Pimsleur—Boring, but It Works
If you have the discipline to keep using the Pimsleur language learning method, it does work. That’s important to know, because most language-learning products simply don’t work even if you use them as recommended.
Pimsleur: boring, but it works!
Summary of this Pimsleur review: Pimsleur is often boring, but you’ll always learn something.
For beginners, Pimsleur is definitely worth your money and your time. Keep reading this review to learn about faster programs that are available for some languages.
I had my first language-learning success with Pimsleur. I liked Pimsleur back then, and I still like it, even though I now make a competing language learning product.
Other competitors that I sometimes recommend are Yabla (for intermediate and advanced learners) and Fluenz (for people who want to prepare for an in-person class). There are some competitors I never recommend. For example, you may want to read my reviews of Rosetta Stone. If you are one of the many people trying Duolingo, you may want to read why Duolingo is a slow way to learn.
The most important reason Pimsleur language programs work is that Pimsleur uses something called “spaced repetition.” I explain spaced repetition in the detailed review below.
Pimsleur (and others marketing their products) often make marketing claims that are wildly unrealistic. For example, Pimsleur has often advertised that you can learn your new language to an intermediate level in 30 days. This is a wild marketing lie.
Yes, you can learn a lot of Spanish in 30 days with Pimsleur, but nobody would seriously say you speak Spanish at an intermediate level after 30 days of study with Pimsleur.
Please read the detailed review below and leave your comments and remarks about Pimsleur at the bottom of this page.
If you want to learn one of the languages listed below, I recommend clicking on the flag of the language you want to learn below, and try a free lessons right now for 30 minutes.
It’s quite a bit faster than Pimsleur.
If your language is not on the list above, please continue reading the Pimsleur review below. There is a link to the list of languages Pimsleur offers at the end of this review.
The detailed review starts here:
Why Pimsleur Language Programs Work — “Spaced Repetition”
Here’s what spaced repetition means. First, you listen to a foreign-language phrase, and then you are asked to repeat it. Next, you’re asked to remember the phrase and say the words out loud at timed intervals. The intervals start out very short and get longer and longer.
For example, first you hear a word and then you’re 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 grow quickly until they are measured in days and then weeks.
This learning method works for everyone who is willing to use it. You will learn a lot (and remember a lot) for every hour you spend studying with any spaced-repetition method.
Spaced repetition was invented back in 1932 by Professor C. A. Mace, so it’s an old and reliable concept. Pimsleur language courses that use spaced repetition were developed when cassette-tape technology became widespread in the 1970s.
Smaller Marketing Lies?
Pimsleur Approach was a marketing company with a license to sell Pimsleur products for several years. They ran ads like this one: “Learn Spanish in Ten Days.” Then they got your credit card number with a low-priced $9.95 intro offer and promptly enrolled you in a series of much higher automatic payments.
No, you won’t learn Spanish in 30 days with Pimsleur.
This eventually annoyed so many customers that Simon & Schuster (the publisher of Pimsleur) cancelled Pimsleur Approach’s contract, and Pimsleur Approach is no longer selling Pimsleur products.
The trouble is that Simon & Schuster is currently advertising that you can learn a new language to an intermediate level in 30 days.
This is a marketing lie. However, if you study every day with Pimsleur you probably will be happy with what you learn.
The reason that most marketers of language learning products are such bold-faced liars is that the lies work. We want to believe that we can learn a language well with very little effort. So we buy and don’t usually ask for refunds of products that can’t possibly deliver on what the marketers promise.
Technology From the 1970s
Plus Downloadable MP3 Files and Software
The Pimsleur language learning programs were developed in the 1970s, when the best available language learning technology was a cassette tape player. In recent times, Pimsleur has been copying the cassette tape courses onto CDs and then, more recently, into digital MP3 downloads. They recently added a software version for both PC and Mac.
The downloadable MP3 files are exactly the same thing you would get if you bought the CDs, and it definitely can be preferable to purchase and download a language learning product if you are traveling in some remote part of South America and can’t order the CDs by mail.
The MP3s won’t speed up your learning at all, but they might make it more convenient. The software includes all the audio lessons plus flashcards.
Basically, Pimsleur’s current lessons are a repackaging of their old lessons from the days of cassette tape. And, yes, the lessons still work.
How Much Will You Learn With Pimsleur?
