I want to start a discussion about the Pimsleur course since I have not found one on the internet.

I guess in order for this to work, enough people would have gone through the course and saw a lot of the same issues. I do not know if this is the case here, but I am willing to try.

First, how many of you have gone throught the course?

It took me about 9 months to finish and I have redone the last 3B section al least twice.
I find that I gets me speaking and hearing Japanese on a regular basis.

I will ask this question. Is there anywhere I can get a resource that spells out all the phrases uses in the Pimsleur course? (assuming its legal, of'course)

Wisher

I did all 3 courses. (90 lessons) I don't feel it was worth the money, personally... But I have to admit, I definitely have an easier time listening to Japanese and picking out words than I did before the course. It also gave me a very, very, VERY basic set of vocabulary to start with.

It also gave me something less tangible: A firm starting point from which to grow and keep my motivation.

Also, I don't consider it a waste of my time since I had a 45-minute commute (each way!) at the time and it helped fill that. It's definitely better than nothing while in the car, though possibly not better than other audio resources.

My biggest complaint: After 90 lessons, I didn't feel anywhere near ready to actually talk to anyone. And many months later, with much more studying, I still don't.

My opinion on Pimsleur:

Too basic. Too repetive. Too expensive.

I didn't complete it, but I did quite a few lessons. You learn from it, no doubt... but there's WAY better resources which aren't even close to as expensive.

I completed the coarse over a year ago. At the time I had 1.5 hours train commute everyday. The train is generally loud, and I would practice out loud, quietly to myself (Getting a lot of weird looks in the process). But its the Chicago public train system and its full of weirdos and head-cases so I didn't care.

I would do the lessons 2-3 per week. However, I would do them in blocks, back-to-back, repeatedly until I could answer 85% of the time. For example, lessons 55-56-57 block, after a couple of tries I'd be able to answer 85% of 55, so I would drop it, and add 58. I took me over 6 month to complete the coarse.

A month after I finished I went to Japan. Guess what I discovered my first week there. Let me give you an example.

Me: ee-to sumimasen toeshokan wa doko des ka?
Jap Fella: ええ、（外人？）　日本語、大丈夫？　(Pimsleur speed 2x)
Me: hai, wa-karimasu
Jap Fella: そうだ、本当に分かりますか、大丈夫かなあ。じゃ、ここから図書館は歩いて1５分掛かる。 市の中央にある。。。　(Pimsleur speed 2x)
Me: hai
Jap Fella: その道でますぐ行って、丘を下って行って。。。　(Pimsleur speed 2x)
Me: hai
Jap Fella: そのかどを右にまがりなさい。そうすれば左に君はそれを見つけるでしょう。　(Pimsleur speed 2x)
Me: hai
Jap Fella: 本当に大丈夫？
Me: hai, arigatoe
Me Thinking: [masugu, masugu, migi itte... what that hell did he just say. omg, omg I don't understand what he just said. what the hell was the point of pimsloor.... mary johnson to moshi mas, bos-ton kara kimashta, kimashta!]

It was a hard truth to accept how useless Pimsleur is in practice. I didn't pay for it, but I did waste a lot of time on it, and I regret doing it. Do yourself a favor and do japanesepod101.com It's free and 10 times better. I don't want to sound like a commercial, but I highly recommend it.

I talk more about it here:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...4#pid35854

If you have no other choise then Pimsleur might be ok. It was what I used when I first started learning Japanese 4 years ago, and I went through the entire course. By the end I could do the very, very basics. It's not nearly enough to be able to have a decent conversation though. The system it uses is similar to the repetition programs out like Anki. If I was to start over I probably would use it again, but I would also supplement it with other materials including, most importantly, a human teacher.

@oregum

I also sound like a commercial when I endorse Japanesepod, but it REALLY is way better than Pimsleur.

I agree with all the other responses on this thread too. Pimsleur has a few unique advantages but they are easily outweighed by the negatives. Pimsleur wasn't a waste of time but I could have used my time better.

There was a pretty long discussion about this a year ago:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=763

Around 2 years ago I came to japan without ever being exposed to the japanese language. Prior to coming to japan, I didn't know what Japanese sounded like (never mind what it looked like).

I came over with two language programs: (1) pimsleur and (2) rosetta stone.

RS was shit. way, way too boring. though the teachers around me got a kick out of my repeating 魚　and 馬 over and over again. 白い車。黒い車。 I gave up on it pretty fast and wanted my money back.

Pimsleur, on the other hand, may just have saved my Japanese living experience.

Having nothing, Pimsleur is great for both confidence and functional Japanese. At the end of the course, you'll have basic conversational skills... you won't be able to say much, but you'll be able to say something. And since you'll learn some basic grammar along the way, slotting in new words to the grammar patterns isn't so difficult.

