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***Disclaimer*** No financial connection to product/service - Just passing along some first hand info from a friend ***Disclaimer***
https://ww5.pimsleurapproach.com/opt...UID=1102712551
A friend sent this to me as a course he had tried and one with which he had great success. He was faced with the "awful" task of a business trip to Brazil. Although he knew that the clients spoke English, he wanted to learn some Portuguese to woo some scantily clad females walking along Ipanema Beach. He said that it really does work and he went from speaking zero Portuguese to being able to get around and make himself understood at restaurants, bars, taxis and awkward beach encounters with topless locals.

They offer many different language courses and for $9.95 I figure it was worth taking a risk on the Spanish version. If you like it you can pass it around to your friends and share the cost. If it doesn't, they offer a money back guarantee. Seemed like a no-brainer to me...

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Numerous studies have revealed that in every country, native-speakers use only about 2,500 distinct words and phrases on a daily basis. Dr. Pimsleur spent his lifetime studying these language building blocks. With the Pimsleur Approach, it's not how many words you know, but rather, which words you can use. By aiming each lesson at teaching you to use those 2500 words, the Pimsleur Approach teaches you to speak the most in the least amount of time. You can rapidly learn a new language!

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By age four, a child has acquired the building blocks of a "first" language at a rate of about one item for every five hours of waking time exposed to the language in use. With this course, YOU will learn a new language at the rate of almost one item for every minute of Pimsleur training. By age four, a child has acquired the building blocks of a first language

Your only real goal in taking any language course is to speak naturally with others The Purpose, of Course

The entire Pimsleur Approach is what language learning should be: quick, fun, and easy! Many foreign language students have difficulty learning. Their textbooks teach monotonous drills, grammar rules, and random lists of words. But textbooks alone can never bring it all together.

Your only real goal in taking any language course is to speak naturally with others.


Dr. Pimsleur designed each lesson as the foundation for the next. In other words, you'll keep building on what you've previously learned. Best of all, the Pimsleur course does not waste your time by cramming grammar down your throat. You learn to recognize what sounds right through practice. The Pimsleur Approach's subtle grammar lessons won't seem like grammar lessons at all.

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The Pimsleur Approach is so effective because it traces how people developed language. Before written history, we had oral history. Most people, even kings, couldn't write or read in ancient times. Some people can't even read today. Most language learning systems fail to acknowledge that writing only exists to represent the words we speak. So you should ask yourself, "Why should I learn to read a new language if I can't even speak it?"

The Pimsleur course immediately immerses you in a conversation to help you grasp the syntax or structure of the language. Amazingly, once you understand the syntax, that chaotic, "foreign" sound so common to language learning disappears instantly. You'll start to recognize words and phrases. The Pimsleur Approach will help to change your perception within your first 30 minutes! The Pimsleur Approach is Scientific

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***Disclaimer*** No financial connection to product/service - Just passing along some first hand info from a friend ***Disclaimer***

I am not very happy with the cd course I have, so I might look into this one. Thanks.

However, do you know if it is VERY basic, because I am beyond that.

Diane

It is based on starting someone from zero Diane, but what my friend told me was that it takes a very different approach that is valuable to help anybody at any level learn or improve their 2nd language skills.

I am even considering it as they have an English for Spanish speakers. I might see if it can help Cristina...

I've done this course. I love it. I think it is THE way to start, because it is

1) Relaxing, because of how it is structured

2) Based on scientific understanding of getting stuff into long term memory, so that the language becomes like a reflex.

3) Systematic. You take the same half hour segment over and over until you are pretty good, then move on to the next one. But it isn't boring.

4) Useful, because the focus on the most common words and grammar that you're likely to need at first.

5) Convenient!!! You can put it on your MP3 player and practice while you drive or do the dishes. No time has to come out of your life! You don't need to use a book, though there some segments where you're supposed to look and see how things are spelled. But I never did those.

Once you're done, you have a good command of present tense and a little more, and a basic, core vocabulary. You aren't telling jokes and making conversations, you can't really do a great deal with it, but you have the confidence and foundation to keep learning more. Typically, in a few months you have more at your command than a lot of people who had a lot of Spanish in high school (either that or they forgot what they knew!)

It's a little pricey, but some libraries have it.

I never watch a movie now without playing the Spanish language audio or having the Spanish subtitles on, because understanding the spoken language "real time" is really difficult for me. And then there's learning the idioms. Arrgh.

But at least I can get around and function now.

MeetUp.com has a Spanish language MeetUp in San Diego (and other cities, I'm sure). Very nice people, and you meet folks from all around Latin America who join in and help you practice, sometimes to brush up on their English as the same time. I've shown Spanish movies for them on a big screen TV for fun and education in the past.

Enjoy!

Bob

Did I miss something? $9.95 is pricey? I do agree that whenever possible, using subtitles in either direction while watching TV works.

The full course is pricey. Whatever they have for 9.95 is probably just a taste. Maybe there's a deal to be had on Ebay?

To really learn a foreign language your best bet is immersion. It is very hard to do by only devoting 20 minutes a day.

Regarding total immersion, I'd caution though that a beginner or maybe even beginning intermediate is not so likely to do well with total immersion unless there is a very strong program involving drills and graphic materials that "gets" adult learning theory. But then, you're back to something a lot like Pimsleur (or the Berlitz system, which I used for a while to teach Japanese business people English in a total immersion format). You pay more for a tutor, but the course is more customized to your needs, if it's done right.

I think the greatest strengths of the Pimsleur materials are that they are cheaper than a tutor, and get you a solid foundation that you can build on. They only get you to a very bare survival level, so definitely the learner needs to move on from there when they are ready.

As far as recorded programs go, after Pimsleur, I really like the programs (BARRONS is good) that do a lot of drilling and speak in a more normal accent and pace (the Pimsleur program, since it's just getting you started, uses speech that is very easy for the beginner to understand). This way you begin tuning your ear.