In 2017, our lesson developer, retired US Army linguist David Shoup, purchased a copy of Pimsleur Ukrainian 1 and analyzed the first lesson to see how much Ukrainian he would know when he had learned that first lesson well. The first lesson is 28 minutes long.
To find out how much unique material he would learn, David subtracted out the English instructor’s speaking time, the blank time for the student to repeat after the instructor, all repeated words and phrases, and the syllabic breakdown of the words.
The result for a 28-minute lesson was 1 minute and 10 seconds of unique data. So the 30 courses, which add up to 15 hours of lesson, will boil down to only about a half-hour of unique material. Since lessons 2 and onward also take time for reviewing material from previous lessons, the amount of new material that you learn per lesson goes down even more.
Of course, the pauses, repeats, and English language instruction are all part of what makes the Pimsleur method work. But, since Pimsleur is 100 percent audio, the ratio of new material to instructional overhead is poor.
Pimsleur Is Better for the Blind
Pimsleur is probably the best program on the market for blind and visually impaired language learners because, except for the software version, it’s 100 percent audio.
Don’t Use Pimsleur While Driving
Learning a foreign language is supposed to enhance your life, not cause you to have a car wreck. Studying any foreign language while you are driving is a bad 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. You can’t do both. Get someone else to drive while you study.
Do Use Pimsleur While Walking or Jogging
It’s always great if you can figure out how to do two useful things at the same time, like learning a foreign language and exercising. This is an area where the audio platform of Pimsleur is beneficial. Just remember to take your headphones off when you are crossing busy streets, and you should be able to exercise and study a language at the same time.
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.
If you like to study while walking or jogging, you may be interested to know that Language101.com runs on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. I found that I could get a lot of valuable exercise and language study at the same time while walking back and forth in my house with an iPad. Don’t use Language101.com to study while walking outdoors, because you are likely to trip and fall.
With Pimsleur You’ll Spend a Lot of Time Waiting
When you are using Pimsleur, you spend a lot of time waiting as the instructor asks questions. With the Language101.com 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 rewinding the Pimsleur CD to listen to a phrase again. With Language101.com software you can simply click “Play Slowly” or “Play Normal Speed” to hear the phrase as many times as you need to.
Most people learn a lot faster with Language101.com software than they do with Pimsleur. Both programs will teach you the basics of your language well, but Language101.com can keep you more interested, with our movie clip lessons, song lessons, and any new lesson that you want!
Having said that, Pimsleur definitely works, and I always recommend it if Language101.com doesn’t have your language.
The Pimsleur Reading Program Is Weak
Pimsleur does have a reading program, but it looks as though it was made by different people than those who made the main lessons. My source at Simon & Schuster tells me that is not the case, but in my opinion the reading program is weak.
Pimsleur’s 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.
Language101.com reading lessons are closely matched to our speaking lessons, so you will always learn to read the same words you are learning to speak.
Pimsleur Is Often 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 Language101.com software, you can keep adding new lessons to keep you interested.
What to Study After Pimsleur?
If you have finished all the lessons that the Pimsleur approach offers, you may want to try Language101.com. We offer a much faster method of review for long-term memory retention. We also cover more material in different ways than Pimsleur does.
What’s Better Than Pimsleur?
If your next language is listed below, please click on the flag of the language you want to learn to try a free lesson from us right now for 30 minutes. It’s quite a bit faster than Pimsleur. Even if you do decide to use Pimsleur (which is a good choice) you might also want to use the programs below.
What Do Other Language Learners Think?
“I like both Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. These audio courses get you speaking right away. Knowing words is only half the battle because natives still have to understand your pronunciation. These courses aid in that problem.”
Daryush Valizadeh – Language Learner and Author1
“Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic is a well-made course that will help beginners to take their first steps in the language, providing they’re willing to put a bit of extra work in.”
Olly Richards, polyglot, I will Teach You A Language2
“The biggest disadvantage of Pimsleur is that you learn so few words. They say that the way they teach you can learn to speak without an accent, that people will mistake you for a native. That’s simply nonsense. The fact that it is all audio is nice because it’s so easy to listen to anywhere.”
Steve Kaufmann, polyglot and founder of Lingq3
What if I Am Interested in Something Else?
If your language appears above, try it now. If not, Language101.com can still help. You will want to read our free articles on
or perhaps:
Conclusion:
Pimsleur is a boring but effective spaced repetition language-learning method. Since it’s 100-percent audio, you can also use it while you are walking. Each roughly half-hour lesson doesn’t have very much foreign language material. One 28-minute lesson that we analyzed had just one minute and 10 seconds of foreign language material.
