Immerse yourself in Spanish

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT) - I've just returned from my 90-minute commute on the parking lot known as the 405 Freeway. If traffic wasn't exactly flying, time was and instead of hearing about how bad traffic was on my car radio, I was learning a language we're all going to have to learn if demographic experts are right. Even now, pretty much everything (excluding this column) is in both English and Spanish. So, as I do every year about this time, I'm brushing up on my Spanish.

This year I'm using "Instant Immersion Spanish Platinum" edition, which runs on every version of Windows produced in the past decade, including Vista. This Spanish course comes on 11 CDs. The first three are intensive Spanish lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. At each level you can jump around to topics that interest you, or you can go step-by-step with the patient tutors. The lessons are learned best if you plug a microphone into your PC, even the kind you buy for 5 or 10 bucks. The native speakers toss out words and phrases, and you try to imitate them. The program evaluates how you're doing and plays back the correct pronunciation. Animations show you how your lips, tongue and mouth should look in order to pronounce the words correctly.

Each of the three instructional CDs has 250 hours of lessons and hundreds of exercises in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. In addition to drills, you'll find riddles, crossword puzzles and word searches _ all geared to your level.

The remaining eight CDs are audio lessons, which I play in my car, but which can be played on any CD player. You start with the alphabet and sounds, move on to greetings, special pronouns, gender issues, weather, numbers, verbs, giving and following directions, the calendar, food and restaurant ordering, finding a room in a Spanish-speaking country, telling time and the tools you need to shop until your drop. It sounds touristy, and tourists will certainly appreciate these lessons, but I also found the audio CDs helpful in learning the language's cadence, vocabulary, grammar and its cultural pointers.

In all, an excellent collection of CDs for learning Spanish at any level, whether you share my long commute or jog to work with your portable CD player.

The 11-CD "Instant Immersion Spanish Platinum Edition" will run on Windows Vista, XP, 98 2000, Me and 95. To order, send $35, plus $6 for shipping, to WashingtonCD, PO Box 351531, Los Angeles, CA 90035, or online at www.washingtoncd.net.

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