LouisEST1988 Newbie United States Joined 4124 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 7 07 March 2013 at 1:31am | IP Logged |
I am getting ready to start learning Spanish and have the Assimil Course in European Spanish and Latin American
Pimsleur program ....I have two questions (1) what program should I start and finish first Pimsleur would take me
about 3 to 3 and a half months and Assimil around 6-7 months ....Any advice on what program to start with first?
(2) Should I buy the new version of European Spanish for Pimsleur or will the Latin American version be just fine
since I know that there are some differences in dialects...any help on this topic would be great thank you
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kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4649 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish
| Message 2 of 7 07 March 2013 at 2:40am | IP Logged |
How much time do you have per day? I would overlap them in the beginning if you can.
The lessons in Assimil go pretty quickly at first, and it would be easy to do a lesson
in both courses.
Assimil Spanish also has a hard part - roughly between lessons 60 to 80 - where it
takes up a lot of time.
I'm guessing you have all three Pimsleur levels (since you're saying it would take 3
months). I would aim for:
phase 1: Assimil passive phase in conjunction with Pimsleur 1 & 2
phase 2: Assimil passive + active phase
phase 3: Finish Assimil active phase in conjunction with Pimsleur 3
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5135 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 3 of 7 07 March 2013 at 3:28am | IP Logged |
I would do Pimsleur first. It is a good base. Pimsleur 3 is not really necessary, however. Assimil is a great course, but for an absolute beginner it couuld be a bit tough. Also consider doing Michel Thomas before Assimil. MT is a very quick eight hour audio course. Ideally, I think the best way to start Spanish is Pimsleur 1&2, then Michel Thomas, then Assimil, then FSI. Good luck, learning Spanish is a great journey.
Edit - K raised a good point to ask how much time per day you have. My advice would be based on 30-45 minutes a day.
Edited by James29 on 07 March 2013 at 3:29am
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LouisEST1988 Newbie United States Joined 4124 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Studies: Spanish
| Message 4 of 7 07 March 2013 at 4:48am | IP Logged |
Well I have about 3 hours a day during the week to study I however wasn't sure if that would be over doing it in the
start and on weekends I have about and hour in the morning and and hour in the evening each day due to work ....
Any thoughts on how I can implement a good study plan as well...thank you both for responses as well al this is
great info for idea's on how to study the language.
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iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5022 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 5 of 7 07 March 2013 at 1:21pm | IP Logged |
¡Bienvenido al foro, LouisEST1988! Welcome to the forum!I would use Pimsleur in "hidden moments" as Barry Farber calls them. "Hidden moments" is best described as time you don't realize that you have- driving, waiting, walking, doing routine chores, etc. You'd be surprised how much time you can free up in a day for language learning.
Pimsleur brings up a lot of reactions here on the forum. Many people here despise it. I believe it is helpful in a context of using multiple resources. Since it is audio based, it frees you from your computer and sitting.
I would either do Pimsleur in the morning and Assimil in the evening or vice-versa. If you choose to utilize your hidden moments, that will free up time to do something non-course related, like lyrics training, which is a fun website that helps you learn through music. You could also have a look at the Centro Virtual Cervantes Aveteca A1 exercises. These are free, multimedia exercises and the "A1" level is for beginners, by the way, there's no English to help you!
¡Buena suerte!
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RedBeard Senior Member United States atariage.com Joined 5862 days ago 126 posts - 182 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek* Studies: French, German
| Message 6 of 7 07 March 2013 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
I, too, urge that you combine Pimsleur and Assimil. In the early stages (about the first month or so) they are both fairly easy. One full lesson of each per day is reasonable I think - in the early stages. Be ready to make changes in your study schedule; it need not be written in stone.
Pimsleur's focus on pronunciation is wonderful and it teaches the "Hello, my name is..." kind of dialog that you'll need at some point.
Assimil's larger, more expansive overview of the language will move you toward other (non-conversational) knowledge of the TL, such as "The cat climbed the stairs."
:wq!
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Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4860 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German
| Message 7 of 7 08 March 2013 at 1:09pm | IP Logged |
I have to agree with what alot of people have already said: use both at the same time.
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