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Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set)

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Author: Inc. Learning Like Crazy
Publisher: Learning Like Crazy
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$197.00~~
Buy New: $124.11
You Save: $72.89 (37%)

New (12) Used (3) from $123.99

Media: Audio CD
Pages: 15
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.8

ISBN: 0976666103
Dewey Decimal Number: 468
EAN: 9780976666103
ASIN: 0976666103

Publication Date: June 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Learning Spanish Like Crazy was developed to teach conversational Latin American Spanish. The course was developed after the Founder of the course realized that the Spanish that Latin American actually speak was different from the Spanish that he had learned from other self-study Spanish courses. Unlike many other Spanish courses, Learning Spanish Like Crazy teaches you how to speak spoken Latin American Spanish as opposed to textbook or formal Spanish. The course is all audio. This is the first in the series of two levels of Spanish. The first level will take the student from beginner to lower intermediate level. As a special bonus gift for Amazon customers, the customers are given access to re-mastered downloadable copies of the complete FSI Spanish Level III and FSI Spanish Level IV. As an additional bonus gift, with your order you will receive a link to download bonus video Spanish lessons.

Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Pimsleur It Ain't December 3, 2008
If you are serious about learning Spanish, and don't want to sign up for a live course, then probably you are trying to choose between Learning Spanish like Crazy and Pimsleur. Or possibly Rosetta Stone, which I don't have experience with. Shorter courses, such as Living Language or Penton Overseas Learn in Your Car are useful to an extent, but you won't really learn the language from them. br /br /On the surface, Learning like Crazy follows the Pimsleur method. Namely, you are given a sentence in English, with a pause so that you can repeat it in Spanish, then you are given the correct version in Spanish with another pause to repeat the corrected version. And then maybe another repetition. br /This is a slow process, but nothing else works to really master the language. (To repeat, I don't really have experience with Rosetta Stone.) br /br /Beyond the surface level, though, Learning Like Crazy is structured differently from Pimsleur. It is more like a combination of Pimsleur and the traditional academic course, or the Living Language courses. (The best of these, in my opinion, is the Living Language All Audio course). If you watch a student of the traditional approach speaking, you can observe his mental process. First, he needs to find the right words. Then find the right grammatical structure. Then put it all together like doing an algebra problem. Doing this, you can often learn to speak correctly most of the time, but you will not sound natural. When one really knows a language, sentences do not come into the mind one word at a time. In my opinion, the basic unit of language is not the word but the sentence. Or at least the short phrase. br /br /Grammar should not like a set of traffic rules which one carefully observes in order to avoid getting a ticket. Grammar needs to be understood at an instinctive level (which native speakers often can't even explain), so that a grammatical sentence simply sounds natural and an ungrammatical one sounds wrong. (Which is not to say that one needs to have perfect grammar all the time. But one needs to know the way people actually speak.) br /br /Pimsleur and Learning Like Crazy teach not by presenting words and rules, but by having the students learn model sentences. And it's important to learn these model sentences really well. One needs to not just repeat the sounds, but to make the sentence one's own, so that one says it and really means it. This is why I disagree with the idea of going on to the next lesson as soon as one has mastered about 80% of the current one. In fact, I think it's important to use the pause button on one's CD player and repeat some particular sentences five or six times, until one has really got them down and they come out smoothly. (Because some of the patterns in Spanish are so different from English, some Spanish sentences are real brain twisters if not tongue twisters.) br /br /In going through Pimsleur, one has a very natural feeling, as though the sentences one is learning were part of a conversation one might actually have when visiting a Spanish speaking country as a tourist or on business. This in my opinion makes it much easier to really make these sentences one's own. Doing so is also helped by the fact that the intonation and rhythm are very much that or natural Spanish. (Notice how almost metronomic the rhythm of Spanish sentences often is, as you can verify by tapping your finger along with the words.) If you are making the right sounds, but what you are saying doesn't really sound like a Spanish speaker talking, then it will be harder to really learn the sentence. br /br /In Learning Like Crazy, on the other hand, I am very aware that I am going through a set of grammar exercises. And many of the sentences are things that I would never have any occasion to say to anyone. Things like, "After I wake up, I wash my face." Or, "Every week, I go in the bank." Or "Where did I work five years ago?" Of course the point is not that I expect the course to give me actual sentences that I will use in real life. The sentences are only a means for learning vocabulary and grammar. But nonetheless, in my opinion, it's important to thoroughly learn the model sentences. Because that's the way the mind learns the essential patterns. And it's much easier for me to learn a sentence when I can imagine myself saying it to someone. br /br /In the first ten lessons or so Pimsleur teaches only the "I" and "You" forms of verbs. Plus the present tense of "to be" (is/am/are, which in Spanish is five verb forms rather than three). These are the verb forms which one would most often use at first when visiting a foreign country, or in a business environment. ("Do you understand English? I don't speak Spanish. I am an American, are you Bolivean?") Then later on, it's only one more step to learn the other present tense forms. On the other hand, when Learning Like Crazy introduces a new verb, right away they throw all five verb forms at your (and in later lessons, some past tense forms as well). It's a bit much to absorb right away. br /br /The advantages of Pimsleur are that it's really slow and really thorough. The main disadvantage is also that it's really slow, and when one finishes all 90 lessons, one still has a somewhat small (although very useful) vocabulary. Learning Like Crazy moves at a much faster pace. At the end of the first thirty lessons of Pimsleur, one is just getting an introduction to certain past tense forms. But by about lesson fifteen, Learning Like Crazy has already taught all three of the common forms of the past tense. br /br /But as some people have commented here, for some students Learning Like Crazy may be a bit too fast. br /br /Another disadvantage of Pimsleur, as several reviewers have mentioned, is that the vocabulary and sentence patterns are somewhat formal, even when using the informal form ("tu" form) of the verb. Formal language like this would be appropriate in business or when visiting a Spanish-speaking country as a tourist. It is a little less appropriate if one is learning Spanish because one is living in a place where Spanish is spoken a whole lot (such as California). But in any case, any CD course is only a brief introduction to the language. br /