Scroll Down for Lower-Priced Offerings
If you visit the Pimsleur web site, make sure to scroll down for their lowest price offerings. However, remember that products that work in language learning are rare, and while I have paid a lot of money for various Pimsleur products, they have always been a good use of my time and money.
Click Here for:
Pimsleur’s list of languages
The Pimsleur representative in charge of the company’s affiliate program contacted us in 2017 and offered to sign us up so we could earn a commission on sales. After thinking about if for a while we decided that it would be better to not take any money for our recommendations. So the link above is NOT an affiliate link, and we don’t get a penny from Pimsleur for this review.
This Pimsleur review is based on using Pimsleur Spanish 1, 2, and 3 in 2016, and the company’s programs are the same today. Since the Pimsleur program is very similar from language to language, this is also a review of Pimsleur French, German, Russian, Danish, and Irish.
If you enjoyed this Pimsleur review, please share it on Twitter by tweeting the message below.
Pimsleur language learning – Obsolete but it works! https://language101.com/pim/ please r/t
1. Daryush Valizadeh – Language Learner and Author
2. Olly Richards, polyglot, I will Teach You A Language
3. Steve Kaufmann, polyglot and founder of Lingq
Last Updated: February 17, 2021
I learned German in high school and college, Russian at DLIWC, and got about an year’s equivalent of French at our embassy, in Burkina Faso. I started a Russian refresher with Rosetta Stone, and then I heard about Pimsleur and fell in love with it for French. Contrary to your advice, it worked great for me while driving during a 75 min commute. I have found it takes 60-90 lessons to achieve near-intermediate fluency, but that includes augmentation with 501 Verbs (pick your language) and liberal use of Google Translate. BTW, 25 lessons of Swahili helped me get back to my hotel when lost one night in Zanzibar. Pimsleur offers good value for money (especially the downloadable option), if your learning situation mitigates boredom, overload and burnout.
I’m a big fan of Pimsleur too and the 501 verbs books are excellent advice.
I just decided to try Pimsleur after starting to learn Japanese with other resources. There is a superabundance of language learning resources online now and I don’t think one should exclude another. I don’t agree with the Pimsleur methodology in excluding reading (and later writing – Japanese is a tricky language to read and write at first) since in my experience each complements the other. You cannot make much sense of more complex oral learning without some orientation in grammar and vocabulary, but oral learning also helps give meaning to grammar – you are already familiar with use of sentence structures etc.
All Pimsleur courses teach how to read, just not as you are first talking to speak the language. It comes in later in the course once you’ve mastered the new sound system using your ears. Not sure why that misconception is so prevalent.
I think that learning to speak first and then read is the right approach. I think that the speaking part of Pimsleur is strong and the reading is not their strongest point.
What other resources have you used to study the Japanese language ?
We now have Japanese lessons that you may want to try.
https://language101.com/japanese/
I concur about the boredom and the use of spaced repetition. I downloaded this years ago and never followed through with completing it for one reason or another (I wanted to learn Spanish in my free time). I completed 8 lessons and just fell out. However, as an ESL teacher moving to South America in the future, I decided to web search what the internet says about it.
I too use a lot of Google translate; however, since I don’t repeat what I am web translating, it doesn’t stick very well. With that said, I plan on adopting some TESOL techniques to my personal Spanish learning.
Thanks for the assessment and I can see we are in agreement. Best of luck with your endeavors.
I love Pimsleur. I used it to learn a little Russian years ago. So I decided to give it a try to learn French. I have a few friends who are from France and Canada (French Canadian) and after 10 lessons, they are all very impressed at how much I’ve learned and how quickly. I will say that having someone to talk to in the language you are learning will help you learn and maintain even after the lessons.
>I usually listened to a Pimsleur lesson three to four times before I was ready to go to the next lesson.
THANK YOU!
I’m from Europe, where everybody reasonably educated speaks a few languages, and I used to sail through the beginner’s levels without much effort.
Now, at the age of 56, I decided to learn Hungarian, which admittedly is totally different from any language I ever studied. Even so, it was a real shock to me that I need to go back and repeat the lessons several times to really master them.
Thanks for reassuring me that this is fairly normal, and not so much an effect of menopause brain and working the night shift! ;-)
Oh, working the night shift is definitely bad for your language learning.
So why do you say that working nightshift is bad for language learning. That really peaks my curiosity.
