Learning Spanish - Dallas,TX

I did some research a while back and found that the Pimsleur method to be highly regarded. I found a set at Barnes & Noble, but it was expensive so I looked at Half Price Books. I didn't find the Spanish set (I think it's popular here so they sell out as soon as they come in) but I found a Japanese set of tapes and gave it a try. I've tried a couple of other "listen & learn" language tapes before and found myself getting lost pretty early with them. With the Pimsleur Japanese tapes, I was following along and able to pick up the language fairly easily. Since I'm no language whiz, I think this speaks volumes to the effectiveness of this method.

When I can afford it, I would like to try the Pimsleur tapes for Spanish.

Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Understand-Pimsleur-Languag...

I also see that they have smaller subsets of the entire course now available. This would make it more affordable. For example, this is the first 16 lessons: http://www.amazon.com/Conversational-Spanish-Understand-P...

Hope that helps.

P.

I agree that Pimsleur is great, and there is a good place in Richardson to get them--they will buy the stuff back from you once you are done so you can save some money. www.cheappimsleur.com

Personally I find it easier to learn from a person who is native to the language (first language). I tried to learn German from tapes/CDs, but wasn't very successful. It could be that I didn't have anyone there to actually guide me in the right direction (constructive criticism), I tend to ask a lot of questions.

I say this because that's how I learned English I refused to be placed in ESL classes when I first started school here and let me tell you it worked great within a year I could comfortably go talk to just about anyone and in about 2 years I was able to read, write, and translate both languages (Spanish and English)without hesitation.
You don't even have to spend money in a private tutor just find someone willing to teach you and maybe you can do something nice for them.

If you really need to learn in your car, Pimsleur is probably the best. However, I would recommend that you consider the Rosetta Stone program. These are CD-ROM's that use pictures, voice and writing to help you intuitively integrate language concepts. In other words, you learn the words the way you learned your first language.

I tried a variety of methods to learn Russian, including spending time among native speakers, listening to tapes in the car and hiring a tutor. However, the words and phrases I learned through Rosetta Stone are the ones I learned best.