish
it waS Well pakage i;m well pleased you need patience to succeed with everrything this will help you to speak the language you desire
A**N
great program but you'll need to do just a little extra
I bought this to help me understand and speak spanish for an upcoming trip. It puts you right into the language and the techniques are very good, however, i found that i needed to do some reading about the rules of grammer and how the two different "to be" verbs are used and when to use them. It is not that clear in the cd's and you definitely need to know how to use them.
A**R
Auditory learner?
Well, I have learned that I am not a strong auditory learner. I need a visual of the word for it to stick in my head. All the sounds were blending together, so I had to "cheat" and look up words to make sense of what I was hearing. The structure of the program is good for building vocabulary. The key is repetition and doing half an hour per day. I also had to get over the expectation that I could do 1 lesson per day. I have to repeat each lesson 4-5 times before I move on. And I go back to earlier lessons to give myself a break from the harder stuff. I don't pick up languages easily but with repetition, I am learning some. I haven't tried other programs so I don't know how this compares.
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