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Latin vs. Castilian Spanish programs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
 Betablinx Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 3241 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 28 22 June 2015 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
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I have a question about the Spanish course Platiquemos FSI. Is this course for Latin
American Spanish or European Spanish? Or both? On this FSI website: http://fsi- languages.yojik.eu/languages/spanish-index.html I assume Headstart Spanish is the only course they have for European Spanish? I am most interested in the European Spanish as I live in Europe, however, there seems to be more courses on offer for Latin American Spanish. For example Pimsleur only offer phase I for Castilian Spanish whereas they offer phases I-V for the Americas version. Therefore would it make sense to learn Latin American Spanish first and then transition to European Spanish later? Thanks if you can help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 28 22 June 2015 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
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FSI (and I assume Platiquemos also) uses mostly Latin American voices, but they teach the additional verb tenses used in Spain too. I would not make a decision based on this factor... it is not a big deal in the big picture of things. Pick the best course/resource. FSI is a great course and you will learn the language if you do it... and the accent will not interfere with understanding/communicating at all. Assimil is a great resource too (and they use speakers from Spain).
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| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3846 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 28 22 June 2015 at 7:25pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish Courses
As a general rule, and there are expections, Spanish courses developed for an American audience tend to emphasize the pronunciation and common usage of native speakers throughout the Americas, often with a slight bias towards Mexican pronunciation. The leaders in the field would be FSI Basic Spanish or Platiquemos, Assimil Latin American Spanish, Pimsleur Latin American Spanish, Living Language Spanish Ultimate and, apparently, Learning Spanish Like Crazy. In contrast, Spanish courses developed for a European audience tend to emphasize the pronunciation and usage of native speakers of Spain. The leaders in the field would include Assimil Spanish (note, this is Castillian), Pimsleur Spanish Castillian (there is only one Phase and it is remarkably similar to their Latin American Spanish course; so, I cannot really recommend it), Linguaphone Complete & Advanced Spanish, Routledge Spanish, Teach Yourself Spanish. One should not place a greal deal of emphasis on the differences between the two "versions" of Spanish. Generally speaking, they are no more significant than those between British English and American English. So, in response to your question "does it make sense to learn one and transition to the other?", in my opinion, learning either variant of English to the B1-B2 level will provide you will sufficient linguistic skills to navigate "the other" variant quite handly and the same holds for learning Spanish. What counts the most in the long-run is the student’s acquistion of the basics of the language. In any case, differences of pronunciation and common usage abound in virtually all languages and no commercial programme can account for them all. FSI Basic Spanish and Platiquemos In the introduction to the FSI Basic Spanish course, the authors point out: "While it is broadly representative of general Latin-American Spanish, it is adaptable to any particular area." Platequemos is a "derivative" of the FSI Basic Spanish course that represents a very minor, stylistic, update to the orginal. It was developed as a private initiative by a former student of the FSI Basic Spanish course who was enamoured by the language, the culture, and the people, and who wanted to share his passion by creating an updated version of a course that he greatly appreciated. While there have been slight changes to the dialogues, the two courses are essentially the same. Unfortunately, when the original FSI text was manually transcribed to produce the Platiquemos text, numerous typographical errors were inserted. The Best Materials for Self-Study Generally speaking, you can take the list of publishers' materials that you drew up for studying German and apply it to the study of Spanish or to just about any other language, for that matter. Yes, of course, there are exceptions, but you cannot go wrong with the FSI Basic, Assimil, Linguaphone, Living Language Ultimate, Pimsleur, and for some, the Michel Thomas, courses. Some users are also quite fond of Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Fluenz is the highest-rated software package for the self-study of languages, but you really have to like working at your computer to use it. Edited by Speakeasy on 22 June 2015 at 9:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Betablinx Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 3241 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 28 23 June 2015 at 11:00pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks James29 and Speakeasy for the replies. I think I'll go down the Latin-American
Spanish route in that case because there's far more materials available for it. I think Assimil Spanish is for the European version so hopefully that will help point out some of the important differences as well. Speakeasy, I have some questions regarding old Linguaphone courses and sent you an email via this site I hope you might read. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3846 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 28 24 June 2015 at 12:20am | IP Logged |
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Hi Betablinx,
Hmm, that's curious, I just checked my INBOX and there were no new messages. To ensure that I receive your PRIVATE MESSAGE,... 1. First LOGIN, 2. Then go to the MAIL function at the top of the webpage and click on NEW MSG. 3. For the field TO USERNAME, click on the small image to right of the field; this will open a SEARCH window. 4. Enter my username, "Speakeasy" in the space provided and, assuming that the system locates it, select it. 5. Then enter your text message in the space provided and 6. Click on the POST MESSAGE button just beneath the message section. 7. Go to your OUTBOX to ensure that the message was SENT. There message will be flagged by a YELLOW STAR indicating that the addressee has not yet opened the message. Assuming that all goes according to plan, when I next LOGGIN, I will receive an ONSCREEN ADVICE that I have received a Private Message. Talk t'ya'll later! Edited by Speakeasy on 24 June 2015 at 1:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Betablinx Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 3241 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 28 24 June 2015 at 1:26am | IP Logged |
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That's annoying. Hopefully it's a technical glitch and will be sent later, according to
my outbox it was sent, as can be seen from the print screen below: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=lzgg0&s=8 Edited by Betablinx on 24 June 2015 at 1:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5577 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 7 of 28 24 June 2015 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
A technical glitch on this site? 
Never! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4803 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 28 24 June 2015 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
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That's not true there are many more resources for Latin American Spanish in my opinion. You are comparing the amount and quality of sources in a very narrow preselected area of the big brands. It is one of the common bugs we keep feeding here on the forum. We keep recommending each other the same things (Pimsleur, MT, Assimil, FSI, TY and Colloquial) all over again, discussing differences between these and sometimes forgetting these are just a small part of the market when it comes to large languages.
There is a ton of high quality resurces for european Spanish. And, as was said, whichever you choose to start with, getting at least passive knowledge of the other one later is not a big deal . And I think any european is more likely to travel to Spain than LA, but that is just my experience. Basically everything published in Europe is likely to be about the european variant. Assimil is just on of the options but there are as well high quality monolingual courses you can continue with, there are grammars with exercises, there is a lot of content in european Spanish (tv series, movies, radio, even hispanophone music is by far not all from the Latin America). Some good quality european ressources: -Assimil -Gramatica de Uso del Espanol (and a lot of similar ones, even though this one is the best in my opinion) -class aimed courses, but those are still useful if you buy the key to exercises and supplement them with a grammar and so on. A popular choice is Nuevo Ven or Aula but there are many more. ELE Actual looked good when I leafed through it some time ago. -Spanishpod101 appears quite european to me, even though I haven't listened to that much of it. -anything anyhow related to Instituto Cervantes is gonna be european Spanish. Such as http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/actividades_ave/aveteca.ht m -when you are more advanced, you are likely to love rtve.es, a totally european treasure chest. If I may recommend a European Spanish "Starter Pack": 1.Assimil 2.Gramatica de Uso del Espanol, The lowest level-A 3.a second course/vocabulary resource. Anything like TY/Colloquial, a good quality class aimed course or a vocabulary book should serve + tools like memrise/anki, lyricstraining.com etc. and that should keep you occupied while you ponder your next steps. I recommend visitng logs of Spanish learners to see what has been working for us, there are many success stories and recommendations there. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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