It's a great starting point... but honestly, if you've already studied Japanese for a few months, it's not really worth it. Though your listening skills will improve, you'll likely be bored and wondering when the challenges will come about.

I think the strength of Pimsleur is that it's audio-only, you can practice your pronunciation, and you learn how to manipulate the basic building blocks of sentences, but if you are already at an intermediate level (you understand this process of learning and manipulating essential building blocks) you will probably start getting bored with the repetition, and you're probably better off switching to something else...Pimsleur can also put you to sleep.

TGWeaver Wrote:Around 2 years ago I came to japan without ever being exposed to the japanese language. Prior to coming to japan, I didn't know what Japanese sounded like (never mind what it looked like).

I came over with two language programs: (1) pimsleur and (2) rosetta stone.

RS was shit. way, way too boring. though the teachers around me got a kick out of my repeating 魚　and 馬 over and over again. 白い車。黒い車。 I gave up on it pretty fast and wanted my money back.

Pimsleur, on the other hand, may just have saved my Japanese living experience.

Having nothing, Pimsleur is great for both confidence and functional Japanese. At the end of the course, you'll have basic conversational skills... you won't be able to say much, but you'll be able to say something. And since you'll learn some basic grammar along the way, slotting in new words to the grammar patterns isn't so difficult.

It's a great starting point... but honestly, if you've already studied Japanese for a few months, it's not really worth it. Though your listening skills will improve, you'll likely be bored and wondering when the challenges will come about.

Yup, I had an extremely similar experience. Did the first two courses of Pimsleur before I came to Japan and it made a huge huge difference. Compared with knowing nothing anyway.

Pimsleur is pretty dry and the later lessons arent as useful as the earlier ones (starts using some more formal vocabulary that you just dont need for getting around). I'd recommend to anyone to do at least the first course though, well worth it when starting out.

I think the problem I see on this thread is of expectation. oregum's complaint I dont understand whatsoever (language used there is all in pimsleur I think, you apparently understood enough to recall the conversation even today - and yet its Pimsleurs fault you didnt cope as well as you might?), and wccrawford complaining that hes not conversational after 45 hours (I doubt many methods have you speaking confidently after such short time)

If a person is moving to Japan and speaks no Japanese - I would recommend the first Pimsleur course a million percent. If they just wanted to start learning at home with no particular timeframe for coming to Japan, there are other methods probably just as good (but Id find time to do Pimsleur anyway)

Pimsleur I has a built in defense against the speed problem by teaching students to say "もっとゆっくり話してください”

Luckily, I did not pay for it either. I had access to it.
99% of it was done while I was driving and I had a system to doing the lessons also. In fact, I do not listen to my car radio anymore.

I feel I got more out of the French and Italian lessons. It seems like the Japanese did not have as much. If you were to go content by content, the Japanese seemed lacking, (to me).

I still listen to the lessons to stay current. I will check out the Japanese pod101. I actually signed up for it but never went. I spend all my Japanese time here, at this site.

The other link also helped. Thanks dilandau23.

Thanks guys.

I agree with just about everything on this thread. I did Pimsleur before I went to Japan also. It didn't really help me that much, but at least I could say a few basic things in Japanese.

Pros
- Good for practicing while driving in Car or perhaps on the train, or in any situation where you can't refer to written materials.
- Gives you some basic sentences and vocabulary
- The audio quality is quite good

Cons
- Way way over priced
- In no way is it the only study material you need.
- Don't really like the way it ignores grammar

It is a useful supplement if you are a beginner and can borrow it from a library for example. Actually I'm listening to Pimsleur spanish in my car during my daily commutes at the moment.

I think Pimsleur himself was something of a visionary. Unfortunately the organization seems to be mainly focusing on money these days. I wonder why they don't bring out some more advanced courses?

There used to be quite a lot of pimsleur discussion on this site (although I haven't checked recently)

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/default.asp

Right now I am using a couple audio programs while driving, exercising, etc. Michel Thomas and Learn in Your Car Japanese (MT for basic grammar, LIYC for sentence patterns and vocab). I was thinking of also throwing Pimsleur into the mix for pronunciation purposes, as I've heard that is its main strength. I would like to minimize time spent and maximize pronunciation practice (I can get the CDs at the library so cost isn't really an issue for me, though readers of this discussion might also want to minimize cost spent, too). Anyone have any advice on how much of Pimsleur I'd have to complete to get my pronunciation down pretty well? I have a feeling I'd also be quite bored after a while, so that's another reason I'm asking . Would the conversational package be good enough, or would I need Level 1, or more? I know everyone's different, but just an approximation is fine. Thanks!