Swahili [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

by Pimsleur (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Compact Swahili, a stand-alone 10-lesson (5 hours) program, teaches beginning language strategies for essential communication and traveling needs, plus language Notes.

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; Unabridged edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743506227
• ISBN-13: 978-0743506229
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 6.7 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,314,232 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars learn to put together relevant sentences--great confidence builder, June 22, 2006

By	Maria B (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

I disagree with the reviewer who objected to the lack of words like "dog" and "cat" in this series. I'll tell you, names of domestic animals are not among the first things I'd want to know in another language. If you're only going to learn one thing, in my opinion it should be: "I don't understand [language]"--and that's one of the first things you learn in these lessons. "Please", "excuse me", and greetings would probably be the next most important, along with perhaps "yes" and "no". With this series, you'll practice these until they're second nature, along with other useful conversation about eating, drinking, where things are, and the time of day. You're not just memorizing; you're getting a feel for putting sentences together. If you've done other Pimsleur series, you'll find this one to be very similar (besides the fact that there are sadly only 10 lessons to be had). Oh, and do a search on amazon.com for "Pimsleur Swahili"--there's another edition out now that's less than half the price.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the price, March 24, 2006

By	D. Marceo (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The best thing about this package is the fact you get to hear what Swahili sounds like. You will learn to say a few things. But this will not even come close to teaching a person simple conversational Swahili. Many simple words like "boy," "girl," "man," "woman," "dog" or "cat" are not even mentioned. You can learn a lot more somewhere else for a third of the price. It doesn't even teach "My name is..."

If you just want to hear the sound of Swahili, you can hear it on BBC's Swahili news site.