Exactly what I was looking for! I drive to work, roughly 45 minutes each way, and always wanted this time not to be wasted. The length of lessons fits right-in with some 5 minutes to spare in case of an interrupting phone call. The course assume absolutely no off-time studying and no usage of printed material whatsoever. Additionally, being alone in a car, I am the most comfortable about pronouncing sentences aloud, compared to being in a real class (this I remember from my years at University) or at home with my family around (as of now, this would be the only other option).
The pauses after English prompts are just right. On rare occasions when I get destructed and miss a moment to try my Spanish guess, there is always time to repeat the Spanish after the recorded voice before the next English prompt comes in. New words and expressions are naturally mixed in with repeated ones from previous lessons, making ideal byte sizes of new material in every next lesson while keeping you from forgetting what's learned before.
There are 16 lessons in total. Of course, you can not stuck it all in your head in 16 sessions. If I feel that I miss more than 10% of prompts, I jump couple of lessons back. I had to jump to 4 after the first series of 1 to 6, then back to 6 after getting to 8 for the first time and so on. I went over number 12 today and feel confident about moving on to 13.
I was reading the reviews before choosing this course, and one of those complained about this being Latin American Spanish rather than European Spanish. For me this is an advantage: my goal is to be able to communicate with locals and personal during our vacations to places like Mexico or Dominican Republic. I was surprised with how perfectly the program fits the goal. Dialogs concentrate on general courtesy, saying basic things about yourself, finding your way around, social eating and drinking, buying thins, timing, counting... It feels like the material was compiled with somebody exactly like me in mind: the phrase "One beer, please" is introduced as early as Lesson 5, if I remember correctly. I am looking forward to impressing my wife and kids during our next trip.
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Conversational Spanish: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon Used Books New.