Pimsleur® equals success. Just one 30-minute lesson a day gets you speaking and understanding like no other program. This course includes Lessons 1-16 from the Castilian Spanish Level 1 program - 8 hours of audio-only effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. Topics include: greetings, numbers, meals, shopping, telling time, scheduling activities, and asking and giving directions. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Castilian Spanish. Readings begin in Lesson 11. The Castilian Spanish Language In the United States, the term “Castilian” or “Castilian Spanish” usually refers to the dialect that is the official language of Spain, where it’s used in television and radio broadcasts. It is understood throughout the country, although there are marked regional differences. The difference between Castilian Spanish as spoken in Spain and Spanish as spoken in the Americas (now called Latin American Spanish) is due to the diminishing contact between Spain and the Americas over the centuries and to the influence of local languages in the Americas. These two main variants of Spanish are mutually intelligible; the difference between them is comparable to that between British English and American English. Pimsleur’s Castilian Spanish teaches the official dialect as spoken by the majority of Spanish-speakers in Spain. Spanish is the official language of twenty-one countries and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Spanish is the first language of more than 350 million people, more than any other language except Mandarin Chinese. Additionally, Spanish is a common second language —- the most studied after English, and the third most commonly used on the Internet after English and Mandarin. Tech Talk - CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes® or Windows Media Player®.