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Why is Pimsleur such crap?

  Tags: Usefulness | Pimsleur
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
62 messages over 8 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Warp3
Senior Member
United States
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Joined 5486 days ago

1419 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese

 
 Message 57 of 62
20 July 2010 at 12:57am | IP Logged 
michaelmichael wrote:
Something specific like a product, pepsi, coke, Orangina, is kind of stupid in my opinion. Why not du jus d'orange. i would learn something from that. Maybe i would anticipated that apple juice would be du jus de pomme. Who knows what i might be able to infer from this. maybe i will see du vin, de la bière and come to the conclusion that some uncountable nouns require the partitive article. I could also infer that even though English forms right headed compounds when a noun modifies a noun, french does it from the left. orange juice, jus d'orange. hmm maybe sunglasses is les lunettes de soleil , but I'll never know because pimsleur chose Orangina over jus d'orange.

imagine instead of au restaurant they said Est-ce que vous allez à Mcdonalds. i guess what i'm saying is the less proper nouns, and the more common nouns, the better. Granted I've only done 18 lessons, so I'm certainly not an authority on language learning, but i feel like orangina shouldn't be one of the 500 words pimsleur covers.


Pimsleur French isn't the only one. Pimsleur Korean talks about "Starbucks" and Pimsleur Spanish mentions some restaurant in Mexico City by name (can't recall the name offhand).
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hobbitofny
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6184 days ago

280 posts - 408 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 58 of 62
20 July 2010 at 1:24am | IP Logged 
Pimsleur Russian uses Intourist. If it is some thing common to the culture, I am not sure I understand why it is seen as a problem.

Edited by hobbitofny on 20 July 2010 at 1:43am

1 person has voted this message useful



michaelmichael
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5208 days ago

167 posts - 202 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 59 of 62
20 July 2010 at 2:25am | IP Logged 
Warp3 wrote:
michaelmichael wrote:
Something specific like a product, pepsi, coke, Orangina, is kind of stupid in my opinion. Why not du jus d'orange. i would learn something from that. Maybe i would anticipated that apple juice would be du jus de pomme. Who knows what i might be able to infer from this. maybe i will see du vin, de la bière and come to the conclusion that some uncountable nouns require the partitive article. I could also infer that even though English forms right headed compounds when a noun modifies a noun, french does it from the left. orange juice, jus d'orange. hmm maybe sunglasses is les lunettes de soleil , but I'll never know because pimsleur chose Orangina over jus d'orange.

imagine instead of au restaurant they said Est-ce que vous allez à Mcdonalds. i guess what i'm saying is the less proper nouns, and the more common nouns, the better. Granted I've only done 18 lessons, so I'm certainly not an authority on language learning, but i feel like orangina shouldn't be one of the 500 words pimsleur covers.


Pimsleur French isn't the only one. Pimsleur Korean talks about "Starbucks" and Pimsleur Spanish mentions some restaurant in Mexico City by name (can't recall the name offhand).


Well hopefully the restaurant has a Spanish name :D
1 person has voted this message useful



johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5278 days ago

587 posts - 746 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 60 of 62
20 July 2010 at 4:38am | IP Logged 
Warp3 wrote:
michaelmichael wrote:
Something specific like a product, pepsi, coke, Orangina, is kind of stupid in my opinion. Why not du jus d'orange. i would learn something from that. Maybe i would anticipated that apple juice would be du jus de pomme. Who knows what i might be able to infer from this. maybe i will see du vin, de la bière and come to the conclusion that some uncountable nouns require the partitive article. I could also infer that even though English forms right headed compounds when a noun modifies a noun, french does it from the left. orange juice, jus d'orange. hmm maybe sunglasses is les lunettes de soleil , but I'll never know because pimsleur chose Orangina over jus d'orange.

imagine instead of au restaurant they said Est-ce que vous allez à Mcdonalds. i guess what i'm saying is the less proper nouns, and the more common nouns, the better. Granted I've only done 18 lessons, so I'm certainly not an authority on language learning, but i feel like orangina shouldn't be one of the 500 words pimsleur covers.


Pimsleur French isn't the only one. Pimsleur Korean talks about "Starbucks" and Pimsleur Spanish mentions some restaurant in Mexico City by name (can't recall the name offhand).
There's Columbus Hotel and...I can't seem to remember the restaurant either.
1 person has voted this message useful



johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5278 days ago

587 posts - 746 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 61 of 62
20 July 2010 at 4:40am | IP Logged 
hobbitofny wrote:
Pimsleur Russian uses Intourist. If it is some thing common to the culture, I am not sure I understand why it is seen as a problem.
Because at first it could cause problems with the learner if they don't know that much about the culture yet. Maybe they could have waited for later lessons to introduce them.
1 person has voted this message useful



LessPaul
Newbie
United States
Joined 6282 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 62 of 62
27 July 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged 
I started with Pimsleur German and worked my way through levels 1-3. Yes, it was a bit
slow-going, but it gave a firm foundation upon which I was later able to build. I was
off-put by the dryness of FSI, and I didn't care for the MT series with the "students"
who seemed to be much faster studies than myself, and who also seemed to have some crib
sheets (not included).

If you have to buy it to use it, I'd pass. But if you can get it from the local library I
think it is a good fit for those, like myself, who want a less-intensive start to their
language learning. I listened to one lesson twice a day -- once on the commute to work,
and once on the commute home. It worked for me.


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