Also in the mean time you can try the fixes mentioned below. It is one of the most common problem in mobile phones and tablets. Usually when you open an app, you will see a black screen for few seconds and then app will crash with or without an error message. There are few ways to fix this problem.
Apps Categories Education. Overview Download Problems PC. Working Not working. Most of the times, it might be a temporary loading issue. You just need to press the recent applications menu usually the first left button in your phone. Then you close the app that has this issue.
Now open the app again. It may work normally. I'm working on Italian now, and have used this method with French. I think the combination of the three fill in gaps for me, such as vocabulary and even other ways of saying the same things sometimes less formally.
That should be about 18 months to 2 years. I think I want to learn the language and take the then highly beneficial 2-week trip later so I can practice on real people. Bottom line for me is that if I am serious about learning a non Mid Eastern or Asian language, Pimsleur is a great base for my language learning and can easily be supplemented with Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Rocket Languages, etc. Multiple methods would result in a few hours per day of exposure to the language, just as the doctor prescribed.
Even though I studied French at school many years ago and know many of the words, I am still learning a lot from Pimsleur. In fact, I it was not until I started Pimsleur that I realized how inaccurate my French pronunciation was.
It is important to understand that Pimsleur alone will only get you so far. My approach to language learning is work through several courses at once: Pimsleur, Assimil, Teach Yourself, Made Simple books, Easy Reader, grammar books. It reinforces learning to come across the same word, expression or grammatical rule in multiple places.
Each Pimsleur lesson needs to be done more than once and reviewed later. I'm now redoing the Italian lessons in parallel with the French. This highlights the similarities and differences and helps me learn to switch between them without mixing them up.
Pimsleur is great to listen to when walking or doing housework. For road safety reasons, I recommend not doing it when driving the car. Pimsleur requires a high level of concentration and distracts too much from the driving task. Great review. One typo: "This post will deal [with] the core product and method of Pimsleur only. Donovan, This is an excellent review. Also, I am wondering would you please share more info on those languages that are going extinct as I am great fan of learning new languages.
Thanks and appreciate it, Shilpa. You really went far in this review, listened to it in several languages and even read the book. That's impressive. I agree with everything. I've being trying the Pimsleur method, and it's really efficient. It gives you enough grammar to understand the main points of what you read, so you can walk with your own legs in the journey of learning a language. Good review. I've done pimsleur spanish and agree with everything you say here. I've found them to be a great learning tool when used in conjunction with other resources.
Unfortunately if people ask me if I would recommend them, I have to say that they are way overpriced and I would only recommend them if they can find them free library for example or at a greatly reduced price.
A great review but I would give it one caveat - that is I'm guessing that you only listened to the Level One discs. You say that the language is artificial with excessive use of formal language structures - in the two courses which I have completed German and Russian Level One is entirely formal, Level Two largely informal, Level Three and beyond very mixed, and good, if basic, guides on when each should be used.
My only complaint is that there was no Pimsleur course available when I started to learn Scots Gaelic! Unsure of how to spend it, as Spotify is my primary music source, i decided to try Pimsleur level three, lessons , as level 4 could only be bought with all 30 lessons Your review is spot on. A bit overpriced, but it seemed effective. Hi Nathan, thanks for this great review.
I'm learning the Levantine Arabic dialect at the moment and have bought Units of the Pimsleur Eastern Arabic method to supplement my weekly evening classes. As a female student the first thing I've noticed is that the student listening in the course is always assumed to be male. I'm trying to decide whether to buy the remaining Units and wondered if it becomes a bit less male-centric later in the course?
They do seem to give you some feminine verbs etc by using a woman as the opposite person in your conversations but I expect a bit more than that in I am learning Vietnamese and wanted to supplement my lessons with an audio program.
Read really great reviews about Pimsleur's Vietnamese. First, but minor, problem is it is spoken with the northern accent. The biggest problem is at times it is very hard to understand what they are saying as there is no written supplement. At times the man and woman speakers say the same word in a different way. There are many good things about the program, and it would be great if they offered a written supplement when you get stuck on understanding what is being said.
I would not recommend it as the only learning program, but it is a great supplement. The technical term is back-chaining. Neither phonemes, syllables, words nor phrases are presented as backward strings at any time. Rather they are chained—starting from the final element—toward the end of the string, in progressive iterations: '-ing' '-chaining' 'back-chaining'. It's a method very well-known in ESL pedagogy, particularly useful for pronunciation, and goes way back to Army techniques pioneered in the 40's.
