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Pimsleur vs. Rocket | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5477 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 9 of 12 14 May 2015 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
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Hi i am groot,
Well I can see you've made your decision. Nevertheless I'll share my experiences with French (never studied Italian myself) as I have used All the Pimsleur series (1-4), Michel Thomas, Paul Noble, Linguaphone All Talk, and I've worked my way through Rocket French Premium, Premium Plus and now Platinum (have done about a 3rd now of that 3rd advanced installment). First up I agree with what others have recommended- also use a decent course such as Assimil and try to have your audio predominantly as a commute-based learning system or an added-extra to your more solid Assimil (or whatever other course) studies. Pimsleur is great for automaticity. It's great for pronunciation, and it for the most part includes very little English in my experience. It does give a false sense of confidence. It's one thing to know all the levels of Pimsleur in any given language back to front and another thing to converse with ease amongst natives. However without taking anything away from your progress it seems like you are progressing well with decent enthusiasm. Michel Thomas is a really good intro to a language which goes over the majority of commonly used tenses and does help develop some automaticity as well. Not as good for pronunciation as Pimsleur but better in my opinion for getting your head around verb tenses. Paul Noble (don't know if they make an Italian version) is a very similar system to Michel Thomas. If you get one don't get the other, you'll be wasting your money almost (unless you're a audio course fanatic). It didn't seem to use as complex langage as MT but it's more clearly enunciated, and thus may be a good bridge between Pimsleur and MT. Of course my experiences are with French and not Italiian. Linguaphone's All Talk is a good addition to your audio collection if you're willing to expend it. Again I've never looked at Italian resources so I'm unaware if it exists in Italian. It has a lot of vocabulary that is not present in any of the other audio courses I'm mentioning and follows along with a continuing story. It comes with a booklet. Not sure if the dialogues are listed but I know all the words are. I'm pretty sure the dialogues are listed (I didn't use the booklet much) Rocket French In my opinion when comparing Pimsleur and Rocket languages, I see it like this- Pimsleur is a great start- esp in developing pronunciation and automaticity. Rocket Languages to me isn't an alternative. Although level 1 is rather easy, but the 2nd and 3rd levels are more advanced than even Pimsleur IV. Others might disagree but I've done a lot of audio courses and other courses and I'm still finding the latter parts of Rocket French (Platinum, and Premium Plus to a lesser degree) a not a walk in the park. Pimsleur IV was almost a walk in the park and I did that not so long ago. There are some pronunciation issues with Rocket languages. I don't like the way some of the 'hosts' pronounce certain words. Okay to be fair some are Canadians and I prefer Metropolitan French since that's what I am learning. But back in level 1 one of the hosts had a rubbish accent. Good thing is he was just there to add to the program on not the main conversationalist. If you get through all the Pimsleur courses I highly reccommend Rocket languages despite the gimmicky looking marketing. It's a decent program. Oh and the pdf written files are useful for reference but not perfect. Prob every 2nd lesson or 3rd I notice typos. It hasn't bothered me much though as it hasn't hindered my progress. There are some exra comments by the hosts that include some rapid speech that are not included in the pdfs and I find myself rewinding a lot to work out what's been said exactly. Edit: Rocket French does use some English which I don't mind at all. It contains a LOT of vocab not present in all the other programs. The language seems much more natural and thus not so clinical in its focus during the course of the conversations (the conversations are broken down and explained with opportunity for listen- repeat exercises) I hope this helps, and if not (well either way)... Enjoy your upcoming trip! Edited by PeterMollenburg on 14 May 2015 at 11:42am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| i am groot Newbie United States Joined 3498 days ago 4 posts - 9 votes Studies: Italian | Message 10 of 12 14 May 2015 at 4:23pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Peter,
Thank you so much for taking the time to help. Well, for now I chose to keep going with Pimsleur because of the low cost, which is important at this particular point in time, and because I find it enjoyable. However, I do understand there is a LOT more to the Italian language than what is being imparted by Pimsleur, and so I know I eventually must confront that to a greater extent. I'm no spring chicken, so my memory can only handle so much at one time, and cost is important right now, but as long as my enthusiasm continues, I will do my best to add to my collection of useful learning material and the time necessary to study it. Thank you again for your input! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 12 14 May 2015 at 5:18pm | IP Logged |
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I agree about continuing Pimsleur if you can get it cheaply. I found it to be a good course for drilling in the basics, especially for somebody who doesn't already have a background in Romance languages. People often say that "Pimsleur is good for pronunciation"; I believe that's only true for those who already have a good ear for language and accent, but you've already said that you do so it should work well for you!
I like Michel Thomas, but as already discussed it's not everyone's thing. The basic course is worthwhile, you learn a lot in a short period of time, but the advanced one is probably overkill for your immediate tourism goal. I've never tried Paul Noble or Rocket. I agree with rdearman that a phrasebook would be useful too. As for your eventual goal of becoming fluent, that's a much longer-term commitment, and it's what I've been working on (and very much still am!) for the last few years. I think Assimil is a good course to bridge the gap from basic/tourist knowledge to an intermediate level where you can use native materials effectively and have decent conversations. It would be a good choice for after the trip, especially with the post-trip motivation to get you started :) It's still a long road to fluency after that, but it gets you off to a decent start. Where did your wife go? The only part of Italy where I've experienced significant rudeness was Rome, but it was also the only part where most people insisted in speaking English with me. Every time I've been to Italy, I've either been with an Italian or I've had a decent level in the language myself, so I don't have the experience of going without knowing the language. On the subject of Rome, if you happen to be there on a Sunday then the Porta Portese market in Trastevere is a good place to look for these second-hand books and DVDs. I found DVDs starting from 1 euro each, including seasons of TV series. I'm sure there are similar markets in other places and on other days too. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4053 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 12 of 12 15 May 2015 at 3:29am | IP Logged |
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Hi Groot,
I just sent you a "Private Message" concerning Pimsleur Notes and Transcripts. Ciao for now! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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