Language acquisition

[TheFearmonger]

Hey guys, hope you all are well.
So, I've been trying to learn a new language, and I came across this "Pimsleur approach". It claims to be able to teach the building blocks of language in 10 days, to have been featured on PBS, and to be used at harvard. If this is true, that is amazing, and I definitely want it. But, I am not sure of the validity of the claims. Has anyone heard of this, or used it? If so, would you let me know your thoughts? Thanks!!

 

[nemesiss]

Hey guys, hope you all are well.
So, I've been trying to learn a new language, and I came across this "Pimsleur approach". It claims to be able to teach the building blocks of language in 10 days, to have been featured on PBS, and to be used at harvard. If this is true, that is amazing, and I definitely want it. But, I am not sure of the validity of the claims. Has anyone heard of this, or used it? If so, would you let me know your thoughts? Thanks!!

never heard of the term, but one thing that will work to learn a new language is living in it.
if you want to learn chineses, just get dropped somewhere in a chinese village and soon you'll be speaking chinese quite well.
that way, you are forced to adopt the language for survival.

 

[TheFearmonger]

Oh, man. I would LOVE to go to japan. But, I'm in college right now. :idea: Ooh, I could do foreign exchange. But, back on topic, anyone heard of this? Supposedly better than rosetta stone...?

 

[Baranduin]

Let's see.

I don't know what have you read, but no, you're not going to learn in 10 days more than a (short) list of sentences, nor become fluent (as a native!) in 90 days. 2500 words are clearly insufficient even if you disregard all the irregular forms. That's just marketing. However, if you do, let me know!

Well, I didn't knew that it was called *Pimsleur*, but I knew the approach (never used it, though). I've been esperantisto for some years and I've being helping learners - mainly but not exclusively native spanish speakers - with grammatical doubts and similar. Well, some of the most popular courses (Gerda Malaperis, and some in lernu.net) are based in precisely this very same thing. They work for some people, but not for most, and as much they make you get used to the target language: further work is always required. The good point they have is that you don't get stuck in a point: you can pass to the next lesson even if you didn't master 100% the previous one; since the word/expression/construction will reappear again, you will have another chance to understand it.

The main problem I've seen with these courses is that you, as an adult, will use your native language as a template for the new language. Courses oriented to the native language of the learner are usually required; there will be always semantic differences that you will not "grasp" (or at least you won't learn them so quickly) unless someone explain them for you (ie think in the different use between "haber/tener/ser/estar" in Spanish, "avoir/àªtre" in French, and "have/be" in English).

From my experience with Esperanto learners, I'd say the better way is a mixed one: no one is going to spare you from learning a formal grammar, but it will help you (as additional material) to learn the flavour of the language. However, I've never seen a native spanish speaker being fluent in esperanto with only three months of *daily* practicing, regardless of the method they used, and esperanto is *really* easy for spanish speakers, so I remain skeptic about the efficacy they promise.


Just a tip. Internet is full of linguistic resources, some of them very good, so you don't have to pay that much, specially when you don't know if it's going to work with you. The certified Pimsleurs are quite expensive, and I doubt most of their claims (ie it repeats the word *exactly* when you are going to forget it... well, unless it can read my thought and know how much attention I'm paying, or what other languages I know so I've being able to link that word with that other, lowering the risk of forgetting it...), but surely they are not the only ones to use it. Have you taken a look on youtube?

 

[scalyblue]

Try livemocha.com , I found it helpful and it's free

 

[TheFearmonger]

Thanks guys, I got a lot of good suggestions there. I trust you more than a website, so I'll definitely try out your recommendations before that other thing. Hopefully, I will learn Japanese in no time!! :mrgreen:

 

[dr_esteban]

Thanks guys, I got a lot of good suggestions there. I trust you more than a website, so I'll definitely try out your recommendations before that other thing. Hopefully, I will learn Japanese in no time!! :mrgreen:

I don't know about the Japanese version but the Rosetta v3 for French is by far and away the best language kit i've used.

 

[TheFearmonger]

Yeah, I've only heard good things about rosetta stone. If this livemocha thing doesn't work for me, that will definitely be my next choice. Thanks, guys. I knew I could count on you!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[scalyblue]

If it's japanese, you also would do good to study japanese history. Much of the difficulty is understanding the idioms used.

Netflix all of the anime and japanese drama you can get. Turn on japanese language for movies you know. Start browsing Amazon.jp to shop instead of amazon.com, browse ebay in japanese. ^.^ lots of things you can do to facilitate immersion.

 

[g-off]

pimsleur helped me no end in my first year studying japanese. half an hour a day and it actually works. It's worth the time for sure.

 

[TheFearmonger]

pimsleur helped me no end in my first year studying japanese. half an hour a day and it actually works. It's worth the time for sure.

No shit? Well, I might try it in conjunction with the other stuff. Cool, thanks!

ps welcome to the League :ugeek:

 

[g-off]

pimsleur helped me no end in my first year studying japanese. half an hour a day and it actually works. It's worth the time for sure.

No shit? Well, I might try it in conjunction with the other stuff. Cool, thanks!

ps welcome to the League :ugeek:

no problem

and thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[Nibdo]

I have been studying Japanese for about two months now.

If you have a firm basic foundation of the language, Pimsleur will help you build onto that. Like how others have already said, it's by no means able to make you fluent in the language - in fact, Pimsleur's approach will teach you less vocabulary than most language programs. I'm currently trying to listen to two lessons a day.

Like all tools, however, it must be used in conjunction with others to truly help you gain insight into the language. I recommend Heisig's book Remebering the Kanji, if you haven't gotten to kanji yet. Just get them out of the way - it may be daunting, but it shouldn't take more than a few months if you're truly diligent. And if it takes longer, so be it. It's worth it. Also, obviously just being to read kana - that should be easy to grasp quickly.

Listen to Japanese music, watch Japanese versions of your favorite shows or movies, play Japanese video games - translate your favorite English material into Japanese. Attempt to immerse your environment as much as possible. There are hundreds of different resources for the language alone on the Internet, not even including what the language produces.

 

[Gulo]

I use pimsleur as a way to get a quick basis for proper pronunciations then use other techniques from there. As stated previously, it Won't make you fluent but for speaking purposes, it really helped my Chinese and Croatian as i can't exactly readily practice the languages with anyone in my area. It's a building block and will put you into a frame of mind for learning the language. i also use foreign films with subtitles to help speed the process when i'm doing this for immersion purposes. You can actually play the audio while you sleep and listen to music from the culture for more subliminal uptake of the language. Worth it.

 

[TheFearmonger]

Yo, scaly. Thanks for the tip on livemocha. I am halfway throught the first lesson now, and it is super easy to learn. At the rate I'm at now, I'll be done with the beginner stage in a week, by taking one or two classes a day and synthesizing the material. Thanks a ton, otokonohito! :mrgreen:

 

[scalyblue]

Yo, scaly. Thanks for the tip on livemocha. I am halfway throught the first lesson now, and it is super easy to learn. At the rate I'm at now, I'll be done with the beginner stage in a week, by taking one or two classes a day and synthesizing the material. Thanks a ton, otokonohito! :mrgreen:

NP