26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still the best for beginners, September 21, 2005
This review is from: French III, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur) (Audio CD)
I have tried a lot of audio methods, and Pimsleur is still the best by far. It is more expensive than most other audio methods, but it really works and it is enjoyable. Perhaps if you learn a language with family and friends and share the material, you can share the cost and practice with others! Or after you have completed the lessons, sell them (if you are generous, donate them to your library). Pimsleur really helps with proper pronunciation and uses a technique that makes what you learn stick in your brain - not any gimmicky memory tricks. Pimsleur covers a lot of basic material, but it does not overload the beginner with vocabulary or grammar - a case of less being more. However, I do wish Pimsleur included a print version of the audio material. At the end of 90 lessons (French I,II, and III), you will not speak at an intermediate level - no audio method can do that - but you will speak easily and well at a beginner level. Doing Pimsleur first, before taking a formal foreign language class, is the best way to go. I can't recommend Pimsleur highly enough.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful way to continue your knowledge of French, November 21, 2008
This review is from: French III, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur) (Audio CD)
Have you had the same history of learning a language in the past as I've had? You buy a set of CD's or tapes, listen to the first one or two and find that you can't quite hear the pronunciation of a simple word or phrase. That word builds on other words and phrases and before long you find you don't understand what you thought it meant and the CD's or tapes end up thrown in a drawer never to see the light of day again. Over the years I've accumulated a drawer full of these.
I first met this Pimsleur language courses on a business trip years ago when I needed something interesting to listen to an a 2 hour drive. I bought the "teaser" first 8 lessons of Pimsleur French. These lessons were different than any other language CD I had listened to in the past. The words were completely clear, repeated several times by male and female voices, and there was never a question of what you were hearing or what it meant. Unlike some other language courses, Pimsleur doesn't just teach you phrases, it teaches you what each of the words in the phrase mean and rearranges them in several different contexts. I ended up buying the whole first course and then went on the buy the second and third. The third follows along, just like the first two.
The lessons start with the most commonly spoken phrases and subjects, like greeting someone, asking for directions, telling time, and talking about everyday subjects. The voices are very clear, you never have a question about what was said. And one lesson builds on the previous, adding more phrases and using words from the last lessons combined with new words. These lessons have you participating in conversations right from the start. It forces you to think about the way you put words together to form a sentence. You aren't just parroting back phrases with mysterious words. You're actually thinking in the language, even in the early lessons.
I've always had this fantasy about learning a some French and then just waking up one morning, suddenly speaking and understanding all, as if by magic. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way and you do have to apply yourself to learn, but for me, Pimsleur is the most painless way to learn a language. It doesn't feel like a chore.
The way I went about learning French I, II and III is to take the CD's along whenever I get into the car. The lessons are a little under half an hour each, and even a trip to the store is at least 10 minutes each way, so I get through the better part of a lesson. I can't tell you the number of times I've sat in the driveway after returning home to finish a lesson.
I try to get through one lesson every day or two. Some are more difficult and take several repetitions, some are easy and I can comprehend in a couple listens. What has worked for me is to count the number of errors I make and go on to the next lesson when I make 10 or fewer errors in a lesson. One lesson builds on the next and there is lots of repetition so this has worked very well for me. I also listen on my iPod often when I'm doing some mindless task. It makes the work go faster and I feel like I'm accomplishing two things at once.
Some people have complained about the lack of visuals with Pimsleur. There are a few words that they go over for pronunciation in a little booklet at the end of the lesson, but most of it is audio. I always thought I was a visual learner, but I found that I learn just fine with the audio. And I can find more time to listen than I can to sit down with a book. Of course, I wanted to also read French in order to practice my language skills. After several lessons I bought the Oxford French Mini dictionary that you can find on amazon. It's tiny enough to keep on the side when you're reading a book or magazine, and has over 100,000 words. I looked up a few French newspapers online and practiced reading those. Amazon also carries magazine subscriptions to a couple French magazines and a newspaper which come out weekly. My subscription to
Paris Match was interesting enough to keep me reading, sometimes a couple hours per day. And amazon.fr is a whole new world in French. (And to my delight, after logging in there, my "1 click" magically works just like it does here!)
The other complaint I sometimes read about Pimsleur is that it's expensive. For me, I figure you get what you pay for. That drawer full of discarded language tapes and CD's that I couldn't use probably added up over time to a lot more than a Pimsleur course. The Pimsleur courses are fun to use and you actually learn something. The French courses gave me the ability to converse with people when we went to France on everyday type things and even more importantly it gave me enough knowledge of the language to build on it. I highly recommend it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pimsleur vs. Rosetta Stone, Rocket French and FSI, March 22, 2011
This review is from: French III, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur) (Audio CD)
I have completed Pimsleur I (beginning),II (intermediate) and III(advanced)levels. I also first used and completed Rosetta Stone with which I did not learn the French as quickly as with Pimsleur.Rosetta Stone has more vocabulary but the pronunciation is more difficult to catch than Pimsleur. Rocket French is great for grammar but it will not give you the smooth understanding and speaking ability of Pimsleur. I also used the improved Foreign Service Institute (FSI) called Loquella (loquella.com).I would recommend using loquella.com first because you learn the French sounds and the letters and words they go with. Loquella gives sentences at the same time as a native speaker saying them.It has time for responses.After you complete loquella.com then go to Pimsleur. In so doing, when you hear only the audio on Pimsleur (it does not have a written down dialogue) then you will not only know the sounds but how French is written. I have a M.A. in the teaching of languages and speak fluent Spanish and read Greek, some Arabic and have studied Hebrew. I am a visual learner but in spite of this the timinig increments that Pimsleur uses worked very well for me even though I am not an auditory learner. His brain research on what the human brain can absorb in specified amounts of time seems to really work. I hope this is helpful.
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