The Pimsleur Course (Italian) Reviews

For most of us, the most important aspect of a language is verbal communication. Not only being the most enjoyable and easiest part of Italian, it is also the most useful. With this in mind, Pimsleur have developed a course which does away with reading and writing practice and focuses solely on your conversational skills. This can not only make learning Italian more enjoyable, but also more flexible and fully portable. All lessons  come on CD and can be easily loaded onto your mp3 player. Essentially, you will no longer be tied to your computer, class or textbooks, turning that 'dead time' in the car, gym or cooking into productive English learning.

To good to be true? Researchers at Pimsleur disagree, they believe our brains instinctively recognize and understand patterns in languages. So why put so much effort into 'learning' a language when you can just let it come naturally? For example, as a child, how often did your parents have to explain  grammatical rules to you? Did you learn using vocab lists and conjugation tables? Of course not. The fact is, you just listened and spoke. This is how simple Pimsleur promise to make learning Italian!

Graduated Interval Recall Theory is an approach developed by Pimsleur in 1967 which revolutionized foreign language learning. The idea was that remembering a word requires more than simply seeing it; the given word must be committed to long term memory through repetition. According to Pimsleur, repetition intervals can have a significant effect on the memorization process. Users repeat words at gradually increasing intervals according to a specific algorithm that is scientifically proven to optimize memorization. To give users an understanding of the different ways in which a word can be used, the process is repeated in different contexts which also keeps the learning experience fresh and varied. Users experience a course of intensive learning without even knowing it! This is a far cry from the boring, repetitive memorization exercises we generally associate with language learning. With words, as the building blocks of Italian, committed to long term memory, your brain will naturally pick out patterns and rules allowing you speak Italian straight away. Similar teaching methods have become common throughout this category, but Pimsleur's is the original. Each lesson is just 30 minutes in length, ensuring that users do not lose attention and remain switched on throughout. This makes Pimsleur excellent for rapid fluency as, although it is intensive, it is constantly engaging.

It can't be denied that Pimsleur does lack many of the features that many other products in this category boast. Although obviously a trail blazer in language learning techniques, the Pimsleur course itself is far less comprehensive than many of its competitors. It's all very well to say that users can 'learn like a child' but the fact is that we are not children and our brains are very different. We are not constantly exposed to the language we are learning nor have parents who will guide us through the learning process. As adults, we also learn languages for different reasons than children who can speak perfectly but will not be able to write an essay or a business plan in Italian. Despite paying a substantial amount, although you may improve your speaking and comprehension significantly, your reading and writing skills will certainly be less developed. If this is all you need to learn Italian for then the Pimsleur approach will be the most efficient one for you. On the other hand, simply focusing on listening and speaking may leave you with a rather superficial  understanding of Italian. Practically,  if you are looking to learn Italian simply for business meetings or a holiday, the Pimsleur will be perfect. However, for an all round understanding of the language there is no escaping the fact that you will at least need to combine Pimsleur with other products.

Certain features that Pimsleur lacks include; speech recognition technology, interactive activities, multimedia activities, online communities and language games. Not only does variation make the learning process more fun and develops your all round English abilities, it also optimizes the learning process by stimulating different areas of your brain; a trick missed by Pimsleur. However, such technologies are not very portable and perhaps you're not looking for fun anyway. In such a case, users looking for a no nonsense, straight forward product to give them a grounding in understanding and speaking Italian will not be disappointed. In this way, Pimsleur is one of the most efficient learning methods out there as it focuses on, arguably, the two most important aspects of Italian and is fully portable; perfect for those of us living a hectic 24/7 lifestyle.

On the downside, we found Pimsleur's website and pricing policy very confusing. Users must sign up to a 'Rapid Fluency Purchase Program' which basically entails that users automatically receive new boxed sets at given intervals with associated payments being made from their bank account. You do have the option to cancel this program and a 30 day money back guarantee although you must pay postage costs. In the case of Pimsleur Italian, it is not really made clear what the actual long term costs of the course will be. Please keep this in mind when purchasing any Pimsleur products. Don't be immediately taken in by the low initial price advertised on Pimsleur's website, do your research and shop around. However, as one of the most efficient ways to learn Italian Pimsleur could be exactly what you need!

Check out our #1 rated site instead! Why not check out Rocket Italian, our top rated Teach Yourself Italian Guide and winner of our prestigious Gold Award! You can also check out our Top 10 Teach Yourself Italian Guides here!

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