I have been learning Spanish by myself for the last 2 years and have tried Platiquemos (basically FSI Spanish), Pimsleur, Rocket Spanish, Learning Spanish Like Crazy and Michel Thomas. By a narrow margin, I’d say my personal favorite is Let’s Talk IF you’re already at an intermediate level AND want to get to full fluency AND don’t mind working an hour or so a day on the program for the next 6-8 months (all which suit me, may not be for you). My second favorite, and the best for most beginners and intermediates, in my opinion, is Learning Spanish Like Crazy.
If you already know a little (or even more than a little) Spanish, this is definitely the program that I recommend the most. Like Rocket Spanish, it’s available as a moderately priced download (I think it’s $97), or it can be had on CD in a more expensive version. The multiple speakers have a variety of Latin American accents. They speak clearly but at normal conversational speed. The 30+ lessons are accompanied by PDF transcripts of the entire lesson, so you can read what you’re hearing if you wish. You also get some written grammar lessons. When I purchased the downloader, I was also able to download levels 3 and 4 of the FSI Spanish course at no additional cost (FSI stands for Foreign Service Institute, the government institute that trains diplomats for the Department of State). Oh, two more things:
1) Like Rocket Spanish, Learning Spanish Like Crazy has a very useful web forum where you can ask questions and discuss things in Spanish or English.
2) Also, Level 2 is out now, I have it and I’m very impressed – it’s a perfect complement to the first one and picks up right where Level 1 leaves off. It focuses on things like the subjunctive and sentence structure and grammar more advanced, bringing you closer to being able to hold a conversation with a native speaker at normal speed.
When I finished Level 1 of Learn Spanish Like Crazy, I was way ahead of Pimsleur at the end of his Level 3! Pimsleur is probably the best known of the five programs I mentioned. It is also by far the most expensive (about $300 PER LEVEL, that is $1200 for all 4 levels of Spanish), but it is also available for free in many public libraries. That’s how I got it. When I tried Pimsleur, I had already finished Learn Spanish Like Crazy. I found Pimsleur somewhat disappointing. I thought he would be more challenging than he turned out to be. People speak surprisingly slowly, even at Level 3. You can’t hear a conversation at normal speech speed. That’s fine when you’re starting out, but by Level 3, the speed should be faster and the vocabulary and grammar more varied. He had reached a more advanced level only from Level 1 of Learn Spanish Like Crazy.
Another thing I did not like about Pimsleur is that almost no written materials. If you do not know what someone is saying, there’s a transcript to which you can refer. Nor you have no idea how the words are in Spanish on paper, so your ability to read is not developed so well. However, Pimsleur does an effective job on the Spanish instill. She makes good use of repetition. Definitely you learn some Spanish with Pimsleur, and if you can get it free at your library, it’s worth a try.