www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Just completed all three levels of Pimsleur Spanish, along with Spanish Plus. Pretty happy with the results, however, I'd like to continue on with another language program that more or less utilizes the same teaching methodology at a more advanced level. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
GR

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Check out http://weluvlatinas.com/ for the web's best info on the latin american monger lifestyle...

From my experience, the drunken ramblings of norte americanos make for excellent "How NOT to Speak Spanish" classes.

Joking aside, here is my regimen:

* Pimsleur 1-3
* Rosetta Stone
* Spanish TV / Cable / Satellite / Radio - una hora por dia
* Cada dia -- hablo con mis amigos y mis novias
* Estudio (conjugations, learning nouns) en la internet (pagar a escuela?)
* entiendes la cultura y la historia de la ciudad, pais (importante)

y finalmente

* es mas facil cuando tu eres tranquilo -- por regresar in una semana sin estudiar dificil


I have been told my spanish is 30-40% of fluent. Wow, that hurt, but it's true. I need to study, practice and learn my ass off if I want to *really* impress these little darlings and drunk norte americanos.



P.S. PM me for some extra materials.

I have been watching telenovelas on Telemundo which have English captions (CC3) and my Spanish has been improving a lot. It really helps to hear the Spanish and see the translation immediately. The fact that these shows are loaded with gorgeous chicas doesn`t hurt either.

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NON ILLEGITIMI CARBORUNDUM

DG

GR,
I'll let you borrow my 8 Y.O. stepson. He doesn't let me get away with mis pronouncing anything, which sucks because I can't roll my r's for sh*t!!

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Sparky
Get in line to ride the lightning!!!


Almost legally single again! Voy a Colombia otra vece!!

when you are here in Costa Rica take private lessons for a couple of hours a day when you can

The Costa Rican Spanish is different than some other Spanish speaking countries and you'll learn the correct/costa Rican idioms..

You'l also get a fast and easy fine tuning of what you already know

and it won't cost much...maybe 10 - 12 dollars an hour

do a little shopping first and don't bother trying to learn from some hot chica

look for an older woman who has been teaching for a dozen or more years

Money well spent

I am by no means fluent, however, I can get by. I used a four-prong approach after learning the basics:

1. Watch CNN en Español
2. Read spanish books at night before sleeping (requires dictionary)
3. Bought a pack of 1,000 vocab cards from the bookstore
4. Verb drills when I have time
5. My girlfriend doesn't speak a lick of english. So, just hanging with her... especially when we argue

Learning the future and past tenses also will provide you with lots of options. Also remember... spanish is a little different in each country. You need to learn the nuances and slang associated with the country you are in. Right now, I'm in California and the Mexicans sound totally different than Costa Ricans.

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http://TipsCostaRica.com for pratical advice on living in Costa Rica.
In order to write about life, first you must live it! - E. Hemingway.

I'm in the same situation. Finished pimsleur I-III. Pimsleur has a spanish plus available, absolute junk, all of the dialogs are geared towards the book publishing industry. My library has net library and I downloaded it for free, I wouldn't pay for pimsleur plus.

It would be fun to make a gulch edition of pimsleur, with great sayings like "nunca pago cien dolares", "oral sin or con condom", y "tengo mucha leche para ti"

Another all audio course you might want to consider is learning spanish like crazy (LSLCS). http://www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com

LSLC covers much more grammar and vocabulary than pimsleur. My complaints are the telemarketing sales on their website and that the course doesn't spoon feed you the material like pimsleur. As you are probably aware pimsleur uses graduated interval recall and it is amazing how the words stay in your head. LSLC has two levels out. I have level I. LSLC is pure latin american spanish and they also give you a lesson with vulgar words.

Two other courses I use are Platiquemos and Foreign service institute programmatic spanish. The foreign service institute is a part of the US state department that trains diplomats. Both course are rigorous and totally different than pimsleur.

Platiquemos,

http://www.platiquemos-letstalk.com/

is a revised version of the old foreign service institue basic course (1950's). Barrons sells the old foreign service course as their "mastering spanish". Platiquemos moderized the course and modified a number of drills so that you don't need the text book in front of you. I usually do a unit with the book in front of me once and then I can practice again with just my mp3 player. You can do the drills on a treadmill, but they are tough when driving a car in rush hour traffic.

Also the dialogues were modified to not be as sexist or dated. In the old course there would be dialogs where the men would go to an airforce base to see bombers, while women are buying dresses for a cocktail party. Some of the dialogues in the later lessons are pretty funny. I bet you would sound like ozzie and harriet to a del ray girl after using this course.

