Pimsleur Spanish (Castilian) Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Castilian Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs

I have studied the Pimsleur Italian course, it is the best for conversation. I have been to classes and studied the Linguaphone Italian course. It seems the Spanish course will be as good.

I really like this method of learning a new language. The Pimsler method is an easy way to start learning. Only down side is that it assumes the student is American but thats not much of a problem.

A bit boring to learn

I found these lessons very easy to follow and understand. This product is much better than anything else I have tried.

easy to use

This course has been a really great way to learn Spanish and I have really liked the way they teach. However... I cannot progress with Pimsleur as I cannot find the next level anywhere!!! So I feel very disappointed.

I bought this second-hand at a car boot sale for a mere five pounds, and soon understood why it ended up there. The course structure is good, using lots of repetition, but what lets it down badly is the overall production. Quality control of the product is sorely lacking.The audio is rather woolly due to a badly reduced treble content, which has the effect of reducing clarity - it's like listening to the speech through a couple of thick blankets! Consequently, I had to load the tracks into an audio editor on my computer and boost the treble before saving them to new mp3 files for playing in the car, which was incredibly time-consuming. The audio also contains transient clicks that I had to remove with the audio editor. It's as if they don't even check the quality. I happen to own an old UK version of this course that was released on cassettes through Reader's Digest in 1984, and that contained the same issues. Unfortunately, Simon & Shuster (who owns the Pimsleur brand) appears to be content with employing low-grade amateur audio engineers on the cheap.The quality of the supposed 'native' male voice actor is terrible. From lesson 3 onward he will often slur syllables and words together, and pronounce them too quickly, which has the effect of making sentences sound garbled. He also occasionally pronounces the same words differently, which can be confusing and frustrating. It's as if he's deliberately trying to wind the listener up! Like the audio engineer, this male voice actor seems to be a low-grade amateur who is clearly not bothered about doing a good job. Notably, the UK version of this Spanish course that was released on cassettes through Reader's Digest in 1984 also has a similar low quality of male voice actor.With the scripting, there are some annoyances, such as not getting the actors to pronounce words and phrases slowly before doing so at a normal speed.Due to the bad pronunciation of the supposedly 'native' male speaker, I became constantly irritated, sometimes angry, but eventually so dispirited that I soon gave up on it. I sent an email expressing my critical observations to Simon & Shuster, but they didn't even bother to respond, which says plenty about a company that is clearly uninterested in improving their product.