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Pimsleur and FSI (French) overlap

  Tags: Pimsleur | FSI | French
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
shaun.lewis
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 6141 days ago

7 posts - 7 votes
1 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 5
06 February 2008 at 5:20am | IP Logged 
Hi,

I have access to the Pimsleur French course through the library at College, and I notice the FSI I+II and phonetic
courses are available on the net.

I am planning on using these concurrently with the French in Action videos, but I was wondering, what is the
overlap with these courses?

I have heard that the FSI starts at a higher level then the Pimsleur, so should I start with FSI I with Pimsleur II and
then do FS II with PIII? Any other methods? In fact, is it worth doing this at all?

Thanks for your time,

Shaun.

Edited by shaun.lewis on 06 February 2008 at 11:27am

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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6911 days ago

4250 posts - 5711 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 2 of 5
06 February 2008 at 11:33am | IP Logged 
Here's my take (based on what I have experienced from studying German with both methods).

Although you can start with either method from scratch, you will probably find Pimsleur a bit more user friendly in several ways - it doesn't teach too many things at a time, and it doesn't drill grammar ad nauseam.

FSI is quite the contrary. However, still just a few simple dialogues per unit, but a lot of drilling of patterns, prepositions, verbs.

FSI is more vocabulary and grammar "intense" than Pimsleur, but please have a go at both.

You should be able to do one Pimsleur lesson per day, but it could take but to a week for one FSI unit (consisting of several lessons/tapes). Maybe you can progress quicker than that, maybe you find it hard to keep up doing both. Try it for a couple of days at least!
1 person has voted this message useful



tmesis
Senior Member
Mayotte
Joined 6650 days ago

154 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 3 of 5
06 February 2008 at 11:39am | IP Logged 
-

Edited by tmesis on 17 February 2008 at 2:14pm

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BGreco
Senior Member
Joined 6395 days ago

211 posts - 222 votes 
3 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: French, Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 5
06 February 2008 at 3:59pm | IP Logged 
I would skip both of those. FSI, while great, gets very dull. Do some pronunciation stuff (Phonology course?), get Michel Thomas to learn basic structure, and then I would jump right into FIA.
1 person has voted this message useful



Cage
Diglot
aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6626 days ago

382 posts - 393 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Portuguese

 
 Message 5 of 5
15 August 2008 at 8:59am | IP Logged 
You can skip Pimsleur if you want and use MT first. FIA is a great course that I would include too. But you can not skip FSI if you want to truely master the language as deeply as possible. This course does at least 2 things better than any other. It fosters automaticity of speach and trains your ear to hear the language as it is acatually spoken which is seldom perfectly enunciated. To skip FSI just because you think it might be dull would be ludicrous considering the substantial benefits you would be missing out on. Assimil is very good too.

Edited by Cage on 15 August 2008 at 9:01am



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