Platiquemos is not pimsleur. You need a lot more concentration and you need to repeat the drills several times. If you preview the course, do not I repeat do not look at the first few levels and are nothing like the rest of the course. The first few levels consist of extremely dull pronunciation drills. Platiquemos takes a lot more discipline to use. I often find myself struggling to want to use it. On the positive it is the only course I know of that can take you to near fluency.

FSI programmatic, is available for free here.

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Spanish.aspx

You can't beat the price, there are web sites that sell the fsi course for $400. You need the book in front of you to use it. It was used by the peace core and state department. It is designed for self instruction, you need the book with you at all times. It is pretty clever . The book is a series of questions, samples, and answers. It is kind of like having an instructor in front of you. The first couple of lessons are heavy on pronunciation drills and are not typical of the rest of the course. I would check out a higher level to see if it is for you. FSI programmatic won't take you as far Platiquemos and the rumor is the peace corp never had the money to finish it. Most people that finish FSI programmatic continue with FSI basic or Platiquemos.

You might also consider getting a tutor in a latin american country and speak to them using skype. They are out there and I am sure they are cheaper than one in the U.S. I haven't done it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

These days I find myself usually watching novelas with subtitles on and checking out the caliente mujures. I'm also a big fan of dvd's with spanish. I just bought James Bond Casino Royal and it has a spanish language track. This won't do anything to improve you speaking, but it has greatly increased my listening ability.

To improve my writing ability I find clever ways to say no to rfm in spanish.

Welcome Bige and outhstanding first post. Lots of good information here I have yet to see on this forum.rbc100

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In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

Biege, welcome to CRT. That was an outstanding post.

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Cigar smoking doesn’t reduce us, it elevates us; It makes us more content to be alone, or it helps us to enjoy our companions. It encourages us to dwell on the simple moments and celebrate the sublime.
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Hung like Einstein and smart as a mule.
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You're not drunk if you can lay on the floor without holding on.

Thanks RBC that is quite a compliment coming from you. I'm a big fan of your massage parlor list.

It is nice to see a topic where I could contribute. There is so much knowledge here. I have been lurking for a while.

I am going down in April over Easter, hope some places are open. $280 for the flight and I could get work off so I had to go.

I did my first mongering this past January in Jaco. The board was a huge help in planning my trip, fantastic nonmongering knowledge here also. I ended up with a semipro novia that I met at my hotel (Tanger). Her and her sister were staying at my hotel with an older gringo. The older gringo introduced me to her. I went through the whole rfm thing, and the previous posts really helped me throught it. No I didn't send any money.

Sorry to change topics.

Anyway, pm me and maybe we can figure some way of letting you have a learning spanish like crazy lesson to "preview".

Welcome to the board, great info, thanks.

Thanks to all the excellent responses, and my compliments to Bige as well on an outstanding contribution. A couple of comments: I wouldn't necessarily write off Pimsleur Spanish Plus as absolute junk. The tenacity with which they stuck with the book publishing theme kind of bothered me at first, but I hung in there and actually got a lot out of the ten lessons. I liked the photography part - if only in addition to "parece alli", "mire a la izquierda", and "sonria" they'd included some additional instructions like "roll over", "look sexy", or "lick your lips", etc.

Funny you mention creating a "gulch" edition of Pimsleur. I actually created such an animal a while back for my personal use, but didn't go so far as emulating the Pimsleur "graduated interval recall" format. I wonder how much commercial interest there would be in this kind of endeavor?

Some general comments on differences in Costa Rican Spanish - has anyone noticed that Costa Ricans pronounce the "ll" combo differently (as in "ella" or "alli")? Instead of a straight "y" sound, they kind of pronounce it "zhy". Took me a while to get this at first. They also tend to say "aca" rather than "aqui" for "here". I've also heard "plata" a lot in place of "dinero."

Question for Bige - before I go through that sign-up process for "Learning Spanish Like Crazy" can you tell me if there's a cost associated with the program? Thanks!

_________________
Check out http://weluvlatinas.com/ for the web's best info on the latin american monger lifestyle...

I tried to do Pimsleur plus after attending CRLA in San Jose for three weeks. At that time the pace of Pimsleur was way too slow for me. I retract my statement about pimsleur plus being total junk, but a big disapointment after I-III.

