I first learned of Learning Spanish Like Crazy when I was about 3 months along in my learning Spanish journey; I had started the Pimsleur Spanish series and was in the middle of Level 2 at that point.
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The three things that were very important to me as a self-teaching student of Spanish and that really stuck out in my mind when I read the Amazon.com reviews of it were the following: |
- The speakers used are native speakers from Latin America (I am planning to live in Colombia and Argentina for a few years in the near future) and they are using normal, everyday (colloquial) language, whereas the speakers in Pimsleur are from Spain and use a very stiff, formal version of Spanish;
- Learning Spanish Like Crazy actually uses the Pimsleur method of teaching (which, I will gladly admit, is excellent) HOWEVER they’ve supposedly improved on it by including a LOT more general material and especially vocabulary;
- They actually give basic lessons in grammar (you will be told what exactly the subjunctive is, for example, why it’s used and when) as you go through the lesson–they don’t spend much time on it, maybe 2 or 3 minutes per 30 minute lesson explaining any necessary grammar for just that lesson, but they DO do it, and that makes a world of difference to me if I can understand the basic structure of the language and understand WHY something is done a certain way, it really helps me to learn and remember the material. Also, a nice little bonus is that they do include a written transcript (PDF format in the downloadable version) of ALL spoken dialogue, which Pimsleur does not do.
A really great quote from the top rated (rated ‘Most Helpful’ by other Amazon customers) review on Amazon.com of Learning Spanish Like Crazy:
As a Pimsleur Spanish fan, I immediately recognized that this company copied the Pimsleur method. I have to say that in doing so they actually made an improvement over the Pimsleur method. LSLC leaves out the antiquated vocabulary found in Pimsleur Spanish. The vocabulary in LSLC is also more conversational or more suitable for everyday conversation than Pimsleur.
One major distinction that I noticed is that LSLC uses a native Spanish speaker as the narrator. I think that was a great idea because he speaks to the student mainly in Spanish. Except in the very early lessons. In my opinion, his constant instructions said in Spanish, accelerated my listening comprehension. There are certain commands that become second nature after listening to the narrator say the commands over and over in each lesson.
Very recently I was having lunch with a native Spanish speaker, a friend from Honduras. He wanted to order something else in the restaurant. And when the waiter was standing near our table without even giving it any thought. I told my friend “dile” which means “tell him.” My Spanish speaking friend was impressed with my pronunciation. But most important, I was impressed with the way that I was able to give the command “tell him” without even giving it a moment’s thought. That was important to me because although I felt that Pimsleur Spanish was a very thorough course, I felt that Pimsleur Spanish did not do a good job covering commands in Spanish. It is kind of difficult to communicate in a foreign language if you do not know how to give commands.
I do have a couple of complaints about LSLC. My biggest complaint is that the company has been very slow putting out level 2 of LSLC. I have completed Level One and now I am ready for level 2 but at the time of this review the company has not finished level 2 or has not released it. I am a little annoyed that after finishing level 1 of LSLC, level 2 is not ready for me to take my Spanish to the next level…
Click here to see their website, see and hear videos of their students speaking Spanish, and download over 1 hour of free lessons from the actual course!
Just an FYI: they HAVE now released level 2 of LSLC, it is known as Learning Spanish Like Crazy Nivel Dos (click here to see their website)
I downloaded Learning Spanish Like Crazy while I was still doing Pimsleur, but did not actually start it until I had finished the last level of Pimsleur Spanish (level 4). I was very pleased with the sound quality, also the native speakers do speak faster than the Pimsleur speakers but this is a GOOD thing because it gets you used to hearing native speakers talk at a normal rate of speed (you get used to it very quickly). I swear, I love Pimsleur (well, at least the Pimsleur teaching method) but I learned more Spanish in a month with LSLC than I did in 4 months with Pimsleur! The only thing I could possibly complain about is that LSLC doesn’t have enough reading/writing exercises to really learn much as far as reading/writing Spanish goes (although they do include a transcript of all the dialogue, which you could use for this if you wanted), but LSLC specifically bills themselves out as an audio course that teaches you how to SPEAK Spanish, so I don’t really have a problem with that. Overall, it’s the best Spanish course I’ve tried so far (I’ve used both Pimsleur and Rocket Spanish, and I’ve borrowed FSI Spanish from a friend), it’s available on both CDs and in an entirely digital MP3 format that can be downloaded immediately, and I highly recommend it for any and all beginner to intermediate level individuals who are really serious about getting fluent:
Click here to visit their site and see what they’re all about.
