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Why I think the Pimsleur method is good. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5781 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 17 of 48 17 January 2011 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@ Hrhenry.
Sorry if that seemed a bit rude. I have never studied any Turkish or Polish, and could not comment on whether Pimsleur is identical in format for all languages as (apart from the first 10 lessons of Mandarin Chinese) I have only used it for German and for Romance Languages. I am shocked that "could have" and "should have" are covered in 30 lessons of Turkish, they are not covered in 90 lessons for any of the courses I have tried- indeed after 30 lessons they had barely even started on just one of the past tenses! That would suggest to me that Pimsleur is not a "translated template" course รก la Rosetta Stone! At any rate, comparing German with German, Portuguese with Portuguese etc, there is no comparison on grammar. Equally there is no comparison for pronunciation (in favour of Pimsleur), and both do a good job of teaching core "structural" vocabulary. 10 lessons of Pimsleur Mandarin, and I hardly know ANY chinese, but what sentences I DO know always amaze Chinese people for the quality of pronunciation. A typical comment is "you don't sound foreign". That is just how good it is for pronunciation. I have had similar comments on my Portuguese pronunciation (the only other language where I STARTED with Pimsleur). Sadly I know from my Spanish and German that I have no particular talent for pronouncing foreign languages, and that the above is due to STARTING with Pimsleur. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5128 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 18 of 48 17 January 2011 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is how I used both Pimsleur and MT. Neither one taught me a huge amount of vocabulary, but they both were GREAT places to start. And both were enough to get me to more advanced courses and continue studying. If I gave the impression that Pimsleur (or MT, for that matter) was the end-all, be-all, I certainly didn't mean to. I don't believe that ANY single course can get you to comfortable proficiency. It's just a piece of a rather large number of things that'll do that. I've not met a simgle person that claims comfortable proficiency from just one course. I know that Pimsleur claims that after completing a "Comlpete I-III" level course you'd be able to pass a first level proficiency exam. For me, first level proficiency isn't enough, so that sort of exam wouldn't interest me, but it might be interesting to hear if someone has actually taken them up on that challenge. I wish I could get interested in Mandarin enough to study it. I've tried, but I just can't get interested in the language. I don't know of it's the written system or what. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 17 January 2011 at 8:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5188 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 19 of 48 17 January 2011 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think Pimsleur is quite good - it is audio based and gives you meaning which is all you need to get going.
However there are some negative aspects; The main one is that it lacks cultural understanding - they just take a standard course and translate it into every language. So on the Arabic course you might learn how to ask an Arab girl if she'd like a drink.....but I doubt that would ever happen in real life. Another problem is that there is too much English on the recordings. You'll end up remembering the English as well as the second language (similar problem with Michel Thomas). Courses like Assimil are better in this regard - you can listen to them over and over, but I doubt you'll want to listen to Pimsleur more than once. And how much vocabulary do you learn with Pimsleur? I read on these forums something like 20 words in each lesson. 90 lessons = 1800 words. That is nothing! Barely reaching the foothills of a very high mountain. But there are plenty of worse ways to start than Pimsleur. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5563 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 20 of 48 17 January 2011 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just counted the words in lesson 1 of German 1 and it contained 15 words - and that is being generous to Pimsleur by including the conjugation change between 'Sie verstehen' and 'ich verstehe' (which is not a separate word). If I remember correctly the word count goes down quite rapidly to about 5 words per lesson after about lesson 5 - So in reality Pimsleur is giving you about 600-700 for three levels, if you cut out basic conjugation change as new 'words'.
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| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5188 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 21 of 48 17 January 2011 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wow - so few words! And that works out at about a dollar a word, if I've understood the course prices. There are definitely cheaper ways to do it! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5755 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 22 of 48 18 January 2011 at 12:10am | IP Logged | |||||
What's a first level proficiency exam? I might be tempted to take the challenge if it's available around my area. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5781 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 23 of 48 18 January 2011 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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OK, 600 - 700 words does not sound like much, but those words are absolutely burned into your brain. In conversation when I was in Spain I often found myself (due to nerves?) fumbling for words which I actually knew, this NEVER EVER happened for ANY word I learned with Pimsleur. On one occasion I could not remember "comprobar" (a very common word in Spain, and one I thought I knew quite well) in the heat of conversation, but had no trouble replacing it with "verificar", which is what Pimsleur taught, even though this word is not used so much in Spain, and I had never heard it anywhere else except Pimsleur.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5128 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 24 of 48 18 January 2011 at 1:21am | IP Logged | |||||
They explain it here: http://www.pimsleur.com/Proficiency-Guarantee I stand corrected. The page says just completing a level I would allow you to pass, which frankly surprises me. That said, I have no idea what guidelines languageline uses for its levels. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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