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

If you need a crash course in a language, Pimsleur does work. The way the lessons go, you do get the repetition you need to learn languages but not in a boring schoolroom style. Pimsleur has some written stuff you can download to go along with some of their programs too.

I already speak Spanish OK--read not great--and found it well done and great for in-car practice in preparation for an upcoming trip to Spain. However, spending a couple hundred buck for the next half of the series just wasn't worth it. But it really is well done.

I have been using this for a few months now. I decided to go with Pimsleur because they seem to be one of the very few companies that offer a course in learning Castilian, as opposed to Latin American, Spanish. "Why on earth does it matter to you which variety you learn?" you are no doubt wondering. Consider, dear reader, this simple question: "If you could learn English again from scratch, which would you prefer to learn -- American or British English?" Of course you'd want to learn to speak like a Brit! The accent, to us Yanks, is so much cooler. I've been listening to people speak with a Latin American accent all my life, there's nothing great about it. That LISP -- on the other hand!!! Que interesante! (Forgive the lack of accents or upside-down punctuation marks.) In other words, to bring this pointless, rambling, and discursive review to a close, I'm hoping to impress the pretty Mexican or Colombian girls of NW Chicagoland by speaking with one of those lordly, proper Spanish accents. I am almost finished with this introductory course and plan on springing for the whole thing.

The Castlian Spanish discs deliver what is promised and they arrived on time and in excellent condition. We already have some knowledge of Latin American Spanish, which helps, but there are enough differences in Castilian Spanish to make the course valuable - especially in pronunciation. We are up to Lesson five so far. One tip: add a Castilian Spanish-English dictionary to your library to build your vocabulary. Gracias.

This is just the basics, but it does help for beginners like myself.

This is a great course. Loved doing it. Very well laid out. Obvious that a lot of research has gone into the study of how people learn most effectively.

For the program to work... you have to continue using it.

The Pimsleur method is excellent. One must be diligent to tackle learning a language in this manner, but the speakers have been outstanding. The method works!