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Pimsleur vs Podcasts | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5701 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 26 of 39 10 May 2011 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I couldn't actively use the words and grammar points taught in their Japanese and Spanish series. It's not even depth or any mystical quality, it's the simple fact that Pimsleur works with forced recall and 101-podcasts don't - using the words in your own sentences is less effective than having to remember the exact way a certain sentence was phrased. Pimsleur is a suitable method to start a language, especially for those who find listening comprehension and speaking difficult. Podcasts like the 101-languages are suited as a supplement for beginning to intermediate students. (I do not know if another level of difficulty was added since I used Japanese and Spanish, but I used their 'advanced' audio blog series when I still was a very low intermediate.) Neither is suited to be your sole method, not are the two combined. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6517 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 27 of 39 10 May 2011 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I only have experience with ChinesePod, which is probably one of the better podcast programs out there. For me it has been the best language learning approach I ever tried. It took me from almost no knowledge up to able to engage native material, after several other products had failed. However, I know several people don't like it, so try before you buy. It worked wonders for me, but YMMV.
Of course, all products have their advantages, and with CPod you won't get the kind of planned progress you get with Pimsleur. What you can get is lessons about just about anything you want to learn about. So if you want to cut your hair, you find a haircut lesson that's on your level. If you like ninjas (who doesn't?), you can get a lesson about ninjas! The thousands of lessons availible on CPod made me vote "Pimsleur cannot compete with the amount of podcasts", but just now I realize that might refer to the amount of different podcasts, not the amount of lessons within one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6405 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 28 of 39 10 May 2011 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
That's where the supplementary materials and Anki come in. I find Pimsleur frustrating precisely because it is taking upon itself to make you remember the words - but since it's audio-based, it needs A LOT more time to accomplish this than Anki or Iversen's Method would. Any other course gives you a vocabulary list and lets you use your favorite method for learning it, while with Pimsleur you're stuck doing it in their inefficient way. Of course I like it when exercises and later lessons re-use previously-learned words and show me new contexts, but it's not the job of a lesson to pound the words into my head, I can do it better by myself. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5894 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 29 of 39 10 May 2011 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
There are podcasts which have the planned progress mentioned. I really think it comes down to what people are personally looking for. People need to try out podcasts before subscribing. People should try Pimsleur, probably borrow one from the library, before buying. Etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 30 of 39 10 May 2011 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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But how planned is planned?
JapanesePod 101 started out with a beginners' course, then the intermediate course, then they went back and released newbies' and absolute beginners' courses, and after all this they needed to go and add a 5th (6th?) "season" of upper intermediate to "bridge the gap" between the beginner's course that's been running for years and the first "season" of the upper intermediate course. There's a mindboggling number of different courses in there, and I can't imagine that they can tie together nicely. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 31 of 39 10 May 2011 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | ||
But how can a learner pick and choose lessons? How do I know that I don't know something that I don't know? And how do I know what I should know before attempting to learn something that I didn't know? Lessons need to build on previous knowledge, or they'll never stick. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6517 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 32 of 39 10 May 2011 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Can't speak for other podcasts, of course, but the way it works in ChinesePod, or rather the way I used CPod, is that I take it upon myself to memorize the vocab and grammar points in all the lessons. In the beginning, almost everything in each lesson is new and I need to spend a lot of time before I understand that lesson. Then as I progress, I start encountering the same kinds of formations I've already learned, combined with some new ones. I spend less time on each level. At some point I get to a point where the only new material in each lesson is a couple of new specific vocabulary words. At this pont, or even a bit before this point, I start working with lessons from a higher level. Now I'm at, say, Intermediate. Okay, there are more complex grammar structures used and the kind of vocab that got explained and introduced in the earlier level is now no longer explained. Again, I need to work pretty extensively with each lesson. As I progress, they get easier and easier and the grammar points of each lesson start to feel familiar, and I start listening to Upper Intermediate, and so on. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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