Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: Why It's Not Always The Best

I've been learning (self-taught) Spanish for about 2 years now, and I've tried a number of different learning Spanish products including Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, and FSI--the best I've found so far is Learning Spanish Like Crazy (click here to go to their website).

Like Rocket Spanish, it is available as a download (I think it costs $97), or you can get it on CD's in a more expensive version. The multiple speakers have a variety of Latin American accents. They speak clearly but, most importantly and unlike Pimsleur, at a normal conversational speed. The 30 lessons are accompanied by pdf transcripts of the entire lesson, so you can read what you're hearing if you wish. You also get some written grammar lessons. When I bought the download program, I was also able to download at no additional cost levels 3 and 4 of the FSI Spanish course (FSI is Foreign Service Institute, the government institute that trains diplomats for the State Department). Oh, two more things:

1) Like Rocket Spanish, Learning Spanish Like Crazy has a very useful web forum where you can ask questions and discuss things in Spanish or English.

2) Also, Level 2 has already come out, I have it and am very impressed--it's a perfect addition to the first one and picks up right where Level 1 leaves off. It focuses on things like the subjunctive and more advanced sentence structure and grammar, getting you ever closer to being able to hold a conversation with a native at a normal rate of speed.

By the time I finished Level 1 of Learning Spanish Like Crazy, I was way ahead of where Pimsleur is at the end of its Level 3! Pimsleur is probably the best known of the five programs I mentioned. It's also far and away the most expensive (about $300 PER LEVEL--so $1200 for all 4 levels of Spanish), but it's also available for free at many public libraries. That's how I got it. By the time I tried Pimsleur, I had already finished Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I found Pimsleur somewhat disappointing. I thought it would be more challenging than it turned out to be. However, Pimsleur does do an effective job of drilling Spanish into you. It makes good use of repetition. You'll definitely learn some Spanish with Pimsleur, and if you can get it for free at your library, it's worth a try.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy (click here to go to their website)

Andrew Kawaski has been teaching himself Spanish in preparation for moving to and living in Latin America (Colombia and Argentina, specifically), and recommends reading his friend's review of Learning Spanish Like Crazy BEFORE you buy ANYTHING at: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review: An Honest Opinion