Text for Basic Spanish
Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Learning Languages
Forum Name: Spanish
Forum Discription: Discussion about studying Spanish using the FSI course.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=256
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 3:36am
Topic: Text for Basic Spanish
Posted By: SunnyDD
Subject: Text for Basic Spanish
Date Posted: 28 December 2006 at 3:52pm
I just found this site today, and I am so happy I did. This is truly amazing! I'm in the process of learning spanish and I noticed that the french course has text but the basic spanish course does not. Will the text added at some point?
|
Replies:
Posted By: daristani
Date Posted: 29 December 2006 at 11:38am
Since no one else has yet weighed in to answer your question, I'll give a quick answer, even though I'm not the most authoritative person to respond: Yes, the text for the entire Basic Spanish course will be put on line, as will all the audio. This is a very big project, though, and will probably take a while, since a small group of people are working on a purely voluntary basis to put materials up in a variety of languages. If I'm not mistaken, the Basic Spanish course consists of 60 lessons in all, with many, many hundreds of pages of text to be digitized. How long the digitization effort will take I don't know, but I suspect that it will be a matter of several months before the entire course is available on the site here.
In the meantime, while I don't think all that much of the Programmatic Spanish course, it can still be useful while waiting for the Basic Spanish course to come on-line. Best of luck in your studies!
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 29 December 2006 at 1:01pm
Thank you for your reply. I totally understand that this must be a massive undertaking to digitize the audio and video. I'm about half way through Pimsleur, so hopefully I can start on the Spanish Basic when I'm finished. I read from numerous sources that the Spanish Basic FSI course was absolutely the best, and I'm really looking forward to it.
|
Posted By: germinator
Date Posted: 30 December 2006 at 12:57am
I've just discovered this website too...Doing Pimsleur now but will take a look at the FSI after.
Thanks to all the contributors
------------- Jerome, Quebec
|
Posted By: riffin1
Date Posted: 31 December 2006 at 2:55am
I've almost completed Pimsleur, but I take breaks and do random portions of other courses periodically. FSI Basic seems more my speed than programmatic.
What I've been meaning to ask is if anyone knows if the Defense Language Institute courses have the same copywrite status as FSI? The Quickstart ones are very interesting.
|
Posted By: smoen
Date Posted: 31 December 2006 at 10:30am
If you are referring to the HeadStart courses, I am fairly confident that they have the same copyright status as the others (none, being in the public domain).
SMoen
|
Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 31 December 2006 at 1:33pm
I'd be careful with courses from Defense Language Institute even though they are part of the War Department/Department of Defense and thus seemingly excluded from copyright protection in the US.
I recently came upon the old DLI series for Serbo-Croatian at my alma mater's library but noticed that every book in the series had a stamp "US Army - Not authorized for redistribution or resale".
|
Posted By: riffin1
Date Posted: 01 January 2007 at 2:13am
Well, it's an interesting question. One the ones I have, the cassettes are stamped ""Property of the US Government", some of them say "For official use only". The books say that thy're to be used "primarily in support of training military personnel".
I hope that we're not veering wildly off topic with this.
|
Posted By: DemiPuppet
Date Posted: 01 January 2007 at 5:14pm
The 1963 DLI Burmese Basic Course Vol 1 inner cover says:
This pamphlet is for the use faculty and staff of the Defense Language Institute solely for official purposes. It is NOT for general distribution. It may NOT be released to other persons, quoted or extracted for publication, or otherwise copied or distributed without specific permission in each instance from the Director, Defense Language Institute.
See pretty clear to me...
|
Posted By: riffin1
Date Posted: 01 January 2007 at 9:16pm
Looks like it's different in every one. This is from LA 0090 S "Spanish headstrart for Latin America": Janurary 1984 revision
"This publication is to be used primarily in support of training military personnel as part of the Defense Language Program (resident and nonresident). Inquiries concerning the use of materials, including requests for copies should be addressed to:..."
Doesn't seem as clear as they'd probably like.
|
Posted By: Sir Nigel
Date Posted: 01 January 2007 at 11:22pm
I don't mind admitting that I've delayed with some of the scanning. With the Prog. Spanish though I've doubted many have speeded through that and are waiting for the Basic course just yet. 
Notwithstanding, my plan is to scan in the first few lessons tomorrow and hopefully they'll get posted soon thereafter.
------------- Insurance Excuse:
The accident was due to the road bending.