5 out of 5 stars

Wow! October 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a fantastic course. I have been using it for about 2 months along with Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish book. I go to a Spanish discussion group with 2 English speaking friends and 2 native Spanish speakers from Guatemala. I finally was brave enough to read a couple of paragraphs from a book we were discussing (hadn't said more than "mucho gusto" before that). Everyone was amazed with my accent and pronunciation. (the Guatemalans were wanting a good laugh is why they asked me to read! Ha!) It made me feel great. I am still not able to understand a great deal of what is being said (have to get used to the way people slur their words in real life), but I am getting better all the time. I don't think you will be disappointed if you purchase this course if you are really serious about learning to speak Spanish. Also the company has sent me so much extra information by email, I can barely keep up with it all. Really a great deal.

5 out of 5 stars

It's crazy! September 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is Ellen's husband.br / I'm on lesson 6. This is one very amazing way to learn. I can't say enough about Patrick. Very well put together. Well thought out. And he visits different areas in his travels and sends back info on the regional dilect.br / I don't know him but in a way I do. If you pay attention there is also a bit of humor. I actually laugh sometimes. br /I listen to the lesson, then go through it again using the pause button so I have more time to answer and I'm getting faster with each lesson.br /Oh, and I also have Rosetta stone, more of a flash card learning system which is good for many people but not me. br /It's spoken Spanish. Not written but I'll give a try.br /El perro babe en el banyo todo al tempo. Avaces babo in el banyo! That's how it sounds to me so excuse my Spanish. Ha!br /br /br / br /

4 out of 5 stars

Well, Yes it is all its hyped up to be... depending on.... September 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Yes, this is a Pimsleur rip off. I own this (Volume 1 and 2), Pimsleur 1-3, and rosetta stone 1-2. Even the first track sounds like they were listening to the Pimsleur lessons while they were making the CDs :)br /br /Pimisleur is good IF.... Pimsleur teaches a more formal spanish. The Spanish that tends to be spoken in Spain. Hence the references to Casteyano as the 'dialect' in the Pimsleur series. It is still a great series, and will teach the subject well, and you will get the formality needed if you want to sound 1/2 educated.br /br /LSLC teaches you "street" spanish. In my point of view, I want to use Spanish as a healthcare provider. Therefore, I find Pimsleur and LSLC equally beneficial. Pimsleur provides an educated base so you can talk with other academics if need be, and LSLC provides a good base for communicating effectively with the patient pool in North America. (Rosetta Stone rocks too).br /br /Therefore, I would not suggest one over the other. Pimsleur teaches properness and formality, LSLC teaches laymans spanish.br /br /It seems, overall that LSLC goes a bit more in depth... the narrator begins with verb/adjective forms...br /br /So, if your learning Spanish to go to Spain, get Pimsleur's set, if you're learning Spanish to talk with most spanish speaking NORTH Americans, get LSLC (rosetta stone has a version for spain and a version for latin america)... if you're taking it as a student or academic or health proffessional, and want to be able to properly speak 'the king's' spanish, as well as communicate effectively (and not get corrected, since there are subtle differences) here in the US, get both, (and rosetta stone). br /br /Overall, they're effective and cost less than taking a college level course... or if you've just got too much $$$ burning holes in your pocket, get them and take a college course, or two :)

