Instant Download: Platiquemos FSI Spanish Course Level 1
(File is 195 MB)
One of the world's best known Spanish courses can now be instantly downloaded! Don Casteel, fluent in several languages and a former Foreign Service Officer, is well trained in the FSI method. He has completely revised and improved "the course that works."
- improved audio with both male and female voices
- over 200 illustrations
- most widely sold course on the language market.
- understand spoken and written Spanish
- develop a vocabulary of several thousand words.
Download Level 1 now for only $49.99 - includes 8 Audio Mp3s and a PDF workbook
with all of the written grammar material!
This course isn't for sissies, May 27, 2006
If you are looking to pick up a little Spanish for a trip abroad, then this isn't the course for you. However, if you are serious about learning Spanish and are committed to working at it, then this is your ticket to success!
The debate over too fast/too slow here is absurd. I have spent time in Latin America and have heard the natives speaking...if they spoke at that rate on these lessons, none of us would ever become proficient. Through clear and concise pronunciation you are able to hear the correct pronunciation and repeat it. I find that as I have mastered a phrase I speak much faster, but if I had not heard it at a more normal pace in the beginning, I would not be pronouncing it correctly now. In order to be understood by native speakers, you need to be clear in your pronunciation...and practice makes perfect. I also agree with those that have said that if you cannot repeat the phrases in the time allotted, you are not ready to move on to the next unit. You need to be able to speak without thinking about it too much.
Level One was more of a review for me, but it also refreshed some things I had forgotten over the years. Ahora para los niveles dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, siete y ocho (Now for levels 1-8). I bought all eight levels and find that I can do about a unit or two per day in each level, based upon what I am doing at work that day.
I highly recommend this course if you are serious about learning to speak Spanish and not just order una cerveza on your next trip south of the border. Buena suerte en su viaje.
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Platiquemos is a complete course for speaking Spanish, April 28, 2005
I've tried a several courses and books for learning Spanish. Some promise the easy way. As far as I can tell, there is no easy way. It takes a lot of time and discipline to really learn a foreign language. I talking about knowing the language well enough to understand movies, TV, and converse with native speakers. Platiquemos is one of the few courses that can take you from the beginning to the end - fluency. It is an 8 level course.
I bought the download edition from the platiquemos-letstalk website. It has over 47 hours of audio, and 1400 pages of text. You cannot finish the course in 47 hours though. It's really a 600 hour course. You'll need to listen to each lesson several times, and that is a good thing. Some course like Pimsleur offer 50 hours of audio, but you only have to listen to lesson once or twice because they're so easy. In the end, they have about 100 hours of instruction. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute created the course Platiquemos is based upon. They train diplomats and other people to be able to communicate professionally in language languages. They have found it takes about 600 hours to learn Spanish if you have effective materials. They actually created a course to teach people with no previous experience in Spanish to communicate well. This is that course, updated with modern typesetting.
Although you'll be glad you have all the text in the course, 90% of the time, you can study away from the written materials. That's great if you commute. The course will teach you how to read though, so you won't be illiterate when your done. You'll be able to speak, read, and understand Spanish.
