Mastering Spanish, Level One with Audio CDs [With 12 CDs]

by Robert P. Stockwell

The new edition of this intensive language-immersion course has been updated with new references, and up-to-date vocabulary and idioms. The program package consists of a textbook and a set of 12 compact discs. This comprehensive language program is the same as the one used by the U.S. Government to teach Spanish to personnel in the diplomatic service and other internationally related government agencies. Students who complete the course successfully...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764175971
• ISBN13: 9780764175978
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series
• Length: 678 Pages
• Weight: 3.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.6" x 9.8" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

The best language learning tool that I've found. I've learned way more with this course than others that i've tried. It uses actual sentences and words that are used everyday, not just a few technical terms for travelers. It will take several months to go thru the material. You have to make yourself dedicated to listening and reading it every day. I wish I would have discovered this course a long time ago. It is very detailed and complete. I've gone thru this book twice. Basically before I had this book when I would turn on the spanish channel, with the closed captioning on, I would only be able to understand about 2% of what was being said. Now, when I turn on the spanish channel, I understand roughly 30% to 40% of what is being said. which is really good because it has set up a foundation for me to be able see a sentence, use the words that I do know in the sentence and figure out the meaning of the words in that sentence that I don't know. Having that foundation is also nice because I don't have to look the word up in the dictionary to figure out the meaning sometimes. I have purchased the Level 2 version of Mastering Spanish and I feel that it should put me close enough to where I might be fluent with a little more practice.

Mastering Spanish level 1

A very thorough course, FSI (Foreigh Service Institute) and State Department courses have to be good. Nothing is free though: all foreign language study requires 100% participation which can be a lot of work!

The Holy Grail of Spanish courses!

As others have said this course is only for those who are serious about learning spanish and are not afraid of working their asses off to do it. There is no silver bullet. Learning a foreign language is tough and not for lightweight learners. This is the heavyweight division folks. No you will not master this while doing other activities. When you were in college did you expect to learn calculus, physics, or other heavy duty courses while driving to the bar? I think not! You are going to have to use the book with the cd's in a quiet place without distractions every day. This course is going to drill you like being in boot camp in the Marine Corps. There are a variety of different types of drills that will drill this material deep into your DNA and when you master it and the next three levels after it you will be able to handle yourself in all but the most technical of situations. If you have no background in Spanish I would reccomend pimsleur first. I would also supplement this course with slangman's street spanish with audio and penton overseas vocabulearn. Something else that i have found helpful is listening to dvd movies first in english, then in spanish with spanish subtitles and then without subtitles. This is an excellent aid to comprehension. Even though I feel that these FSI courses are the SINGLE best way of learning spanish, your ability will be enhanced even more with these auxillary methods. Where this course is a bit light is slang and vocabulary but the products that i mentioned above will shore that up. If you want to speak with near native ability then this is the one for you...all others should take a pass on this one and check out spanish while you sleep.

For the serious only...

I have nearly completed Level I after several months of study and feel that it has helped me immensely. Nevertheless, I would not recommend it to anyone who has only a marginal interest in the language or to anyone unwilling to invest hours of study a week. Learning a language isn't easy and this program makes no pretense of making someone fluent in a short time (I would avoid any program that does). If you want to learn Spanish and are self-motivated, then this program is for you. If you are not so interested or dedicated, then you probably won't get much out of it. I plan to continue by studies with Level II.

Really Great Series

I did not have any Spanish in school and so this was a pretty heavy duty first course for me. The tapes/CDs alone might be ok if you have had Spanish before but if you are a beginner, reading the book as you go along is a must. Listening to the tapes several times is also a good idea. The author really emphasizes pronunciation, speaking quickly, and using appropriate stresses (inflections). The book is also loaded with tips. You get some vocabulary--maybe 300-500 words, but feel like you need more when you are done. There is some grammar, but again, you want more. The emphasis is on speaking, typical phrases/idioms, and some fairly useful situations. By the time you finish the first book, you feel that you have really made some inroads. I am definitely getting the second book. Other features are some possibly dated cultural tips, speakers from several other countries (mostly male), great drills, and a fairly good glossary. I do sometimes wonder if I will sound like Ricky Ricardo out of the 50's to a modern day Spanish speaker. PS--I tried the travel type series first and found them to be pretty useless.