hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5149 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe
| Message 97 of 104 17 December 2010 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
JPike1028 wrote:
My only issue with Pimsleur is that it teaches the same phrases in every language, which I know is its goal as they are rather essential phrases. However, I wish that they would vary the programs some. I do not know exactly what I want, but I would like some more culture specific phrases thrown in or something to that effect. I have only used Pimsleur I for Portuguese, Russian and Czech. Perhaps in the later editions they add in more colloquial things. |
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I've gone through two separate 30-lesson courses; Norwegian and Turkish. The Norwegian course was quite a while ago so its contents aren't really fresh in my mind, and I just recently finished the Turkish course. But the content was quite different between the two courses. I'm sure that because Norwegian and Turkish are from different language families, that had a lot to do with the differences.
I certainly felt like I covered more ground with Turkish, but again, I was so unfamiliar with anything about the language, whereas Norwegian was grammatically so much more familiar.
R.
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Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5119 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German
| Message 98 of 104 18 December 2010 at 12:23am | IP Logged |
LatinoBoy84 wrote:
I've found that when done concurrently with Michel Thomas, the courses compliment each other very well. Especially once you get through the first volume of Pimsleur start MT. Some concepts repeat but you really start to connect the dots (on a basic level). I can't wait to finish both and jump straight into Assimil and Penguin. |
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Are they really? I'm on lesson 25 of Pimsleur, but I have only gotten through about 3 tracks of the first Michel Thomas CD. I'm not quite sure why I'm unable to get into MT, but I've heard so many good things about it that I'm probably going to have to force myself to give it a fair shot.
I love Pimsleur, and it's not just because it got me talking right away (whereas my class made me conjugate verbs immediately), it's not just because it made the pronounciation easy, and it isn't just because I actually enjoy it. I guess I'm in the minority because I actually find it interesting amd challenging in the later lessons and most people are saying that it's boring. Maybe I just haven't tried a "fun" program... or maybe I'm boring.
I especially like Pimsleur because I have access to all three French courses for free. I'm interested in Assimil, but I'm frugal. I also haven't sampled Assimil so I don't know if I'll like it or not.
Edited by Darklight1216 on 18 December 2010 at 12:23am
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Monstertone Newbie United States Joined 5071 days ago 2 posts - 5 votes
| Message 99 of 104 31 January 2011 at 9:59pm | IP Logged |
I also love Pimsleur. I'm currently on Lesson 22 of German I. I plan on completing all 90 lessons. I'm strongly considering a trip to Germany later this year, and will be curious as to how well I can communicate.
I did 10 lessons of Eastern Arabic I, and when I was in Iraq I was told I had a perfect Lebonese accent! I just enjoy the Pimseur method of teaching. I find it convenient to learn while commuting, and it just really sticks in my head. I know
Pimsleur has its' shortcomings, but I'm in the crowd that thinks it's one of the best methods to get some fundamentals and pronunciation down.
btw, I plan on using other methods as well to learn German, so I'm not strictly relying upon Pimsleur.
Edited by Monstertone on 31 January 2011 at 10:00pm
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tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5162 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish
| Message 100 of 104 31 January 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
i did 10 lesson of swedish, it's really cool at first, but pretty boring in the long run
at the end i have learnt only 10 sentences, it's my impression.
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wufiavelli Newbie United States Joined 4974 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes
| Message 101 of 104 02 May 2011 at 6:28pm | IP Logged |
I did about 12 lessons with pimsleur Japanese then got stuck in japan with a lay over
after the earthquake. I did not magically speak Japanese but pimsleur helped me figure
a lot of stuff out.
It does not magically let you converse, what it does is ingrain the stuff in your memory
very well. Once you get to the country, or begin using it with a partner you have a
vocabulary to draw upon and things slowly work themselves out.
Michel Thomas is a good supplement to pimsluer, but it really lacks the depth of
pimsluer.
Edited by wufiavelli on 02 May 2011 at 6:29pm
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5584 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 102 of 104 02 May 2011 at 7:44pm | IP Logged |
It what way does the 12 hours of MT , which covers more grammatical structures and almost the same amount of wordsas Pimsleur, in less time, lack the depth of Pimsleur?
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Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4983 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish
| Message 103 of 104 02 May 2011 at 8:04pm | IP Logged |
Elexi wrote:
It what way does the 12 hours of MT , which covers more grammatical structures and almost the same amount of wordsas Pimsleur, in less time, lack the depth of Pimsleur? |
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In all that you didn't mention.
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