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What Is the best way to use Pimsleur? | ||
Tags: Pimsleur | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4930 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 9 of 32 30 January 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't chop it up either, personally.
The couple of Pimsleur courses I've used have been used as they intended: a half hour listen in one day, no more, no less. Of course I would go through the stuff in my head throughout the day, but actually listening only once per day. The content is repeated enough throughout the course that you don't need to waste your time cutting up audio files when you could just be internalizing the short dialogs, in my opinion. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6350 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 10 of 32 30 January 2012 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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To answer the op's question, I believe it depends on your
language plan. You might have a very different purpose for using Pimsleur than mine. But I'll tell you how I use it in case you or someone else might see something that helps them. I've done Pimsleur for Japanese, Thai, Mandarin, French and Russian. I use Pimsleur mostly as an aid to get me conversing and reading as soon as possible. And I've learned over the years that using a transcript is extremely important and beneficial to me. A transcript clarifies all the pronunciation questions, gives me a visual memory aid for the vocabulary, and starts me reading. So before I can use Pimsleur my way, I need to learn the script (or in the case of Mandarin, pinyin) and be able to produce all the sounds correctly in isolation. After I have obtained a transcript and mastered isolated pronunciation, I do the following: 1) Listen to the lesson without pausing. I don't do it while I'm driving. I make sure I can have a nice, quiet block of 30 minutes so I can really concentrate. Looking at the notes or transcript is strictly prohibited at this time. 2) Read the transcript. 3) Load the unknown vocabulary and at least one sample sentence for each word into anki. Review both directions. (note - this step has been simplified. For me, I need to learn the vocab in list form and review for a few days before dumping it into anki) 4) If I don't feel like I got at least 80% correct, I repeat the lesson the next day. I don't give myself a pass unless my pronunciation is correct. By the time I'm finished with Pimsleur, I have very good mastery over the 500 words, basic sentence building skills, good pronunciation and basic reading skills.
Totally agree. For me, if I were to start Mandarin over again and had no exposure to Chinese characters, I would use the Heisig method to learn all the characters in Pimsleur, and include these in my flashcards as soon as possible. And of course I'd listen from the beginning. Now this is certainly not a full language plan for Mandarin, but I think having Pimsleur + Heisig + Listening would be a full load for most, so I'll leave it at that. Other stuff can be added later :) 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6029 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 11 of 32 30 January 2012 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm using a combination of Pimsleur, Assimil and Remembering the Hanzi for Mandarin right now and they seem to
complement each other very well. Pimsleur and Assimil has a lot of overlap in vocabulary so you "hear" it on Pimsleur then you "see" it on Assimil. Usually I will spend 2-3 days per Pimsleur unit - listen to it to and from work. If it is easy, I move on. If not, I do it again. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6397 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 32 30 January 2012 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to add that Pimsleur itself employs spaced repetition. So if you're doing it as recommended and complete the course without huge breaks (and intend to move on to other courses and native resources after completing Pimsleur), it may not be necessary to use SRS unless you feel you need it.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LpMagilicutty Newbie United States Joined 5987 days ago 24 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, German, Italian, French | Message 13 of 32 31 January 2012 at 8:20am | IP Logged | ||
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I am doing Pimsleur Mandarin and Tagalog. I have the same trouble of not being able to get the correct
responses out in time. What I do is listen to one lesson two or three times, then go on to the next lesson. After five or so lessons, I go back to earlier lessons. I find that the hard pieces are not so hard the next time. Pimsleur can be boring, as you know, but I find doing the lessons in 10-15 minute chunks works well for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 14 of 32 31 January 2012 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I personally find the 'don't allow yourself thinking time' idea that some people
advocate to be counter productive. If it means one has to do the lesson 3 or 4 times to say the lesson at 80%, then, to me, it shows the breaks are too short to allow the mind to grasp the language (although some Pimsleur material I have read seems to suggest that it is the anticipation of the correct answer rather than saying it in time that is what is important.) If I am having trouble answering in time because the breaks are too short, I pause and work it out, a la Michel Thomas. There is no magic in the breaks and I find that I can do the lesson again and get it right second time round if I think it out the first time. After I have finished Pimsleur I go onto other materials - but if it is a language I have no one to practice speaking with, I often revisit lessons randomly when I am walking just to get some speaking practice. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6350 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 15 of 32 01 February 2012 at 11:10am | IP Logged | ||
I used to have to do lessons several times. My record was 7 times on one lesson. But then I started working with a transcript, as I described above, and now I only do the lessons twice. Usually for 25% to 50% of the lessons I get 80% correct after the first try, but I always do them twice to really cement everything in. If you pause, you will miss one of the biggest advantages of the program - the ability to come up with a sentence in a somewhat reasonable amount of time. This is very helpful when you begin to converse. And I also advise against occasional pausing. Once you start to pause, you will quickly become dependent on it. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4500 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 16 of 32 01 February 2012 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all your advice and some good tips.
I seem to know the words and phrases in my head when pimsleur asks but when I have to say them its a different matter. Im either too slow by trying to think of the answer or i get the odd word wrong in the sentence. Do I move on when I can speak the answers 80%? I have started watching mainland drama and use other programs like chinese with mike, Chinesepod and various websites to help but pimsleur is my main one. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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