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If you want to learn to speak and understand a new language, Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur is one of the best language learning programs. It teaches pronunciation like nothing else and has rigidity that is lacking in competing teaching tools. It also offers a large choice of languages. But you may be disappointed if you wait for a mobile app full of games and exercises. Pimsleur is an audio program, with some optional PDFs or booklets. This means that you do not learn to read or write and you do not experience interactive experience. Pimsleur Premium, a newer product, includes exercises for mobile phones and Amazon Alexa, but it is only available in a few languages.
Yet the content is undeniably strong. Pimsleur enters your head and stays there. Before diving into Pimsleur, be aware that it is not a complete software, in the manner of Rosetta Stone or Duolingo, the choices of PCMag editors for tools. free and paid language learning.
Pimsleur Languages and Programs
If you need to learn a language, Pimsleur offers it to you. Anglophones can learn 50 languages through the Pimsleur application, although the number of courses, prices and features vary from one language to the other. You can also get programs on CD. In addition, there are programs in English for speakers of 14 languages. The numbers are reinforced by different dialects, such as European Spanish and Latin American Spanish separately, as they sell as different courses.
Pimsleur covers the following languages: Albanian, Arabic (Oriental, Egyptian and Modern), Armenian (East and West), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Persian Dari, Dutch, Persian Farsi, Finnish, French, German (German and Swiss), Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Ojibway, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Punjabi, Romanian , Russian, Spanish (Latin American and European), Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.
English courses are available with instructions in: Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi Persian, French, German, Haitian, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Although Pimsleur offers a wide range of languages, try another one, Transparent Language or Mango Languages, which offers even wider choices. Transparency is best for people who are very independent and able to cope with the non-linear program. Mango is not great, but it exists if you are at a dead end and offers less commonly seen languages.
Pimsleur prices and options
Prices for Pimsleur courses vary according to the number of levels offered for different languages, as well as the format you choose. For example, it is cheaper to buy the digital download version (MP3) than to order CD games. Fortunately, the Pimsleur website contains extremely clear information on options and prices when choosing the language you want to learn. You can listen for free the first lesson of any language if you want to see what you get before paying.
When you calculate the value per day, Pimsleur is expensive compared to other language learning programs. But with digital download or CDs, you own the content forever. Other language learning programs are subscription-based, where you get unlimited access, but only during the time you are a paid member.
MP3 audio and CD sets
The most popular languages - Chinese Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish – have five levels. One level contains 30 lessons of about 30 minutes each. In the Pimsleur method, you do a lesson every day, so a level should last about a month. Each level sells for $ 119.95 in digital download. You can also buy a set of five levels for $ 550. Russian currently has four levels for $ 450, with a fifth level scheduled for May 2019. For ESL, you can buy three levels for $ 335.
For the most popular languages, you can also purchase a subscription for $ 14.95 per month via an integrated purchase. You can also buy only five lessons at a time for $ 21.95.
Some of the less popular languages do not have as many lessons and levels. For example, with Eastern Armenian, you can get ten 30-minute lessons for $ 41.95.
Pimsleur CD games are more expensive. For the most popular languages, they cost $ 1,190 for levels 1 to 5, or $ 345 per level. For less popular languages, you can get ten 30-minute lessons for $ 49.95.
Premium Pimsleur
Finally, there is Pimsleur Premium, which I review separately. This is the version of Pimsleur that includes interactive exercises. It is only available in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (Latin America) and English for Spanish speakers. It costs $ 150 per level or $ 575 for five levels. The price is the same whether you choose a digital version or discs.
What is the Pimsleur method?
Pimsleur consists of audio files and PDF files that you can download or booklets delivered with CDs. But the basic program is based on audio. You learn by listening.
Pimsleur is named in honor of Dr. Paul Pimsleur, an applied linguist who died in 1976. He has spent years researching how long students memorize new information and at what intervals they should be remembered for what to do. they are kept to the maximum. As a result, the Pimsleur programs have extremely clear instructions. Every day you are supposed to follow exactly one lesson, and you must do all of them in a consecutive order. The structure gives you a clear vision of what you will do, how long it will take and when you can expect to reach certain milestones, such as the end of a level.
In each program, you have an anglophone narrator or instructor, as well as one or more native speakers. Only native speakers use the language you are learning. The English speaking instructor never uses foreign words. But he invites you and guides you through the lesson.
