Anyone used Pimsleur CDs (not Little Pim) with small chidlren?

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Hello,

We would like to begin German with our kids. I have seen the Little Pim dvds, and I think they are a lot of $$$ for only a little vocabulary and exposure. I am wondering if anyone has just used the adult CDs for family language learning (I'd like to pick up a bit as well!). I know the vocabulary, at least initially, will be geared towards business travel, but I figure it will fill out as we go along. I'm just wondering if anyone has tried this before.

 

Any other suggestions for German are also welcome. :-)

 

I have many friends in the area who speak German as a first language. None would be able to give "lessons" per se, but all would be willing to humor my kids by responding to their German in German, so that's one advantage I have.

[sarawatsonim]

I have used using Pimsleur CD's with my dd8 (and myself) for French. She didn't retain much past the first few lessons though because they are kind of dry. Also, after the first few lessons they seem to jump significantly in difficulty. They may be okay for background noise for your children as you listen for yourself though. But I don't think many kids would be able to give full attention for the half hour or so that they lessons are (they are quite boring). For my own personal learning I have found that the Assimil program to be the best I have used so far.....and I have tried many :) On a language learning forum that I am on, they suggested to teach my daughter via reading simple books in the target language, listening to fun music, and watching tv in the target language as well. That is unless I have someone who speaks the language who can spend significant time with them JUST speaking the language......which I don't :)

 

[nmoira]

I'd try Michel Thomas. They're less dry, though still generally aimed at adults. I like the format: Thomas (or another teacher) works with two students, correcting their pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar as they go.

[umsami]

We had Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic, but did not like it. Michel Thomas was much easier (and more practical) for my kids.

[SarahW]

One problem with the Pimsleur German is that after a few lessons the guy and the girl start making plans to meet at each other's place for drinks. Since the vocab is limited, there is a lot of "At my house??" lines, which are unintentionally funny, to adults at least. But double entendres aside, I think most kids would find it very dull.

 

But, my husband is a native Dutch speaker, who grew up close to Germany, and he thinks the Pimsleur program is very solid for pronunciation and vocabulary. So I think it could be worthwhile to get the basic intro course from the local library and just do it in the car for a few weeks.

 

One thing I did find with my 6yo is that a half-hour of audio only was tough on his attention span. I found that doing it in the car when he was in the backseat was the only way to get him to half pay attention. And even though he didn't answer all the questions like he was supposed to, he did pick up the lines easily enough. Kids are funny that way.

[Ariston]

I did for a while but like the others said it was too dry to keep up with. I think it would have been effective if I had made my son stick with it. He was doing it for ten minutes a day while folding laundry but eventually we gave it up. I wish they made one for kids!!

[Jay3fer]

Tried it for myself... it may be sound, language-wise, but I wouldn't wish it on kids. As other said, way too dry and the topics are not interesting. Rosetta Stone is also above the kids and grown-up in much of its vocabulary (ie train schedules etc), but overcomes that by being visual and interactive.