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I bought this program before I left for France and I really, really enjoyed using it. It's easy to use, easy to follow along, and it was an awesome learning tool. I would absolutely recommend using this program.
I am a pastor and Bible teacher and do some teaching overseas. I like the Pimsleur system very much. You will not be fluent, but that is never promised anyway. While I still need a translator for the deeper things I teach my students, I thought it would be nice to at least be able to converse on my own. That's what I got it for, and that's what it does. Enter Pimsleur. One of the places I go is Haiti. Through repetition, review, and reinforcement (my alliteration), this system gets you up and running quicker than I imagined.
After purchasing their "Quick and Easy" title, I immediately learned that it was comprised of the first few lessons of their French I title. Well, since I was now hooked, I wanted more. You will be able to speak comfortably in common, everyday situations, such as a restaurant, shopping, or in my case simple chit-chat with my students. Plus, it's just downright fun anyway, since my wife learned along with me and now we throw some French at each other.
Following are some other issues and what you can expect from the course.1. How unfortunate that an opportunity to begin learning how to read the words and phrases, that you are learning to speak and hear, is thrown out and replaced with something that sounds like a confusing mess of jibberish. 4. This is how interval recall is supposed to work. Every time the speaker breaks down the word "mademoiselle:", he says it as "mad moiselle", but every time he says it normally it is pronounced as "man moiselle". Often times the changing of one thing or word in the phrase will change the word order or cause addition sounds to be added. Since Pimsleur is an audio only course, they are missing a huge chunk of the equation. Sometimes a word like "this" or "that" is replaced with something else or a variation that sounds different based on gender of a word that follows.
This is one of the worse courses I have come across. You are so busy flailing in new material that you can't absorb any of it. More useful than grammar tips or necessary to learn French. Without any explanation, this results in mass confusion and the requirement of 2 to 5 hours of study for two days per lesson, not to learn, but to memorize everything.Now you may think that adding grammar would make the lessons longer.
I obtained it from my public library. Think about it. Most of the words in French do not sound anything like the way they are spelled when compared to English. One can easily speak and understand a lot more of language in one hour of listening to the first Michel Thomas French lesson then in 20 of Pimsleur. It is a shame as it does have some positive points of an upbeat and energetic instructor and good pronunciation, for the most part. At one of the recall intervals they ask you to say "bank manager" but give the French pronunciation for "branch manager". If people could learn a foreign language by hearing a word or sentence one time, then everyone would speak 100 languages.
The problem is the words in the reading are not words you have learned. This "Moron Principle" is clearly demonstrated in the first lesson of French 2. They will find plenty of frustration and discouragement in using it.7. It is in a lesson where they talk about a branch manager at a bank.
To give you and even better idea of how dumb the course developers are, take the reading booklets. Pimsleur should have stated at the beginning of the course that modern day spoken French is increasingly dropping this sound. Pimsleur says this is necessary so that you don't translate. However, that's not even the worst part.
They think the best way to solve a difficult problem is to immediately go to work on a second difficult problem, followed by a third one, and then then go back to the first one. This is a flawed method of teaching that used by those who don't have any idea on how to teach. This method involves the ridiculous and moronic theory that a student will learn more, better, and faster, by first being taught the wrong way to do something. It could have been 1000 times better if it had been done right. He constantly mispronounces it in two syllables as "comment" which means "how".
To make matters worse, often they pronounced words two different ways, even when used in exactly the same way. Rather than have you really learn a phrase, they will constantly change phrases while you are learning them. If you can get the courses for $20 per level or $60 for all three levels on Ebay, it might be worth considering. Another example is "parce que" which they pronounce sometimes as two syllables, "parce que". First let me say I did not buy this course.
Just because someone is an expert in a subject doesn't make them a good teacher and this is the problem with this course. Also, words that end in an "ay" which sound like the word "day", are pronounced as "y" in the word "happy". Gee, if people could figure out what people are saying in a foreign language simply by listening, there would be no need for their course. Then 25 lessons later they might tell you what a particular instruction means. They are words and entire phrases you have never heard. For example, they explain that a gratuity is usually included in the bill for dining but that you can show your appreciation to your server by leaving a tip, that the menu posted on the door or window of a restaurant only includes the fixed price items and for the complete menu you have to ask for something else, or that some chateau was home to Louie the 14th. The longer and harder it takes you to memorize them, (something which happens a lot with this course) the faster and more permanently you will forget them.Another major flaw they make is to introduce several new words or phrases within a very short time frame, sometimes as many as 3 within 30 seconds.
Instead, you are left to be puzzled and mystified as to what conditions determine when it is or is not pronounced, since they pronounce it differently on a completely random basis. Then to top it off, at the end of the course they have a reading assignment in which they say "here are some phrases you will find useful in traveling, shopping, dining, etc. However, the course wastes these limited amount of words on quite a few words you will rarely if ever use. Even Pimsleur's own marketing materials state that there are some underdeveloped countries where it is not unusual to find people who can speak and understand 6 languages but they don't know how to read or write them.