4 out of 5 stars

great product, but buyer beware May 24, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

In terms of content, I'd rate this product a 4. It does a good job of covering all the key grammatical points. Between LSLC 1 and 2 (total of about 35 cds), it covers about the same amount of material as LIYCS (11 cd's) and more material than BTWS 1. Key difference is that w/ the greater number of hours, it'll go into greater details through drills than LIYCS or BTWS and it seems more interactive helping u to remember stuff more. That said, for every hour of lessons, it covers much less vocab than the other two products. I've finished studying LIYCS and BTWS and this course is better. However, it provides no background on grammar so once it starts conjugating verbs, u don't really know why it was conjugated and stuff so can be confusing for total novice. The transcripts don't have any info on grammar either, unlike the other two products. The online grammar page is pretty thin and incomplete.br /br /Though can get a great deal on publisher's site with LSLC 1 and 2 plus 5 hrs of bonus lessons and FSI 3 and 4 for about $170, the product that u'll download is kinda crippled. They'll bait u w/ mp3 samples that are 192 kbps. When you actually order, the files for LSLC1 and 2 and bonuses range from 96 kbps at 22 kHz for entire LSLC 2, to some 112 kbps and a few 128 kbps at 22 kHz for LSLC 1. People here on amazon say the audio quality sounds great. To me, audio quality in BTWS and LIYCS sounded much clearer than LSLC. LSLC sounds like clear AM radio...with that hollow hissing sound when u turn up the volume...kinda hard to explain. BTWS and LIYCSsound like professionally recorded CD's. The free FSI 3 and 4 are 128 kbps at 44 kHz. The bonus video lessons downloads look like the 1.5x2" boxes u'd see w/ video quality worse than youtube. PDF of dialogs are about 10-12 pages per lesson, making them around 350-400 pages in total. They could have easily single spaced the pdf of transcripts to save us some paper from printing. br /br /Price wise, this product too expensive. It'd be more fair if both LSLC 1 and 2 w/ cd's were $200 total. Also, the website does itself a disservice w/ all that propoganda which makes it look like an informercial. For all the people whose pictures appears raving about it, it would seem as if their online forum would be vibrant and active. In reality, it's pretty empty with a few posters here and there. The reviews on amazing are waaay too glowing for this product, making me doubt their authenticity. However, the Free FSI 3 and 4 make LSLC worth it.br /br /5/24 addendum: br /In terms of equivalence:br /br /For FSI Spanish series, there is the Programmatic series and the Basic series.br /br /-FSI programmatic 1 and 2 by LSLC is a distinct course.br /-FSI basic (barrons and platiquemos) are a distinct course. Platiquemous divides the Basic in half so there's a total of 8 lessons from the original 4 lessons. Barrons has the first two lessons, which equals platiquemous' first 4 lessons.br /br /FSI Programmatic 1 + 2 = FSI Basic 1+2+3+4br /br /LSLC's bonus FSI 3 and 4 download are different from FSI programmatic...and don't follow their programattic 1 and 2 series..br /br /In terms of order of courses with increasing difficulty:br /Barron's FSI Basic 1 = plaquetimos 1/2 -- Barron's FSI 2 = plaquetimos 3/4 -- plaquetimos 5/6 = LSLC's FSI 3-- plaquetimos 7/8 = LSLC's FSI 4br /br /Because barron's only provides the first basic 1 and 2, that's why some posters have mentioned that u'd need to get the programattic II from LSLC to get the free FSI 3 and 4, or you could by plaquetimos.br /br /LSLC Spoken Spanish 1 and 2 are distinct from FSI but use same approach to teaching. LSLC's SS 2 covers up to subjunctive, which is in FSI 3. I haven't personally seen the programattic series.br /

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