Pimsleur French?

[RobinL in Canada]

Here in Ontario, students in the school systems are required to complete grade 9 French for an Ontario diploma, and I have always covered the equivalent since my sons attend school for gr 12. Although I have a background in French (grew up in Quebec), it has been agony trying to get each of my sons through this level (agony for them , yes, but even more so for their pauvre mere). In the past, I used a textbook/ workbook -based program (Amsco's French is Fun) plus some Rosetta Stone, but all my boys were incredibly resistant to the entire endeavour (though oddly, all greatly enjoy speaking with French accents a la Inspector Clouseau--go figure). Meanwhile, I'm now down to my last child facing his year of high school French. I decided to try a different workbook program, Breaking the Barrier, but am not sure it's really any better than the Amsco series, which I thought was quite good for a vocab and grammar-based approach.

 

So what about Pimsleur? Although I've heard of it, we've never tried it. Does it focus too much on " business" or "traveler's" speaking skills? Does it really help the student absorb and learn the sounds of the language and assorted basic phrases? And why is it that the basic course , which is the same as the first 16 lessons of the 30-lesson comprehensive course, cost only about $40 while the full comprehensive course costs ten times that?

Any insights or comments on Pimsleur would be appreciated!

[KAR120C]

So what about Pimsleur? Although I've heard of it, we've never tried it. Does it focus too much on " business" or "traveler's" speaking skills? Does it really help the student absorb and learn the sounds of the language and assorted basic phrases? And why is it that the basic course , which is the same as the first 16 lessons of the 30-lesson comprehensive course, cost only about $40 while the full comprehensive course costs ten times that?

Any insights or comments on Pimsleur would be appreciated!

I don't think it's complete, but it might be enough for the disinterested student who just needs a language on the transcript.....

 

It is definitely travel-oriented. We've only done Spanish, but it's heavily weighted toward lengthy discussions of beer. Whether you'd like a beer. Is it a cold beer? How much for two beers? I left my wallet at the hotel. Would you pay for the two beers? And the grammar is really minimal. Plus no writing. I think you can get a guide to go with the audio that's meant to provide a little reading, but not a ton.

 

The real reason I like it is that it does an excellent job at quick recall of basic phrases -- an absolutely wonderful job of it. We don't use it as our main program, but it's a very very good supplement to speed up response times and keep important bits and pieces at the front of your mind. And I've found that the phrases they've chosen work rather well with random other vocabulary. So once you've learned "I don't like beer" you can apply that form to anything else you do or don't like. It sounds silly, but it really does work out rather well.

 

I think if I wanted to do Pimsleur as a main program for a first year with a language, I'd add in a little supplement of extra nouns and verbs, and take time to expand from the dialog they provide. And then I'd add in some reading at least... and a little writing.

 

On the price... I have no idea. LOL I know the library here carries the basic set for a dozen languages and the full set only for Spanish.

[RobinL in Canada]

 

It is definitely travel-oriented. We've only done Spanish, but it's heavily weighted toward lengthy discussions of beer. Whether you'd like a beer. Is it a cold beer? How much for two beers? I left my wallet at the hotel. Would you pay for the two beers?y

 

 

Oh, you can't imagine how much I laughed about this!! We have some running jokes here in our family about beer (no alcoholics here, just jokers) and this hit my funny bone hard!

 

Thank you for the input. Our library has just the Basic French so I've requested it to see what it's like. And hey, now my youngest can join his older bros and learn all about ordering la biere!!!

[flyingiguana]

If you can get it through interlibrary loan you *might* be able to get through a level in the time period allotted. It's supposed to be a half hour a day and each level has 15(?) lessons. So you could do it in 2 weeks.

 

I wouldn't spend the money that they want for Pimsleur, but it's been really good for my kids when we get it from the library. At one point, Pimsleur was available as an e-download from our library. There may still be libraries out there that do that.

 

There is no writing. Or reading. That's a drawback for French where a lot of things sound the same, but I'm guessing you'll be able to clarify. We've found it to be a really good basic program to get started on a language. The repetition is something you don't get in a lot of other programs unless you create it yourself, but sometimes you need someone else to force you into it. Once we get the aural thing going with Pimsleur, we've found it to be a whole lot easier to pick up a more traditional method.

 

I know there's this perception that it's oriented to the business traveler, but I just don't see it. If you look at any intro language book, there are going to be conversations that focus on ordering food or beer or whatever. It's just a standard model. Ordering food was in my basic French book in junior high. In Pimsleur, you'll also buy pens (which was in my basic Chinese book), talk about your vacation (in my basic German book), discuss the weather, etc. We even ordered beer in my Chinese book (because it was written for adults). But none of these books were written specifically for business travelers, or even just travelers. Thing is, you gotta start somewhere.

[flyingiguana]

For French, have you looked into French in Action? The videos are free.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

Some of the grammar is covered in the video itself, so you may not need a book at first.

 

The textbook is mostly a transcript of the video, which is useful because the sound quality isn't all that I'd like. However, someone who knew French (such as you) might be able to hear what they're saying better and not need the textbook at all. (There are a couple reading passages, but they aren't much and probably aren't worth getting the text book for)

 

The workbooks are only of any use if you have the audio, which is available here:

http://www.cod.edu/IT/STREAMINGMEDIA/academicaudio/French01/french_01.html

but it only works for me on a PC using internet explorer. Won't work on a mac. Won't work in other browsers.

 

It's a program that I like, but we haven't gotten too far with it as my kids have chosen to focus on other languages.