Does Pimsleur Work? A Pimsleur Method Review

Read More Here: http://wp.me/p1hnjj-28H My thoughts on using Pimsleur to learn Tagalog. http://pimsleur.com Camera: GoPro Hero2 http://gopro.com Mic: Edutige ETM-001 http://edutige.kr -= WEB SITES =- Twitter: http://twitter.com/qiranger Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/qiranger Instagram: http://instagr.am/qiranger Blog: http://qiranger.com The Travel Channel: http://youtube.com/qiranger The Vlog Channel: http://youtube.com/theqirangervlog Podcast: http://tinyurl.com/tqrap QiRangerRTW: http://tinyurl.com/qiranger-rtw-podcast
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Re: Does Pimsleur Work? A Pimsleur Method Review

 

Hi Steve, thanks for the great review on Pimsleur. 

I actually have been using it myself, first time around 6 years ago before moving to Hong Kong I have studied simple Cantonese through it and I must say coming to Hong Kong it enabled me to tell taxi drivers where to go and to order food. I don't claim to speak any other Cantonese than the above, I can easily survive speaking English here. Using it to pick-up some Cantonese did make me want to use it as well for Korean, as I liked the system, and it matches the description you have given in your video.  

Over the past 3 years I have been using Pimsleur on and off to study Korean. I say on and off as I am taking active Korean classes (2 hours per week) here in Hong Kong. My wife is Korean and we watch Korean TV shows etc., but what I miss as a Korean student outside Korea is that the level of all these 'tools' often do not match my level as I am struggling to get acquainted with pronunciation etc. not being in Korea. Pimsleur is one tool that can be used to overcome this gap. Besides, Korean textbooks are focussed on Students and topics are often matching every day life issues for students, not for a middle aged man like myself. Pimsleur also helps to overcome this gap a bit (topics on office life, having children, being married, business trips etc.).

Pimsleur Korean is 4 chapters and the first 3 are 15 (or 16'ish) lessons each, the last part is around 30 lessons. I have noticed that it is useful as the grammar advances over the lessons and is pretty much in-line with the grammar in Korean text books. It is a good addition to become more conversational and I occasionally pick-up new words and idioms as well.

However, I do find that Pimsleur will not make you understand Korean grammar very well (perhaps due to it's complexity with so many different verb endings, particles etc.). So if students are considering to use it I strongly recommend to follow Korean classes as well. 

Finally, most of the Pimsleur recordings are in honorific and informal-polite speech, so don't expect to become fluent in informal-inpolite (casual) speech, which is commonly used among friends and in drama etc.