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UPDATE to my first Update:*The version of what I have may be different from this one. I'm giving this only 4 stars though because of the price, and also, without the booklet, I had to take notes and translate words online so to help me with their spelling. So, I asked my German husband (he attended school in Germany from Kindergarten to when he got his Master's Degree at a University, so he should know German) and we listened to the way the male speaker was speaking and he said, yes, the man has an accent.
The first lesson started out great (you can read my early review below), the following lessons aren't so, they're more repetitions and more repetitions, which can be good BUT--the male speaker teaching isn't pronouncing all the words properly. So, I'm wondering, should I even continue with these lessons, since I may end up sounding like a German with a speech impediment after.First ReviewWithout a booklet I could look at and read to find out how the words they're saying are spelled, I did not think this would help me much. I have heard the newer version with different speakers, so my first review may not be applicable to you*This is my first updated review.
or some kind of a lisp.My question is, for this price, why didn't Pimsleur have actual Germans (who don't have a speech impediment or what have you) teaching German.The bad pronounciation taught wasn't only on Ich, I've also heard it on a few other words (like 'sprechen' he says spreshen). I have also been learning from Berlitz, Rosetta Stone etc. simultaneously and so when in Pimsleur, the speaker started teaching how to prounounce Ich as Ish, it sort of raised a red flag.
To my surprise, after listening once to the 1st lesson, unit 1, I could understand the real life conversation they have and I could speak several sentences. Here are some products you may also like to try: Berlitz Rush Hour German (German Edition), Learn in Your Car German Complete (German Edition) and Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion Danke.
Those were signatures to me of a thorough grasp of the language that could only be acquired after years immersed into the language surrounded by native speakers. "studied hard"). Noticing that I was German, she spoke to me in German with a slight (authentic) regional accent, and totally baffled me with her prefect use of common colloquial short forms and meaningless fill-words. I met a young lady (American) working at a tourist information in Colorado. You want to speak German the way Germans do in everyday conversation. So it was far from being perfect but a great way to collect brownie points for effort and get support from locals who didn't speak either German or English.I think Pimsleur is a great way to get started and reach the brownie point level. However, I noticed that she would only touch on subjects and then somewhat abruptly change to talk about something else; she even asked about my children out of the blue.It wasn't until years later that I learned about Pimsleur and realized that she may have bought three levels of Pimsleur German, and advanced daily from one lesson to the next (i.e. I gladly accepted her limited vocabulary (after all pretty good for one month) and that conversation was only possible while she was in charge of the topic.
In fact, my experience traveling in Russia resembled my experience at that tourist information. She told me she'd been studying German for only one month while living with friends in Germany and "studying hard". This may be a good way to start. It came to me while I was going through three levels of Pimsleur Russian and noticed similar features: unconditional confidence in saying what I had learned, native accent, overall small vocabulary covering a somewhat wide range of topics (including children), and a total of 30 lessons (that should be covered no faster than one lesson per day as per Pimsleur recommendation). So I thought. I thought she was a genius, one of those one-in-a-million who languages come to naturally. I got complimented for my perfect use of the language, including my accent, while at the same time had to explain why my vocabulary was so limited. With the confidence to speak, knowing even a little bit of a language makes a huge difference during traveling.
I looked at other lessons, in textbook format, and interactive format. The downside: I am self-conscious about proper grammar (even though I am incapable of ever mastering it), and Pimsleur omits those important intricacies. I am fluent both in English and Spanish, so picking up on the exact pronunciation of German words was going to be very challenging for me. The results were impressive enough that I purchased German I. I am looking forward to resuming my lessons soon. Then I stumbled onto Pimsleur. Yet I still recall most of my lessons from before.
So if you care about grammar, get yourself a grammar book. I have to admit that I did extensive research on other language learning tools including the ubiquitous Rosetta Stone, which in my opinion is fairly ludicrous both in lessons and in price. Of course, as mentioned in earlier reviews, Pimsleur is an addendum to other materials. Initially I was dubious of learning a language by simply listening to the words, phrases and sentences, so I tried out a free 30-minute lesson online. Then I resumed school again and purchased a new house, which forced me to interrupt my lessons for a several months. I have also found indispensible, free German grammar lessons and dictionaries on the Internet, Beolingus (German-English dictionary), http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/, http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/content/english_german_table_of_content.htm, and many others that I cannot quite recall as I have since switched computers and platforms. And when I finish Pimsleur German I, I will purchase the other lessons sequentially, despite it being so expensive.
(I supplemented the course with a Beginner's German course to develop basic reading and grammar skills).I started using my new German abilities in with shop clerks. I'm pleased to say that I could easily converse in simple German conversations and could understand what was being said to me. I used German I, II, and III of the Pimsleur series before going to Germany. As my confidence increased I talked a little bit more about myself and asked questions of the person I was addressing. This is an all-auditory course and is suitable to people, like me, who learn best in this fashion. The course introduces you very slowly and very gradually to German vocabulary and grammar - so effortlessly and intuitively that it doesn't even feel like you are learning. There is nothing like a native speaker to really teach you how to speak a language. But Pimsleur is the best course I've come across for learning a second language - especially one that you will have the opportunity to use in real conversations.
As I already speak Spanish and French, in addition to English, I wanted to be able to connect this onto what I already knew. I am a very visual learner. This may be ideal in some situations. Entire sentences thrown at me verbally was basically incoherent to me. I had trouble with all the auditory input. I thought it would be easier to learn with this program as it broke away from traditional language learning, starting with grammar. Had an entire transcript been available, even as a supplement on the Simon & Schuster website, breaking down the sentences, I might have enjoyed this more. I guess it's back to Rosetta Stone, which is essentially the same price anyway.
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