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Spanish II, 3rd Ed. (Compr.) [CD] | ![Spanish II, 3rd Ed. (Compr.) [CD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41poCHqevHL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Author: Pimsleur
Publisher: Pimsleur
Category: Book
List Price: $345.00
Buy New: $130.00
You Save: $215.00 (62%)
New (17) Used (9) from $130.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 48707
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 16
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 13.2 x 11.3 x 2
ISBN: 074352893X
Dewey Decimal Number: 468
EAN: 9780743528931
ASIN: 074352893X
Publication Date: May 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - FACTORY SEALED - SHIPS WITHIN 24 HOURS - EXPEDITED SHIPPING AVAILABLE!
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Product Description
Comprehensive Spanish (L.A.) II includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Level I. Increased spoken and reading language ability.Level II will double your vocabulary and grammatical structures while increasing your spoken proficiency exponentially. Upon completion of a Level II, you will be able to: * engage in fuller conversations involving yourself, your family, daily activities, interests and personal preferences, * combine known elements into increasingly longer sentences and strings of sentences, * create with language and function in informal situations, * deal with concrete topics in the past, present, and future, * meet social demands and limited job requirements, * begin reading for meaning. Note: In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I language program before proceeding to the Level II language program.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Very good, but not by itself March 7, 2008
Absent a Spanish speaking pal, Pimsleur is all I have to keep me speaking, and I have become very attached to the two "native" speakers, the man, the woman, who have remained on board thru I and II. Pimselur really works, IMO, because, for one, it uses bi-lingual teaching. My friend, who does not speak any Spanish, teaches ESL, and one of his students was not really learning much English until he had her use the Pimsleur basic ESL. The student jumped ahead of the other students in the class. "It was like magic!" said my friend.
But Pimsleur absolutely must be supplemented with written material so that literate adults can use their most powerful ally in education: literacy. Would you like to learn Spanish from those who merely speak it, or from those who both write/read and speak it? Pimsleur's scripts had long since introduced the "have/had-'past'" forms of hacer--ha hablado-- before I realized these were two words, the first beginning with an "h". And I realized this only after using another course that uses both written and spoken material, so I SAW the words in print, and this provided powerful reinforcement to the Pimsleur audio drills. The audio method is great, friendly,organic, but not enuf by itself. I don't see that a serious learner should set up a contest between Pimsleur and other methods; use any and everything thing you can get.
 Wonderful Introduction to Spanish but doesn't work too well against the Merciless May 27, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I agree with the reviewer that said that this course is good for beginners. I would not recommend it for anyone other than a beginner. Pimsluer is a wonderful introduction to Spanish but not much more than that. If you really want to take your Spanish beyond the beginner level you are going to need a lot more than Pimsleur. I am probably better off than most Pimsleur "students" because I have done a number of Spanish courses (besides Pimsleur) and read many Spanish books, including grammar books, vocabulary/phrase books, and even short story books. I know at least one person that has limited her learning to Pimsleur. To cut down on costs we decided to take private classes together. Just the two of us and a private instructor. Previously, my friend had only done the Pimsluer course. Using Pimsleur as her sole resource for learning Spanish only prepared her to speak to the COMPASSIONATE and MERCIFULL Spanish speakers -- like our instructor -- I am referring to the Spanish speakers that realize my friend has only learned the fundamentals of Spanish. My friend does fine when speaking to our instructor and other compassionate and merciful Spanish speakers because they understand that my friend's Spanish is limited and therefore they speak to her slowly and clearly. But when it comes time to speak to a Spanish speaker who is merciless and refuses to slow down his or her speech and is chopping up syllables like a chef in a Japanese restaurant, my friend doesn't have a clue what is being said. To give you an idea of what I mean a young man from the Dominican Republic was invited to one of our classes as a guest native Spanish speaker. His first question to her in Spanish was "do you speak Spanish?" and she did not understand the question. I admit that he said the question with a heavy Dominican accent that cuts off the "s" sound and his question sounded more like a rapidly garbled "abla 'panol?" as opposed to the clearly spoken "habla usted espanol?" that she probably was expecting to hear as in the Pimsleur courses. However, his question didn't confuse me for even a second because I have not limited myself to Pimsleur. So what does this all mean? Pimsluer is a wonderful introduction to Spanish but not more than an introduction. If you really want to reach a conversational level and understand the Spanish of native speakers you will have to use a lot more than Pimsleur.
