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Why is Pimsleur such crap?

  Tags: Usefulness | Pimsleur
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
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Warp3
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 Message 33 of 62
28 May 2010 at 8:18pm | IP Logged 
GREGORG4000 wrote:
I'm wondering how one is supposed to figure out the tense/aspirated/normal distinction in Korean and other things like that without any guidance from the instructor.


The narrator does make note of them and they also use certain phrases to help demonstrate the differences.

For example, one of the sentences is: "차가 자가요." (The car is small.) In this sentence, the only difference in the two words (ignoring the ~요 politeness ending) is the pronunciation of the first letter of each word (aspirated vs normal). So they make specific note of this difference and then repeat that sentence several times afterward to demonstrate.
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apatch3
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 Message 34 of 62
10 June 2010 at 11:39am | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
Well, to be fair to those confident Pimsleur guys, at least they learn how to offer choices. Not only do they learn how to ask foreign women to go with them to restaurants--going to hotels and going to "my place" are also options! And you can have wine OR beer! Think of the possibilities!


LMAO the wine or beer part cracked me up XD I remember thinking the same when going through pimsleur japanese "Wain ka biiru" rofl
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zorglub
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 Message 35 of 62
11 June 2010 at 2:44am | IP Logged 
GREGORG4000 wrote:
It's designed for confident American men who want to take foreign women to restaurants and drink beer and water


Plain wrong , Sir, it's for American women who wnat to meet foreign studs.
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GREGORG4000
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 Message 36 of 62
11 June 2010 at 2:47am | IP Logged 
Warp3 wrote:

The narrator does make note of them and they also use certain phrases to help demonstrate the differences.

For example, one of the sentences is: "차가 자가요." (The car is small.) In this sentence, the only difference in the two words (ignoring the ~요 politeness ending) is the pronunciation of the first letter of each word (aspirated vs normal). So they make specific note of this difference and then repeat that sentence several times afterward to demonstrate.

That's good then. I didn't get that far in the course and I was really confused about the pronunciation, but now that I know they'll cover it, I'll try it again. Thanks for telling me.
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socks
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 Message 37 of 62
03 July 2010 at 6:13pm | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
Well, to be fair to those confident Pimsleur guys, at least they
learn how to offer choices. Not only do they learn how to ask foreign women to go with
them to restaurants--going to hotels and going to "my place" are also options! And you
can have wine OR beer! Think of the possibilities!

The course offers a few phrases, three locations and two beverage choices, all of which
work out OK for the guy . . . or, at least, it would have worked, if Pimsleur had not
also told the lady how to say no! And to be fair to Pimsleur, a lady can use these same
lines with a guy. This does not happen on the recording, but anyone can adapt the
program to his, or her, own preference(s). Think of the possibilities!


Yeah, I don't know what they were trying to do... but they certainly didn't help change
the image of the average American male I have in my head. Not to be racist or anything,
but what sort of disgusting person behaves like that character on the tape? :P
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Teango
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 Message 38 of 62
03 July 2010 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
Well, to be fair to those confident Pimsleur guys, at least they learn how to offer choices. Not only do they learn how to ask foreign women to go with them to restaurants--going to hotels and going to "my place" are also options! And you can have wine OR beer! Think of the possibilities!

Sometimes I wonder if these Pims-and-leurmonade Lotharios also drink beer and wine at spaced intervals whilst writing the dialogues? Grape or grain, but never the twain, especially if you can't explain... :)

Edited by Teango on 03 July 2010 at 7:08pm
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meramarina
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 Message 39 of 62
03 July 2010 at 8:41pm | IP Logged 
A resourceful learner of any gender can adapt the program to the particular situation, whatever that may be!

And everyone needs to know the words for eating and drinking (although some non-alchoholic beverage choices would be welcome). Still, though, it's a little hard to relate to the "characters" in the dialogue if you don't have much of a social life.

Despite what I said about Pimsleur, I've just recommended the program to someone. It is good for the raw basics of a language and pronunciation.
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socks
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 Message 40 of 62
03 July 2010 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
A resourceful learner of any gender can adapt the program to the
particular situation, whatever that may be!

And everyone needs to know the words for eating and drinking (although some non-
alchoholic beverage choices would be welcome). Still, though, it's a little hard to
relate to the "characters" in the dialogue if you don't have much of a social life.


Ehm... what does a social life have to do with it? Personally, I go out of my way to
avoid people who ask me incessantly if I want to eat/drink with them, especially after
I tell them I'm married! In fact, some kind of aerosol would be involved in the
conversation after the first ten minutes of 'what about now? and now? okay how about
later?'
I don't know what kind of social lives people in the States have...

Learners of anything have to adapt to resources available - but the fact that they can
doesn't make the resource above criticism, or even the best possible. I'm certain that
it could have been designed in a fashion that didn't make you wonder about Dr
Pimsleur's private life. Unless - God forbid - that's how people really interact in the
west.


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