Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

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Herschel
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Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Herschel » Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:11 am

I am wondering if the higher levels of pimsleur are worth investing time in.

As I am sure most are already aware, most pimsleur courses can be accessed practically for free using an audible account. However, there are usually only three early levels 1 - 3 available.

I am learning Italian and am enjoying it tremendously. I am about to finish pimsleur 2. I can understand the use of pimsleur, as it gets you speaking the language early on. Sadly, it feels like a chore to me, ofc not denying the value of pimsleur.

My plan is to stop with pimsleur after level 2 and continue with assimil, podcast italiano and a grammar book (la lingua italiana per stranieri, an excellent resource BTW).

Could somebody with experience completing the higher levels of pimsleur please weigh in? Other tips on how best to learn Italian are also much appreciated.

Thank you very much and best wishes!

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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Araminta » Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:07 pm

Hi Herschel. I checked out Pimsleur 5 in Spanish from my local library a few years ago. Perhaps they have a higher level of Pimsleur Italian in yours if you're curious? Spanish Pimsleur 5 featured more advanced phrases (subjunctive, for instance) spoken at a faster rate. It didn't get more exciting, unfortunately. If you have limited time, I think you'd probably get more out of other methods. Good luck!
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Deinonysus » Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:27 pm

I have completed all five levels of Pimsleur in French and German and I feel comfortably conversational in both. It is no longer prohibitively expensive to finish the course, since they have a reasonably priced subscription service and you could probably finish the last two levels in 3-4 months.

IMO Assimil is very good for training your passive skills and I wouldn't skip it, but it will not get your basic spoken skills anywhere near as good as Pimsleur would get them. FSI would probably be a decent replacement for Pimsleur because it also has tons of spoken drills, but it's even drier with very old audio and it doesn't have built-in spaced repetition so you would have to dedicate extra time to memorizing the material.

I usually do Pimsleur during my commute. Due to recent events I have been without a commute for long stretches of time so instead I do Pimsleur while doing chores. I'm not sure I would be able to sit down in a chair doing just Pimsleur without doing anything else.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby IronMike » Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:37 pm

Herschel wrote:I am wondering if the higher levels of pimsleur are worth investing time in.

As I am sure most are already aware, most pimsleur courses can be accessed practically for free using an audible account.

I'm interested in how you're getting Pimsleur "practically for free" with Audible? I've got Audible, and I still have to pay or use a credit to get a mere five lessons.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Le Baron » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:27 pm

I'll second Araminta in saying the conversational phrases in 3-5 are more complicated and faster than in 1-2 (I'm basing this upon Pimsleur German). There's still the odd moment where you're asking people to dinner and drinks, but it's more sophisticated than in 1-2.

I can't see why it wouldn't be beneficial to carry on through to the end whilst adding-in other sources. I'll just add that I have Corso Preparatorio di lingua Italiana per stranieri (1964). So only the preparatory course leading to the main course, and I don't think I could jump into it on a basis of Pimsleur 1-2. However, that's just me.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Herschel » Tue Mar 30, 2021 5:18 am

Thank you for your help!

I am a little bit surprised about the feedback. I thought the general consensus would be that pimsleur starts to fall off later. As I looked through older threads this has been the case. A common recommendation was to leave pimsleur after level 2.

I will give the higher courses a chance then...

@ iron Mike : you can buy 5 chapters and swap them for the next chapters after having finished them Works just fine, I finished pimsleur in other languages that way. Also, as I have just discovered, pimsleur courses are available via Google podcast, for Italian levels 1 - 3 are free.

Thanks again and best wishes!

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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby kanewai » Fri Apr 30, 2021 9:31 pm

My experience with Spanish, French, and Italian are all similar:

Level 3 is a bit tedious. It feels more like Level 2.5 than a full level up.

Levels 4 and 5 have more modern dialogues, with more complex and natural sounding sentences, and are very much useful. There are even, occasionally, tiny little moments of humor.

I will still listen to these levels a few weeks prior to a trip just to activate speaking skills if I'm feeling rusty.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby JohnPaul » Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:49 pm

Hi everyone,

I know it's been 2 and half years since this thread was started, and a year since the last response, and likely seven years since I lasted posted here but I was curious about what people have experienced more recently with the 3-5 levels. Sorry to resurrect a dead thread.

I recently decided to return to the Pimsleur French. I've been quite consistent with it. Returned to Level 2 Lesson 1 in mid-February and am now about to wrap up Level 3.

To be clear, this is rather beneath my level, but it's been essentially a time for me to take a walk and do something meditative. Since returning to the states from France in 2015 and especially since the start of the Pandemic my opportunities to speak with fellow francophones has been diminished to almost zero. In large part I restarted Pimsleur to feel like I was having a conversation again. I recommenced at Level 2 because it was super easy. I wanted a very slow ramp up to where I know I function with a few days of warm-up in Paris.

I own the old "Plus" level of Pimsleur that used to be available and will move on to that next. I checked out relatively new Level 4 from the library simply because I know its a popular item and didn't want to wait. I can renew a couple times.

For grins I played the first lesson of the new Level 4 and was astounded. It was so slow compared to level 17 of the old Level 3.

Where do fellow Pimsleur fans recommend I move to when I finish the "Plus" level of 10 lessons? Should I checkout the new Level 3 and go back a bit?

I own Assimil and other systems, I don't care to get into podcasts, I have family I could speak with in French but don't care to because we just get into the same tired conversations. Any thoughts? Thanks.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby Amandine » Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:45 pm

Thanks for resurrecting this thread JohnPaul because it prompted me to have a look at the Pimsleur app. It might be just what I need for the month until my DELF B1 exam, I don't need new vocab or any new complications but I do need to improve my fluidity in small talk, polite set phrases etc which is Pimsleurs bread and butter. So one a day of these for a month could be a good idea.

I was also taken by this promise about Level 4:
The French Character: Learn to think like a French person, using irony and sarcasm, making huffing sounds, showing nonchalance and disinterest, and expressing nostalgia and fatalism


If you're going to teach me "huffing sounds" - SOLD. The fatalism is just a bonus.
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Re: Pimsleur Levels 3 - 5

Postby kanewai » Tue Apr 19, 2022 4:44 am

One year on, my thoughts are generally the same but I need to modify the last bit:
kanewai wrote:I will still listen to these levels a few weeks prior to a trip just to activate speaking skills if I'm feeling rusty.
This worked once or twice with levels 4 and 5. I tried it again in August prior to a work trip to France, and only did a week or two. And I tried it again recently for an upcoming trip to Morocco ... and I was too bored to continue past a few days.

I still think the higher levels are a worthy investment, and that you can revisit them once or twice and find them useful, especially if you are out of practice. If the dialogues were more interesting, clever, amusing ... anything ... I would probably enjoy using them many more times. tant pis.
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