Customer Reviews

Greek I

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pimsleur's Greek program is my first attempt learning a new language using their method. I've used Berlitz, Living Language and Language/40 cassettes and CDs for other languages. However, having gone through some 15 hours of instruction with the Pimsleur cassettes has proven to me that Pimsleur really does work.

It works if you want to speak the language, although the vocabulary I have learned in the 15 hours is limited, but I have retained most of what I've listened to. The method can seem repetitive at times.

I gave the edition 4 not 5 stars, because the booklet included with the tapes gives you only a brief glance at written Greek: the alphabet is shown, along with a pronunciation key. The chapter lessons are written in Greek only, which is great if you have the motivation to decipher it as a beginning student. I know Pimsleur's emphasis is on learning through listening and repetition, but why include the lesson titles at all then?

The vocabulary only provides words like: wine/beer, husband/wife, when/where, time/week, Athens/Thessaloniki, drink/eat, buy/shops, etc. Really useful words they should've included would be airport, help, even the names of some typical Greek foods you'd order in a restaurant. Offering a Level 2 or 3 is definitely needed if one is going to continue learning Greek using this method.

From reading other reviews of other Greek-language study aids, I feel the need to invest in a Routledge's Comprehensive Grammar as I intend to fully learn the language and the culture.

I am in my car quite a bit, and this is the best way to learn Greek in a short period of time. The lessons are repetitive, but very easy to keep up. The repetition is needed to help you remember the words and phrases you need. This makes it very easy to commit these words to memory. Difficult words can be mastered with this process as well. The only drawback to this method is I still don't feel I have a very wide vocabulary. The repetition leaves little time to learn more words, though I now know the important ones.

For me, it's always been fairly easy to learn to Read a foreign language. The difficult part is being able to understand the SPOKEN language - at actual speed. Finally all the way through the series. I find that it has been a GREAT help. Easily worth 5 stars. My only complaint is the lack of the 2nd and 3rd volumes.

I've studied over 7 languages in my lifetime using a bunch of different methods, and in my opinion, there is no one product that does it all. And there won't be. The best way to learn a language outside of full immersion in that country is to use as many tools as you can.

There are a lot of waste-of-time and a few waste-of-money products. Waste-of-time products are usually inexpensive, but rarely work as the primary method for learning. But they are often useful as supplements to better products. I don't really believe a product designed to help you learn a language is a waste of money unless the information it provides is wrong. Even then, finding out what's wrong (the hard way) can help you learn, albeit in an embarrassing way. Pimsleur courses are not a waste of time or money. They are among the best language learning products, and most of the time you get what you pay for.

My opinion of Pimsleur Greek I in short is that it's best in the beginning. Some people won't like it because it is so repetitive, and in all honesty, after 16 CDs, you don't walk away with much of a vocabulary. Pimsleur's comprehensive courses aren't cheap, but I really do feel they are worth it, because you may only learn a few words, but you learn so many ways in which to use those words. You pick up on the subtle differences in meaning using a small vocabulary. And that's the best way to learn.

I studied Japanese for 3 years in college, and they threw too much information at us too rapidly. My broken survival Japanese still kicks in when needed, but I had a really tough time using 3 year's worth of classes when I visited Japan. I had no confidence. It wasn't instinctual. On the other hand, I took one semester of Mandarin in college. We walked away with a tiny vocabulary, but I was amazed that I could keep up relatively well with Chinese soaps and even read subtitles at speed, years after I had stopped studying. The point is, sometimes less-is-more is true. If you visit a country, people can teach you words as you need them, but you need a foundation where the language is instinctual. You aren't thinking about grammar. You aren't even translating on the fly. The right words just come to you when you need them. That confidence is absolutely necessary.

If you are going to make an investment in learning Greek, here's what I recommend. Buy Pimsleur Greek I first. I also highly recommend How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own. It will help you figure out what works for you. It's a lot of money, but before you finish Pimsleur Greek I, I'd recommend getting Rosetta Stone V2: Greek, Level 1 & 2. Rosetta is not great as a first tool if you want to have conversations. It does allow you to pick how you want to learn, especially the Homeschool version, but it tends to work better teaching you how to describe the world around you. In other words, it's great for third person descriptions, whereas Pimsleur is great for first-person interaction. You can finish the Pimsleur course in as little as a few weeks, though they sometimes take me months and months to master. But Rosetta will last you a very long time time unless you invest many hours a day. It covers a lot of ground and lots of vocabulary. I will say, learning Rosetta is a little strange and tough for some. No English. If you want to learn what a word actually means, you'll have to look it up in a Greek-English dictionary (or with cirriculum text if you get the homeschool version or purchase it separately). It's full immersion, which is great. But reading the Greek alphabet will throw some people off. You feel your way around the language. That's why a lot of peole say start with Pimsleur first, then move on to Rosetta.

Also, you will not be a good translator or interpreter on Rosetta alone. If someone asks me how to say something in Greek, I can't really do it quickly or easily. But if someone starts speaking Greek, my brain flips a switch, and I'm in Greek mode. It's disconcerting at times because it's harder to assess what you know using this method until you are speaking in the language with native speakers.