10 responses so far ↓
1 How To Learn Spanish Online // Apr 8, 2008 at 3:52 pm
[...] highly encourage you to check out LSLC ( click here to see my full length review of Learning Spanish Like Crazy ), go to their website and see the videos by former LSLC students (native English speakers, gringos [...]
2 Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: My Learning Spanish Story : articles-hub.info // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:22 am
[...] About the author:Andrew Kawaski has been teaching himself Spanish in preparation for moving to and living in Latin America (Colombia and Argentina, specifically), and recommends reading his friend’s review of Learning Spanish Like Crazy BEFORE you buy ANYTHING at: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: An Honest Opinion [...]
3 AutoBlogging » Blog Archive » Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: My Learning Spanish Story // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:32 am
[...] About the author:Andrew Kawaski has been teaching himself Spanish in preparation for moving to and living in Latin America (Colombia and Argentina, specifically), and recommends reading his friend’s review of Learning Spanish Like Crazy BEFORE you buy ANYTHING at: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: An Honest Opinion [...]
4 www.dual3.co.uk » Blog Archive » Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: My Learning Spanish Story // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:38 am
[...] Andrew Kawaski has been teaching himself Spanish in preparation for moving to and living in Latin America (Colombia and Argentina, specifically), and recommends reading his friend’s review of Learning Spanish Like Crazy BEFORE you buy ANYTHING at: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: An Honest Opinion [...]
5 wwarburton // Oct 15, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Maybe I’ve got an older version or something because these comments sound nothing like what I’ve been struggling with (currently lesson 24). On mine the sound quality is poor (echo-y room) and the female speaker mumbles. I’m trying to use it while commuting and 3 out of 4 times I can’t tell for sure what new word is being introduced since I can’t read the transcript. I dislike the fact that the accents are different because I don’t know which to imitate. I often have to turn it off in frustration until I can get to a dictionary to discover what they’re trying to teach me! For me, their speaking at speed is just another barrier to learning. I want to start slowly with speakers with good clear diction and work my way up to the fast and sloppy of daily life.
And it’s certainly not Pimsleur method (which I admit is slow, but captures the give and take of real business conversation). It’s just a lot of sentence drill (repeat the sentence 3 times and then in the negative) and the rate of new material introduction is too high for me. I find it nearly impossible to get the verb structure correct when I’m also trying to remember and insert two new nouns. One of the reasons Pimsleur is slow is that they repeat vocabulary at carefully spaced (longer) intervals. Except for the words I already knew from my Pimsleur work, I’ve now forgotten most of the vocabulary from lessons before about 12 because I’ve never used them again.
6 Walt // Oct 30, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Forgive me, but it sounds liw wwarburton’s main problem is that he/she possibly has learning disabilities, as well as a hearing deficit, because I did not experience ANY of the problems mentioned.
7 Nyc_T_S // Nov 3, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Wwarburton it sounds like you need to begin writing the words down when you get to your destination and reviewing them DAILY. You should also at this point, begin seeking out conversation, as “live” usage tends to help solidify words and helps you to pinpoint weakness that you can work on the next time.
I myslef left the USA to live in the Dominican Republic and without this course by my side (I learned up to 20+ before i left) and some grammar books (Practice makes Perfct series) i would not be speaking as well as i do now, 2.5 years later
8 Me // Mar 28, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Walt, i hope your joking. you say someone has a hearing deficit/learning disabitly because they didnt experience what you did from the program… whatever, thats a really lame observation.
Anyways, I do agree with WWarburton on 1 thing… I wish they would have reviewed material covered in previous lessons more often. After learning reflexive verbs, it took about 10 lessons for them to mention them again, and by then, I forgot. Thats my only dislike.
9 Tom // Apr 19, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I finished both nivels of LSLC and they have helped me become much more fluent. I found that I could not go on and learn much from Nivel 1 past the preterito (maybe lesson 15) until I learned it in school, however. But once I learned all the tenses formally in school (in a 5-week immersion program in mexico), I was able to go through more or less all 68 lessons or so (from lesson 15 or 20 all the way to 68) in the following 9 months. My spanish is much better than before and I highly recommend LSLC. I wish they would put out a LSLC nivel 3 with more practice with new verbs, phrases, and situations (with the same tenses since they were already all covered).
10 Learning Spanish Like Crazy: A Craving for Spanish // Jun 14, 2009 at 5:15 pm
[...] Read more customer reviews on Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Share and Enjoy: [...]
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