Is Pimsleur the Best Way to Learn a Language?

[zacb]

I was trying rosetta stone, but that does not work very well. What program has been the best in your opinion?

[Teal Lantern]

I was trying rosetta stone, but that does not work very well. What program has been the best in your opinion?

extrovert == rosetta, introvert == pimsleur
but you were gonna figure that out, eventually.

[Rock]

Try Michel Thomas. I think it works well for both intros and extros.

[zacb]

I was trying rosetta stone, but that does not work very well. What program has been the best in your opinion?

extrovert == rosetta, introvert == pimsleur
but you were gonna figure that out, eventually.

Interesting. Care to explain?

[jboy]

Pimsleur works better for me compared to rosetta stone, guess that makes me an introvert.

[S_Parc]

Hopefully, you can get your Pimsleur, at your main city library, without forking out the hundreds for them.

The reason why Pimsleur works, aside from the reversing the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve (reviewing line items in measured intervals), is that it forces one to stop anglicizing words, since there's no text to create confusion in what the word looks like vs how it sounds. Thus, "comment allez-vous", pronounced as 'como tahlay voo' in French, can not be accidentally misrecalled as 'comment ally vos' by a native American English speaker.

Rosetta Stone and other such tools, however, throw random words, phrases, etc, with no order, no plan, etc, of how one's suppose to remember them and without unconsciously anglicizing the bits and pieces.

Once you get through a Pimsleur I to III, in a set, you can take more advanced lessons w/o making all the rookie mistakes in language learning.

[xiongmao]

Rosetta is pretty good, especially if you know a little of the language already.

Mindless repetition is the best way to learn. There really aren't any shortcuts.

[Teal Lantern]

I was trying rosetta stone, but that does not work very well. What program has been the best in your opinion?

extrovert == rosetta, introvert == pimsleur
but you were gonna figure that out, eventually.

Interesting. Care to explain?

Not sure why it works that way.
Maybe because pims starts right away with you making a move on teh wimminz.
The first thing you learn with pims is "Excuse me, Miss. Do you speak English?" in the target language.
You rapidly progress to inviting her out to lunch/dinner/your place and learning how to tell time and order drinks off the menu in the process. Simple business greetings follow.

Gash and cash, two big motivators for people learning a second language.

I've tried Pims, and Rosetta, and others. I prefer Pims by a long shot.

[S_Parc]

Not sure why it works that way.
Maybe because pims starts right away with you making a move on teh wimminz.
The first thing you learn with pims is "Excuse me, Miss. Do you speak English?" in the target language.
You rapidly progress to inviting her out to lunch/dinner/your place and learning how to tell time and order drinks off the menu in the process.

They also have a bit of a snarky way of not taking 'NO' for an answer. If you invite the lady out for drinks at 1PM and she refuses, you merely either switch the time to 3PM or switch the item, from a drink to having lunch together.

Finally, if she gets annoyed with the whole back/forth dialogue, she merely tells you that you don't understand the language as oppose to calling you a creep and dialing 911. Great teaching vehicle

[momopi]

The US Foreign Service Institute also provides some basic language courses to the public. Some publications, including audio files, were released to the public domain a while back and you might still be able to find them on internet archives. There was some controversy over the "public domain" status and the files were removed from many sites.

Some textbooks can be downloaded here:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=cre ... stitute%22

Chinese audio lessons & text book:
http://www.learnchineseez.com/fsi/

For those who are visiting a foreign country (short term), look for the Familiarization and Short Term (FAST) books:
http://archive.org/details/Fsi-JapaneseFast-StudentText
http://archive.org/details/Fsi-SpanishF ... tudentText


You can also purchase the language course from these guys for for $20:
http://www.foreignserviceinstitute.com/


Remember that your tax dollars paid for these courses. They are spartan and somewhat dated, but it's hard to beat free (or $20) versus what Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone charges.

[S_Parc]

The US Foreign Service Institute also provides some basic language courses to the public. Some publications, including audio files, were released to the public domain a while back and you might still be able to find them on internet archives. There was some controversial over the "public domain" status and the files were removed from many sites.

You can also purchase language course from FSI directly for $20:
http://www.foreignserviceinstitute.com/

Remember that your tax dollars paid for these courses. They are spartan and somewhat dated, but it's hard to beat free (or $20) versus what Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone charges.

When I was a kid, FSI courses were in the hundreds. I guess you can't pawn dated material for that much these days

[aozora13]

The US Foreign Service Institute also provides some basic language courses to the public. Some publications, including audio files, were released to the public domain a while back and you might still be able to find them on internet archives. There was some controversial over the "public domain" status and the files were removed from many sites.

Some textbooks can be downloaded here:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=cre ... stitute%22

Chinese audio lessons & text book:
http://www.learnchineseez.com/fsi/

For those who are visiting a foreign country (short term), look for the Familiarization and Short Term (FAST) books:
http://archive.org/details/Fsi-JapaneseFast-StudentText
http://archive.org/details/Fsi-SpanishF ... tudentText


You can also purchase language course from FSI directly for $20:
http://www.foreignserviceinstitute.com/


Remember that your tax dollars paid for these courses. They are spartan and somewhat dated, but it's hard to beat free (or $20) versus what Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone charges.

Thanks Momopi. I think I will try the FSI style of learning Spanish. I have taken American high school style teaching and it does not work. I found that the website that sells the $20 dollar information is a company selling public domain material. I found a website that has other websites for free too so I will use it. At least it is good and I can get better with my Spanish.

[momopi]

More links on where to download the FSI language courses:
http://ielanguages.com/blog/death-of-a- ... urses-org/


Owners of Apple products can also check iTunes for numerous language learning apps and lessons, though the quality varies greatly.

[Teal Lantern]

They also have a bit of a snarky way of not taking 'NO' for an answer. If you invite the lady out for drinks at 1PM and she refuses, you merely either switch the time to 3PM or switch the item, from a drink to having lunch together.

Finally, if she gets annoyed with the whole back/forth dialogue, she merely tells you that you don't understand the language as oppose to calling you a creep and dialing 911. Great teaching vehicle

Yeah, that lesson always feels a little weird (USSA conditioning, I know)
Imagine the AngloFem version:
"The lady has called the police on you. How would she say 'Officer, that creep tried to rape me'?"

@zacb: Don't worry. In later lessons, you get her to go out with you and then some.
OK, no more spoilers.

@momopi: Sucks that fsi is gone. That was a good site.

[drealm]

It's certainly the most boring way to learn.