I have found it useful in pronunciation and short phrases and sentences. For fuller sentences and syntax, not so much. At least that was my experience for Korean. What a great thread following the review!
One thing I wanted to ask I haven't figured out how to learn a language by being around native speakers. I've been trying to learn Spanish forever, and I live in Southern California where it is spoken often.
But the only way I seem to be able to make progress is the various apps and programs. When a Hispanic person speaks to me, I only understand the words I already know. If I ask a question, they get going on an answer and I have no idea what's being said. And on top of that I feel shy. I know how frustrating it can be to speak to a person with poor command of English and I can't get past the discomfort I feel while stumbling over Spanish. So native speakers scare me.
While language programs feel safer. Pimsleur is my go to for learning a new language. If they don't have the language I want, or it's not good quality like Arabic , I then look for something else. The pronunciation method is unique, and I think is what sets it apart more than the SRS which I find pretty terrible in this implementation. Teaching words and phrases in reverse syllable order is brilliant.
It does a great job of stopping you from bringing any preconceptions in, and just listening to how the words sound. There's no mention of any writing system, so the whole thing is listen, repeat, compare, refine until you get pretty close.
It's the reason I prefer to start with Pimsleur over other courses, it's just that much better than everything else when it comes to pronunciation. I also like that it starts with sentences, but that's hardly unique, just something in its favour. Your first experience with speaking a language is then using proper grammar, and you have grammatically correct sentences to refer to as a test of your understanding of grammar rules to construct a sentence. It also gets you speaking pretty fast.
I could keep it going for a couple minutes before I just didn't know enough to keep going and wasn't able to understand her answers, but it was still impressive nonetheless. The SRS they have is silly, before every even numbered lesson starting at 4 you're supposed to listen to lesson 2 first. I eventually stopped doing that, it was a massive drag. Didn't seem to suffer from it either. Shows they didn't put much thought into the system and it doesn't make a big difference if you don't follow it.
I couldn't tell that the accent was bad for the speakers, I assumed that it would be overly formal though, for Arabic. I still had major problems with it. Pimsleur follows a template, they want to cover a specific conversation, translated from English, within 30 minutes.
Arabic has gendered second person pronouns, and the rest is heavily gendered as well, so since you're doing a conversation between a man and a woman from lesson 2, there's actually not enough time to go over everything, the vocabulary you need to learn has been effectively doubled.
Japanese had some particularly long words that also created a difficulty spike, but they were just odd words, and I could just shrug and keep going if I didn't say one right. With Arabic there wasn't even the opportunity to practice the pronunciation of the words. I suspect Hebrew would be at least as bad maybe they'd get good pronunciation at least. I also have a hunch Chinese works better than Japanese because most words are just two syllables, so you don't get the difficulty spike from following the template.
Hi Ryan, I am going to Indonesia in a few months and I want to learn it better. I have lived there before and know basic stuff and my pronunciation is correct, but I just want to be able to speak it more confidently. Is the 99 dollar pimselur training worth it, and if not , do they accept refunds? Only if he's asking a woman if she wants a drink at his place Never mind! Thank you for great review and discussion. I wanted to add Pimsleur method is the closest there is to the way a child learns language: starts with one word and slowly builds "scaffolds".
Children BTW will pick up a new language in a couple of weeks. For me, I've tried to learn Spanish over and over and must do it again. Pimsleur helped me jump from memorizing single words to being able to put them into sentences.
Very empowering. I would say Pimsleur gives a foundation from which to begin to really learn the language-develop vocabulary, speed grammar, etc With P I was able to do quite well in college level Spanish classes I audited. Lastly, some people are more talented with languages than others me, eg. I used Pimsleur as my 1st step to learning Brazilian Portuguese -- at the time, there were only 3 levels available. I found Pimsleur to be a great stepping stone that I could listen to in the car to and from work.
Of course, Pimsleur didn't make me fluent, but after levels , I could ask directions, engage in the 1st few sentences of a conversation with a stranger, etc. Pretty decent results for me. Now, I'm improving by speaking with a local friend from Brazil, and by taking online courses at Semantica-Portuguese. I am very disappointed with Pimsleur Greek. There are many sounds in Greek that are difficult to understand. There are subtle differences as compared to the English language, it is often difficult to understand at times, exactly what sound is being spoken.
Pimsleur refuses to provide a transcript or even a printed vocabulary list to assist their customers. I written, called and emailed. They say this is the method and they will not provide written vocabulary. Thousands have requested the transcript but it falls on deaf ears.