Short term memories are consolidated to long term memories during REM sleep. Shift work messes this up rather badly.
I mainly used pimsleur when I was doing boring jobs like painting a wall or walking on my fittnesstrainer. I can’t use it while I’m sitting in a chair and do nothing else. I’ld fall asleep! But on the go it is great.
I used to travel a lot and while I was in one country, I studied the language of the other. I did this by wandering around in the city and holding my phone as if I was making a phone call. But instead listening, learning and repeating what was said in the lessons. That worked great.
i began a pimsleur course in arabic, got maybe five lessons in and then switched to a long-term spanish pimsleur course (150 lessons) and am halfway through it, planning to return to the 90- lesson arabic course when finished with spanish. the results of my little work on arabic are astounding: i live in detroit and encounter many arab people and when i use my 20 or so words that stuck with me they all claim i speak them perfectly. i am amazed and very encouraged.
with respect to pimsleur in general, i use it in the car and find it does not interfere with my driving. i would not otherwise have the time to proceed as i have. one observation i have is that the blank spaces of time are useful to me as i rapidly repeat the (now) spanish phrase over and over before the next instruction, in an attempt to engrave it in my muscle memory. it is my theory that when i get to the point of trying to understand fast conversation, i will have the language sounds more deeply absorbed, and that when i speak i will be closer to native pronunciation, than if i had just caught the meaning and pronunciation once and moved on to the next question. you seem to mention leaving those seconds silent, but i think my method is better. but reading your comments leaves me with another worry: am i proceeding too fast? i only repeat the lessons that give me lots of trouble. so out of 70 so far i may have repeated 10 and these only once. maybe i am too impatient, but am i rushing too much?
i am worried about the reading lessons in pimsleur. what in the world are they? how do you use them? i have no idea.
i am also worried about moving to fluency. i am not immersed in a speaking environment of either spanish or arabic, although there are many speakers here, but they use mainly english in my environment. can i expect to go to such an environment and, after 150 spanish lessons, navigate among native speakers? i am interested in a program of language learning that i discovered online being developed by an american black man named idahossa ness. it is very interesting because it aims at navigating the leap from knowledge to fluency. he illustrates the problem by showing that speakers in conversation do not always speak words but trains of sound, like when we mean “did you eat?” and we actually say “djeet”? or for “what’s going on?” “sgon on?” are you familiar with this and/or do you have any suggestions for moving from what i call knowledge to fluency? i cannot afford another large program.
strangely, while i am a native english speaker and have messed around with spanish for a very long time, i am finding picking up very accurate pronunciation is easier with arabic than spanish. i have a theory why that is so. as a native english speaker i already know many thousands of spanish words — cognates — but in terms of pronunciation i know them all wrong. when i see “actor” i automatically think “ack-ter” before i can think “ahk-toar(one trill r)”. i have to constantly re-learn. cognates help with reading — greatly — but they obstruct pronunciation. in arabic i can only think of two words i already know, algebra and alcohol. maybe admiral. in support of this theory i have the arabic speakers who applaud my pronunciation of my 20 words, while my spanish-speaking friends merely say “i can understand you.” which i take as praise but not on as high a level.
lastly, thank you for writing so clearly and interestingly and generously (re pimsleur).
I like your language101 method, but why so few languages? Is it a lack of funding? This is a great method and it needs to be applied to more languages. After I’m done with Pimsleur German, I’ll take a look at your program.
Thank you, and basically yes.
A two or three-year-old can speak and understand what they hear but not read a word. It is the natural order of learning to speak and listen first, then read and derived later.
I used Pimsleur to learn German after I moved there. I went through all five levels while commuting in the car. Well I cannot disagree with the repetition comments, I believe that is in fact a strength. I listened very closely to the pronunciation and tried to mimic that also, not just Learning the word itself.
After a couple of years of living there, but not speaking German in my daily work, I received a very high compliment. A German I had just met asked me, “Are you Dutch?“ Since every other American I knew clearly sounded like an American trying to speak German, I thought that was high praise indeed!
In the particular cases of German and Spanish, Pimsleur is completely adequate, since reading and writing are almost 100% in agreement with the spoken word. There is very little need for emphasis on those skills
I like Pimsleur but I would prefer more reading content earlier in the course. Repetition is important and I am surprised at how much Italian I have learned on completing level 3.
I just finished the Haitian Creole program, I feel that I learned a lot of creole, but I feel that it need more. The 30 lessons should have an additional 30 to further the learning. Now I find myself looking for other sites to teach me more.
