We recommend our competition. That may sound strange, but you should know why we respect Pimsleur and sometimes recommend them.

We sometimes recommend Pimsleur because their products really work, and most other language learning products really don’t.

We do have other competitors we don’t recommend.  You may want to read our Rosetta Stone Reviews.

We have learned languages with Pimsleur and  their lessons are often boring, but they always work. Lessons are organized into 30 minute audio files that are sold either on CD or on book chips.

Get the lessons on CD and load them on to your .MP3 player. Don’t get the book chips because they are a hassle.

We Both Use the Same Concept

Pimsleur uses the same spaced repetition concept that we do.  Here’s what spaced repetition means.  First you will be told a foreign language phrase and asked to repeat it.  Then you will be asked to remember it and say the words out loud at time intervals that start very small and then increase.  This idea is sometimes called graduated interval recall.

For example, first you hear a word and then you will be asked to say it 15 seconds later, then you will be asked to say it 45 seconds later, then 1.5 minutes after that and so on.  The time intervals quickly grow until they are measured in days  and then weeks.

This is an amazingly efficient way to form new memories.  That’s why we use it and Pimsleur does too.

Outdated Technology

Pimsleur language programs are all based on the best available foreign language learning technology of the 1970′s.  In the 1970′s the best available technology was cassette tapes.

We really admire the tedious effort and dedication it must have taken to make these lessons.  They must have taken a huge amount of very skillful effort to make.

Pimsleur’s current lessons are exactly the same format that they produced a long time ago, but they now are available on CD’s and book chips instead of cassettes.

I usually listened to a Pimsleur lesson three to four times before I was ready to go to the next lesson.  You should plan on listening to each lesson several times.

We are Flexible – Pimsleur is Rigid

With Pimsleur you have to study the lessons in a fixed order, or you won’t get the benefit of the correctly timed reviews.  With our software, you can study in any order that that makes sense for you, because our software schedules your reviews at the proper time.

With Pimsleur you can only study the pre-made lessons.  With our technology we can quickly and cheaply make new lessons just for you.

Pimsleur is Better for the Blind

Pimsleur is a better program for blind language learners because it’s 100% audio.  Our program is better for anyone who can learn while looking at a computer screen.

Don’t Use Pimsleur While Driving

Learning a foreign language is supposed to make your life better, not make you have a car wreck.  Studying any foreign language while you are driving is a dangerous idea.

In order to learn well your attention needs to be on the language, and in order to drive safely, your attention needs to be on your driving.  Get someone else to drive while you study.

Our program could be used while you are a passenger in a car too, if you had a good mobile internet connection.

I found it very difficult to study with any system on an airliner because of the background noise.  I found it moderately difficult to study while being a passenger in my car because of background noise.

If you absolutely have to have a system where you study while doing something like walking, then Pimsleur is what we recommend.

Pimsleur is Slower

With our program, you can review much faster because you don’t have to wait for the audio to play if you already know the answer.  You can just click to give yourself a grade, and then go to the next question.

I spent a lot of time re-winding the Pimsleur CD to listen to a phrase again.  With our program you can simply click “Play Slowly” or “Play Normal Speed” to hear the phrase as many times as you need to.

You can learn faster and learn more with us than you could with Pimsleur.  Both of us can teach you the basics of your language well, but we can keep you more interested with our movie clip lessons, song lessons any new lesson that you want!

Pimsleur Reading is Weak

Pimsleur does have a reading program, but it was obviously made by a different team than did the main lessons.

Their reading lessons have absolutely no relation to the content of their audio lessons. In other words, you are never learning to read, the material you have just learned to speak.

Our reading lessons are a central part of our speaking lessons so you will always learn to read the same words you are learning to speak.

Unrealistic Marketing Claims

Pimsleur runs a lot of ads where they say something like, “Learn to Speak Spanish in Ten Days.”  Yes it’s true that you can learn a lot in ten days with their program.  However there is absolutely no way that any reasonable person would say that you spoke the language after only 10 days of study.

Each new Pimsleur lesson introduces four or five new phrases and it reviews the old material.  When I was studying with Pimsleur it took me two or three days to advance to the next lesson.  Let’s assume you are much faster than I was and you do one new Pimsleur lesson every day.

At the end of ten days you will have learned 50 new phrases.  Since they are well chosen phrases, you will be able to have a really really simple conversation, but no reasonable person would say that you really know how to speak your new language.

A more reasonable claim would be something like, “Learn a little bit of Spanish in Ten Days.”  But that doesn’t make a very good headline.

Pimsleur is Sometimes Boring

Studying with Pimsleur lessons is fairly boring when the lessons are brand new to you and really boring after you have listened to them several times.

With our program, you can keep adding new lessons so you stay interested.

Try Our Language Learning Program

If we have your language, we recommend that you skip Pimsleur and try our modern language learning program.

Here’s what to do:

1.  Click on your language and watch the video.
2.  Click “Try It” and watch the “How To” video twice.
3.  Learn for 30 minutes right now!

Spanish -  French – German -  Danish -  Irish -  Russian

What if We Don’t Have Your Language?

If your language is above, try it now.  If not,  please use the contact us form below to tell us what you want to learn.  We can add new languages very quickly.

We strongly recommend Pimsleur if we don’t have your language.  No we don’t get any money from them.  Their technology is obsolete, but it still works and most other programs don’t.  It’s also the best for the blind.

Great Articles on Language Learning

These articles will save you a lot of time, and make your learning a lot more fun!

How to Learn Any Language (over 20 articles)

Rosetta Stone Reviews – Why it Doesn’t Work

Please Link to Us

If you found this review helpful, please copy and paste this URL into your web page.

Read a <a href=”http://language101.com/reviews/pimsleur/”>Pimsleur</a> Review.

This review is based on using Pimsleur Russian, 1, 2 and 3 in 2006.  Since the Pimsleur Program is very similar from language to language, this is also a review of Pimsleur French, German, Spanish, Danish, and Irish too.

Please tell us what language you want to learn. Feel free to ask a question. A friendly human will reply.

Last Updated:  August 20, 2010