Synopses & Reviews
The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn SpanishDid you know that Spanish is the world’s second most commonly spoken language? For Americans, it’s one of the easiest to learn, and you won’t find anything faster or easier than the Pimsleur® 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 what’s going on in the world around you, learning Spanish will expand your horizons and immeasurably enrich your life.
The best part is that it doesn’t 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 you’ve tried other language learning methods but found they simply didn’t stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try.
Why Pimsleur?
- Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day.
- Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life.
- Proven Method – Works when other methods fail.
- Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you.
- Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning.
- Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers.
- Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn.
- Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above.
What’s Included?
- 30, 30-minute audio lessons
- 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you practice reading Spanish
- in total, 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers
- a Reading Booklet and User’s Guide
What You’ll Learn
Builds upon skills taught in Pimsleur’s Spanish Levels 1 and 2.
In the first 10 lessons, you will expand your vocabulary and increase your fluency to an even higher level. You’ll gain experience participating in many informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and semiprofessional topics. You’ll skillfully form longer, more complex sentences, and most importantly, you’ll find yourself being understood, even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners. You’ll be able to join in conversations eagerly, confident of being understood.
In the next 10 lessons, your skills will demonstrate ever-increasing mastery of Spanish. Speaking with grace and complete naturalness, you’ll enjoy fluid conversations on many new subjects. Delving deeper into cultural norms and situations, you’ll find yourself responding effortlessly, and able to choose from a wide accumulation of vocabulary and structures.
In the final 10 lessons, you’re nearing fluency with agile responses, and a natural sounding, near-native accent. You’re able to utilize the language in subtle ways, and speak using past, present, and future tenses. Self-confidence soars as you no longer experience the language and culture as a foreigner, but as someone with a deepening insight into the Spanish-speaking world.
Reading Lessons are included at the end of Lesson 30. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to give you practice reading Spanish, to provide vocabulary and improve pronunciation. Before you know it, you’ll be reading Spanish with the ease and flexibility of a native speaker.
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 “secrets”:
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 don’t 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, it’s 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.
Synopsis
Comprehensive Spanish (L.A.) III includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Levels I and II. Increased spoken and reading language ability.
Level III will increase your vocabulary and grammatical structures and triple your spoken proficiency. Upon completion of a level III, you will be able to:
* participate in most informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and some semi-professional topics,
* form longer sentences while maintaining the target language syntax,
* be understood even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners,
* handle increasingly difficult grammatical structures,
* enjoy fluent conversations with a variety of strangers,
* have a near-native accent, and the subtleties of the language will be apparent in your speech,
* read at the same level at which you speak.
Note: In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I + II language programs before proceeding to the Level III language program.
Synopsis
Spanish is the official language of Spain and 21 Latin American countries, and is an official language of the U.N. Pimsleur's Spanish teaches an educated Latin American Spanish, with speakers from Colombia and Argentina in levels I-III, and from Mexico in level IV.
The Pimsleur® Method is scientifically proven to be your fastest route to nearnative fluency. Spanish III, Comprehensive includes another 15 hours of spoken language practice and one additional hour of reading instruction, and is designed to be used after completion of Levels I & II.
- The beginning 10 lessons offer you the chance to expand your vocabulary and increase your fluency to an even higher level. You’ll gain experience participating in many informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and semiprofessional topics. You’ll skillfully form longer, more complex sentences, and most importantly, you’ll find yourself being understood, even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners. You’ll be able to join in conversations effortlessly, confident of being understood.
- In the next 10 lessons your skills will show everincreasing mastery of the language. Speaking with grace and complete naturalness, you’ll enjoy fluid conversations on many new subjects. Delving deeper into cultural norms and situations, you’ll find yourself responding effortlessly, and able to choose from a wide accumulation of vocabulary and structures.
- In the final 10 lessons, you’re nearing fluency with agile responses, and a naturalsounding, nearnative accent. You’re able to utilize the language in subtle ways, and speak using past, present, and future tenses. Selfconfidence soars as you experience the language and culture; no longer as a foreigner, but with a deepening insight into an expanding new world.
Reading Lessons are included at the end of Unit 30. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to give you practice reading Spanish and to provide vocabulary. Before you know it, you’ll be reading Spanish with the ease and flexibility of a native speaker. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.
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.