Hardheim Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5122 days ago 34 posts - 78 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, French
| Message 81 of 104 09 September 2010 at 9:40am | IP Logged |
Just as an aside. How many semsesters of college study is each of the Pimsleur sections worth (strictly from a speaking and listening standpoint.) I took Spanish 101 in college a year ago, and Pimsleur Spanish I seems to follow pretty closely to the speaking ability gathered after 1 semester. Would it be safe to assume that completing all 3 is approximately the equivalent of your speaking proficiency after 3 semesters?
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budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5728 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map
| Message 82 of 104 09 September 2010 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
Hardheim wrote:
Just as an aside. How many semsesters of college study is each of the
Pimsleur sections worth (strictly from a speaking and listening standpoint.) I took
Spanish 101 in college a year ago, and Pimsleur Spanish I seems to follow pretty closely
to the speaking ability gathered after 1 semester. Would it be safe to assume that
completing all 3 is approximately the equivalent of your speaking proficiency after 3
semesters? |
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I don't think so. 3 semesters should be much further ahead then Pimsleur. The whole
course is only 45-50 hours of lessons with a lot of repetition.
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budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5728 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map
| Message 83 of 104 09 September 2010 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
I just got French III A out of the library. French is very popular here. You have to put
a hold on it to get it. I put a hold on French III B and I am third in line.
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oceankyle Newbie United States Joined 5164 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 84 of 104 09 September 2010 at 3:03pm | IP Logged |
As far as speaking ability I think Pimsleurs is worth that many college semesters. For
vocab probably not. But my ability to speak and put together thoughts/sentences after
my colllege course was next to nothing.
Edited by oceankyle on 11 September 2010 at 2:15am
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mike245 Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6895 days ago 303 posts - 408 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: English*, Spanish, Cantonese Studies: French, German, Mandarin, Khmer
| Message 85 of 104 11 September 2010 at 1:51am | IP Logged |
Hardheim wrote:
Just as an aside. How many semsesters of college study is each of
the Pimsleur sections worth (strictly from a speaking and listening standpoint.) I
took Spanish 101 in college a year ago, and Pimsleur Spanish I seems to follow pretty
closely to the speaking ability gathered after 1 semester. Would it be safe to assume
that completing all 3 is approximately the equivalent of your speaking proficiency
after 3 semesters? |
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I don't think there is an easy answer to this because it depends on the quality of the
college class, the professor, and the teaching materials. Not all college classes plod
painfully through grammar rules; some focus on conversation and spontaneous
interaction, and some teachers will inspire you to learn the language well. And if
it's a small class with lots of interaction, there is a lot of value in getting
instantaneous feedback from the teacher on your pronunciation, etc.
For example, after three semesters of college level Portuguese, I was able to speak
fairly comfortably with native speakers on pretty much any non-technical topic, listen
to radio broadcasts with fair comprehension, and read popular novels without too much
trouble. I don't think Brazilian Portuguese I-III would have taken me nearly as far.
But after French 101, I was hard pressed to form a sentence in real time. The class
had been huge, and we focused primarily on grammar rules rather than real-time
speaking/listening skills. Pimsleur was invaluable in helping me with my
conversational skills, and I would have gladly replaced that semester of French class
with even just Pimsleur French I.
Edited by mike245 on 11 September 2010 at 1:52am
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zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 6923 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin
| Message 86 of 104 13 September 2010 at 10:35am | IP Logged |
budonoseito wrote:
I just got French III A out of the library. French is very popular here. You have to put
a hold on it to get it. I put a hold on French III B and I am third in line. |
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I can tell you cannot compare. In France (and I understand it's the same in many countries) college study does not teach you to speak and understand efficiently.
My son was on a trip in Spain with 30 Pimsleur lessons under his belt and fared much better than his friends with their 4 years of college Spanish.
College teaches or tries to teach a language, Pimsleur primes you to the language and trains you for elementary efficient communication.
I was a very good pupil in German and had 4 years at college. I speak Italian/portuguese/spanish much better that German, after Pimsleur + Assimil (3+6 months each at first) . Difficult to compare since German is very different from a romance language. And 2 1 hour classes a week compares un favorably with Pimsleur (or Assimil) 30 rather intense minutes a day.
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budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5728 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map
| Message 87 of 104 13 September 2010 at 2:04pm | IP Logged |
zorglub wrote:
My son was on a trip in Spain with 30 Pimsleur lessons under his belt
and fared much better than his friends with their 4 years of college Spanish.
College teaches or tries to teach a language, Pimsleur primes you to the language and
trains you for elementary efficient communication.
I was a very good pupil in German and had 4 years at college. I speak
Italian/portuguese/spanish much better that German, after Pimsleur + Assimil (3+6
months each at first) . Difficult to compare since German is very different from a
romance language. And 2 1 hour classes a week compares un favorably with Pimsleur (or
Assimil) 30 rather intense minutes a day. |
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Thanks for the feedback. It helps confirm where I thought the course was going. The
French III is adding more vocabulary for adjectives and adverbs to help describe
situations better.
I am using the Pimsleur + Assimil combo and it is working well for me.
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Desacrator48 Groupie United States Joined 5231 days ago 93 posts - 127 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French
| Message 88 of 104 14 September 2010 at 12:27am | IP Logged |
I just finished Pimsleur French III after using it for 4 months, and now I just did my first lesson of Assimil. Let's just say the first lesson was extremely easy for me; I covered it very thoroughly in 30 minutes.
I will probably do 2 lessons a day at 30 minutes each. I wonder how long I can keep this up until Assimil lessons are no longer as easy because of my recent completion of Pimsleur.
I have also started French in Action and watched the first 2 episodes. I also understood everything there because of Pimsleur and it also seemed very easy. I will only watch 1 episode a day though (with re-runs), because I imagine it will get harder soon.
So to sum up, I'm glad I put in all the work to finish Pimsleur French I-III. I did 2 hours on each 30 minute lesson because it also involved me creating my own transcripts for writing and reading practice, and in the end, it has provided me with a very solid listening and speaking foundation to move onto more intermediate materials.
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