Pimsleur is probably the language learning method with the best name recognition. Whether its price tag is worth it is entirely up to the individual, but the vast majority of people who use it, love it. Even those who don't like it generally give it a very fair review.
I am a fan of Pimsleur, but in order to be fair, I thought I would go out of my way to point out when a visitor leaves a review of Pimsleur that isn't so positive. One person wrote a review of Pimsleur Russian that wasn't a recommendation to buy it, like most are. This wasn't the first time that I have heard the Pimsleur cds didn't work as well for Russian as it did for some other languages.
However, the reviewer mentioned that Pimsleur was very effective at teaching pronunciation and conversation ability. That is Pimsleurs greatest strength. The reviewer also noted some things that are consistently brought up as question marks for Pimsleur. Overall, a very fair review.
Simon and Schuster have also recently released a Pimsleur Norwegian Comprehensive set for Level 1. This is another good step forward. I like that they are adding to the Pimsleur collection, but I wish they would do it faster and be more complete. Do they have a Norwegian 2 and 3 right on the heels? Probably not. Maybe I'm just bitter because I want a Swedish Comprehensive.
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2 comments:
Ron,
I'm a fan of Pimsleur, too, and I agree that sets get added way too slowly. About 10 years ago, when Heinle & Heinle was producing Pimsleur sets, it was the same story. I bought the Mandarin Chinese comprehensive set 1, but comprehensive set 2 wouldn't be available for another 6-12 months. That was in 1995. I don't think it became available until well after 2000.
Another complaint that I have is that Pimsleur doesn't attempt to create integrated products to address the weaknesses of the Pimsleur system, e.g. vocabulary. Perhaps they don't feel they could do anything better than what is already on the market, but it seems to me that they have an opportunity to expand their product offering.
BTW, I love your blog and your website.
Thanks.
It would be soooo easy to produce 'add-on modules' for each level! Just introduce lots of vocabulary and use the same conversation approach to 'plug-in' and substitute the new vocabulary!
They could make it context-specific. Restaurant and Food, Travel, Hotels, Meeting People, Business. They could speed up the conversation a bit to get more in there and to challenge the learner more. So many possibilities.
Many times I've thought about producing those modules myself. It would be a big undertaking for 1 person, not such a big undertaking for Simon and Schuster though.
Thanks for your comments and compliments!
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