So if you are debating between Rosetta and Pimsleur, get Pimsleur first. If you make it through half of the course, you won't mind paying for Rosetta because you'll actually be getting somewhere with the language.

Of course, try to find as many Greek speakers as you can. My best friend is Greek, so I've been hearing the language for over 20 years. Try speaking what you learn in a Greek restaurant. Join a Meetup group in your city. And of course, go to Greece. Even the tiniest amount of spoken Greek will bring out that wonderful Greek hospitality.

For those of you still reading this review, if you are wondering how well Pimsleur Greek holds up in Greece, I'd say you will find that you run out of vocabulary fast just on Pimsleur. It's not so hard to follow conversations, but having one, your vocabulary will be your biggest weakness. You are learning Greek with a relatively Athenian accent, which is fine since half the country lives in and around Athens. I learned country-bumpkin hillbilly Greek first, so my accent confuses both village Greeks and Greeks from Athens. No one ever has a problem understanding me, but I'm always asked where I learned Greek because my accent shifts on a word by word basis.

I believe that Pimsleur Greek I is the very best course for the complete beginner. I listened to the CDs for 1-2 hours per day for 3 months before traveling to Greece. When I arrived, several educated Greeks told me that my Greek was perfect. It wasn't, but I had learned many useful phrases from the Pimsleur course. Other audio courses that I have tried progressed too quickly.

There is no Pimsleur Greek II, so I recommend the Rosetta Stone course for your second course. It will help you to build vocabulary quickly and it does so entirely in Greek. There is no English instruction, which I think is a great technique.

I'm using the CD version. And I am making progress. I'm half way through the tapes. I find I learn best sitting quietly in a dark room with no distractions. When I go to bed I think about the words I've learned and fall asleep. I sleep better than I have in years, because I'm not thinking about problems.
Thats a side benefit I did not expect. It's so much fun to learn a new language!

Having tried to study Greek on and off for years, I found that my reading ability was far greater than my speaking and listening ability. I would have to think too long to construct simple sentences, and had a hard time getting the grammar to work in my brain.

This method is phemonenal - it has greatly improved my understanding of the spoken word in Greek. I truly believe that no teaching resource compares. This method is the best.

A huge advantage is that I can study while driving, I don't have to block out time in my schedule to sit down with a book. Also, even tho I am a visual learner in most subjects, language is primarily spoken and I have come to the conclusion (during this course) that it is best learned when primarily heard and spoken rather than read. Additionally, I don't have to tire a tutor with repetition - I can just replay parts I have trouble with.

However, this course is simply not long enough - and leaves out several very important things. For instance, it gives almost no instruction in the second person familiar (informal you), no instruction in the genetive case (used for possessives), and no instruction in conjugating the rather large percentage of verbs that end in "omai" (transliterated, of course).

Greek is a complex language, and the number of hours of instruction needed to get to a "Level 1" competence is simply more than say, French or Spanish, therefore the publisher should make the course at least 40 or 50 hours long, instead of their usual 30.

Having said that, I enthusiastically recommend this course - it's not perfect, but as far as I know it is the best thing available - anywhere.

I just started using Pimsleur and I found it to work much better than the approach in "Teach Yourself Beginner's Greek". Prior to that I was ready to give up and started searching for a Greek class. Only thing is, the first half of Greek I is virtually the same as Pimsleur's Conversational Greek, minus the booklet, the accompanying booklet CD, and the 17 minute instructions (which are superfluous basically). Conversational Greek is $35, this costs about 10 times that price but all you're getting is 28 lessons versus 17 (in other words an extra 11 lessons), and the booklet which is really not all that special (you'd get MUCH further with another Greek book that'd cost you under $25 and gives you grammar and vocabulary).

Bottom line - it's a good product for sure, but I suggest unless you're super dedicated get the Pimsleur Conversational Greek first (and a book that features the basic grammar, plus a dictionary), because that's more than 50% of this package right there and it's a mere $35. And if you're smart you'll see if you can find it at your local library first and save yourself some big bucks. That's what I did.

My husband and I are both using these audio CD's to prepare for an upcoming trip to Greece, and we have each been very pleased with our progress with the language. We feel like the practice we are gaining from Pimsleur's Greek I will really help us have a background for being able to communicate our basic needs & feelings. We both feel very comfortable with the words & phrases we have learned from the CD's, as compared to trying to sound things out on our own from a textbook. The method used on the CD's takes the student past straight memorization and into further comprehension of the language's basic structure. My husband has spent time in Greece over the years, and he is so excited to return and show his Greek relatives his new skills!

I have tried a wide variety of self teaching programs for multiple languages, such as the "Teach Yourself" series, "For Dummies", Living Language, Instant Immersion, and Rosetta Stone as well as college classes. While all these systems are quite well implemented, Pimsleur has time and again been the fastest path to functional proficiency.

It's convenient in being pure audio because you can use it while commuting or performing other tasks.

The program purposely does not get into depth teaching grammar or large vocabulary. You are expected to pick these up by inference and context. This lets you learn faster, and without an incorrect accent. The downside is that your education will not be as thorough. I highly recommend using Pimsleur to get 'up and running' in the language and then augmenting with a program such as Rosetta Stone or formal education.

The Greek program has made it quite easy for me to settle into living here in Crete.