Product Description

This Conversational program contains 8 hours of interactive audio-only instruction, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Spanish structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Spanish can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only these pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,
• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,
• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,
• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills.

Conversational Spanish includes the 10 lessons from Pimsleur's Basic Spanish plus an additional 6 lessons.

The 16 lessons in Conversational Spanish are the same first 16 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Spanish Level 1.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20075 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-03
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 8
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed."-- AudioFile Magazine

"EXTREMELY ACCESSIBLE...each section within the lessons is short enough to hold our attention, and there is enough repetition to teach even those who consider themselves slow learners...Pimsleur [programs] are extremely thorough and easy to use -- quite lively!"-- Boston Herald

"Learn French while commuting, German while jogging, Spanish (or Russian, Italian, and Japanese) while cooking all with NO WRITTEN MATERIALS!"-- New York Daily News

"Designed for the ear and not the eye...the lessons provide PERFECT 30-minute bites of work."-- St Louis Post-Dispatch

"Learn to habla español or parlez français before your next trip aboard. The interactive LESSONS CHALLENGE STUDENTS to use new words in conversation instead of memorize them."-- American Way (American Airlines inflight magazine)

"I tried other language programs with little success...This is the best by far!"-- Pamela A. Mitchell, Pilot, International Society of Women Airline Pilots

About the Author
Dr. Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and was one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics. After obtaining his Ph.D. in French from Columbia University, he taught French Phonetics and Phonemics, and supervised the language laboratory at UCLA. He went on to become Professor of Romance Languages and Language Education, and Director of The Listening Center at Ohio State University; Professor of Education and Romance Languages at the State University of New York at Albany; and a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Pimsleur was a member of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and a founding member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). His many books and articles revolutionized theories of language learning and teaching. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed a new method that is based on two key principles: the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory that he called Graduated Interval Recall. This program incorporates both of these principles to provide you with the most simple and effective learning method possible.

Customer Reviews

Well Worth the Money
There are already many other detailed and helpful reviews, so I'll keep mine simple. Buying this product for $25-$35 is well worth the money.

No, you're not going to become fluent from $30 software. But they do a pretty good job, albeit at a slow pace. Now because of this slow pace and focus on core vocab and repetition you don't get very far (but you do get somewhere, don't worry).

For this reason I would not recommend this course for someone who already has some Spanish background. This course is truly for a beginner or near beginner.

Video Reiview covering the good points and bad points of Pimsleur Spanish
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RMELR6MRUXC1G If you are a visual learner you may not enjoy Pimsleur as much as I did. A visual learner may want to try Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America), Level 1, 2 & 3. I have found a course here at Amazon.com that is actually better than Rosetta Stone Spanish for the visual learner: "Visual Link Spanish - Level I" - You can find it here at Amazon by doing a search for "Visual Link Spanish - Level I" under the category of software.

Visual Link Spanish is better at helping you learn how to form your own sentences using images. Kids will also probably prefer Visual Link Spanish over other visual methods of learning Spanish including Rosetta Stone Spanish.

Unfortunately, Visual Link Spanish only has one level so it will not take you to an advanced level of Spanish. I am still finding that Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set) is the best course for anyone who wants to reach a true level of fluency in Spanish and it also the best for anyone who wants to speak the same Spanish that speakers from Latin America use in typical everyday situations (i.e. conversational Spanish).

Despite the fact that the entire Pimsleur series is still rather basic, I still feel that Pimsleur is the best for learning the kind of Spanish that you would use in formal situations, particularly in Spain.

Pimsleur
This is very helpful for the student who wants to learn Spanish, and especially helpful for those with pronunciation problems.