Pimsleur, anyone?

[ElDirtyPaco]

I have an odd question maybe someone out there has tackled. I'm in the early stages of planning a trip from Alaska to SA and I'm blessed with being fluently bilingual (English/Spanish), unfortunately, my buddy who is planning to ride with me does not speak a word of spanish (aside from ordering steak). We've tackled several ideas and I've assured him one spanish speaker should be enough but he is determined to "pull his weight". He's thinking of picking up a Spanish Pimsleur course and listening to it on the long stretches. Has anyone tried this or something similar? He figures that the language course along with practice with the locals should do the trick. Personally, I'm a little hesitant to try any language program but I've heard Pimsleur is good/effective and worth the money. Has anyone had good results with this?

On a related note, reading some of the border crossing stories, would you suggest it would be easier to fake not knowing spanish at the borders to avoid unnecessary "fees & delays" or, in your collective experiences, have you found speaking the language to speed up crossings? I also happen to have my original passport (Nicaraguan) and a U.S. passport (I'm a naturalized citizen), which would you recommend using? I know U.S. makes visas easier/non-existent but I haven't really looked into traveling as a Nic. citizen since it may become harder to get visas. Any inputs?

NOTE: Pimsleur is a language learning method that focuses on auditory conversational methods to facilitate conversational fluency in most situations while avoiding grammatical hang ups. I understand this is the method used by the CIA & the U.S. state dept. to train foreign operatives/representatives in a short time.