Is Pimsleur the only good one out there? (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Is Pimsleur the only good one out there?
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37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

mr_chinnery
Senior Member
England
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Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 33 of 37

27 February 2011 at 12:49am | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

With every course claiming to be complete, is it any wonder that people
expect to simply do a course, and that's that?

Gullibility FTW.
1 person has voted this message useful

leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6551 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

Message 34 of 37

27 February 2011 at 2:02am | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

every course claiming to be complete

michelthomas.com wrote:

You are able to absorb the structures effortlessly and apply them naturally, right from
the start.

michelthomas.com wrote:

His approach gives startling results within a remarkably short time, all without the
need for books, memorizing, or homework.

maybe you're right
1 person has voted this message useful

Huliganov
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
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Speaks: English*, Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Esperanto, Czech
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Message 35 of 37

28 February 2011 at 12:52am | IP Logged

The Greek MT "Advanced" one claims to go well beyond GCSE structures. So I grabbed the word list and the grammar list off one of the main GSCE providers in the UK. Suffice it to say, you aren't going to get a GCSE in a modern language without a firm grounding of about 1200 or more words and the MT course doesn't go anywhere near that. Apart from anything else, of course, you can't write in it. And you try getting a GCSE without writing the alphabet!

I've used these MT courses for a while now and I find that they are not sticking so well after I leave them for a while and come back to them. They are a good precursor to getting into a language my usual way (the goldlist way) but they won't offer more than a nice introduction, the real work comes afterwards.

Before now, I've compared learning a language properly to running a marathon. The MT course might be the 1600 metres race. 800 metres for the first 8 CDs and another for the advanced course and the vocab course. At least completing it will help you to know whether you like running or not. But it isn't the marathon and the claims that are made and the way it is described is simply misleading.

Other than that, if only silly claims were not made for the MT courses I'd say they were quite good.

Also they are not all as much of a muchness as the Pimsleur ones are. The Pimsleur get pretty boring as we are basically going through a tourist's phrasebook. By the time you are on your second or third Pimsleur course, that's pretty tedious.

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Cainntear
Pentaglot
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Scotland
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Message 36 of 37

28 February 2011 at 8:37am | IP Logged

mr_chinnery wrote:

Cainntear wrote:

With every course claiming to be complete, is it any wonder that people
expect to simply do a course, and that's that?

Gullibility FTW.

Is it really that gullible to believe what everyone tells you?

leosmith wrote:

Cainntear wrote:

every course claiming to be complete

michelthomas.com wrote:

You are able to absorb the structures effortlessly and apply them naturally, right from
the start.

michelthomas.com wrote:

His approach gives startling results within a remarkably short time, all without the
need for books, memorizing, or homework.

maybe you're right

I said "every course" and I meant "every course". Just because I like MT as a course doesn't mean A) I think it's complete (it's not) or B) it's marketed honestly (it's not, although they've stopped using some of the most outlandish claims).

That said, the quotes above aren't actually A) claiming completeness or B) untrue.

Huliganov wrote:

That's why the say the "structures" you need for a GCSE -- creative marketers can mislead purchasers without lying!
1 person has voted this message useful

leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6551 days ago
2365 posts - 3804 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

Message 37 of 37

06 March 2011 at 5:11am | IP Logged

Huliganov wrote:

The Pimsleur get pretty boring as we are basically going through a tourist's phrasebook. By
the time
you are on your second or third Pimsleur course, that's pretty tedious.

Compared to the gold list method?

Cainntear wrote:

That said, the quotes above aren't actually...untrue.

michelthomas.com wrote:

You are able to absorb the structures effortlessly and apply them naturally, right
from the
start.

I require effort to do the courses. Don't you?

michelthomas.com wrote:

His approach gives startling results within a remarkably short time, all without the
need for books, memorizing, or homework.

Maybe you have a different definition of "memorizing" than I.

1 person has voted this message useful

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