Any Pimsleur Discount?

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Speakeasy
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:58 pm

Xenops wrote: I confess that I have been a Pimsleur fan for years, but lately I have dropped the practice of using them. Towards the end of level 1 of French and into the first half of level 2, I was very frustrated with the lack of explanation for the past tense: "I have gone", "I have not seen her since two years ago", etc, because I never knew when to use "je suis" or "j'ai" with the past participle...

First, although it pains me to digress even further, I would not want Xenops to abandon either his/her study of the French language or his/her use of Pimsleur French over a matter such as "which auxiliary verb" should apply.

Second, while I would note that the "problem" of "which auxiliary verb" exists in several European languages, the list of the French "être" verbs is mercifully rather short: Être verbs - French Auxiliary Verbs (https://www.thoughtco.com/etre-verbs-french-auxiliary-verbs-1368843). You will notice that, for the most part, these are verbs of motion. This, of course, is not a reliable indicator, which is part of the fun of learning a language. However, the "trick" in mastering these verbs is simply to drill-drill-drill them. Did I say DRILL them?

Third, while I am a huge fan of the Pimsleur method, I find that their reliance on the student's ability to "deduce" the grammatical structure of a language from the examples has practical limits, even in the case of very approachable languages such as French. For this reason, with a view to resolving any problems of structure, I always recommend that the student keep a very basic grammar at hand; nothing fancy here, or you'll get lost in the forest, just something very, very basic.

Fourth, despite what-I-perceive as a minor handicap of the Pimsleur method (the need to "deduce" the structure of the target language), I would most definitely NOT deem this as a reason for rejecting this very fine approach to the independent learning of a foreign language. As I noted above, the solution is quite simple: consult a very basic grammar.

Fifth, I'm sorry, what we were all talking about?

EDITED: renumbering of the comments; pronouns
Last edited by Speakeasy on Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby emk » Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:16 am

Speakeasy wrote:Fourth, despite what-I-perceive as a minor handicap of the Pimsleur method (the need to "deduce" the structure of the target language), I would most definitely NOT deem this as a reason for rejecting this very fine approach to the independent learning of a foreign language. As I noted above, the solution is quite simple: consult a very basic grammar.

This might be a good time for my periodic plug of Dover's "Essential" grammar series. For example, here's their Essential French Grammar, which currently lists for US$2 if you have Amazon Prime. It's an extremely short book, with plenty of example sentences, and it covers everything you need for B1 and much of what you need for B2. Even better, it omits the more obscure details that you don't need to care about until C1. I've also used Dover's Spanish book, which was a bit weak on informal forms and which was fairly old, but once again, it presented all the basic grammar quickly in one place for a couple of bucks. I've also glanced through a couple of their other books, and they seem similar, though I have zero ability to judge.

So if you're enjoying a course like Pimsleur or Assimil, or if you're mucking around with native media early on, it's worth looking for a book of this general type and flipping through it every now and then. Not to memorize the grammar via brute force—but merely to clarify patterns you've already noticed but which you still find confusing.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby tomgosse » Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:05 am

emk wrote:
Speakeasy wrote:Fourth, despite what-I-perceive as a minor handicap of the Pimsleur method (the need to "deduce" the structure of the target language), I would most definitely NOT deem this as a reason for rejecting this very fine approach to the independent learning of a foreign language. As I noted above, the solution is quite simple: consult a very basic grammar.

This might be a good time for my periodic plug of Dover's "Essential" grammar series. For example, here's their Essential French Grammar, which currently lists for US$2 if you have Amazon Prime. It's an extremely short book, with plenty of example sentences, and it covers everything you need for B1 and much of what you need for B2. Even better, it omits the more obscure details that you don't need to care about until C1. I've also used Dover's Spanish book, which was a bit weak on informal forms and which was fairly old, but once again, it presented all the basic grammar quickly in one place for a couple of bucks. I've also glanced through a couple of their other books, and they seem similar, though I have zero ability to judge.

So if you're enjoying a course like Pimsleur or Assimil, or if you're mucking around with native media early on, it's worth looking for a book of this general type and flipping through it every now and then. Not to memorize the grammar via brute force—but merely to clarify patterns you've already noticed but which you still find confusing.

I second emk's recommendation of Essential French Grammar. It is only 145 pages long, and the size is 8.5 by 5.5 inches. This size makes is perfect to take along with me on doctor visits. I call it my "waiting room" book. Even though I have a ton of grammar books, figuratively speaking, this is the one I go to first when I need a clarification of a point of grammar.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby Seneca » Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:41 pm

emk wrote:
Speakeasy wrote:Hypothesis 2
Simon & Schuster does monitor the discussions on this forum; new member “Pimsleur” is a legitimate representant of the holder of the copyright to the Pimsleur materials. This discussion thread should be taken as a very serious lesson as to publisher’s willingness to defend its legitimate business interests. We should all familiarize ourselves with the “Forum Rules” pertaining to “Copyright violations” and heed them. This was “for real” up to, and including, the punchline.

Using my special administrator powers, I'm pretty sure that the "Pimsleur" account is actually somebody from Pimsleur's editorial offices.

Speakeasy wrote:It ended badly when someone, real or imagined, jumped in with a reminder that we’re all being watched ... all the time.