Gee, had they told me at the beginning, I would have really learned what the instruction meant. Now not only have you wasted 6 months that could have been used at practice and making you better, you have developed a bad habit that will be hard to break, Plus, you will now question everything else taught to you by the teacher. Contrary to what you may think, the "moron" in this method refers to the teacher rather than the student. and sometimes as three, "par ce que". Plus, the entire course is giving you words and phrases in English and telling you how to say them in French. They learn from hearing and seeing the actions associated with what they hear.
Once you are more advanced you could learn to use it.There are other errors through out the course for example, they tell you to say "branch manager". The course only teaches about 500 words. If the course were tested, the students would have complained that the course went to slow with the breaking down of the 2 syllable words or two fast because the 3, 4, and 5 syllable words weren't broken down. Let me be clear. Dumb. As such, I am not trying to get a refund nor do I have an axe to grind with the company that produces it.
They should have continued teaching the new words and vocabulary individually and constructed sentences with them later. Dr. Think about it, you only use tu with close friends and family. Either is correct, but without explaining that, the student is needlessly wasting time trying to figure out the correct usage or pattern when there is none. 6. The more complicate a phrase is the faster the speaker will say it and often times, only once. What you actually get is no recollection of the word or a very vague one.
The review that follows is simply my opinion. You will have memorized a few phrases and forgotten far more then you remember. Sloppy and wrong pronunciation is another problem with this course. If the course were done correctly, you would recall it, or at the least get that "ah. As anyone with a 2nd grade education could tell you, this isn't going to work.
For the readings, the word or phrase is not spoken with you repeating after it. 3, 4, and 5 syllable words aren't. They are correct and that is another reason it fails so miserably. It is as if they are trying to impress the listener with how well they learned French (see #3 above).5. Why is it then that Pimsleur takes the time to explain cultural things that have nothing to do with language learning. If you aren't prepared to spend 2 to 5 hours per day and at least 2 days per lesson once you get past the first 10 lessons, don't even bother.
After having learned that some words have a disappearing S sound which is only pronounced when the word is followed by a vowel, you are told that this way of speaking French isn't used anymore. The course then immediately continues to use the wrong form as taught in French 1 for about another 10 lessons. Instead, phrases are given including small words and you are supposed to just figure them out. Everyone knows that when you are getting nowhere in trying to solve a difficult problem, the best thing to do is step back, relax for awhile, or go for a walk. Giving foreign instructions without telling you what they mean. While this might seem simple enough on the surface, you are losing any reinforcement that you would get if the course simply went over them. Gee, if you had close friends and family who spoke French, you wouldn't be using this course to learn it.
Sure the cities and countries are useful if visiting them, but to put them ahead of more functional words in a course that only teaches 500 words is absurd. Two syllable words are broken down and said slowly. Time that would have been much more productive in teaching the correct way. This becomes apparent in later lessons when you are to use a word or phrase from an earlier lesson and you won't remember it. Sometime you will remember a word but not remember what it means.3. How about teaching me how to order a salad or a hamburger.The course, for the most part doesn't teach small words. Even then, you will keep making the same mistakes at the same place because of the flawed teaching method.
The internet is filled with messages from people saying they had to repeat the lessons 3 to 4 or more times before moving on. I have completed French 1, 2, and 3 and still don't know which is correct. The course states that you shouldn't use any other materials or consult a dictionary (apparently for fear you will realize how bad the Pimsleur course is) while doing the course. While Pimsleur is correct in that children learn to speak and understand without grammar, they are wasting a vast resource of the intelligence and knowledge of grammar that people who are using their course have, and which could be used to more quickly and easily learn a foreign language. Quite a contradiction don't you think. Since using tu often changes the other words in a sentence with it vs when vous is used, all it does is cause major confusion in the course. Of course, in reality, all it does is waste time developing bad habits that are extremely difficult to break. No kidding.
However, the "Moron Principle" is taken even a step further with Pimsleur. So instead of learning or knowing the words and phrases, you are memorizing them. Then between the intervals, familiar words or phrases should be used such as a review of past ones. Rather than having you firmly know one thing before moving to a variation, they will throw a bunch of variations at you at the same time, or in very short order.
That is, when they break it down. Otherwise I would not recommend this course unless you are trying to discourage someone from learning a foreign language. This is even more important because Primsleur also uses a principle of "confuse the student". What I am referring to is simple explanations of why things are the way they are. How would you like to spend 6 months as a child learning how to multiply, only to be told that you are doing it wrong.
The reading continues this way with words and phrases you don't know and have never heard. Absolutely not. Because this course does not use repetition, what the listener ends up doing is having to repeat the lesson or sections of the lessons over, and over, and over. So much for no repetition. You will never again have a clear mind to pursue your studies with vigor and passion because you will always have a nagging doubt that what you are being taught is wrong. In other words, a new word or phrase should be introduced. Who is honestly going to say "I like how the small easy words are broken down and repeated while the bigger words aren't." This would have been an easy way for the course developers to tell if the testers were being honest. Then, once the student has this wrong method down, they are told it is wrong, and only then are they taught the correct way.
