Here, again, "Muchas Gracias" to Gitano (formerly known as BushPilot). For those of us who know him, I believe that most would acknowledge that Gitano has made some of the greatest efforts in learning and becoming fluent in Spanish. He's gone from basic 'bar Spanish' to being able to carry on a full on conversation in most social environs. In this process, he also has seemed to gain the greatest experience in the products available to aid in this educational process.

As such, I'm re-posting the following info about tapes/CDs to aid in learning Spanish. Again, this post is being 'archived' here from the 'old' Red Snake board.

In addition to Gitano, 'fuzzy' and 'Nodak' added posts to the original thread that I've re-posted here. I wish to thank everyone who contributes, here.

Feel free to add your own experiences and opinions to contribute to the collective knowledge of Club Hombre.

Again, PLEASE NOTE: The prices listed here may have changed since the original posting date.

**
By BushPilot on Sunday, June 11, 2000 - 08:36 am:


I thought I would split this topic out from the Books thread as that one is a little packed already with Eureka's info that I copied in there.

Anyway, after an endorsement by BorderRat (I think), I tried the Traveler's version of the Pimsleur cassettes, also available in CD I believe. $50 for 8 one hour tapes through Amazon. I wanted to go straight to the intermediary set, but those cost $236 for 15 one hour tapes. Muy caro. So I thought I would try the cheaper version to see if the quality justified the price.

These are the best learning cassettes I have ever used. The Travelers Edition is too light for me, but was still good to listen to. If you are just starting out, I would recommend them. The material is organized in such a way that you learn more. It focuses on spoken Spanish and is much more than a series of repeated words and phrases.

I have ordered the Intermediary set and will put up a subsequent review after going through them. Prior to my exposure to the Pimselur Tapes, my favorite tapes had been "Learn Spanish in Your Car", which gives you 9 hours of materials for about $45. These aren't bad, but are no where near the quality of the Pimsleuer materials.

Again the Pimsleur cassettes are very pricey, so I would think through carefully if you are motivated enough to justify the cost. Also Amazon has various versions of Pimsleur materials, including an English course for Spanish speakers. Be careful of what you are ordering. I came close to ordering the wrong set. - BP


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By fuzzy on Tuesday, June 20, 2000 - 08:09 pm:


I agree completely with BushPilot's opinion of the Pimsleur tapes. I tried learning Spanish on my own for about two years, but I only made very slow progress. I bought one of the little sample boxes of Pimsleur containing the first 4 tapes in the course and gave it a try. Within the first five minutes I knew this was what I had been looking for. Suddenly I knew I could learn Spanish. The improvement in my ability was immediate and obvious. I purchased the full set via phone order within a few days and eventually went through all three sets.

While the Pimsleur courses only cover a verb few tenses and has a limited vocabulary compared to some other courses, what it does covers you do learn well. It gives you a fluid ability with the basics of the language and a lot of confidence. This got me over "the hump" in my learning curve.

Now I'm using other courses and tapes to expand my fluency. Some of them are the same materials I used with marginal results before the Pimsleur tapes. Now that I have a basic ability and more confidence, I'm finally getting something out of these other courses.


**
By Nodak on Thursday, July 06, 2000 - 11:55 pm:


Check your local public library for Pimsleur courses. Even if they don't have them on hand, they will likely be willing to get them for you (mine has the intermediate course on order for me). Of course, you can only keep them for a couple weeks if you check them out from the library. But if you are ambitious (or cheap) enough, you could make copies for your own use. I haven't gotten it yet, so I can't offer an opinion on how useful I found it.

I bought Pimsleur Span II & III and have greatly improved my Spanish where I can somewhat converse not knowing hardly any spanish previously. I'm not a real quick learner but i pop in the cd while driving and have picked up the lingo. Not bad for a japanese guy. I speak better Spanish than i do Japanese and i went to jap school for 7 years.

Pecs,
My Japanese is practically non-existant (although I did use every little bit I knew when I went to Japan a few years back). I grew up in S.D. and did not even have the benefit of Japanese school that my cousins in L.A. had. Anyway this thread is about learning Spanish, so here is my tip. For those of you who have the time (I know, I know, who has any of that) I refreshed my high school Spanish with classes at the local community college. Since I wasn't really in it for a grade, it was much more fun & relaxed. I also didn't really have to go, if I was too busy. Once you get a little bit of the language under your belt it really helps to listen to as much Spanish as possible either the radio or television (I was going to abreviate that as TV, but on this board that abreviation has other conotations). Aquiring an ear for Spanish will help with your pronunciation. Also use your Spanish as much as you can. I will speak Spanish to Spanish speakers whenever I have the chance, this has really increased my vocabulary as well.