Pimsleur is an all audio Spanish course. I have listed some of the other audio or primarily audio courses that I have used and how I rate them. Among the economically priced courses:
1. Behind the Wheel Spanish/Complete Illustrated Text/Answer Keys/8 One Hour 5 Stars
2. Michel Thomas Speak Spanish For Beginners: 10-CD Beginner's Program (Michel Thomas Speak...) 4 Stars
3. Learn in Your Car Spanish Complete Language Course (Learn in Your Car) 3 Stars
Among the big-ticket priced courses:
1 Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 5 Stars
2. Learning Like Crazy Spoken Spanish Vol. 2 5 Stars
3. Spanish I - 2nd Rev. Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive) 4 Stars
4. Pimsleur Spanish II 3 Stars
no regrets, but far from completely satisfied July 3, 2006
32 out of 37 found this review helpful
Although I have no regrets about using Pimsleur Spanish II, I am not 100% satisfied. After finishing the Pimsleur series I have learned some Spanish but I don't think that I have learned as much Spanish as I thought that I would have learned. As a couple of reviewers already pointed out, Pimsleur does not cover as much Spanish as the FSI Spanish method (but I paid several times more).
There are a bunch of reasons why I feel this way. But as a couple of reviewers have already mentioned, Pimsleur does not do a good job teaching the subjunctive mood. Pimsleur does a terrific job teaching basic topics such as asking about the weather, greetings, inquiring about the price of things. But it doesn't do so well teaching more complex topics like the subjuncitve mood and other more advanced topics. And when Pimsleur does cover the subjunctive mood its coverage is limited to the subjunctive mood in the present tense. FSI Programmtic Spanish Two covers the subjunctive in the past and present. It is almost impossible to be fluent in Spanish without having a solid grasp of the subjunctive mood in the past as well as the present tense.
The subjunctive mood isn't the only area of Spanish that Pimsluer either failed to cover or did not thoroughly cover. I have compiled a list with some but not all of the areas that I found thoroughly covered in FSI Programmatic Spanish Two but not in Pimsleur Spanish.
1. use of "mas de" instead of "mas de lo que" or "mas que"
2. use of "por" vs. "para"
3. use of both the "habia . . . . do" as well as "he, ha,hemos, han . . . . do" structure
4. aca/alla vs. aqui/alli (aha)
5. I should/ought structure vs. I'd like to (i.e. debiera vs. quisiera)
6. ir vs. irse
7. "Shall we" in Spanish
8. Cognates - English ending "-ty" is Spanish ending "-dad" and English ending
"-ry" becomes Spanish ending "rio/a"; and English ending "-ly" is Spanish ending "-mente"
9. Vamos a pedirle and Pidamosle
10. Indirect commands (digale/pidale a "X" que . . .)
11. preguntar vs. pedir (i.e. when to use the Spanish verb for "to ask" as into ask a question
instead of the verb for "to ask for" as in to ask someone to do something)
12. should've/could've/would've structure (habria . . . do)
13. use of "haya . . . do" structure
14. se puede decir ("it can be said" or "one says")
15. me gusteria and quisiera
16. Expressions: Ojala que; Que hambre!
17. saber vs. conocer
18. Preterito vs. descriptivo (e.g. no sabia que hablaba/hablo)
19. si tuviera, si hubiera tenido, etc.
20. La voz pasiva (passive voice)
21. when to use "aun" vs "todavia" and "ya"
Pimsleur is good for learning basic phrases suchs as "I eat," "I ate," "I have eaten" and "I am going to eat." Unlike FSI Programmatic Spanish Two, Pimsleur does not do a good job with more advanced sentence structure like "I would eat," "I hadn't eaten until now," "I would've/shoud've/could've eaten," "I may have eaten" "I would like to eat", "I am glad that you are eating," "I am glad that you ate already,"
"I am glad that you've eaten already," "I am glad that you had eaten before" "I would be glad if you had eaten already," etc.
Depending on whether you wish to speak Spanish fluently the above topics and the ability to form more complex sentences may or may not be important to you. You can still buy Pimsleur II. I have no regrets about buying it. But if you want to take your Spanish to the next level of conversation, you should seriously consider FSI Programmatic Spanish Level Two.
Bookchip version is better and easier to use, May 9, 2006
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
Bookchip version is better and easier to use, ( 3 bookchips compared to 52 cds) I bought bookchips and cds, send cds back. Buy Bookchip (Audiofy Bookchip) instead.
 a bit pricey you say? February 1, 2006
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
Other reviewers have already adequately listed the reasons for using the Pimsleur method. I did all three levels of Italian and have a excellent proficiency in the language (especially pronunciation).
However, the price for these CDs is a bit high in my opinion. Pimsleur could actually make more $ by lowering the price because many more people would then buy it. I think it's an exorbitant price and a ridiculous burden on a poor little consumer who's trying to become bilingual. Anyway.
Definitely use Pimsleur, it is great! -- my only suggestion is that you check your local library before forking out the cash. I live in a pretty big city and was able through circulation request to obtain all 3 levels on CD. I then burned all 27 or so discs onto my computer into mp3s and listened to them on a portable device. Thus learning Italiano for free ;)
If you're computer proficient and really cheap like me also try a file-sharing network like Limewire - many people share Pimsleur language audio tracks (or the whole program as one file) just like music. Just a suggestion...
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