I’ve been getting these CDs from the local library, and am over halfway through Pimsleur 1. I don’t get through a lesson a day, because, well, life’s not that simple.
Is anyone else listening to these CDs? I’d love to have people keep each other accountable here. Right now, I’ve settled on Pimsleur and WK as the two resources I have time to invest in. I dabble at others in my spare moments, but really, haven’t been able to commit to anything like Genki.
But a commitment is only as good as the follow-thru, so let’s start a Pimsleur thread!
The lessons are mostly boring, but sometimes pretty (unintentionally?) hilarious.
Would you like to drink beer with me? At my place? Tonight? What time? How about nine o’clock?
Hello ! After watching a video from YouTube on the “Life where I’m from” channel, I did the exact same thing ! I got the pimsleur 1 to 4 and I started with the beginner’s enthusiasm and blasted through the first few units. So far it feels a bit silly as you said but I’m pretty sure it has the potential to get interesting after a while. Good idea to share here your experience. I also have planned to use the 4’500 sentences ressource from Tofugu early 2019. Keep up the good work !
The lessons are…hilarious. In one, I went from “Sato san, would you like a drink at my place tonight” to “And how much is it?” in the space of a few seconds.
ホテル東京で? It’s nice that they teach the essentials first.
That being said I do think it’s a good way to introduce listening, pronounciation and intonation. I rip the most useful sentences (or edit with different vocab) and input into Anki, usually about 4-7 per lesson and am on level 2.
I feel you with the missing a lesson guilt (30 mins per day!!).
Has anyone here completed the Pimsleur series and would you recommend seeing it through to the end?
How does it compare to JapanesePod- I assume JPod goes further?
i finished pimsleur 8 years ago. i did it exactly as recommended, being totally new to the language, and thinking back, that was the right decision.
when i did michel thomas right after, all my open questions were answered, and i had zero hesitation with those speaking exercises and could answer on the spot.
after that, i went through japanesepod101, from “beginner” to “upper intermediate”. every episode of every season.
this learning regime was probably the best course of action for me at that time. had i had wanikani, too, i’d have been able to pick up new vocab much more easily, too, but at the time, i didn’t need to read and skipped it. well… wk didn’t go anywhere, so i’m doing it now.
I’m thinking about buying the pimsleur series as a Christmas present to myself. I’ve book marked this thread and if I buy it I’ll definitely be back here to join in the discussion. Good luck with your studies OP!
I did Pimsleur some years ago. It was great for my pronunciation. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, especially since they seem to be pretty cheap now with that subscription option that I’ve seen people post about in other forums.
I have finished multiple Pimsleur courses, they are great for pronunciation and help your speaking flow as well. I would also recommend the Japanese Audio Flashcards, which happen to be free, after you finish the Japanese Pimsleur in order to keep stuff up. A native provided the audio as well as corrections to make more natural sentences.
You might want to check your local libraries first. Could save you quite a bit of money and you’d get to try before you buy, if you decide to purchase it anyway
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As for me, I finished the first set of thirty a little bit ago. Aside from pronunciation, I think it’s helped a bit with my confidence in speaking. I’m on the second set now, but going a lot slower. After the JLPT, I’ve been taking more of a break with my studies, haha.
I’m a solo learner outside Japan and I love pimsleur. Currently on phase 4 unit 20. ‘Kurosawa has become a movie director who represents Japanese movies’. It really helps and reinforces bunpro and wk. I listen and talk while running so my Japanese probably sounds a bit breathless.
Nice! Phase 4 sounds so far away. I’m still on the first set of lessons. I got frustrated and then “took a break”. I know I just need to go back 3 or 4 lessons and redo them, and I’ll be back in it.
Thanks for inspiring me!
Maybe I should take up running? Doing them while driving has drawbacks too, although breathlessness isn’t usually one of them. lol!
Sometimes I just hit a unit where I can never get the responses right and after 2-3 run throughs I just move on. Once I get to the end of phase 5 I’ll just start doing them randomly to reinforce. I think even if I can’t quite get the whole phrase out in time, my speed and abilty to spontaneously produce speech gets better. My experience with Pimsleur in other languages is that locals genuinely seem to understand me easily (- then they say somethng back and I haven’t a clue.)
I took a break during some stressful stuff these last couple months, (was enough to keep up with WaniKani), and had to backtrack some lessons, but am getting caught up again. It’s clicking a little better the second run through.
Funny how great it feels to get the answers right in Pimsleur. Something about the “no thinking, no hesistation” right answers is insanely satisfying.
I started and stopped Pimsleur Japanese more than a decade ago and have also done their Spanish 1 - 3 courses. I’ve recently restarted Japanese and am almost finished with Japanese I using the newer Pimsleur app.
The app takes the CDs to the next level by having flash cards (albeit a bit basic), vocabulary matching, and phrase reviews at the end of every 30 minute lesson.
You can get the app via a subscription model which comes out to be significantly cheaper than the buying all the CDs if you can keep up with the one less per day model (which I HIGHLY recommend keeping up with the lessons.
