In fact, we do offer a 7 day free trial to try the entire course! Pimsleur 7 Day Free Trial
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Even cheaper way to get Pimsleur is our subscription option, which starts at $14.95/month for full access. And if you want the Premium version, it’s only available directly from Pimsleur. You cannot get Pimsleur Premium from resellers! https://offers.pimsleur.com/free-trial-1406
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Actually, you learn about 500 words per level with Pimsleur though for Japanese it’s a little less. More like 400 new words per levels. We currently offer 5 full levels of Japanese including a Premium edition, which includes flashcards, quizzes, reading lessons, etc.
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I was around when sect names were still a thing, but they hardly ever come up any more, so I just couldn’t help commenting. 
OMG I can’t believe Pimsleur is here in real life.
I am here, but as for my wife, she is not here now. Would you like to go for a drink with me tonight? Wouldn’t you like to have a drink with me? Would you like red wine? Would you like white wine?
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They might have just violated Wakikani’s terms for commercial advertisers.
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Oh I see… I got started with wk late 2016 and around that time it was already barely a thing. I thought I was among the last generation… But I don’t remember exactly when they launched the new forum. I feel like it was pretty close to when I signed up. But I don´t trust my own memory on this.
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I think they usually don’t mind people popping up to provide information in response to a thread.
Their second comment is a bit heavy on the marketing front though.
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I’ve bought all five levels and I really enjoyed (and still enjoy) doing them while driving in the car. I’ve studied with Genki I and II in parallel and I would say level 5 of Pimsleur Japanese goes up to about N4 level.
However for me it would be pretty worthless without studying with some textbook in parallel because in the Pimsleur courses you just learn one particular form of a verb or grammar point but you have no idea how it’s constructed, and therefore you mostly cannot use it with any other verbs or words. Certainly Pimsleur alone will not get you anywhere really except for maybe a few set phrases that you know off hand.
In my opinion it’s just great way to get a little repetition, pronounciation and immersion in addition to your other study materials. It’s nice when you have learned a certain grammar in your textbook and then it comes up in Pimsleur so you can repeat it. From my point of view it was well worth the price.
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Update: I checked out the Basic Japanese Pimsleur discs from the library, as well as Level 2.
It’s helping me gain more confidence for speaking so far, and it helps when I know some of the vocabulary before starting lessons.
I think it works as a complement to textbooks, grammar resources, etc. My approach to learning Japanese so far has been to pick and choose whatever is helpful, and I’ll definitely continue with Pimsleur because it will help with listening and speaking, as has been mentioned, and it’s just more engaging than some other approaches that also teach speaking (because I am not attending a class now).
This thread convinced me to finally try Pimsleur and it’s great!! My speaking ability is awful but after about 15 lessons I can already feel an improvement. I like that they don’t try to explain grammar/etc but instead just give you tons of in-context practice.
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I did all the basic pimsleur cds before coming to Japan in 2014. When I got here, I couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying to me. In reality, Pimsleur is good, but actual spoken Japanese is a whole different world.
i did pimsleur back in the day, followed by michel thomas, then jpod101.
at that point, i also worked through other resources, like tae kim or imabi. pimsleur got my feet wet back then.
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I’ve just returned from my 10-day trip to Tokyo and Pimsleur lessons helped me tremendously in initiating and holding basic conversations. Not sure why your experience was different.
I haven’t engaged in deep conversations though since my japanese is super elementary.
But, as I said, I’m super happy with the results and I’ve listened to less than 10 lessons before coming to Tokyo…
Looks like I’m following a similar path… Was the jpod101 worth it? I’m considering buying 2 year membership but am not 100% sure about it.
was absolutely worth it. do a trial though, and figure out if you like the hosts and the format. i did, but if you don’t, then you’ll reject it and not learn much.
i did pimsleur in the bathtub btw, and continued that “tradition” with michel thomas (check youtube for that one), then jpod101 while out taking walks.
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I like the hosts and the format. I tried the 7 days trial and I like it but the price was a bit high.
Found 65% discount code and just subscribed, after your reply)
And thank you for Michael Thomas Method. I’ve heard about it before but haven’t had a chance to dive into it. Now I will
upd: I’ve listened to Michael Thomas Method - Russian (since I know the language). And it teaches horrible russian. I decided to give it a pass for japanese
it teaches solid japanese though. the woman teaching the course isn’t michel thomas (obviously), she only uses his method. the only real downside to MT would be the terrible second student, listening to her makes your brain cells commit suicide, lol.
can’t go wrong with jpod101 though i did it all the way through advanced before i came to japan, which gave me a solid base to work with.
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