Credit to Masomenos.

I've decided to learn the language myself. I have a long way to go but I am having a great time learning and I'm fortunate enough to have Spanish speaking friends at work that help. I bought the first set of Pimsleur CD's from Amazon.com. Thirty Spanish lessons on 16 CD's ( they have tapes as well). Each lesson is 30 minutes and it's just listen and repeat. I have them in my car and I do Spanish lessons as I drive around. I'm currently on lesson 20 and I think they are great. Pimsleur also has Conversation Series 2 and 3. Each series offers an additional 30 lessons. They are a little pricey at $270 per series.( I split them w/ a friend) They are normally $350 but Amazon discounts them 20%. They also occasionally have used sets available for less but I've missed out on them. Also I live in SD so there are many Spanish speaking radio and TV stations. I listen to Radio Latina FM 104.5 alot. It's a SD based all Spanish speaking station and I like the music they play. In addition, I am taking Spanish classes at a local university at night. The classes and the the CD's are a good combo.

I agree with most responses, go for it...yes it'll take some time but you'll have fun in the process. Good Luck.

Credit to DreamingEagle.

You will get a lot of advice about books and cassettes. I can certainly recommend the "Rapanese" series of tapes for starters which puts commonly needed phrases to music and encourages you to sing the words without worrying about the meaning, which is great for your accent. Then I can recommend "501 Spanish Verbs" which is a serious study. These materials you can order from amazon.com.

I can also suggest that you forget about speaking in any but the present tense in the beginning. There are 14 different *sets* of variations of every Spanish verb for all the different tenses "I am going...I went...I have been...I will have been...", etc. But there are only a few in the present tense. "Yo voy...tu vas...usted va...nosotros vamos...ellos van..." (I go...you go [informal]...you go [formal]...we go...they go..." You can still refer to past or future events by simply prefacing a sentence with the time. "Sabado pasado, voy a México..." Last Saturday, I go to Mexico. "Sabado próximo, voy a México." Next Saturday, I go to México.

You see foreigners do this all the time with English, because it can still be understood and avoids a lot of complications with the tenses of verbs.

But most important you cannot be afraid to try. Don't forget most of the Mexicans you meet speak poor English, or none at all, also. They are not going to laugh at you. They may laugh at something funny you say, but they will not laugh at you for trying. You will gain a lot of respect, actually, just for putting forth the effort.

On the monger forums, so much attention is devoted to the zona and avoiding the hustlers that it's easy to forget the 99% of the Mexican people have nothing to do with any of that and make great friends, if you will take some time to get to know them. You will never learn a foreign language without a few friends, and you will find that many people in Mexico are very eager to learn English. I have a friend named Carlos who studies English at the university in Juárez, and he has helped me a lot. He sends me e-mails in English, and I rewrite them in better English and send them back to him. I'm not even to the point I attempt to write in Spanish.

I have been living part-time in Juárez for a year now, and I can now buy things, ask for directions, introduce people, and have a nice little chat with strangers. It gets old after a while, though, because I cannot really communicate anyone in the way of a complex thought or observation. But I am understanding more and more.

You also have to encourage them to slow down. "Despacio, por favor," is a good thing to learn to say. "Slow, please." Most Spanish speakers will then give you the sentence one word at a time.

I will tell you this much. It is much better to be a gringo trying to learn Spanish in Mexico than it is to be a Mexican trying to learn English here. Here, so many people have the attitude that if you don't speak English, just get lost. But in Mexico, the common attitude is that if you don't speak Spanish, I will help you.

Remember, it takes even a little child about three years to learn to speak. So just enjoy the process...

And you are right. Mexico is a lot different place and not nearly so foreboding once you begin to understand what people are saying.

The local library is a good sourcxe for Pimsleur courses, but using Morpheus (a napster like thing) I found most of the Pimsleur Spanish available online.

No books, of course, but if you can burn CDs it's a nice way to make 'throwaway' copies for when you're traveling.

Hey Guys, here's an idea. Those of you who have a copy of Pimsleur, particularly the more pricey intermediate sets, why not rip a copy to mp3 format and offer it on this site? Or even post it? I have a copy of the starter set of 4 cd's, (I think it was about 20 bucks). If there's an interest in this, I'd be glad to supply that.

I would really be interested in the advanced/intermediate files.

Of course there are the copyright issues, but there is already music posted here.

