reflections as I prepare to finish off Pimsleur Spanish III

Tomorrow I will work on the final lesson of Pimsleur Spanish III. I've enjoyed the program quite a bit and have learned a good bit of useful Spanish.

Although I can't really claim that Pimsleur has given me an advanced level of fluency, it goes deeper than some had led me to expect.

For instance, I heard a commercial for an internet service provider in Spanish shortly ago and was able to make out the gist of it from Pimsleur-provided knowledge and context.

Interestingly enough, this was during a show about the southern U. S. border featuring a bunch of Minutemen who patrol the border. The fact that not one of these guys can read or speak any Spanish at all comes into play in scene after scene. Not one? Seriously?

By the end of Spanish 3, the lessons have dealt with scenarios such as an ATM eating one's card, dealing with various business-related matters in more depth than in Spanish 2, scrambling to find express dry cleaning service, renting an apartment, and quite a bit more. The scenarios are common enough needs for travelers and provide context for conversation practice.

To further boost my vocabulary as well as improve my level of literacy with the vocabulary I've learned verbally, I've obtained a set of 1000 Visual Education (Vis-Ed) Modern Spanish Bilingual Vocabulary Cards. I'm a long-time fan of flash cards, because they seem to work well with my learning style and can be used in literal spare moments instead of half-hour increments.

Stuck at a red light? Waiting in line? On hold? Draw a random card & see if you can guess its meaning.

Although I plan to use my Pimsleur lessons for review after the last one is done, I'll be moving on to Learning Spanish Like Crazy, Destinos, and other programs in a more determined way starting this weekend. Review is always important, but at this stage I think the best thing I can do is keep the levels of challenge and novelty pretty high for a while.

LSLC may present some additional challenges for the commute than did Pimsleur, because at a glance it seems that their lessons aren't always a neatly packaged 30 minutes, but I expect that will prove to be a small matter. However it works out, I'll share what insights I can here in hopes it will help someone else.

In honor of my soon-to-be achievement....