The secret sauce is in the intervals. When you hear a word for the first time and be invited to call back and repeat it, you learn other words and phrases. So when you are asked to remember that something is the key. You constantly remember the words and phrases you learned earlier in the current lesson, as well as in previous lessons. As you progress, it may be that a few days elapse when, apparently, the narrator asks, "How do you say I would like?" And you must remember it from memory, even if you have not done it yet. invited in a moment.
It may take five or six lessons to really get into the Pimsleur movement. Once you have learned how it works, you are certain that vocabulary and concepts will be repeated many times. So you can use it if you do not master it the first time.
The experience of using Pimsleur
Over the years I have tried Pimsleur for different languages. The most memorable experience was to use it to learn enough German to be polite and order food during a trip. It took a few months, but I picked up enough and I still remember a few words so far. I've tried Pimsleur again more recently for Mandarin Chinese.
The program uses both listening and rehearsal patterns and call and answer patterns. The call and answer parts challenge you to think about what you need to say, so you do not waste your time.
Each lesson begins with a short dialogue. At the end of the lesson, you can listen and understand this dialogue. You spend the majority of the lesson learning the words and phrases that make up the dialogue.
After the dialogue, you enter the heart of Pimsleur. An English-speaking narrator says something like, "This is how you say" I speak English "in Mandarin, first, listen." Then you hear a native speaker pronounce the sentence a few times. The narrator continues with "Now, listen and repeat," and the native speaker goes syllable by syllable through the word or phrase, repeating the whole thing several times with breaks between the two to allow you to repeat it. Finally, the narrator says, "How do you say I speak English in Mandarin?" and a pause indicates that you should say it aloud. This is how it happens when you first learn new words.
Later, the lessons become a little more complicated, but the basic configuration remains the same. The words, phrases and grammatical constructions that you will learn in the first lessons will reappear later. Everything you learn comes back again. The more you repeat something, the longer the intervals go until it reappears.
In the first few lessons, you spend a lot of time breaking sentences and words into sounds. Pimsleur speaks very slowly through the sounds, allowing you to master the good basic sounds. What I like about this method is that there is no chance of me being trapped by looking at letters and making them ring as if they were English. For example, a & # 39; v & # 39; Spanish does not look like a "V" at all. English. Without seeing the letters, there is no way to confuse them.
In Chinese, the English-speaking instructor tells you to note the rising and falling tones, as well as the different launches, but you do not get detailed lessons on all the tones in the front. Instead, you get a brief explanation explaining that tones are important and that you need to make your pronunciation sound like native speakers. From time to time, the instructor adds new information about the tones, but you never depart from the main lesson to deepen your knowledge.
Where can you do Pimsleur lessons?
I've easily taken Pimsleur, maybe because I'm oriented audio. I listen to a lot of podcasts and so it's pretty common for me to find 30 minutes a day when I can listen to a lesson and speak aloud while doing it. Although you need to focus on the lesson, you can do it while you go to work, walking a dog, cooking, folding clothes or any other time and place that's right for you. You can access offline digital download files, so you do not even need an internet connection to study. The mobile application records the lessons you have downloaded and those you have completed.
What you do not receive are interactive lessons, such as multiple choice exercises, unless you receive Pimsleur Unlimited. Of course, you can always badociate a Pimsleur course with the exercises of the free Duolingo application. The only problem is that the two lessons will not run in parallel. So you can learn different words and grammar principles in one application but not in the other.
Optional PDF
As mentioned, Pimsleur provides free PDFs and brochures with its audio courses. They are largely optional. If you omit them, you will not miss anything to get through all the essential lessons of your level.
If you use them, you can listen to an badociated audio file that guides you through the content. In the Chinese clbad, for example, you see both Pinyin and Chinese characters for individual sounds and, later, whole words. Audio files remind you how to pronounce them as you read them and study their shapes. This part of the course is much more autonomous than the rest.
Should you buy Pimsleur?
My personal learning style favors audio, which may explain why I hear so well with Pimsleur. I like being able to learn anywhere with my phone and a pair of headphones. Pimsleur easily integrates with my lifestyle. In addition, the program may be of interest to you if you spend at least 30 minutes a day going to work because you can take clbades by car, train, bus or even walking.
If you do not mind that most courses are not interactive (with the exception of Pimsleur Unlimited), this is a great way to learn. The content of Pimsleur is stellar and memorable. If you need more interaction, I recommend Duolingo or Rosetta Stone instead. And if you are opposed to the Rosetta Stone method, take a look at Fluenz, an interactive program using a completely different teaching style.
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