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321
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ranked #76,195 most helpful out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Pimsleur - by far the best foreigh language teaching method
I've been trying to learn the German language for 1 1/2 years because my parent company is based in Germany and I speak/correspond with them almost daily. I've tried Hueber, Langenscheidt, PONS and Rosetta Stone courses, but even though I was averaging 2 to 4 hours a day studying the language, I found these courses tedious and never came to the point where I could actually say anything beyond "Guten Tag" on the telephone. After a week using the Pimsleur method, I was able to hold simple conversations with my German co-workers. The best thing about this course is I am able to listen to it on the way to work, while getting dressed for work, sunning at the pool, etc. I am spending far less time studying but I'm learning at a much, much faster pace. I liked this course so much that I gave away my Rosetta Stone course, which cost a great deal of money, and I purchased the complete Pimsleur method (levels 1, 2, 3 and plus). A couple of my co-workers have borrowed my Pimsleur courses. I am currently mid-way through level 2 and I'm amazed at how quickly my vocabulary and understanding of the German language has increased. I now consider the hundreds (possibly thousands) of dollars I've spent on other language courses a complete waste of money and effort. If I could give this course 100 stars, I would! In all fairness to the other courses, I have to say I did learn many words, but I could not form sentences correctly. It would take hours to compose a simple e-mail before and I could only do so if I had one of my German dictionaries beside me. Trying to speak to someone in German was impossible for me to do. I would never have believed I could learn so quickly. I am amazed. If you want to learn a foreign language - skip the other courses until after you've tried Pimsleur. I think some of the others are okay, but do the Pimsleur first. You'll understand the others much better. Other methods try to teach grammar first. But when you first learned to talk, you learned to speak it first - then you went to school to learn grammar. Summary: Get this course!
July 2006 · Books · verified purchase
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