When some one posts a transcript on the internet they threaten copy right infringement, interesting since they don't print it. They fail to understand that people learn in different ways. They do a great disservice to their customers.
Extremely disappointed. They are also ,missing a market dsegment of those willing to pay. I really like the Pimsleur method for teaching spoken Russian. I had some Russian in college but learned to speak very little; this is slow going for me until I come upon something I actually learned in college, at which time I feel very smart and speed along.
The one thing about it that sort of bugs me are the topics -- how you learn a thousand different ways to come on to people. The female speaker is sort of whiny and reluctant. The male speaker is always trying to talk the female speaker into having a drink, into inviting him over to her place, into her coming over to his place, etc.
Of course it would be nice to know if anyone trying that on me, but since I am an older woman who will be staying with relatives in Moscow when I go, it probably isn't going to come up that much.
Also, Russian level 4 is now available as of October The discount of Russian Level 4 has expired. I would like to suggest a small update. Pimsleur Approach is no longer a licensed reseller of the Pimsleur product. I picked up Level 1 at a used bookstore the other day and liked it very much.
It was only when I went to the official Pimsleur website that I learned the reseller status. That said, I called the company and they said it is Pimsleur but only as up to date as the packaging indicated. End result, I was able to go on Amazon and find Level for an exceptionally affordable price.
Approach may have started as a rip off but can be a way to beat sticker shock now. No product is "overpriced" if it consistently sells for that price. One may as well declare the Rolls Royce to be overpriced. People who can afford only a used Toyota but would like a Rolls Royce may idly say that the Rolls Royce is "overpriced. Obviously, there is a sufficiently high demand for Pimsleur courses to enable the company to continue selling them at the high price.
Perhaps they would make more money if they cut the price in half. I don't know. I don't know the costs of production, advertising and so forth. But the claim that a product is "overpriced" merely because the price is higher than one would like is not valid.
Well balanced review of a program I've been using for years. Pimsleur has been teaching me Italian and I'm up to almost Italian 5. I agree that the vocab is limited and I often use a translate program if I just can't quite grasp what's being said. And I listen to each lesson multiple times before I move on. My biggest hurdle is not having anyone to communicate with, but I keep at it! I keep a Spanish Pimsleur in my car CD at all times.
When I feel like practicing I just turn it on for however many minutes. I had been trying to study Spanish at the University and the tutor in the lab could not understand me.
I realize I have a slight hearing deficit so that in a class room, or even watching a movie, I don't hear things correctly. With Pimsleur in the car less than 2 feet from me, and being able to adjust the volume, my pronunciation has improved dramatically. The tutor is amazed at my improvement. It is a great addition to studying Spanish other ways. Exceptional to just listen and answer with no writing or reading. Also, if you do not want to check out CD's from your library, you can go online and find used CD's, even the Gold versions, for very little.
Pimsleur works very well for me and I like the fact that many libraries have several of the Pimsleur series. I think that pimsleur's failure to provide a transcript and or at least a vocabulary list with interpretations is a very serious flaw and undermines the usefulness of the program. I am studying GREEK and the transcript is essential for understanding the pronunciation of many words. I am also a visual learner. There is no reason for them not to provide, even at a cost that I think thousands of people would pay and they could profit by.
Personally I discourage all from using this program. I love Pimsleur Language Programs! I think they are the best to start learning a language, at least the speaking and listening parts. For writing and reading you need to find a different program. But, the hardest part of learning a language is speaking, and Pimsleur is awesome. I currently live in the USA where they have really good public libraries.
When I have the money I invest in some reduced price Pimsleur programs or I just get them from the library. I have tried French, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Hi Donovan: thank you for the review-very well written. I am an old American who likes to travel around and have developed a routine of taking the Pimsleur intro from the library San Francisco has them all before I go to a new place-currently doing Japanese.
Yes they have many shortcomings but all in all its a good tool for my purpose. I have never really been good at languages so essentially it stimulates my brain and allows me to say a few words and phrases, find the bathroom and generally get a smile and chuckle from the locals-all good. I'm jealous that you have all those languages!
I've been using the Thai language set. Thai is a very difficult language, as it is tonal as I'm sure you're aware , and therefore small mistakes in pronunciation are actually large mistakes in conversation and very confusing for Thai people. My wife is Thai, and most of her family lives in Thailand. I've been trying to learn so I can converse with her and her family more in their heart language. Thai folks are very friendly, so learning is easy once you have the proper framework for learning.