BTW - I heartily recommend Pimsluer, I found these cd's to be far and away the best. Although some of the phrases/words are not used in Latin America/Mexico. As an example, Spanish is not normally refered to as Castillian, as taught in Pimsluer.

I have almost all 90 pimsleur lessons on mp3. Each lesson is about 20 mb so it probably is too big to post on this site. I could go on something like winmx or morpheus at a certain time or something, but if anyone has a better solution let me know.

I am sorry to say there are some copyright issues with posting copyrighted things. I have posted music here, but TJhombre informed me of the problem and he said the music files will be removed soon. I can understand that. We don't want this site to be taken down because of being in violation of the law.

I like Tornelo's idea of going a file sharing site to share the lessons. I would be interested in that.

Daytimer

I like the idea of a specific time on WinMX.

Let's see if anyone else has a preference.

Did you store them on a CD or are you wasting all that precious space on your machine?

I downloaded a lot of MP3 from Napster, but wasn't able to find the Spanish Pimsleur on Morpheus so far. I would greatly appriciate if someone could put it on Morpheus, has to be only a few days, just post it on CH and everybody who is interested can download it. The few I have you can find through morpheus (www.musiccity.com).

Alright, I'll have units 2 & 3 up on morpheus all day under user name raz888. If anyone needs unit 1 let me know and I'll rip that.

OK - I'm ignorant on this morpheus. I would like to download the spanish mp3, but won't be home until next week. Will the files be there next week?

Just found this link where you can sample the pimsleur tapes:

http://www.sybervision2000.com/freeaudio.htm

Whatīs the latest on getting Pimsleur (and other learning Spanish stuff) on MP3?

I donīt even have a player yet, but am planning on taking the plunge. Would also love to have the Pimsleur English for Spanish speakers.

Bookie...I have not been able to find Pimsleur ESL for Spanish speakers, but have Pimsleur Levels 1, 2, and 3 for Spanish on Mp3. I use WinMX. So you can find them there.

b

May I suggest that the gentlemen of Club Hombre be a little careful when applying those Pimsleur products? Unless they have corrected some things in recent years, there are some unusual and even problematic terms.

I remember a couple things that stood out. First off, the tapes taught the listener to refer to the Spanish language as "Castellano." Although many refer to the language that way in Spain and some parts of South America, this is rarely used in Mexico and other places. Just say "Espaņol."

A bigger issue is around the greeting, "nice to meet you." The Pimsleur product teaches you to say "Encantado." If you say that in Mexico, you will sound truly gay, and women may laugh at you or dismiss you altogether. Simply say, "Mucho gusto." A woman may respond with "Encantada," but that is different!

There do not seem to be any references here to the Platiquemos (Foreign Service Institute) Spanish program. Years ago, this used to be another reknowned audio program for learning Spanish. Perhaps the Platiquemos program is still available. If not, it is worth finding used. The emphasis was on Spanish as spoken in Latin America, and featured many Mexican-sounding speakers. These tapes also had the "Encantado" problem mentioned above, but perhaps there is a modernized version available...

I'm going to buy an MP3 player specifically for my Spanish learning quest. Anybody have any tips on a good model to buy, or special features that will be worth the cost?

Also, if anybody knows of any sites that might have the Pimsleur Ingles for speakers of Espanol would love to know about them.

Thanks to Babyjo for the WinMX tip.

Bookie, I gave up trying to download the Portuguese stuff on WinMx and just bought it from some guy who responded to an ad I placed on www.usedtapes.com . Give them a check as I noticed a number of people selling or trading Pimsleur Spanish also.

yeah, the Portuguese on WinMX is hit or miss. I have only gotten about the first 14 and then stopped trying. I'll just break down and buy it for the Brazil trip in the fall.

Bookie, about the Mp3 players, it depends on what you want it to do and want to you want to spend. I'll tell you what I have. I have the old 6 meg Creative Jukebox that I got for about $130 2 years ago. It holds just about all my Mp3. I can move them back and forth from a computer to the player. I've taken it to central Mexico and back and love it. Creative has a new 10 meg player with a longer battery life. That will be what I take to South America in October. hope it helps...b

Babyjo,

Went to a Microsoft party last week and they where giving out gift bags, and inside was a creative mp3 player with 128mb of memory. I am reading the box now and it seems it is a removable USB storage drive, mp3 player, 8hr voice recorder all in one.

I was going to give it to my nephew, but now I am going to turn my language CD’s into mp3's and use it when I am at the gym. It is the size of a half a pack of cigeretts.

The name of the player is NOMAD MuVo NX by creative.

Max

Try pimsleur first and then platiquemos. The platiquemos method is quite intense.