Speakeasy, you are being watched, all the time. ;-)

Pimsleur wrote:Unfortunately, the courses you purchased are unauthorized. We do not have any resellers that sell our courses at such a steep discount. These fraudulent sellers will often throw in out-of-print editions such as Spanish Plus or French Plus as additional incentives.

Unfortunately, I can confirm that fraudulent Pimsleur courses have been a problem over the years. Back on the old site, I remember having to ban a spammer who appeared to be selling illegally-produced copies of out-of-date Pimsleur courses for moderately high prices. It was extremely shady. Unfortunately, it was quite a while ago, and I don't have any of the details anymore.

As rdearman points out, we do have published forum rules on copyright. In nutshell: Please don't use this forum for distributing copyrighted materials without permission, and don't play wink-nudge games—they don't fool anybody. First of all, rdearman hates getting letters from lawyers. But also (though I can't speak specifically about Pimsleur), a lot of the best courses out there are produced by individuals (a few of them senior members here on this forum) or by pretty small businesses that are just barely hanging on. I very selfishly desire for these publishers to stay in business and keep making courses.

For those people looking for affordable courses:

I do know that many public libraries in the US carry Pimsleur courses, or can get them via interlibrary loan. The consensus of people who have tried Pimsleur on the forum is that it's a solid, audio-based drill course that will produce results (which is more than I can say for certain other expensive, well-known publishers). However, if your budget is limited and your library can't help, there are also some excellent courses from other publishers in the US$60 range. Or if you really like drills, the FSI courses are in the public domain and available for free download.

Is there a list anywhere of courses made by members? That would be a neat thread.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby Xenops » Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:41 pm

Thank you everyone for the feedback. :) As I read these replies, I remembered why I had an easier time with the Japanese course, and it was because I had already taken a year of college Japanese. When I came across grammar nuances in the first level, I could make educated guesses on the grammar ("why is it が and not は?Well, we are talking about something specific!").

With the French course, I only knew that it was the past participle I was having issues with, because when I used the Spanish course they for some reason used the past participle rather than the preterite or the imperfect (maybe so they didn't need to give grammar about the difference?). When I got to the same point in the French course, I deduced that's what it was, otherwise I would be very confused ("why are they saying 'j'ai acheter'--why are they using the infinitive? That's what it sounds like").

It seemed easiest for me to use the Pimsleur courses when I was already familiar with the grammar--for French, I should look into that little grammar book.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby prettychloe » Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:28 am

Xenops wrote:Thank you everyone for the feedback. :) As I read these replies, I remembered why I had an easier time with the Japanese course, and it was because I had already taken a year of college Japanese. When I came across grammar nuances in the first level, I could make educated guesses on the grammar ("why is it が and not は?Well, we are talking about something specific!").

With the French course, I only knew that it was the past participle I was having issues with, because when I used the Spanish course they for some reason used the past participle rather than the preterite or the imperfect (maybe so they didn't need to give grammar about the difference?). When I got to the same point in the French course, I deduced that's what it was, otherwise I would be very confused ("why are they saying 'j'ai acheter'--why are they using the infinitive? That's what it sounds like").

It seemed easiest for me to use the Pimsleur courses when I was already familiar with the grammar--for French, I should look into that little grammar book.


Yep. we are pretty much the same.. im currently using pimsleur spanish and i can say that i learn it easier since i had a few subjects on spanish back in the day..

im also planning to study japanese once i get good on these courses that i have.. is japanese pimsleur good? i heard that not all languages on pimsleur are that good.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby Xenops » Sat Apr 15, 2017 5:19 pm

prettychloe wrote:
Xenops wrote:Thank you everyone for the feedback. :) As I read these replies, I remembered why I had an easier time with the Japanese course, and it was because I had already taken a year of college Japanese. When I came across grammar nuances in the first level, I could make educated guesses on the grammar ("why is it が and not は?Well, we are talking about something specific!").

With the French course, I only knew that it was the past participle I was having issues with, because when I used the Spanish course they for some reason used the past participle rather than the preterite or the imperfect (maybe so they didn't need to give grammar about the difference?). When I got to the same point in the French course, I deduced that's what it was, otherwise I would be very confused ("why are they saying 'j'ai acheter'--why are they using the infinitive? That's what it sounds like").

It seemed easiest for me to use the Pimsleur courses when I was already familiar with the grammar--for French, I should look into that little grammar book.


Yep. we are pretty much the same.. im currently using pimsleur spanish and i can say that i learn it easier since i had a few subjects on spanish back in the day..

im also planning to study japanese once i get good on these courses that i have.. is japanese pimsleur good? i heard that not all languages on pimsleur are that good.


It's one my favorites, actually--I've tried both Korean versions, Japanese, French, Italian, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Dari and Farsi, and my favorites are Japanese, Italian, and German, with Farsi tagging along.
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Re: Any Pimsleur Discount?

Postby mcthulhu » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:38 am

My response to the original post might have been to suggest first checking the local public library system. My local library provides free access to Rosetta Stone, here called the Rosetta Stone Library Solution, for 30 languages. It used to be Byki Online, and before that it had been Rosetta Stone, I guess under an earlier contract; but free language courses of some sort have been available through the library Web site for years.

It's not the requested Pimsleur, admittedly; but it's hard to beat free and it would have been a start.
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