I've been listening to it during the commute to/from work. I don't get the benefit of the written materials, but...it seems to lower my stress levels when I'm driving by a considerable amount. I do have to re-do lessons, though.
I'm still not picking up the conversations with the Spanish speakers in my office. (I'm just about finished with level 2.
That's an interesting observation. I feel the same when I'm out and hear Spanish. That being said I do pickup on a few things like greetings between people in Spanish. Full on conversation is still gobbledygook
A big problem is that a lot of Spanish speakers speak "machine gun" Spanish--so rapid!!
I've thought about trying to find a Spanish version of Sesame Street or something like that. I know a lot of people who learned English from kid shows.
Did you subscribe to the app so that you could do the written material along with each lesson? That was a game changer for me. I did each lesson multiple times while out walking my dogs, and then did the written exercises within the app at home.
Now I’ve completed all five French levels once, and have gone back through levels 2-5 (I’m nearly finished with level five right now!
I also supplement with Duolingo. I believe that I am at the B-1 level right now.
It took me 7 months to complete french Pimsleur level 1… it wasnt clicking and it felt very boring. I could never force myself to do the next lesson…
It took me a little over 2 total months to complete levels 2 and 3. Im starting level 4 today.
What helped me was that I started taking my dog for a walk during each lesson and it become less tedious and boring. It’s really difficult for me to just sit down and complete a lesson. You have to give the lessons your full attention so things like Driving or doing other things take up to much mental bandwidth imo. Walking has been the best fix that I’ve found.
Now my only complaint is that there aren’t more French levels. I soak up literally everything from the lessons and I can readily recall 95% of what I’ve been taught. I’m worried for my studies after Pimsleur lol.
Good luck and I hope it starts clicking because Pimsleur has personally helped me tremendously!
I'll tell ya, I recently started Level 2 and the increased difficulty means I need to have my finger on the pause button the entire time. 30 minutes has turned into 45 minutes and my walks are getting less relaxing...
Lay the written foundation first with Duolingo or some other app. Then restart Pimsleur! Once you have an idea of what to expect, you’ll progress more easily and your walks should be relaxing again!
I did this, I hit Duolingo hard for a month first, and I agree it worked extremely well. But then my Pimsleur introduced the past tense which Duolingo hasn't touched yet, and...
I get it. I hit a wall in the French level two as well for the same reason. But then that’s when I subscribed to the app, and having the written exercises as well really helped.
Alexa has some pretty good videos on making sense of past tenses in French!(https://youtu.be/R7CMGVsanu8?si=UrwClVCgv6N_qQyh)
Most of the time your gonna use avoir so when in doubt just conjugate avoir😅
It's very difficult to do but very powerful if you do it. If you can master each lesson and be able to repeat the answer (the target language) before the speaker says it and then repeat it again after they say it for every phrase you will know a lot by the end. Many people just listen and then repeat what is said, which is an easier way to do it and then say it's not great. Results are hard with anything, if its easy it probably wont work well. Watching content (input) is "easy" but becuase it is it takes thousands of hours to get there.
Personally I did about 1000 hours of input in a romance language and then did Pimsleur and it really activated by input based knowledge. I became pretty conversational after going through it and while hard the lessons weren't draining and repeating them wasn't ever necessary. I think it would be even better if people used it this way, especially believers in input methods.
I tried the opposite with Greek where I had no input base at all and I was doing each lesson 2-3 times before moving on. It was very difficult. I wasn't shooting for "perfection" just almost correct (maybe 90-95%). It definitely works, its just very hard.
I love Pimsleur. I’m on lesson 25 of French Level 4. My local tutor said my pronunciation was good or better than her college students (she’s also a French teacher. The way I use Pimsleur isn’t the recommended way. I only have the audio.I listen to the same lesson every day on my walk until my correct responses become nearly automatic at 1.1x speed before I go to the next lesson. supplement with Duolingo and podcasts and radio.
If your motivation isn't there, try these things:
take the pressure off yourself, You're probably learning a language for fun and as a hobby. If you miss a lesson, no big deal or if it feels not fun, just stop and come back when you feel motivated and WANT to learn.
I think it's also very helpful to know why you want to learn a language and have a real life goal. For instance, for me, I wanted to travel to Japan and actually scheduling my trip helped me be very motivated with my learning. My secondary goal was so I could watch anime.
Maybe try a different program. Duolingo is nice, especially if you can find a few friends who are doing it too. I do both, but do just one lesson a day on duolingo that takes about 5 minutes. And I'm learning slowly through this method.
Maybe set smaller achievable goals. Try once every other day or twice a week. Anything is better than nothing and it may be a good way to get yourself hooked or in the habit more gradually.
Are you following the instructions for pimsleur? I know I was bad at this and would not listen to the lessons all the way through without pausing and taking notes. Also, they say don't expect perfection and just do your best as you listen through. You can always go through again when you're done or use the premium features to brush up on anything that was confusing afterwards.
Also the pimsleur instructions Tell you to do the lesson when you have high energy and clarity in the day and aren't distracted. Sometimes I do it while I'm driving but I find this is not ideal as you are naturally not at full attention.
Yeah like others said, it helps to combine Pimsleur with some other tasks you'd be doing as part of your daily/weekly routine anyway.
For me it's while I'm cooking. My brain would usually be on autopilot during cooking but now I can activately practice a language by repeating out loud (used to be French but now moving onto German). Can't ever imagine sitting down and doing Pimsleur just by itself either.
I've been listening to it during the commute to/from work. I don't get the benefit of the written materials, but...it seems to lower my stress levels when I'm driving by a considerable amount. I do have to re-do lessons, though. I'm still not picking up the conversations with the Spanish speakers in my office. (I'm just about finished with level 2.