LSLC level I is available as a download edition for $97. Amazon sells the cds. It comes with downloadable transcripts. LSLC also markets more expensive programs with the FSI material. No need for it when the FSI programmatic course is available for free here:
http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Spanish.aspx

The same site is the process of making the FSI basic course available. The FSI stuff is public domain. The state department was the publisher.

I also have the Defense Language Institute Spanish Headstart for Latin America. It was produced in the 80’s for U.S. servicemen and families to study in the U.S. before going to Panama. It is 300 pages with 15 tapes. You need the book in front of you to use it. It has common situations like greetings, going to the market, restaurant, asking for directions. I have it in digital format and got it off a newsgroup. Audio quality isn’t great. The booked was scanned in and the pdf is 245megs. I haven’t touch it, too many courses and too little time.

The key is just to use something every day. I looked enough and there isn't a magic course out there.

Here is an outline of LSLC level I:

Lección 1 "AR" verbs in the Present Tense and Subject Pronouns
Lección 2 More "AR" verbs in the Present Tense
Lección 3 Possessive Adjectives and Possessive pronouns
Lección 4 Possessive Adjectives and Possessive pronouns Continued
Lección 5 "ER" Verbs in the Present Tense
Lección 6 More "ER" Verbs in the Present Tense
Lección 7 More "ER" Verbs in the Present Tense and introduction to colors
Lección 8 Introducing Yourself
Lección 9 "IR" Verbs in the Present Tense and Greetings
Lección 10 More "IR" Verbs in the Present Tense and Nationalities
Lección 11 More "IR" Verbs in the Present Tense and Prepositions
Lección 12 More Prepositions and various Professions
Lección 13 Reflexive Verbs
Lección 14 More Reflexive Verbs
Lección 15 More Reflexive Verbs
Lección 16 Preterite (regular past tense) Verbs
Lección 17 Preterite Verb Continued )
Lección 18 The Imperfect Verbs
Lección 19 The Imperfect Verb Tense continued
Lección 20 The Imperfect Verb Tense continued
Lección 21 The Imperfect Verb Tense continued
Lección 22 The Imperfect Verb v. Preterite Tense
Lección 23 The Weather Present and Past Tense
Lección 24 Intro to the Present Perfect Tense Part A
Lección 24 Intro to the Present Perfect Tense Part B
Lección 25 More of the Present Perfect Tense
Lección 26 Direct Object Pronouns and Present Progressive Tense
Lección 27 More Direct Pronouns
Lección 28 Indirect Object Pronouns
Lección 29 Combining Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
Lección 30 "Tener que . . ."

Outline of Level II:
31. Expressing the future using ir a + infinitive
32. Comparisons and names of body parts
3a. More comparisons and names of farm animals
33b. More comparisons
34. More comparisons and names of hardware tools
35. Conclusion of comparisons and introduction to the Conditional Tense
36. Conditional Tense continued --
37. The Conditional Tense continued --
38. The Conditional Perfect
39. The Conditional Perfect
40. Commands
41. Review of Direct Pronouns, and Commands with direct pronouns
42. Commands with direct pronouns continued
43. Plural Commands
44. The future tense with regular verbs
45. The future tense with irregular verbs
46. Para que and hay que + infinitive structure
47. Demonstrative Pronouns
48. Demonstrative Pronouns continued and the verb "gustar" and similarly conjugated verbs
49. More verbs that are conjugated like the verb "gustar"
50. Continuation of verbs that conjugated like the verb "gustar"
51. Subjunctive mood when expressing desire or preference
52. Subjunctive mood when expressing desire or preference continued
53. Subjunctive mood continued
54. Subjunctive mood continued
55. Subjunctive using phrases such as "es mejor que" and "es necesario que"
56. Substituting the infinitive with the subjunctive mood
57. Substituting the infinitive with the subjunctive mood continued
58. Subjunctive mood using time conjunctions.
59. Subjunctive mood used with time conjunctions continued
60. Subjunctive mood with phrases expressing possibility

It is hard enough to learn another language late in life. What really makes this even worse is learning what you do not need or incorrect for the country you plan to spend your time in. If you have the time I would take classes from a native of the countries you plan to be in. Knowing the daily "street" language that is spoken can be a big help. This is also a good way to meet others out of the "RED Light Districts" that we sometimes like to play in .

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"Run silent, run deep"
Spunk glazed Chicas are the building blocks of the universe!

It's hard but very possible. Just practice practice practice

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gone fishing