Ever heard of Rosetta Stone?
Sure you have…
Pimsleur?
More than likely…
But have you heard of Unlimited Spanish?
I bet many of you haven’t.
It’s a low-budget course series that doesn’t have the funds to market as aggressively as its big brothers.
It’s no surprise that—in the crowded Learn Spanish market—it flies under the radar of many people.
Which is a bit of a shame because the methodology used in its courses is somewhat revolutionary:
No boring grammar drills, flashcards, or forced memorization…
Instead, learn from stories and participate in question-and-answer sessions that make you feel like you’re conversing in real life.
The philosophy of the course creator, Óscar Pellus, is that you can’t force learning. Instead, you learn naturally by exposure and repetition. During the courses, he even urges you not to try and memorize anything!
This method basically ensures that you won’t struggle too much with grammar. The idea is that you learn all that automatically, somewhat the same way you initially learned your native language.
As Oscar says in the course instructions: “The point is not only “knowing” it, but also “automating” it.”
Unlimited Spanish Christmas Promo!50% off any courseClick here to see the offer on the Unlimited Spanish website Offer extended until December 26th, 2023 |
Simulating Conversations
As you might know, I’m not a fan of conversing from the get-go. But I’m a big aficionado of main language courses that focus heavily on conversations.
They must prepare you for having real-life conversations by using methodology that makes you feel the pressure of conversing…and helps you automate your responses.
You can learn from slower-paced materials, but your main language resource must be focused on conversation. It must be a conversation simulator, so to speak.
A language course created in the 1960s called FSI Basic Spanish is an excellent example of such methodology, if not terribly dated and boring.
Unlimited Spanish isn’t as hardcore as FSI Basic Spanish, nor as comprehensive, but its material is much more charming and digestible.
All Unlimited Spanish courses simulate conversations by using an intelligent question-and-answer method that forces you to think and react fast, just like in a real conversation.
A Look At Unlimited Spanish
Unlimited Spanish offers four courses for different levels of Spanish:
The 30-Day Crash Course (level 1)
This course is designed to get you from scratch to a basic level of Spanish in 30 days. Each day consists of a new lesson divided into five sub lessons. All audio lessons come with transcripts.
The student follows the story of Felipe, Diego, and Roberta. The course starts easy but gets harder along the way.
You won’t get fluent with this one, but it’s an excellent gateway to bigger and better things afterward — i.e., a solid foundation.
The Original Course (level 2)
This course is for you if you have a basic knowledge of Spanish, but can’t really speak it.
The difficulty goes up in this one, but the question-and-answer sessions help you to learn the content quickly.
This time, the course is made up of separate stories.
This can keep things fresh. If you don’t like a particular story, it will end soon. But a good long story can keep you more hooked to the material. Curiosity about what happens next can be a good motivator.
El Curso Mágico (level 3)
For low intermediate students and above.
In this course, you’ll follow the charming story of The Wizard of Oz…in Spanish.
It’s a classic story and a good one.
And this motivates you to find out what happens in the next lesson. Unless—of course—you know this story like the back of your hand.
You can find almost all Spanish verb tenses in this course. And the verb forms are repeated frequently so you can consolidate what you’ve learned.
El Curso Inesperado (level 4)
This is a shorter course with which you can further master the different tenses in Spanish.
Oscar Pellus recommends you take “El Curso Mágico” first.
One excellent feature called Point of View—present in all Unlimited Spanish courses—gets a prominent role in this course.
Here’s how it goes:
Oscar will tell you a story and then repeat it, but in a different tense.
The tense can change, like from present to past tense. Or the subject can change, like from the first person to the third person. But the rest of the story stays the same.
By doing the exercises, you will learn to differentiate between the tenses, and more importantly, use them in your own speaking.
It gives you a really good education on how to use the different tenses in Spanish.
**Unlimited Spanish focuses primarily on European Spanish, but I can see how it could be useful to learners of any Spanish.**
How Much Are the Courses?
All four courses are instantly downloadable and come with transcripts of all the included audio lessons.
All material, including introductions, is in Spanish, except for the translations in the transcripts.
Regular Prices:
- 30-Day Crash Course $47
- The Original Course $97
- El Curso Mágico $99
- El Curso Inesperado $67
Unlimited Spanish Christmas Promo!50% off any courseClick here to see the offer on the Unlimited Spanish website Offer extended until December 26th, 2023 |
All customers also get access to a Facebook page called “La Cafetaría.” Here, you can ask questions about and share experiences with the Unlimited Spanish courses.
If you have any questions about Unlimited Spanish, let me know in the comments below.