There are two additional courses that I recommend. In fact, they are so effective that these, along with The Learnables, I credit with helping on my road to a high degree of spoken fluency. These courses are Pimsleur Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Without this trio of courses I would not be where I am today linguistically living in Mexico for going on five years.
These are two of the most popular home study courses that, if you believe the press put out by the folks at Learning Spanish Like Crazy, are in competition with one another. I don’t think that the case, however, you will hear all manner of references to Pimsleur as “out-dated” or “teaches vocabulary that is no longer used.” Neither is true.
While the methodology the courses use is virtually the same, Pimsleur definitely and unashamedly teaches a vocabulary that is used in formal settings in Spanish speaking countries. I have found what I learned very useful in Mexico, where I live, in situations in which I am with more educated Mexicans. But, when I hit the streets, the stores, the parks, Pimsleur fails me. That’s where Learning Spanish Like Crazy comes in....