Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition

I'm only half way through the first book, but so far it has been great. I've taken several beginning Spanish courses over my lifetime and none of it stuck, but I feel like the design of this course is a lot better because, contrary to what one "reviewer" said, they do NOT just give you a list of words to memorize. You are shown words which will be emphasized in a lesson, but they are presented in context in a variety of ways.To get 9 CDs and 3+ books for $28 is just an unbelievable bargain especially compared to big-name systems which, ironically, consistently get poor reviews and cost much, much more.Just after I started this course I stumbled across Duolingo.com which is a free online school for various languages, including Spanish. I've been working it the same time as this system because they each have their own advantages. The main advantage of the Duolingo course is that it is interactive -- you have to type in answers and if you get too many wrong, you have to repeat the lesson. With a non-interactive course, it is easy to lose focus/attention and not realize that you have missed something, which is the case with Living Language.On the other hand, the speech in Living Language is much clearer and it is easier to back up a bit and repeat something. Also, you can read the LL books and/or listen to the CDs anywhere and any time, while you must be online to use Duolingo.The Amazon page and other Living Language materials say that you can just listen to the CDs to learn Spanish without using the book. While that may be theoretically possible, it would be VERY much harder and time consuming. For one thing, the book has extra exercises to reinforce your learning which the CDs do not have. Another thing is that listening to spoken Spanish and reading it at the same doubles your learning capacity as aural and visual input are stored in different parts of the brain and subsequently reinforce each other. If you do not look at the book while listening to the CDs, you are simply missing out on that.IMO, the best way to use this course is to read and listen to a chapter at the same time, then read the chapter again, working the extra exercises, then repeat both of these steps until you feel comfortable that you have learned the material. I would only listen to the CDs by themselves, such as in a car, as additional reinforcement. But I seriously doubt that anyone can learn Spanish by listening one time to these CDs while driving around (hopefully also focusing on traffic, etc.).

I took high school Spanish 30 years ago and remembered almost nothing.I used this set to prepare for a trip to Mexico, and later, Spain. I used the Duolingo app a little bit too, but it was way too slow and far less practical. This is much better!I think people who say this series is too difficult maybe aren't taking it slow enough. Perhaps they're not using the books. You have to use both the CDs and the books. Also it's helpful to add supplementary materials. I really like Why Not Spanish and the Spanish Dude (he has terrible pronunciation but has some useful ways for learning grammar). Also you can listen along to children's stories on YouTube with subtitles. Another thing you can do is change your smartphone and Google map navigation over to Spanish once you get to book 2. Write your shopping lists in Spanish. I changed an Amazon Echo to Spanish as well, and set Alexa to speak slowly. Even the English-speaking Alexa can tell you words. The new bilingual feature doesn't seem to work very well, unfortunately. "Alexa how do I say 'the blanket' in Spanish?" works great. It's very useful daily practice with vocabulary.The CDs are excellent, although I agree with others that the CDs that accompany book 1 are by far the best. By books two and three, you shouldn't need to hear endless pronunciation of vocabulary words because Spanish follows strict rules.The conversations are the best part.The best thing of all while learning is to suck up your courage and practice *in conversation* using the Spanish that you have learned from these books and other sources. When I was done with book one, I started using Skype to chat with Spanish speaking people in other countries. (Language exchange. Half the time is spent in English and half the time in your target language). There are several sites for this and I used the language exchange program through Dickinson College, the Mixxer. Because I was such a beginner, at first I needed to partner with intermediate or better English skills because they had to smooth the path for me. I didn't even know how to use Skype, and a language partner from Madrid explained how.It's nearly 1 and 1/2 years later, and now I'm an intermediate Spanish speaker and I have friends in Spain. I can talk all day in Spanish about most anything. Sure, my grammar isn't great, and I need a lot more vocabulary, and I still can't do all the verb conjugations (subjunctive mood) but I can handle almost any situation now.Talk about a life changer!This was a *great* program but it takes time for your brain to grow into another language. With consistent daily practice, your brain will want to do this. I pushed through to book 3 and learned about subjunctive mood and things like that, but I'm still not proficient with those. I think it's better to limit the kinds of verbs you use and converse more fluently, and add the more complicated stuff later or else you'll just confuse yourself. The same thing with the direct and indirect object pronouns... Just go ahead and talk like Tarzan and leave those out until later in your language journey.Learning a language is an active thing, and it's a lifestyle change. If you don't get out there and talk with people in Spanish, regularly, you're never going to learn it. Nowadays with the internet, you can do immersion learning right at home, with Skype and YouTube videos. It's truly amazing.So these excellent materials were my first step to learning Spanish. The books will get you to a point where you can start conversing about everyday topics, and then go find a language partner with similar interests and hobbies and learn that vocabulary, and you're on your way!If a friend of mine wanted to learn Spanish, I would definitely recommend that they begin with this set, and work through the books all the way to the end, while supplementing with other things.