Are you an audio learner? Use Pimsleur

Pimsleur German language

Pimsleur is one of the top selling language learning software packages available in the market today. It was developed by Dr Pimsleur himself, who is a linguist. The success story of Pimsleur is that this package is used by the US government to train its officers in foreign languages so that they can serve effectively overseas. So, why not extend it to the general public?

The approach is a simple three steps: learn, review, engage. All lessons are audio-based at 30 minutes per lesson. Up to four users are allowed with one purchase. It comes in CD or MP3 format. There are games and audio flashcards in the package. The beauty of Pimsleur is you can take your lesson with you on the go: in the car, while riding a bus or a train, or even a bicycle. No computer is required. At 30 minutes a day, you will be speaking and understanding very quickly.

50 languages are available to choose. Each lesson is based on a drill, so the words and phrases will stick in your head for a long, long time, simply because you have to repeat them over and over again. Each new word or phrase builds on or incorporates the previous one learned, so there is little chance you will forget what you learned yesterday or the week before. It is excellent for the absolute beginner in the language of your choice. It works best for the audio learner, not someone who needs to "see it to remember it".

I tried out the free Mandarin lesson online. The instructors are native speakers. That is a plus. However, Mandarin is a tonal language. A wrong tone will result in either not making any sense whatsoever, or saying something completely different. If you are tone deaf, you will never be able to differentiate between the tones. The only explanations that the instructor gives is, "Notice the rising and falling tone". Frankly, if you are an absolute beginner, you may never even have realised there were tones to begin with.

Then comes the learner's pronunciation. Since the lessons are all audio-based, there is no interaction with the software or instructor. This means there is no way to check if I am pronouncing the words correctly or not. It baffles me why the marketer's voice says, "Your pronunciation will be exceptional!" Really? How will I know?

Now comes the actual content of Lesson 1 for the Beginner. Pimsleur translates the spoken English language into Chinese as 英文. Technically, this is not correct. 文 is used for the written language. 语 is used for the spoken language. So, the question: "Do you speak English?" should be translated as "你会说英语吗？" rather than "你会说英文吗？“

Since the lessons are focused only on conversational Mandarin for China, it makes sense to use the Mainland China's translation of Mandarin, which is 普通话, instead of 华语 (South-East Asia) or 国语 (Taiwan) or 汉语 (some parts of China), depending on which part of the Chinese-speaking world you come from. For the written form, Chinese language is translated as 中文 or 华文.

No language learning package is perfect. It all depends on how you best learn a language. Some reviews said they never got past very simple phrases that did not allow them to survive as a tourist in a foreign land. Others said they were speaking in no time at all, as short as two weeks. My recommendation is to use a combination of several packages (Fluenz or Rosetta Stone or some simple child's DVD or book) to get the full exposure to every kind of learning method. This way, you will really be speaking like a native in no time at all. The goal is to learn, not criticise the instructor.

Have fun learning a new language! It will open doors to cultures you never dreamed existed!

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