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 02 January 2007 at 8:12am
Many Thanks Sir Nigel for your time, patience and contributions! They are all very much appreciated.
|
Posted By: just_visitor
Date Posted: 04 January 2007 at 4:34am
Sir Nigel,
Thanks a lot for your contributions!
Could you please give a time frame for Spanish Prog II ?
After completion the first one I want to go on with the Prog course but there are only two lessons available on this website.
I really like the course and can't wait to proceed.
I even bought the book on Amazon for the Prog II.
Thanks in advance!
|
Posted By: gdfellows
Date Posted: 04 January 2007 at 6:08pm
I have all of the audio for the Programmatic II. It merely awaits my time to post.
|
Posted By: just_visitor
Date Posted: 09 January 2007 at 11:12am
Thanks Gdfellows, I'll wait.
Now I know it's coming, so no need to look for it somewhere else.
And really big "THANK YOU!!!" for the wonderfull job you are doing with this site!
|
Posted By: mr_luc
Date Posted: 16 January 2007 at 3:56pm
A huge thank you, guys. This is unbelievable.
I know that "Advanced" students or those with prior experience may want
to skip Programmatic Spanish, but for me ... it's the first really,
truly ROCK SOLID language learning program I've ever had a taste of,
and I've been taught by some people who were hand-trained in language
teaching by some renowned polyglot/language teacher or other. I
recognize a lot of the techniques, particularly the importance of
demanding constant interaction and forcing constant attention, but the
Programmatic Spanish program feels like a life jacket for me. It may
seem over-engineered, but it gets results, and the results stand up
under scrutiny. Already, my pronunciation has been tremendously
improved, and my ability to respond to and participate in conversation
has gone through the roof -- the Participation step of dialogue was
BRUTAL for me, and it's what appears to be really solidifying my
language-learning gains.
I learned Thai well enough to understand written thai, and to be able
to write (laboriously) and then deliver a fluent-sounding 15-minute
public address, but I was completely shut out of conversation and
almost incapable of participation. The 'active response' abilities that
Programmatic Spanish are setting me up with should mean that this time
around, with Spanish, I can blaze through to a REAL success ... and
maybe, have the confidence to try for real competence in Thai.
Thanks a ton, and don't discount the benefit us newbies are getting
from the Programmatic Spanish course! For me, if the 2nd part of it is
ready within 3 weeks, I'll be ready for it by then; I'll be in Ecuador
possibly before you've finished digitizing the third volume (if you
have it, or if it exists; I don't remember), but I'll be with a friend
who is fluent and lives down there. :D
Again -- thanks a million, you guys. That this stuff is available FREE,
for me, is ... well, the difference between learning and not learning a
language, and all of the implications that has for me, as someone with
many spanish-speaking friends in spanish-speaking countries!
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 18 January 2007 at 6:43pm
Very inspiring Mr_Luc!
Had you completed any previous studies in spanish prior to the Basic Spanish? I was planning on finishing Pimsleur first (I'm still in intermediate) and then tackling Spanish Basic. But based on your post, I'm thinking I should try the Programmatic Spanish after Pimsleur.
|
Posted By: Dandy
Date Posted: 20 January 2007 at 3:27pm
Does anyone know if the Barron's Mastering spanish books follow the origninal FSI. I am thinking of buying used copies from Amazon or Alibris if they follow the same format. I'd like to get started as soon as I can and and at the same time save a lot of wear and tear on my printer.
|
Posted By: daristani
Date Posted: 20 January 2007 at 5:17pm
Yes, the Mastering Spanish follows the same format as the FSI Basic Spanish course; volume 1 of Mastering Spanish, consisting of 678 pages, has the first 15 lessons of the FSI Basic Spanish course, as well as a vocabulary listing. Per my understanding, the complete FSI Basic Spanish course has 60 lessons, so volume 1 of Mastering Spanish gives you a quarter of the whole course.
The Barron's tapes/CDs are identical, as far as I can tell, except that they add some "cultural capsules" on foods, monetary units, etc., presumably so as to enable them to claim copyright.
|
Posted By: davnshar2
Date Posted: 20 January 2007 at 10:27pm
I just discovered this website today. It looks great- thank you. When I click on 'student text' to download this, it opens as 473 blank pages. Am I doing something incorrectly ?
Thank you very much for any help with this- Much appreciated !

