Swedish (Compact) [CD] [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Pimsleur (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pimsleur Language Program | Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Compact Swedish, a stand-alone 10-lesson (5 hours) program, teaches beginning language strategies for essential communication and traveling needs, plus an introduction to reading.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and was one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics. After obtaining his Ph.D. in French from Columbia University, he taught French Phonetics and Phonemics, and supervised the language laboratory at UCLA. He went on to become Professor of Romance Languages and Language Education, and Director of The Listening Center at Ohio State University; Professor of Education and Romance Languages at the State University of New York at Albany; and a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Pimsleur was a member of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and a founding member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). His many books and articles revolutionized theories of language learning and teaching. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed a new method that is based on two key principles: the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory that he called Graduated Interval Recall. This program incorporates both of these principles to provide you with the most simple and effective learning method possible.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Pimsleur; Abridged edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743506235
• ISBN-13: 978-0743506236
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,122,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good beginning, January 30, 2005

By 

A. Trueblood "sannblod" (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Swedish (Compact) [CD] (Audio CD)

I have been studying Swedish for about a year and found this program (I had the CD's) very useful, even though much of the vocabulary was familiar. The repetition is great but the best part is hearing the language as it is actually spoken (i.e. dropping the "t" out of "det", the "g" from "jag" and "och" is prounounced "Oh".) The CD's are also quite good about drilling you in the hard-to-get double-falling tone of certain two syllable Swedish words.

I wish I had had this before I went to Sweden last summer.
It is disappointingly short, but definitely worth buying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dips Your Ties in the Pool of Swedish, June 4, 2005

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B. Decker (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Swedish (Compact) [CD] (Audio CD)

10 disc set is good for getting your toes wet but is incredibly short and a little too repetitive for my tastes. For example, I didn't need to be told that "klockan nio" was nine o'clock at least fifteen times, I had that mastered after two times. One realizes after completing the discs that not much material has really been covered. On the other hand, it is great for getting to know the flavor of the language and helps with pronounciation. I used it as complement to the Rosetta Stone software and various grammar books I purchased in attempting to teach myself the language. I considered it a good purchase but it is a bit pricey for what you are getting.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worth it for beginners, July 8, 2005

By 

Robert S. Damus "on the water" (alameda, ca) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Swedish (Compact) [CD] (Audio CD)

i'm decent at picking up a new language, so this might be biased: i found this series to be quite useful, in large part because you hear someone speaking the language so frequently during the lesson... i'm on lesson 6 and can at least understand responses when i speak swedish with other swedes... where this fails is the "reading accompaniment" - it is only for getting to know how words sound, and really should also define the word and perhaps even give the user homework to do: i.e., verbs to study, conjugations to practice... overall, for a beginners series, this was very useful and i use it on the plane, in the car... much better than the Rosetta Stone series, where i'd be parked in front of the computer... at least for listening comprehension, Pimsleur's got Rosetta beat.