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T**S
Pimsleur is a great way to begin learning foreign languages
Since I travel a lot, I need a way to learn languages the easiest, most efficient, and fastest way possible. Nothing beats being able to practice with and learn from a native speaker of a language. However, when I'm driving, flying, or just don't have access to a native speaker to practice with, I still need a way to practice and learn. I tried most language programs out there and I found Pimsleur's and Michel Thomas' methods to be the most suitable for me.Here are the strong points of Pimsleur's approach:1) It's perhaps the easiest way to learn pronunciation of all the programs out there. They teach pronunciation by saying words slowly syllable by syllable until you put together the whole word. It's especially useful if you want to learn a language like Arabic, Chinese, or any hard-to-pronounce language.2) The program begins with a simple conversation and they keep building on it lesson by lesson.3) The conversations are based on real life scenarios so many of the things you learn you can put to use.4) You don't need to get a lesson 100% before moving on to the next. They're great with reviewing the contents of previous lessons while teaching you new things. So you can just keep moving on with the lessons and you'll see that by the end of lesson 3 for example, you've got most of lessons 1 and 2 down.5) No rote repetitions are necessary with their method. No writing, note taking, etc, just listen to the CDs.6) If you love their method, you'll be able to learn the basics of many languages easily. I used their programs to begin learning Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Arabic.Downside of Pimsleur:1) If you're natural at picking up foreign languages, you'll find their method very slow.2) Even after you finish all the levels for a particular language, you're still at the beginning stages of the language, and you'll need to continue with other more advanced programs. Or better yet, with a native speaker if you can.3) The transcripts don't come with the program. You'll have to do a Google search for those if you want them.4) They're more expensive than many other programs.I want to emphasize that language learning is a highly individual process and other programs may end up working better for you. If you can, it's definitely worth buying the beginning version of other programs to see how much you relate to their teaching methods. To see if you like Pimsleur's approach, you can get a used copy of the Quick and Simple program for less than $10. I found the cheapest way to get the full copy of Pimsleur's I, II, and III programs is by buying the MP3-only version on audible.com with an annual subscription. Each program costs 5 credits which comes out to be less than $50 for each level with the annual platinum membership.
P**D
A great introduction to Spanish
Pimsleur Spanish I is an excellent introduction to Spanish. You'll learn the present tense of a few key verbs, as well as the "going to ----" form of future tense and the "have -----ed" (past participle) form of the past tense for most of the same verbs. You'll learn basic greetings and farewells, numbers into the hundreds, how to tell the time, and how to ask for and understand directions. You'll be introduced to pronouns.The course is, of course, 30 half hour lessons, or 15 hours total. It's ideal for listening to in the car, if your commute is 30 minutes or longer. Trust me, the time flies by when you're trying to remember how to say this or that. I don't know of any other Spanish learning program that can be used as effectively as Pimsleur in the car.The price is kind of steep, at $200. However, if you buy from a third party vendor, you're down to $145. Buying used brings you down to $120. That comes out to less than $10 an hour, assuming you listen to each CD only once. In my opinion, that's not bad. Learning Spanish is going to take a lot of time, and your time is valuable, so it's worth using a good system.If you've never tried Pimsleur before, I suggest spending $17 and trying "Basic Spanish" first. Pimsleur Spanish I has 30 lessons. Basic Spanish is the first 10 lessons, and Conversational Spanish is the first 15 lessons. Basic Spanish will help you decide whether you like the Pimsleur method and want to invest in the full course.I've used both Pimsleur Spanish and Japanese. I have found Pimsleur Spanish much easer than Japanese. I found I needed to listen to most lessons only once, and a few of the later lessons twice. If you have no background at all in Spanish or other romance languages, you'll probably find you need to listen to many or most lessons twice to get to 80% correct responses. I suggest trying to cover at least one lesson every two days. If you go any slower than that, you'll begin forgetting things, and you will probably eventually give up.If you're really serious about learning Spanish, I think it's necessary to use other tools in conjunction with Pimsleur. I've also been using Spanish with Ease by Assimil and reading children's books in Spanish; these two things have helped greatly with my vocabulary. Pimsleur's greatest weakness is probably that vocabulary is somewhat limited.Good luck!
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