Sincerely,
Dbar2
------------- Dbar2
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 21 January 2007 at 9:20am
I had the same problem initially. You might try to close your browser and try again. It might be a time out issue because the file is so large.
|
Posted By: lelemds
Date Posted: 30 January 2007 at 12:58pm
hey everybody!
when the text for basic spanish will be on the site?! my brother wants to study it, but he didnt like the programatic course, coz he knows a bit of spanish and the prog is to boring, he said. but to study, he needs the audio and the text, any clue of when it will be here?! if u need some help im here, i have a scanner and can scan the text, or i can buy the equipment to record the audio to files if u want. just let me know if u need any help, ok?! thanks a lot!!!
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 15 February 2007 at 11:41am
Hi everyone!
I understand that this site is mostly contributed by volunteers, but I was wondering if there is any update on the rest of the Basic Spanish, or at least the written part of the course?
Thanks!
|
Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 15 February 2007 at 4:21pm
Volunteers contribute to the entire site. There's no mostly in it.
From gdfellows who's paying for the domain, to everyone else (including gdfellows) who has either spent money buying or time digitalizing courses for gdfellows to post.
The update is in the Status Page.
Sir Nigel so far is the only one who is working on the course. If you want to get the course up here faster, then you are more than welcome to either get a hold of the public-domain course and digitalize that or send a PM to Sir Nigel and see if you can split the work.
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 20 February 2007 at 12:11pm
I was only asking for the status. I did not think my post was demanding in any way.
|
Posted By: daristani
Date Posted: 20 February 2007 at 2:09pm
Don't worry, SunnyDD. You're allowed to ask about the status of courses, but often the answer is unclear, depending on who's donating/digitizing, etc., and how much time they have to devote to any one particular course. This can sometimes lead to sensitivity when such questions get asked, but you shouldn't take it personally.
As you're probably aware, the Basic Spanish course is very, very extensive, and I suspect it may be a while before it's all available here at the site. Also, since there are lots of other resources available to study Spanish (including the Programmatic Spanish course here at this site), and a lot fewer for languages like, say, Amharic, or Hungarian, or Finnish, the Basic Spanish course may suffer a bit in terms of the priority accorded it.
But while waiting for more of the course to be posted here, you can go to the Loquella site, which has all of the audio and text for the course on-line, albeit in a different format. You can't print out the book or download all the audio at one go, because it's divided into thousands of small pieces, but you can drill to your heart's content and, at least while you're on-line, get the full benefit of the FSI approach. The audio quality is excellent, and the site seems to work very easily as far as I can tell. So while awaiting the rest of the Basic Spanish course here, give it a try:
http://www.loquella.com/index.html
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 22 February 2007 at 5:46pm
Wow, great site! Thank you very much.
|
Posted By: Dandy
Date Posted: 03 March 2007 at 3:21pm
I was waiting for the FSI basic to be finished, but jumped ahead and went to loquella.com.
Just in case anyone is interested. You can download a free copy of Hi-Q recorder and create a fair quality mp3 copy of of the streaming audio as you go through the course. I have went through several Units and recorded the FSI material. I just click my mouse every second or so and go through the course. I also have a mic and go to the preference area and set the English first. I then make standalone audio copies with my own voice as the English transcript. I am also hand typing the dialogue into my wordprocessor as I go through the units again. I believe it will help me with writing and reading comprehension anyway. I have two audio copies and a written transcript for each unit I go through. I must admit the audio quality is not as good as Sir Nigel's though and I'm still looking forward to the origninal FSI BASIC Spanish. I don't see any copyright problems, I'm only using the material for personal use. It would be nice if they supplied a downloadable transcript of the units or even a printable version.
|
Posted By: SunnyDD
Date Posted: 04 March 2007 at 10:17am
I also wanted to pass on this site for anyone learning spanish:
http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html - http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html #
It's a series of educational videos for spanish students with an interesting story line. 
|
Posted By: El Santo
Date Posted: 26 March 2007 at 3:02pm
I am very grateful for all of the work you all are putting into this site! It has been great to find this site after two years of trying other programs. Programmatic Spanish has been very helpful. I expect to finish volume two in about a week and a half and I am looking forward to going through the Basic course when it is done. Muchas gracias!
|
Posted By: mouse
Date Posted: 12 May 2007 at 5:35pm
Originally posted by El Santo
I expect to finish volume two in about a week and a half ... |
Whoa! how are you going to do that? Even with extensive previous spanish experience, I expect at least a month to get through the course.
|
Posted By: El Santo
Date Posted: 12 May 2007 at 5:51pm
I wish I could move through these courses that quickly. It took me more than a week and a half, I meant that I expected to be done with volume two by a week and half after I posted the message.
|
|