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Is Pimsleur the only good one out there?

  Tags: Pimsleur
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6012 days ago
4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 17 of 37
03 February 2011 at 5:31pm | IP Logged 
Normunds wrote:
Possibly that different courses have different focus regarding "ground". The course I went through covered about the same things as in Pimsleur both vocabulary-wise and grammar-wise. I first listened to Pimsleur and I listened only to MT Advanced, so I cannot really compare, but by extrapolation Pimsleur had larger vocabulary and about the same amount of grammar.

Only in Pimsleur it was more by example, implicit, while in MT the teacher was telling lame stories over and over.

And yes, my assumption that annoying mnemonics and stupid jokes is the basis of MT method was based on two other teachers. But unfortunately we do not not talk about Michael himself, but "series" using his name. The old guy will not make another course.

OK, the "method" courses don't cover anywhere near as much ground as MT's own, but when I talk about an MT course, I'm talking about what MT did himself, and I generally try to be clear that the others are all pale imitations.

Quote:
And finally, will you also say that 90 lesson Pimsleur is say 6 full day course?


No. Let me explain...
Quote:
I'd agree that taking 3 MT levels in 3 days will not be easy. Even if their content was acceptable. IMO it would have been pretty counter-productive unless the course is really geared to do it. But in this perspective I agree that as a content for three day the course it might be ok.

The courses that Michel Thomas recorded were nothing more than live lessons, the same lessons he delivered privately (at very expensive rates). The courses done by other teachers took a week or more and were heavily edited.

To be clear, I wouldn't suggest doing a genuine MT course in 3 days unless you have a pressing need to learn a language quickly, because obviously it's harder to concentrate on a CD than someone in the same room as you.

Pimsleur is a very different beast as it has been designed specifically to be a 90 day course -- the whole course is based around a schedule of repetitions at increasing time intervals. The course would unfold differently if lessons were a different length.
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Normunds
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
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Speaks: Latvian*, French, English, Russian, German
Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian

 
 Message 18 of 37
03 February 2011 at 5:50pm | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
Normunds wrote:
Possibly that different courses have different focus regarding "ground". The course I went through covered about the same things as in Pimsleur both vocabulary-wise and grammar-wise. I first listened to Pimsleur and I listened only to MT Advanced, so I cannot really compare, but by extrapolation Pimsleur had larger vocabulary and about the same amount of grammar.

Only in Pimsleur it was more by example, implicit, while in MT the teacher was telling lame stories over and over.

And yes, my assumption that annoying mnemonics and stupid jokes is the basis of MT method was based on two other teachers. But unfortunately we do not not talk about Michael himself, but "series" using his name. The old guy will not make another course.

OK, the "method" courses don't cover anywhere near as much ground as MT's own, but when I talk about an MT course, I'm talking about what MT did himself, and I generally try to be clear that the others are all pale imitations.

Quote:
And finally, will you also say that 90 lesson Pimsleur is say 6 full day course?


No. Let me explain...
Quote:
I'd agree that taking 3 MT levels in 3 days will not be easy. Even if their content was acceptable. IMO it would have been pretty counter-productive unless the course is really geared to do it. But in this perspective I agree that as a content for three day the course it might be ok.

The courses that Michel Thomas recorded were nothing more than live lessons, the same lessons he delivered privately (at very expensive rates). The courses done by other teachers took a week or more and were heavily edited.

To be clear, I wouldn't suggest doing a genuine MT course in 3 days unless you have a pressing need to learn a language quickly, because obviously it's harder to concentrate on a CD than someone in the same room as you.

Pimsleur is a very different beast as it has been designed specifically to be a 90 day course -- the whole course is based around a schedule of repetitions at increasing time intervals. The course would unfold differently if lessons were a different length.


Ok, I can agree to that, you try to keep clean the old man's good name. And when I talk about MT, I refer to my experience with the "method". That makes me even interested to hear the "real" course :-)

But in any case it becomes very slippery discussing this, as any requests/discussion will refer to currently available and new courses. So that using the ruler of the "real" courses when discussing the new ones might not be valid... well, whatever. Have a good evening :-)
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tpark
Tetraglot
Pro Member
Canada
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Speaks: English*, German, Dutch, French
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 Message 19 of 37
15 February 2011 at 5:25am | IP Logged 
There are a lot of useful things that can be learned from Pimsleur (directions, numbers, how much does that cost? I wanna beer) but I think additional studies are needed for any real degree of fluency. I use Pimsleur in the car, but MT when I have a chance to do concentrated study, since the tape has to be stopped to answer. Of course, when reviewing using MT, it's not necessary to stop the tape if you can answer well before the students. Both courses have their place.
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Desertbandit
Groupie
Netherlands
Joined 5101 days ago
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Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)*

 
 Message 20 of 37
15 February 2011 at 7:22pm | IP Logged 
But lets stay on topic, besides Pimsleur and MT are there any good language courses?
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Badwolf
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5053 days ago
4 posts - 2 votes

 
 Message 21 of 37
17 February 2011 at 3:20pm | IP Logged 
I've used the Earworms Apps on my iPhone - www.earwormsmobile.com - and found them really useful to get me
started and give me the confidence I needed to progress.


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hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 5131 days ago
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Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 22 of 37
17 February 2011 at 4:19pm | IP Logged 
Desertbandit wrote:
But lets stay on topic, besides Pimsleur and MT are there any good language courses?

I don't think there is anything else like MT or Pimsleur out there.

Certainly there are other audio-only courses on the market, but they don't give you the solid foundation that either MT or Pimsleur give you.

I know Linguagphone makes the "All Talk" series which claims you'll learn 2000 words, but I have no experience with it.

R.
==
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ic32987
Groupie
United States
Joined 6341 days ago
50 posts - 54 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 23 of 37
19 February 2011 at 2:32pm | IP Logged 
Not sure if you would count podcasts, but for your learning Arabic, arabicpod.net is a
nice audio "course." They have hundreds of lessons, they're 10-15 minutes long, and quite
entertaining. If you want to pay, or do the week long free trial and just download
everything (...not endorsing this idea...), you can also get the PDF transcripts and so
on. They have beginner, intermediate, and advanced courses. Though, I think most of it is
MSA mixed with Levantine. Perhaps not Iraqi, in your case.
1 person has voted this message useful



jazzboy.bebop
Senior Member
Norway
norwegianthroughnove
Joined 5419 days ago
439 posts - 800 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian

 
 Message 24 of 37
20 February 2011 at 1:55am | IP Logged 
There's also Paul Noble's courses which are heavily influenced by Michel Thomas' courses.

They appear to be reasonable enough courses, if you can believe the Amazon reviews of
course. :p

I've got a hold of the French course though and will give it a listen over the next
couple of weeks or so and see how it compares to the MT French courses I used a good
while ago, especially considering it is essentially using the same kind of teaching
process.


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