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Conversational Spanish: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's) (Spanish Edition)

Conversational Spanish: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's) (Spanish Edition)


Other Views:
Author: Pimsleur
Publisher: Pimsleur
Category: Book

List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $32.97
You Save: $16.98 (34%)



Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 29 reviews
Sales Rank: 9934

Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 8 x 2.2

ISBN: 0743550455
Dewey Decimal Number: 468
EAN: 9780743550451

Publication Date: October 3, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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  • German, Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand German with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur)
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Editorial Reviews:

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

HEAR IT, LEARN IT, SPEAK IT

What is the Pimsleur difference?

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.


Customer Reviews:   Read 24 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars Best Teacher of Foreign Language Yet   March 17, 2006
 85 out of 90 found this review helpful

I purchased the Pimsleur's Conversational Spanish CD set with 18 lessons (not sure if this is the same, but close). I am a military brat and stand true to the belief that learning another language should start at the early elementary age. I retained more Japanese in 3 years, 24 years ago, than 3 years of studying Spanish at the high school level. Being in the construction industry, the hispanic community and workers have flourished, and with that my need to communicate with them. I have bought and tried other types of audio Spanish teaching media, but the Pimsleur's method is truly the only one that actually teaches you to think for yourself, which is what is actually going to happen when your in a conversation. To start with a conversation, and not memorizing all the verbs and their tenses and numbers, etc has made this very enjoyable and wanting to buy the entire volume. (I called directly today to order.) It's like starting to play an instrument: you don't want to learn all the scales and how to read music, you just want to be able to play a song or two right away, and that's what this Conversational Spanish does.


1 out of 5 stars Plodding and Practically Useless   January 6, 2007
 34 out of 36 found this review helpful

I disagree with all the glowing reviews, and seriously doubt any of the reviewers started from square one and felt they were prepared to visit a Spanish-speaking country from it alone.

Pimsleur does have a great idea, inspired by the Foreign Service Institute's approach, but the thing is it takes TIME. What's good about the method is you're drilled and drilled and drilled... what you learn here will stay with you a long time.

The flipside (and it's a big one) is that with all that repetition, you learn almost nothing. You'll learn the numbers (up to a hundred), how to tell time, how to order a generic beer (almost every lesson spends considerable time on this), and how to ask where a hotel or restaurant is.

But if the hotel is not "right here" or "over there," (the only possible answers, apparently) you'll have no clue. Forget about "turn left at the intersection and continue for two-and-a-half blocks." You can order a beer, but forget about a salad, the daily special, what the waiter recommends, a steak, some chicken, or tea or a soft drink.

You can go shopping but unless you want to buy "things" you'll come back with nothing. Nada! "Cosas" [things] is the only thing covered! Forget shirts, dresses, pants, maps, guides, film, cameras, books, hats. Forget about buying a plane ticket, a train ticket, asking for help, asking what's playing, finding the beach, a nightclub, a doctor, a cop, or even checking into the hotel that was conveniently "over there." Forget it all. Forget Pimsleur.

To get any truly useful survival skills with this approach, these eight disks would need to be followed by at least a hundred others. And with three hundred disks practiced over two years, I have no doubt you'd even be able to converse on a variety of topics, which I believe was Pimsleur's intention. But Pimsleur's eight disks is so tragically short of qualifying for tourist survival Spanish, that it's comical, as long as you're not the one using it.

There are better ways to learn, but they will require more effort on your part, such as drilling yourself on phrases, learning vocabulary, and (gasp!) some grammar. I would recommend Easy Spanish Step-by-Step for grammar and essential vocabulary, and probably Teach Yourself Spanish (of TY Latin American Spanish) for audio, and adequate survival phrases. Don't neglect the multitude of other resources available to you on the Internet as well.



5 out of 5 stars Much better than all the rest!   August 24, 2006
 28 out of 29 found this review helpful

I got this item for my husband, who had the French version and loved it! He tried a couple of other versions of someone else's "Learn to Speak Spanish" program because Barnes and Noble was out of this, and he was very disappointed. I then ordered this and he is very pleased. It helps you to learn spanish in a conversational way that immerses you in the language rather than just repeating back unrelated words that they tell you. My husband has never had any language training before, but wanted this because he deals with a lot of spanish speaking people in his work. We highly recommend this one.


5 out of 5 stars You can do this!   March 17, 2006
 21 out of 25 found this review helpful

This is a very good set of cd's and I'm busy learning conversational Spanish. I know French and these tapes are teaching me to think in Spanish and not French; and correcting my pronunciation. I knew the very, very, very basics of Spanish before this but I think I will be able to relax and converse much better in Mexico now!


5 out of 5 stars Excellent!   July 12, 2006
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

I just finished all of the CD's and I feel like I learned alot. I really wanted a program that I could do in the car and use while walking.. ie something you don't need to constantly rewind. It was perfect!

Since I can't find a Part II of this Series, I purchased Behind the Wheel Spanish and I'm really not liking it. I've gotten used to learning each word individually with Pimsleur and with this new program it give you 20-30 new words and then says to memorize on your own time.

Highly reccomend Pimsleur





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