Course wasn't tested. Unfortunately what they got were a bunch of "yes people" who didn't want to offend the developers. I completed all three levels of this course in order to give it an fair try. The intervals should be filled with review or reinforcement material instead of a continual stream of new material.
Useful information. The course requires a major overhaul to be of practical use in my opinion, Of course based on the claims of Pimsleur "speak a foreign language in 10 days", they aren't concerned with anything but making a buck. With Pimsleur they do the opposite. Yet Pimsleur expects you to read a foreign language without ever having heard the words.
After stating this is the case particularly with pronouns, the speaker goes on to state "and from now on this course will use this correct form". that's it, now I remember." feeling when you heard it again. Perhaps. You will not understand TV or radio, other than a word here and there. Instead they want you to say the word or phrase first and then listen how it is actually pronounced.
This clears the mind to absorb the new info. For example, when the word "est" which means "is", is followed by a word that starts with a vowel, the "t" is pronounced. However, some are not even taught in the course. The end result, you have memorized rather than learned the material. They also teach the familiar form of vous which is tu. You will forget 70-80% of what you learned2. If they are so useful, why aren't they taught.The course also subscribes to what is known as the "Moron Principle" of teaching. If all the words were broken down, or if none were, you could have students who thought the course was the too slow to fast or the correct speed.
Anyway, rather than explaining the instruction in English and then getting you to follow it without translation simply by repeated use, all they do is get you to ignore or tune out the instruction and simply use repetion of the lesson to memorize the phrase that follows. The theory is that this somehow shocks the student and makes an impression of how not to do something. Pimsleur doesn't start the readings until Lesson 9. When you come back, more often than not, the solution will suddenly come to you. The worst is the male speaker's pronunciation of the the one syllable word "Quand" which means "when". It is really a shame with this course.
It combines stupidity with laziness. This course only uses native speakers sparsely. When they do this, they don't simply add a word, they usually do something that changes the word order so you are basically getting an interval of a completely new phrase instead of the one you are supposed to be recalling. The course teaches practically no grammar. However when you have parts slow and parts fast, it is impossible for anyone to say the course is the right speed. I had to refer to a dictionary many times. To add even more insult, they change the phrase you are trying to learn at the next interval. I give it in order for others to use along with others in evaluating whether the course might be of use to them.To start, let me say that if you think you will spend just 30 minutes a day on this course for 3 months and get something out of it, you are sadly mistaken.
So you think, okay by lesson 9 I would have got the proper sounds down and can start learning how to read them. In this course there is no consistency to these intervals, The course says it doesn't use repetition. For example, the idea is to repeat something at specific intervals which are supposed to cause the info to be stored in your long term memory. As a beginner in French using a course with only about 500 words, do you think you need to learn the following words like, "Branch Manager", "the old harbor", and a bunch names of cities, countries, hotels, and universities. By grammar I don't mean which word is a verb, which is a noun, or what is a pronoun. 8. They feel you should learn as a child does by hearing. The thing that Pimsleur, or the course developers, failed to grasp is that the intervals in between cannot also be filled with other new things you don't know.
Using there logic, you can speak 5 languages in a day just by learning a couple words or a phrase of each language. Pimsleur may have been a memory expert (which is not apparent in this course due the inconsistency of the repeat intervals) but neither he, nor the developers, have a clue when it comes to teaching. The man and woman speakers are not natives as you can tell from the bad pronunciation. What they fail to understand or don't want to acknowledge is that a child doesn't learn language from hearing.
Sometimes the speakers would pronounce it and sometimes they wouldn't, even within the same lesson. To not go over these small words or explain the variations resulted in constant confusion through out the entire course that I was never able to overcome. Even then, at the end of this course you will not be able to hold a conversation. Since French 1 and French 2 do such a poor job at teaching, you are no better at learning new phrases than you were before. By French 3 you are apparently expected to have magically turned into an expert in French because you are now taught new words or multiple new words in phrases or sentences without learning the individual words first. Throughout the entire course I constantly struggled with small words like a, it, are, as, an, to, of, is it, it is, it's, etc. Pimsleur claims these are "functional" words. Now this in itself wouldn't be bad if the course was done right.
The idea behind interval recall is to give a word or phrase and repeat it at specific intervals. Since Vous is always acceptable, the course should have only used that. How nice to be told that what you learned in French 1 isn't correct. The very few times Pimsluer does mention grammar, I found it very helpful in helping remember what I was learning. Now you have to suffer for it. Opps, someone was asleep while doing the course and none of the testers caught this.
Used it in my car while commuting to and from work. Significantly improved my conversational French. Great product. I am going to the next level.
This company sent me a set of 16 CDs that I din;'t ask for and now they are trying to bill me for this set I didn't order.I did order a set of 4CDs for $9.95.and then they sent me a set of 16 CDs for $200.00+ I treid to send them back.NOW I don't have CDs or $$$$$$$ RUN HARD.RUN FAST. RUN FAR. DO NOT>>>> I REPEAT DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY WILL TAKE MONEY FROM YOU>>>>>> Joel E Hope
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