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Grading / Ranking of Pimsleur Programs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Martin M Newbie United States Joined 5067 days ago 20 posts - 26 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 31 24 December 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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First, need to mention that I love Pimsleur Spanish. I do want to learn other languages in the future but have heard mixed reviews of Pimsleur for other languages (e.g. Pimsleur Korean is too formal and does not resemble spoken Korean). If you are a Pimsleur-phile (not a Pimsleur hater), please post your reviews or comments of Pimsleur Programs insofar as you believe them to be effective, helpful, irrelevant, etc.
Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4942 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 31 25 December 2010 at 12:12am | IP Logged | |||||
Where are you getting the impression that the Korean course isn't good? I just did a quick google for reviews and most are pretty favorable, as long as you go with the comprehensive 30 lesson course. I've gone through two different 30 lesson courses and was happy with both. You will in no way be fluent at the end of lesson 30 (but you won't be fluent after 30 lessons in any course, Pimsleur or other.) They will, however, give you a good enough foundation for studying upper-beginner to intermediate-level material though, at least in the two courses I've gone through. I also think that anything less that th 30-lesson course isn't really worth it. They didn't start to cover past and future tenses until well after lesson 20, for example. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4990 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 3 of 31 25 December 2010 at 12:22am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree that it's too formal, and they don't explain much, they even ignore such fundamental thing as topic marker (they use it of course, but don't explain). But well, if you are already familiar with Korean grammar it's nice to improve your listening comprehension definitely. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4912 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 4 of 31 25 December 2010 at 1:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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I like Pimsleur French I, but I wish that they would spend more time on the "tu" form. They only mentioned it very briefly without actually instructing me about how to use it. Perhaps this will be further explained in course II.
Other than that, I think it's a great program. You have to figure out the verb conjugations for yourself though, they won't spell it out for you. Still, it's pretty easy to me because you just naturally realize that "Je veaux" but "Vous vou-lay." I especially like the fact that the instructional part has become mostly french so I have to comprehend the teacher before I can figure out the proper answer. My biggest complaint is the lack of visual material. Edited by Darklight1216 on 25 December 2010 at 1:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5954 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 5 of 31 25 December 2010 at 1:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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The only Pimsleur program that I've had the attention span to complete is the one for Persian/Farsi (I can't remember which name it's listed under). It was a very good introduction to the spoken language, I thought, and helpful for the pronunciation and getting listening exposure to this somewhat uncommon language.
I also wish it had focused more on informal language, as I think it mentioned the تو form only once in 15 hours of instruction. However, I did think it was interesting that they distinguished the more informal pronunciation of Tehran and the standard pronunciation (for example, pronouncing پانزده as 'punzdah' versus 'pânzdah' or ببخشید as 'bebaxshin' versus 'bebaxshid'). Overall very good, but I would have liked a little more content. I wish they had made more than the 30 lessons! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 6 of 31 25 December 2010 at 1:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've done Thai (30), Japanese (90), Mandarin (90), French (90) and Russian (53 - still in work). I can't imagine a better
way to start a language. By having tons of timed repetitions of a limited amount of high usage material, it gives me a rock-solid foundation. It produces excellent pronunciation. It drills basic grammar and vocabulary deep into my brain. And best of all, the time limit is instrumental in getting me to a state where I can begin conversation at near normal speeds. Pimsleur rules. However, there are some things to note. Contrary to advice in the booklets, I always use a transcript to load vocab and sentences into an SRS after completing a lesson. This means if the language has a different script, I have to learn it in advance, since I don't like romanization. Also, I often learn other material concurrently (Michel Thomas, podcasts, etc). I find Pimsleur a little too formal than I prefer. Even though it's great for pronunciation, with tonal languages, or any language where pronunciation is difficult, it's necessary to study pronunciation a little independently. I am really annoyed by the fact that they claim to teach 2500 words, when they actually only teach 500. And it is a little expensive. Overall though, damn well worth it. I don't know about the Spanish program. Depending on your background and abilities, it may be worth it to you to skip the 3rd part, or even the 2nd. Good luck. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4942 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 31 25 December 2010 at 5:31am | IP Logged | |||||
Do they claim 2500 words for level comprehensive III? I know that for comprehensive level I they claim 400-500 words and that seems accurate from my experience. I would think that after completing all three comprehensive levels that you'd have well over 1000 words at least. Since I've only done courses that have 30 lessons, I don't know: Do they just repeat the same vocabulary with different sentence structure/grammar, or what? Regardless of the number or words taught, I've found the grammar and structure more valuable than vocabulary, sine once I've got a handle on structure and grammar, I know how to effectively use a dictionary without too much worry of verb conjugations, forming adverbs and adjectives, prepositions, etc. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 31 25 December 2010 at 9:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's about 150-200 words per level, or a total of about 500 words for all 3 levels. Depending on how one interprets
their advertising, one could say they only claim 2500 words are needed to reach a certain level they talk about, and they don't actually claim to teach all the words. But I've actually written to them to complain, and got some very nasty letters in return claiming that they do teach those 2500 words, and how dare I claim otherwise. It's pretty easy to count words in a transcript, so I disagree. People who think they teach more than 500 either never counted them, or they count things like different conjugations of the same verb. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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