Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
In high school I took 3 years of French. Why? I thought the language was beautiful, I figured if I ever went out of the country it would most likely be to Canada first, and of course… most of my friends were taking French. It also didn’t hurt that the French Club field trip was more fun than the Spanish Club field trip. So I didn’t take French for all the right reasons. I do still remember some of it but I’ve rarely had to use it. There have been plenty of times when I wish I new Spanish. I work as an Occupational Therapy Assistant. I did a brief period of travel therapy. I went to Southern Texas for one placement and Northeast Philly for the other. Both places I had patients where Spanish was their primary language. In Texas, some of my coworkers spoke Spanish and I sometimes felt left out of the conversations.
Then there is my husband who works in a prison. He told me he wanted to learn Spanish because a number of the inmates speak Spanish so it would help him with his job too. We looked at one language learning system but the price was not within our budget.
Pimsleur Spanish I is a more affordable language learning program. But would it actually help me learn Spanish? Me who only know how to count to 10, say hello and goodbye, say up and down, and thank you and you’re welcome. I might know a few other words thanks to watching Dora the explorer with my son.
Pimsleur Approach is an audio language learning program. Put the disc into your cd player or cd rom and start learning. You can also download it to an mp3 player for learning on a plane or your kids soccer practice. This program is based on Dr. Pimsleur’s research. He is a world famous linguist at universities around the world and this approach has been scientifically proven. There’s no reading, writing, memorization, or textbooks. This is a great way to learn Spanish at home.
I was doubtful before starting that I would actually “learn” Spanish. I can’t remember where I put my keys down sometimes can I really learn and retain a new language at 30 something? So I tried it. I put on a set a headphones and listened to it while I was online. They strongly recommend you repeat things out loud. For me, I really think this did help. I felt kinda silly repeating some things but my family got used to it. My oldest son would say “Mom’s speaking Spanish again” when he’d hear me. I even pasted on some of the stuff to them. They started picking some f it up. After just the first lesson I was excited to have picked up some new every day conversational speaking. When I started lesson 2 I thought for sure I would not remember the stuff I learned from lesson 1. Which brings me to another point, just when you think you might forget, they bring back into the conversation some of the things from other lessons. By the time I finished lesson 2, I realized I WAS actually retaining this stuff. I might get tripped up with a word ending (feminine or masculine) but it’s all part of the learning process.
Then I stepped back for a minute and thought to myself, “That’s all well and good if I can speak it and understand it but what about reading it?” I mean, If I find myself in Mexico and I need a road sign to help me get where I’m going or I’m at an authentic Spanish restaurant and have no idea what I’m ordering because I can’t read the menu, that might not be good”. BUT the Pimsleur Approach Gold Edition (which I have) does have a downloadable course booklet if you so choose. I liked this because I could go to the booklet and actually see the words I was saying. To be quite honest if you read the idea of how the program works I really shouldn’t do that. It works with the language section of your brain and helps you learn. Writing down a word as you go or looking it up in a dictionary they say makes you read it in an american accent rather than Spanish. Everyone learns a little differently though and it helped me to visualize the words I was actually saying.
I’m still working on the course but I can tell you I’m making a lot more progress then I ever thought I could with any language program. One thing on my bucket list was to become fluent in another language. Maybe this will help me check it off. This would make a great gift for the dad that has always wanted to learn Spanish or the dad who loves to travel.
You can find the Pimsleur Approach Spanish I on Amazon:
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I know a few of the grandchildren are learning another language so why not the dad , I know when we had mentioned it before he thinks he is just too old, nonsense LOL good idea though and thanks