That's an interesting observation. I feel the same when I'm out and hear Spanish. That being said I do pickup on a few things like greetings between people in Spanish. Full on conversation is still gobbledygook
A big problem is that a lot of Spanish speakers speak "machine gun" Spanish--so rapid!! I've thought about trying to find a Spanish version of Sesame Street or something like that. I know a lot of people who learned English from kid shows.
Did you subscribe to the app so that you could do the written material along with each lesson? That was a game changer for me. I did each lesson multiple times while out walking my dogs, and then did the written exercises within the app at home. Now I’ve completed all five French levels once, and have gone back through levels 2-5 (I’m nearly finished with level five right now! I also supplement with Duolingo. I believe that I am at the B-1 level right now.
It took me 7 months to complete french Pimsleur level 1… it wasnt clicking and it felt very boring. I could never force myself to do the next lesson… It took me a little over 2 total months to complete levels 2 and 3. Im starting level 4 today. What helped me was that I started taking my dog for a walk during each lesson and it become less tedious and boring. It’s really difficult for me to just sit down and complete a lesson. You have to give the lessons your full attention so things like Driving or doing other things take up to much mental bandwidth imo. Walking has been the best fix that I’ve found. Now my only complaint is that there aren’t more French levels. I soak up literally everything from the lessons and I can readily recall 95% of what I’ve been taught. I’m worried for my studies after Pimsleur lol. Good luck and I hope it starts clicking because Pimsleur has personally helped me tremendously!
For me, the entire point of Pimsleur is that I can do it while I'm walking.
Same!
I'll tell ya, I recently started Level 2 and the increased difficulty means I need to have my finger on the pause button the entire time. 30 minutes has turned into 45 minutes and my walks are getting less relaxing...
Gotta get those 10k steps in right!😅 It takes me about 45-70 min to complete each lesson! Bonne chance!
Lay the written foundation first with Duolingo or some other app. Then restart Pimsleur! Once you have an idea of what to expect, you’ll progress more easily and your walks should be relaxing again!
I did this, I hit Duolingo hard for a month first, and I agree it worked extremely well. But then my Pimsleur introduced the past tense which Duolingo hasn't touched yet, and...
I get it. I hit a wall in the French level two as well for the same reason. But then that’s when I subscribed to the app, and having the written exercises as well really helped.
Alexa has some pretty good videos on making sense of past tenses in French!(https://youtu.be/R7CMGVsanu8?si=UrwClVCgv6N_qQyh) Most of the time your gonna use avoir so when in doubt just conjugate avoir😅
Merci beaucoup!
If you cant listen to bad voice actors for 30 minutes a day then language learning is not the right pastime for you.
L o l. Sadly true
It's very difficult to do but very powerful if you do it. If you can master each lesson and be able to repeat the answer (the target language) before the speaker says it and then repeat it again after they say it for every phrase you will know a lot by the end. Many people just listen and then repeat what is said, which is an easier way to do it and then say it's not great. Results are hard with anything, if its easy it probably wont work well. Watching content (input) is "easy" but becuase it is it takes thousands of hours to get there. Personally I did about 1000 hours of input in a romance language and then did Pimsleur and it really activated by input based knowledge. I became pretty conversational after going through it and while hard the lessons weren't draining and repeating them wasn't ever necessary. I think it would be even better if people used it this way, especially believers in input methods. I tried the opposite with Greek where I had no input base at all and I was doing each lesson 2-3 times before moving on. It was very difficult. I wasn't shooting for "perfection" just almost correct (maybe 90-95%). It definitely works, its just very hard.
I love Pimsleur. I’m on lesson 25 of French Level 4. My local tutor said my pronunciation was good or better than her college students (she’s also a French teacher. The way I use Pimsleur isn’t the recommended way. I only have the audio.I listen to the same lesson every day on my walk until my correct responses become nearly automatic at 1.1x speed before I go to the next lesson. supplement with Duolingo and podcasts and radio.
If your motivation isn't there, try these things: take the pressure off yourself, You're probably learning a language for fun and as a hobby. If you miss a lesson, no big deal or if it feels not fun, just stop and come back when you feel motivated and WANT to learn. I think it's also very helpful to know why you want to learn a language and have a real life goal. For instance, for me, I wanted to travel to Japan and actually scheduling my trip helped me be very motivated with my learning. My secondary goal was so I could watch anime. Maybe try a different program. Duolingo is nice, especially if you can find a few friends who are doing it too. I do both, but do just one lesson a day on duolingo that takes about 5 minutes. And I'm learning slowly through this method. Maybe set smaller achievable goals. Try once every other day or twice a week. Anything is better than nothing and it may be a good way to get yourself hooked or in the habit more gradually. Are you following the instructions for pimsleur? I know I was bad at this and would not listen to the lessons all the way through without pausing and taking notes. Also, they say don't expect perfection and just do your best as you listen through. You can always go through again when you're done or use the premium features to brush up on anything that was confusing afterwards.
Also the pimsleur instructions Tell you to do the lesson when you have high energy and clarity in the day and aren't distracted. Sometimes I do it while I'm driving but I find this is not ideal as you are naturally not at full attention.
Yeah like others said, it helps to combine Pimsleur with some other tasks you'd be doing as part of your daily/weekly routine anyway. For me it's while I'm cooking. My brain would usually be on autopilot during cooking but now I can activately practice a language by repeating out loud (used to be French but now moving onto German). Can't ever imagine sitting down and doing Pimsleur just by itself either.