Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

How many have finished Pimsleur?

  Tags: Pimsleur
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
104 messages over 13 pages: 1 24 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 12 13 Next >>
novemberain
Triglot
Groupie
Russian Federation
Joined 5857 days ago

59 posts - 87 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC1, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese

 
 Message 17 of 104
03 November 2009 at 1:56pm | IP Logged 
You can buy Pimsleur much cheaper with Audible membership. With Platunium annual it is $229 for 24 audiobooks, or about $9 per item (with 5 lessons each).

I finished comprehensive Italian and Spanish courses, and going through Portuguese. So far, I find Pimsleur very effective. However, I am sure there are other great and cheaper audio courses out there I did not try ;)
5 persons have voted this message useful



Urban_Sasquatch
Newbie
United States
Joined 5514 days ago

11 posts - 30 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 18 of 104
03 November 2009 at 4:59pm | IP Logged 
I've been making my way through Pimsleur Spanish I. While there are aspects of it I can see people becoming irritated with (repetition, a seeming lack of vocabulary) it becomes relatively obvious (and right quickly at that) these courses ARE designed for people who do not speak the language, or who speak very little of it.

Where I see a lot of people complaining is with regard to repetition; well, isn't that how a purely audial-based course should work based on the learning theory behind it? I've been playing these around my two-year-old son who is, like me, a mimic; he goes along with the first 15 minutes of each lesson until he gets bored, and it's noticeable. He's only two and he greets his hispanic daycare teacher with "Buenos dias!", leaves her with "adios" or "hasta luego". I've played some Mandarin around him and he's greeting a Chinese boy in his room with "Ni hao" and leaving with "Zai jian!"

There IS something to it; it simply may not be the right course for everyone. I have a 30-minute commute at a minimum, so I play a lesson on the way in and repeat it on the way home for reinforcement. This is despite my linguistic ability and DLI experience.

Another thing I hear people fussing about is the lack of vocabulary in Pimsleur. However, the way the courses are constructed a linguist could take those lessons and add a book of vocabulary, effectively tripling their ability with minimal effort.

Sometimes it's not the course itself; nothing is perfect.

Sometimes it's just how you USE the material provided.

7 persons have voted this message useful





Hencke
Tetraglot
Moderator
Spain
Joined 6907 days ago

2340 posts - 2444 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish
Studies: Mandarin
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 19 of 104
03 November 2009 at 9:58pm | IP Logged 
I did the complete 90 lessons of Pimsleur Mandarin and found them useful and they worked for me. You just mustn't expect too much of them. Even the full program will just give you a small introduction into the basics, a long way short of the "fluency" or "conversational level" that you sometimes see claimed.

But for an "easier" language than Mandarin Pimsleur would have been way too easy and too slow for my taste and I'd have tired of it after a few lessons.
1 person has voted this message useful



B-Tina
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Germany
dragonsallaroun
Joined 5540 days ago

123 posts - 218 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish

 
 Message 20 of 104
03 November 2009 at 10:02pm | IP Logged 
Urban_Sasquatch wrote:

Sometimes it's just how you USE the material provided.


Agreed. I use Pimsleur French and made my way through the first 11 Lessons by now. As I already have spent a year in France, the course does not offer any new vocabulary at all to me - but it does quite a good job as a pronunciation teacher.
1 person has voted this message useful



LatinoBoy84
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5588 days ago

443 posts - 603 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian

 
 Message 21 of 104
03 November 2009 at 10:23pm | IP Logged 
The course has been invaluable in Russian, which is fairly distant from my native languages. I wish more courses would do the backwards pronunciation break down...that has made things sooo much easier (as oppose to getting tongue tied, or babbling). For an "Easy language" probably not that useful but for "Harder" (more distant) ones, it's definitely an asset to your arsenal.
1 person has voted this message useful



Juan M.
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5912 days ago

460 posts - 597 votes 

 
 Message 22 of 104
04 November 2009 at 12:11am | IP Logged 
Urban_Sasquatch wrote:
I have a 30-minute commute at a minimum, so I play a lesson on the way in...


This is how I use Pimsleur (and Michel Thomas) as well. I load a course on an MP3 player and listen to it whenever I'm not home. That way I don't waste any time and always have something entertaining to do whether I'm in line at the bank, waiting for a bus, waiting for someone, walking somewhere, etc.

Edited by Juan M. on 04 November 2009 at 12:13am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Gusutafu
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5534 days ago

655 posts - 1039 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*

 
 Message 23 of 104
04 November 2009 at 1:59am | IP Logged 
Juan M. wrote:
Urban_Sasquatch wrote:
I have a 30-minute commute at a minimum, so I play a lesson on the way in...


This is how I use Pimsleur (and Michel Thomas) as well. I load a course on an MP3 player and listen to it whenever I'm not home. That way I don't waste any time and always have something entertaining to do whether I'm in line at the bank, waiting for a bus, waiting for someone, walking somewhere, etc.


You still sort of waste time, if you had been playing Assimil or some other more efficient course you would learn much, much more...
2 persons have voted this message useful



Amoore
Senior Member
Denmark
Joined 5783 days ago

177 posts - 218 votes 
Speaks: Danish*

 
 Message 24 of 104
04 November 2009 at 2:02am | IP Logged 
novemberain wrote:
You can buy Pimsleur much cheaper with Audible membership. With
Platunium annual it is $229 for 24 audiobooks, or about $9 per item (with 5 lessons
each).

I finished comprehensive Italian and Spanish courses, and going through Portuguese. So
far, I find Pimsleur very effective. However, I am sure there are other great and cheaper
audio courses out there I did not try ;)


In Denmark 5 lessons is $50. So thank you so much for the link.

Edited by Amoore on 04 November 2009 at 2:03am



1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 104 messages over 13 pages: << Prev 1 24 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3594 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.