New to Pimsleur

Question

I have been using Pimsleur I for the last few months, and have almost finished the Level I CD's while driving back and forth to work each day.

Can someone that has used these before clue me into how formal Pimsleur is versus what people typically use in conversation Spanish.

For example when you want to know how to say something, they use Quiere dicer, but I had always heard Como se dice used ...

KevDog

Answer 1

¿Cómo se dice............? How do you say.............?

¿Qué quiere decir ..........? What is the meaning of ........?

¿Qué quiere decir? does not mean what do (you, he she), want to say? - EL_MAG0, Jan 8, 2011

In word-for-word translation, yes, but this type of translating will always lead you astray. Meanings and translations are often quite different. Context is also extremely important - 005faa61, Jan 8, 2011

Answer 2

My impressions (in Pimsleur Japanese):

The good thing is that they use native speakers with an extremely clear pronunciation, and they gradually increase their speed until it becomes more like in a natural conversation (although, of course, some natives will speak even faster).

You'll definitely get used to a (maybe too) standard spoken language, which surely should help later on. However, the conversations and the vocabulary don't go much further than survival sentences, and informal levels (which you hear everyday) are not addressed.

Maybe it is my fault, but although I end up being able to say the sentences requested by the "guide", I still feel very limited and unable to express myself naturally. Maybe it is a matter of practising, and maybe a recorded course is no substitute for a proper conversation, but it is not working as well as I hoped. On one hand, I can understand new dialogues (but only if they are provided by them) and I am slowly learning new vocabulary, but on the other hand, I am not getting the feeling for the language that I got when I starting reading and listening to English real materials, i.e. those designed for English speakers. All those explanations that consume more than half of the recordings clarify a lot of things... and at the same time they make me focus too much on the English explanations, and I can't get into the language.

For a recording without pictures, it is hard to find a fault in it, but short, programmed regular dialogues with videos and no (useless) translations would definitely work a lot better for me. Using the same amount of time, I'd learn a lot faster.

Just my 2 cents.

Answer 3

I loved Pimsleur. I'd say that it's not really colloquial (they barely touch on the "tu" verb forms). Then again, you have to learn the basics to get a good grounding in the language.