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Pimsleur Spanish I:
The Pimsleur Spanish program is considered by many to be the holy grail of spanish learning programs. It uses a technique called "Graduated Interval Recall" to teach a large volume of material very quickly. Graduated Interval Recall is essentially a technique for determining when to remind the student of a previously-learned point. For example, say that you've learned the word for "street" in Spanish. Unless you hear and use the word again, you aren't likely to remember it for very long. Pimsleur waits until JUST before you're about to forget it and then brings it back to the forefront through another example or exercise. This time, having a bit more experience with the word, you remember it a bit longer before you need another reminder. As this interval becomes longer and longer, the word, phrase, or grammar point becomes more and more deeply ingrained and soon, you won't need a reminder at all. In this way, Pimsleur is able to maximize the benefit of each 30-minute lesson. And because each lesson is so short, they are much more pleasant and less overwhelming than almost any other program out there. And being an all-audio program, it is perfect for use in your car, where there are typically fewer distractions.
Thirty Minutes Per Day To Fluency
While Pimsleur recommends you do no more than 1 lesson per day, I have found that doing two a day works best for me: each day, I first redo yesterday's lesson and then do a new one. This way, I do every lesson twice and finish each volume in 30 days. It is VERY important that you don't skip any days, not even weekends or holidays. If you have no choice, you should go back and do the last two lessons again. Because of the way each lesson builds on the last, you will quickly fall behind if you haven't completely mastered all of the previous material. Similarly, you shouldn't mix-and-match programs with Pimsleur. If you start with Spanish Pimsleur I, you should also do II and III. Stopping halfway or starting in the middle will get you nowhere. But by the end of the 90th lesson (each volume has thirty 30-minute lessons), you will be able to speak clearly, intelligently, and with a good accent. What's more, you will be able to understand everyday speech at a normal rate. The main drawback of this program is, of course, the price. But if you can afford it, I think you'll find the old adage "you get what you pay for" rings true. And if you don't mind purchasing used on Amazon, you can save a bundle.
The Gold Standard Of Spanish Learning Programs
I am always hesitant to use phrases like "the best spanish learning product" or "the ideal spanish solution" since I haven't tried every Spanish language program on the planet. I can tell you, however, that it would be difficult to imagine a better program than Spanish Pimsleur. So far, I haven't seen it. Like Rosetta Stone Spanish, Pimsleur is a bit light on grammar details by design. To compensate for this, consider purchasing Dorothy Richmond's superb grammar workbooks: Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses
and Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions
as a study supplement.
Buy Pimsleur Spanish I - 2nd Rev. Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)
