Acabo de terminar con Pimsleur / I just completed Pimsleur !!
This is a new post to mark my completion of Pimsleur, which in February I began reviewing in a comparison with Michel Thomas, which I had completed before:
Pimsleur / Michel Thomas: Comparison
Well, it's been fun and I actually feel a little sad about it coming to an end. That said, when I say I've completed Pimsleur, what I've actually done is listen to all 150 audio lessons across Levels 1-5 of the Latin American Pimsleur. I haven't yet undertaken the reading/written materials that accompany the course, and I also now possess Level 1 of the European (Castilian) Pimsleur on cassette, and I haven't listened to this either. However, I don't plan to do these yet (indeed, the cassette copy is an old library set of dubious quality).
Anyway, the audio course has been my primary objective since I began towards the end of February. Each lesson lasts about 30 minutes, so over the last four months (slightly less) I've listened to 75 hours of it (I've actually probably spent closer to 90 or 100 hours if I count relistening to some of it). This averages about 45 minutes a day, although in truth I haven't done it every day. Usually I would do two lessons a day, sometimes three, and occasionally I would skips days or even a few days at a time, depending of my other commitments and family circumstances. Perhaps if I didn't work and didn't have a family, then I might've made more progress, but then one doesn't live in order to learn languages, but rather one learns languages in order to appreciate life more.
Before I began Pimsleur I had already done most of the Michel Thomas courses, maybe about 25 hours' worth (although I relistened to a lot of it several times, so maybe spent about 75 hours doing Michel Thomas).
So, can I speak Spanish now ? Well, as we say in Scotland, 'mibbes aye, mibbes naw'. Yes, I can speak Spanish, quite a lot of Spanish in fact, and over a wide range of practical and more abstract kinds of subjects. However, I'm still a long long long long way from anything approaching fluency, whereas if you were to believe some of the claims that Pimsleur make, you might expect I should be fluent by now (of course, I haven't done the reading/writing materials, so I've missed a lot of additional vocab, which seems much more detailed in these materials, e.g. they give you words for all the different fingers on the hand).
I suppose if I take the figure of 575 hours of learning to attain proficiency, which I note someone had cited in an old post that recently reappeared here on SD, being the US Government's estimate, and if I reckon I've done about 100-150 hours, then I guess I might be 20-25% of the way there, which I have to say does feel about right. I can understand all the conversations on Pimsleur almost perfectly, and I can listen to some lessons on other courses at intermediate level and form a good gist of what they're about. Yesterday I also rewatched part of a movie in Spanish that I had watched at the start of the year. Previously I had understood very little, but yesterday I understood most of it.
However, when I attempt to converse with my tutor, I still struggle very badly at times, not so much to express myself, but more in understanding what shes saying, particularly with her European accent. What the heck's a 'thaythay' ?, I might find myself wondering. Oh, a CD !!
However, both Michel Thomas and Pimsleur are excellent courses. I did Michel Thomas first and felt like I made a lot of progress much faster in terms of understanding grammar and learning basic vocab. However, even after Michel Thomas, when I began Pimsleur and tried skipping forward to one of the conversations at the end of Level 1, I was lost. I'm no longer lost in that kind of conversation. Pimsleur has helped cement my understanding of grammar and added a little new grammar and a few new useful expressions and pieces of vocab. However, what it has done most for me is attune my ear to Spanish sounds, particularly Latin American sounds, thus enabling me to absorb and comprehend real Spanish (or at least those words that I know), perhaps not at normal native machine-gun speed, but certainly at a slightly slower yet nonetheless natural-sounding pace.
I will wish to go back and relisten to some of the lessons on Pimsleur, particularly from about hallway through Level 3. However, my next task is to listen to the audio podcasts on Notes in Spanish, which are available to download free online here:
These deal with more interesting topics than Pimsleur (there's only so many times that I wish to listen to someone talk about visiting the peluquería para cortarse el pelo) over a wide range, including current affairs, culture, cinema and music.
1 Answer
As to the 575 hours estimate by the US government. The Defense Language Institute is the primary government training facility for language training. They have three levels of basic courses consisting of 26, 36 or 47 weeks.
Having been stationed at Fort Ord and having had an interest in the DLI in Monterey I know that classes are 8 hours a day and there is 4 hours of homework per day. So that is 60 hours a week for a minimum of 26 weeks, so that is a minimum of 1560 hours for the shorter courses.
I cannot speak to the level of fluency one can expect from a basic course. But based on the principal of there being advanced courses I would say functional but not yet fluent.
Finally, I have been living in Mexico for 7.5 years in virtual immersion, say 90% living in Spanish, I am still far from fluent. But I am probably a little slow when it comes to language acquisition.