It would be super helpful to have the English phonetic spelling of the Russian words to visualize while learning audibly.
You will probably never read this comment, but I just have to say it. Three years ago, I had the wonderful experience of traveling to Armenia ( Hyastan). I hunted for a course in Armenian (Hyastani), understanding that it is probably not the most demanded language in the world. Low and behold, I found Pimsleur. For several months before the trip I struggled with the mouth-contorting pronunciations, but the day of reckoning did arrive. When we arrived in Yerevan airport, we were picked up by our hostess’s aunt. I said schnorhakaluten (sic) which I had learned meant “thank you”. She looked at me and said, “That is very good, but we don’t say that any more. Now we say, “Merci.” I want to say thank you to Pimsleur. Although my attempts at the local language were very often met with the same response, people did appreciate the attempts at using their language. Plus the
Armenian people are really, for the most part very warm and welcoming, and appreciate attempts to use their language. I must say thank you for helping me to make friends although I most often heard, “That’s very good, but we don’t say that anymore.”
I do like the method Pimsleur uses with the repetition and speaking aloud. In Language101, I felt that I learned words more quickly. I’m looking to use Language101 more to see if I can learn things more quickly.
Pimsleur is my holy grail whether people agree with it or not. The reason why I say this is because I only care about pure social communication with other people in that target language. Reading and writing may be important to most people, but that’s not my primary focus. I do want to learn more than a few languages in order to communicate on the whim.
So in my opinion, you don’t HAVE TO know how to read, write, listening and speak to “know” the target language because it’s very discouraging for beginners and that idea was overwhelming for me. but when I decided to only want to social communication in the target language that’s where Pimsleur becomes my holy grail. Repetition may be boring but it’s necessary. It has helped me create thousands of various sentences after learning structure, vocabulary, and rules.
I tried it and it doesn’t work for me. I need a visual on the words or I don’t remember them first of all. If their reading list of words included all of the words that would be ok but it doesn’t. After a lesson it says a reading lesson will follow but the only way I could get anything written was to call them and have it emailed since the reading list is not accessible from the lessons. Second, they are totally unresponsive. They have a help function where you can leave questions that they obviously don’t look at since there is never an answer. This might work for some people but it sure doesn’t work for me.
I started using pimsleur for modern standard arabic. Its a good learning method. But what annoys me (as european) that u always have to deal with an american perspective. That sometimes lalso ead to funny instructions in the lessons arabic when u r encouraged to imagine yiu are an american being totally at ease talking to a random arab woman in the streets, which i don’t think is very realistic in arab society. Also the situation they want u to imagine while getting into a conversation are at least bit akward. Like for most common users its problably unimaginable to be flown in into Damascus (with your family) for a party! It is all aiimed at a american bussiness audience i guess. If u put those akward situations aside u learn some arabic too.
I am now doing turkish through pimsleur. Just started. I repeat each lessons a few times. Sometimes u have to listen very carefully to the pronunciation. Also because u don t have any reading backup at hand. (I use google translate…and then mostly react: aah thats what they say in the lesson!)
Unfortunately I would not recommend Pimsleur. I felt like I wasted my time and money on their recurring service, total rip off. I did the Spanish lessons for and don’t know why so much was about drinking and hotels, extremely presumptuous. I didn’t feel like I learned the basics of conjugations or vocabulary I could use. I also had some interactions with customer support and they were outright terrible.
I had a really bad experience with Pimsleur administration and cannot recommend it. I live I Australia and bought the electronic course online. I was unable to access the course. I contacted Pimsleur by email and by online chat. After 5 days I still had no access and no explanation on the way ahead. I attempted to call Pimsleur but the international phone number did not work. After almost a week after paying I still could access the course and so I cancelled. I was then asked to go through a declaration process to not share the course. The administration had not read my emails – I had not had access in the first place ! Regardless, I followed their process. I waited over a week and still have not been refunded. A really poor customer experience . I cannot comment on the course because I have never used it but be the admin and support offered was really poor.
I used to have to drive one hour to work everyday and one hour back. So I started learning Pimsluer Russian because I knew that I would be in Russia three months later meeting a woman I met on the Internet. I did not think that I could learn another language but I was able to learn using the Pimsuer method. I learned Pimsluer Russian I, II and III while driving in the car two hours a day over three months. When I got to Russia, I spoke very well. I could pronounce the words clearly so that others could understand. I also spoke Russian very formal and politely and this is important for first impressions. I met her and her family and spoke 100% in Russian because they did not know English. Now we have been married for 20 years and have two children. So, I can tell you the results of using Pimsluer 20 years ago has led to a happy life and family. I don’t know what other new technologies there are these days, but I can strongly vouch for Pimsluer and tell you to use it if you are serious about learning a language.
