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.
Wow! 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.
It's crazy! This is Ellen's husband. 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. 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. 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. Oh, and I also have Rosetta stone, more of a flash card learning system which is good for many people but not me. It's spoken Spanish. Not written but I'll give a try. 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!
Well, Yes it is all its hyped up to be... depending on.... 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 :)
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.
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).
Therefore, I would not suggest one over the other. Pimsleur teaches properness and formality, LSLC teaches laymans spanish.
It seems, overall that LSLC goes a bit more in depth... the narrator begins with verb/adjective forms...
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).
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 :)
great product, but buyer beware 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.
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.
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.
5/24 addendum: In terms of equivalence:
For FSI Spanish series, there is the Programmatic series and the Basic series.
-FSI programmatic 1 and 2 by LSLC is a distinct course. -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.
FSI Programmatic 1 + 2 = FSI Basic 1+2+3+4
LSLC's bonus FSI 3 and 4 download are different from FSI programmatic...and don't follow their programattic 1 and 2 series..
In terms of order of courses with increasing difficulty: 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 4
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.
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.
Great supplement to learning Spanish The LSLC CDs have been a great supplement to using Rosetta Stone's Spanish Program for learning Spanish. The pacing of the audio can be a little slow at times, but for someone who's learning Spanish for the first time it works quite well. I wouldn't recommend this as the sole Spanish program for a first time speaker, but it works well as a supplement.
As a bonus, the company who produced it regularly sends out bonus audios and videos with additional lessons. Though the CDs only contain 30 lessons in volume one, we've received almost 30 bonus lessons accessible on the web.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