In my limited assessment, the Thai set is very good for a beginner to the language as opposed to other methods that may try to teach the alphabet and writing in addition to vocab and sentence structure. That said, sometimes things are a bit "over-pronounced," and sometimes much slower than in reality. In my experience, having studied 10 languages over the years, Pimsleur is the only one that works.
It doesn't teach you every word in the language, but it gets you started so that once you arrive in the country, you can start speaking and are taken seriously as someone who can "deal" in that language. Then the rest follows. Your accent and rhythm are superb -- and added vocabulary comes with time. For languages with hard vocabulary, I make notes on the lessons, look up the words and make flash cards. On the Indonesian CDs, maddeningly, the time they give you to speak is often a bit too short, so I have the pause button ready so I can collect myself.
On a recent trip to Amman, Jordan,, I only had time to cover four Pimsleur lessons, and even with just these I was functioning fine with street, shop, taxi and hotel Arabic. This may sound weird, but I actually do think this is a clever way to learn long words now that I've tried it.
Some languages do have words that are quite a mouthful, and saying the last syllable, then the second-last followed by the last and continuing to add another one on, always before, was actually an effective way to be able to say the word.
I'll be doing this more often in the future. Hearing native-spoken pronunciations and intonations. A language like Hungarian has a different rhythm in the language, so I used the opportunity to learn to improve my pronunciation and sentence rhythm by hearing the answer to how I should have said something.
In a purely reading course you will never have this advantage. Although I tend to combine reading courses with listening to podcasts or simply speaking with people. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of this system is how it focuses on trying to make a language natural.
The contexts seem a little fake, but at least it provides them and creates a mini-story each time. This is way superior to other courses that just present the information as vocabulary and grammar. At the start of each lesson a full conversation between two speakers is given, and by the end of the lesson you do actually understand all components of the conversation.
This is quite an achievement and makes the system all the more impressive. Explanations are useful and non-technical so you get the basic gist of some grammatical concepts, as well as the vocabulary itself.
Despite its advantages, I don't think I will be using Pimsleur in future language missions even if I come across it as free again. After fifteen hours of focused learning I feel like I would have progressed way more in my Hungarian if I had spent that time on other tasks. It's a clever idea, but hardly revolutionary compared to the competition.
For example, the context in use was completely irrelevant to me. If you are a married businessman with children, planning to do some shopping and eating out in restaurants, then Pimsleur at least the Hungarian version is perfect for you. If you are anyone else then you will learn things that simply should not be prioritised in the early stages.
I never learned the words I wanted to use in the early stages. This prioritisation seems like a clever marketing strategy for several decades ago when most people travelling for short periods would indeed be businessmen. In this day and age anyone can travel , so why focus on just one demographic? I feel like it should be called Pimsleur-for-married-businessmen. If it was tailored to other types of people, it would be way more interesting, with different versions for different purposes of travel, but this would be asking a lot of any course.
The context I would tend to use the language in was totally off. The entire course even pleasant conversations used this formal you apart from a quick mention in one unit and that would create unnecessary distance between me and those I meet in social events if I were to use it. I imagine in popular language courses with three times as much audio they cover informal usage, but I didn't get what I personally needed from my fifteen hours, so I'm not confident about the following thirty hours.
With a book or software course at least you can skip through the current lesson after glancing to see that the words covered in this one should be low on your priorities. If you skip an audio lesson you may indeed miss words that you immediately need to learn, and no written or preview summaries means you don't know what is going to get covered.
The sample conversation at the start of the lesson is a good scope to get a vague idea, but other things are covered. I am of course more of an independent learner, and use courses as I see fit. An audio course like this takes away some of that freedom as you must go through it in the right sequence. This is actually an advantage for learners who prefer for the course to do all the work for them, but I encourage people to analyse what they are learning and adapt the course to their needs rather than vice-versa.
This one-size-fits-all insinuation that the particular words it's teaching you are the most helpful ones is very misleading. The entire contents of my Pimsleur course could have been covered in just two or three chapters of most good book-courses. After fifteen hours I feel like I've learned nothing more than basic pleasantries and personally-irrelevant phrases from this course and I'm glad I was applying my own learning strategies simultaneously or my Hungarian would be next to worthless.
While the repetition does drill it into you sufficiently, working on efficient learning strategies to better use your memory would give you the same content much quicker.
A system based on repetition as the main learning strategy is immediately inefficient in my opinion. Even if I had stuck to just Pimsleur, there is no indication of where to go when you complete the course.
You'd have to simply buy some book-based course and start over again.
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