How far can you get with Pimsleur French

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dklinker
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Re: How far can you get with Pimsleur French

Postby dklinker » Fri Apr 30, 2021 12:56 pm

Hi Dom 123

This doesn't address your question about Pimsleur, but given your specific goal this link to simplified Bible stories might prove useful in the future. The sentence structure is simple, there is both audio and a transcript, and the layout is very language learner friendly. If you click on "Bibliotheque" at the top of the page and then on "Livres et Brochures" in the drop-down box, you will find scores of other materials.

For anyone interested, there are also lots of materials for many of the less frequently studied languages.

https://www.jw.org/fr/bibliothèque/livr ... -la-bible/

Hope this helps.
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Re: How far can you get with Pimsleur French

Postby frenchlearner2022 » Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:43 pm

I studied Pimsleur Level 1 and Level 2. I found online notes for the classes and wrote down all spoken phrases.

Now for work, they wanted me to learn French and I went to the entry test to the university and I tested as Intermediate - studying B1/B2.
I think if you didn't know how to write and could speak you would test beginner after 2 levels.

I'm now taking university classes that are boring as hell, but it is forcing me to immerse. I'm also watching french movies and starting to understand. I'll continue with Pimsleur and I would highly, highly recommend as you'll pronounce well, you'll have useful phrases and you'll learn organically like a child, and it will motivate you to go futther.

I do expect that with learning Levels 3, 4 and 5 with addition of listening, writing and reading which I'm doing will push me easily in C - advanced category. I was not doing Pimsleur daily so I estimate it will take another 3 months, so total of 6 months.
Do not sweat about the vocabulary - it will come.
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Re: How far can you get with Pimsleur French

Postby outcast » Tue Feb 01, 2022 10:47 am

I would believe that the developers of Pimsleur make the assumption that including more vocabulary would detract the learner's attention or energy from mastering the structures of the language. They figure that anyone with half of a motivation can learn more vocabulary on their own through research, traditional full courses, and reading. Their program wants to make sure that by the end you have the confidence and eases to utilize the most common speech patterns and mechanics of the language, to which you later can swap vocabulary you learn as needed.
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Re: How far can you get with Pimsleur French

Postby Deinonysus » Tue Feb 01, 2022 12:51 pm

frenchlearner2022 wrote:I studied Pimsleur Level 1 and Level 2. I found online notes for the classes and wrote down all spoken phrases.

Now for work, they wanted me to learn French and I went to the entry test to the university and I tested as Intermediate - studying B1/B2.
I think if you didn't know how to write and could speak you would test beginner after 2 levels.

I'm now taking university classes that are boring as hell, but it is forcing me to immerse. I'm also watching french movies and starting to understand. I'll continue with Pimsleur and I would highly, highly recommend as you'll pronounce well, you'll have useful phrases and you'll learn organically like a child, and it will motivate you to go futther.

I do expect that with learning Levels 3, 4 and 5 with addition of listening, writing and reading which I'm doing will push me easily in C - advanced category. I was not doing Pimsleur daily so I estimate it will take another 3 months, so total of 6 months.
Do not sweat about the vocabulary - it will come.

Don't get your hopes up for Pimsleur to get you to a CEFR C level. I finished the French and German courses and I'm certainly not at a C level (and I did supplement with other resources for listening, reading, and writing). The material is not geared towards a CEFR test, it's geared toward business and travel situations almost exclusively.

There many courses that claim to teach you a language the way a child learns, but I don't think Pimsleur is one of them. My daughter learned to speak without anyone saying to her, "imagine that you are an American businessman sitting next to a French woman on the Metro. Do you remember how to say to her, 'excuse me, is there an ATM at the next stop?'"
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