I’m a big Pimsleur fan because it gets you speaking better than any other course or app I can think of, although I have admittedly not tried Michel Thomas.
There isn’t much new content in each lesson – or even in a whole course – but you are drilled in repeating over and over, which other methods don’t provide. I find I can remember phrases (and they are useful phrases, such as how to get around town) from Pimsleur courses I dabbled with years ago.
They also use the technique of breaking down words and phrases and starting at the end and building up backwards. This helps enormously with unfamiliar languages in particular – drilled this way, you can rattle off, say, Armenian sentences with a comprehensible accent very quickly. I don’t know why more teachers and courses don’t use this technique as it’s very powerful.
Nobody should be aiming to learn a language from one course or app, and including Pimsleur which is light on content as stated in this review, but it’s brilliant for developing a decent accent and speaking confidence.
Thank you for the insight and all the comments are helpful. I homeschool and am looking for my high schooler to learn languages without being discouraged. We tried Rosetta Stone for French and we couldn’t quite break through. We will be looking at Language101.com and Pimsleur for Russian,French and Dutch.
I started off with Paul Noble Spanish and, also I liked his courses, there wasn’t enough useful content and the grammar didn’t really stick. I’ve done the first 30 lessons of Pimsleur Spanish in a week now and hope to finish all 5 levels in a month. So far I’ve learnt a lot, so probably am going to study French and Mandarin as well with that method. I had issues accessing my subscription first on my pc, but the customer service was prompt and helpful and I got my issue solved.
I lived in Mexico for 10 years and have a basic knowledge of the language. I plan to return next year and would like to get my skill level back up and also to be more advanced. Your Spanish flag is from Spain, so I’m not sure that’s what I want. Can you give me more information about this? Mexican Spanish is NOT Spain Spanish. Thank you!
We feature educated Mexican Spanish in our lessons. We used to have the Mexican flag up there but people complained about that and said that using the Spanish flag would be more Standard and I think it is.
I have personally used Pimsleur and it does work, I have been using it when driving and when working out at the gym or jogging. In my opinion it is easier to listen and grasp when driving on the empty highways of Nebraska than when trying to figure out what is wrong with my biceps curl. There are couple more resources I would recommend. 1) Ouino German , which uses a ‘building block’ approach 2) German Library http://www.read.mom/german which is basically bilingual books that are read out to you, and useful to build vocabulary without sweating over it.
Yes, BUY PIMSLEUR , you cannot go wrong with it, forget about the blah blah debate, just get the dam* thing.
I’m with you on this. Just buy it and use it.
I have the 1984 cassette course for the Pimsleur Spanish that was released through Readers Digest in the UK, and what lets that down badly is the poor quality of the voice actors. A man with an unpleasantly deep gurgling baritone voice who fails to pronounce words clearly, and a woman who constantly slurs words, as well as adding an ‘m’ or ‘n’ before a many a word, such as ‘n-buenas’ instead of ‘beunas’. Furthermore, both actors are noticeably inconsistent with their pronunciations. Had I purchased the original course in the age of the internet, I would have lodged severe complaints via email, demanded a refund, and given it scathing reviews. As it is. I’m digitizing it all to computer to improve the audio, transferring to flash drive, and using it both in my car and bedside in much the same manner as Tim Hall above.
Has the technical quality of Pimsleur Spanish improved? Even then, I would have absolutely no interest in its primarily Latin Spanish, which is complicated by its many variants. Europeans like myself will want to learn Castilian Spanish, but Pimsleur’s primary interest appears to be chasing the money that comes with the larger North American market.
Pimsleur’s problem is not the content- it’s the glitchy software in their online offering. I had 22 days of progress erased inexplicably. Their online support is non existent. I think they jumped the shark when they left CDs.
Does anyone know what regional accent Pimsleur German is in? I ask because I’m finding some words to be pronounced not like the ‘standard’ that’s provided by Google translate and various YouTube videos. For example, according to all the sources ‘wissen’ (know) is pronounced ‘vissen’, yet the Pimsleur course pronounces is ‘vyssen’.