I used michel thomas for mandarin and i have to say it was pretty good. But that's not to say it's better then ANY method, each to his own and all our minds are different and learn in different ways.
Would you recommend following up Michel Thomas' entire French course and then using Pimsleur's entire French course, or... would you say that vice-versa (as you state in the vid) would be the best approach?
Yes! I'm so glad I'm not the only one that thinks this.+1 like to you sir ;-D
I agree with your points in this video. I've been a fan of Pimsleur for ages and found Michel Spanish to be awesome. I would be interested in your opinion on what - aside from the really horrible sounding guy - differs in the methodologies for the new ones, and even Michel's Italian/German that you mentioned
I finished the Michel Thomas spanish cd but the lady who teaches the vocabulary is so boring and I don't like her!So I bought Walt Disney cartoon I thought is a great way to learn and remember.Now-lol-the english language doesn't fit the spanish subtitle and even the spanish language is different from the spanish subtitle.It is ridiculous!I`ve never thought that Disney is so not a perfectionest.Can you please recommend me something?
How many levels of Pimsleur Russian had you gone through when you did this video? I am almost halfway through Pimsleur Swedish (there's only one level available in that language, but at least it's a full set of 30 lessons) and I feel that my Swedish won't be equivalent to your Russian by the end of it. I also am awful at improvising in the new language. Any phrase longer than about 3 or 4 seconds and I have to stop and think... Anyway, thanks for the video.
@cril1001001 sorry for the late response. i did all 3 levels of russian before i did this video. funny thing is, i did this video for spanish, and ended up speaking russian. i think it's because i like russian the best.
as i've seen both in use myself. People who use pimsleur, have way better pronunciation than people who has used michel thomas. Michel thomas is nice, but it really doesn't help people pronounce things correctly; especially when there isn't a native speaker in the tape.
@Bregowald i would rather say: why pay for it when michel is dead and he wont get the money? same for pimsleur, though with pimsleur you could as well say: why pay for it when its a load of fucking shit?
I think the Michel Thomas German course is actually very good. You can't forget: as a child Thomas lived and was educated in Germany. I have little doubt he knew German much better than he knew any of the other languages he taught, certainly better than he knew Spanish or Italian. That said, I haven't used the S or F courses--you might be correct in saying they're better than the German one; I just don't know why they would be.
@profd65 i think i said that because i had already known german, being taught in school 20 years ago. i was so hung up on the s and f courses, i didn't get the same impact from german because i already spoke it. that being said, i did relisten to the german course and low andbehold, i learned things i didn't know before. the german vocabulary course is very good. i said the same about the italian course, yet i relistened to that and fell in love with it. all 4 courses that he taught were great.
hey man i'm using pimsleur french and i was wondering how to use the readings that come with it? do i actually HAVE TO READ IT? im confused on when i should read them it if i HAVE to read it.
@ttothey34 sure, if you want, but honestly, i don't even fuck with that shit. no need for it. i only wish to speak the language, and anyways, you shouldn't have problems reading french when the time comes.
@thaiguysabu really, man. I was wandering should I use pimsleur and/or thomas with my arabic. But when I saw you speaking russian like this, I decided I'm definitely gonna use both of them. Thanks for the review, it's fan'fucking'tastic.
@thaiguysabu if you want to advance your russian further, my advice is: read A LOT and watch russian movies. After 10 000 pages and 200 films you will be golden. Удачи.
Thank you for uploading this. It´s nice to see someone give a well thought-out opinion without just bashing one method. Personally I love Michel Thomas because it´s fun and teaches the conjugation of verbs, which I think is generally the hardest thing to learn in any language. I use flashcards for vocab. But Pimsleur is nice too, and the criticism it gets is ridiculous. Have you tried Assimil, by the way? I´m trying it now, and I really like it.
Start with Pimsleur, then continue with Thomas, then read out loud and write every day. Do English, Mandarin and Spanish, and you'll be able to communicate with literally billions of people.
My question is: does anyone know of an audio method (like Pimsleur or Thomas) that has been created for Eastern Syriac? I'm an Assyrian that REALLLLY wants to learn to speak it fluently first.
I want to add a note when learning Pimsleur way, Sometimes you find it difficult to understand the right pronunciation of the native speaker and you repeat the words with no understanding of the right pronunciation So my advice to you if u find difficult pronunciation, Write the word in google translation and that will help u see the spelling of the word. I mean you listen and see the word and that will make it easy to speak fluently.
Pimsleur French breaks down every word in a sentence in detail, I found it too repetitious, almost to the point of boredom. Whereas Michel Thomas French takes you straight into using phrases and sentences, for me it feels more natural, less mechanical than Pimsleur. Use whichever method works for you, but I took to the Michel Thomas French method like a duck takes to water.
I like the way you went straight to the point, mate. Sharp... Your Russian sounds pretty damn good, btw. I'm starting to learn german with the Michel Thomas method, but now after watching your explanation, I think I might download the pimsleur and only then go for Michel Thomas.
@thaiguysabu Thanks man. I actually got the Michel Thomas version already but want to take your advice and try the Pimsleur first. But after hearing a sample of both, they are quite similar.
Did you listen to the CDs more than once? I'm finding it a little tricky to have anything sink in but MT says no hw and all that in the beginning.
@victory01 i've listened to both courses at least three times now, and plan to do it again at one point, especially now that there's a 4th pimsleur level.
@zacharyfmtaylor yes, i am re-listening to level 3 right now. you develope a decent core vocabulary, once you've learned everything it teaches. it's better to repeat the course several times for maximum retention. because you say each word so many times, the words truly are stuck in your head. with the reading course you learn about 600 words. just audio, about 450. that includes the many different conjugations of verbs. i wish pimsleur would make a 4th level like they did for spanish.
I like how in the first minute he's really calm and articulate. Then he just bursts into the "Well, fuck Pimsleur. You fucking repeat shit all the time". Hahaha. I wasn't expecting that and I burst out laughing.
Good advice about listening to Pimsleur THEN Michel Thomas. I have the complete MT Italian collection but I haven't listened to it because I find that Thomas' snappiness and occasional impatience a little scary and off-putting. I can well imagine him grilling Nazis after the war.
I love Pimsleur. They have at least two great advantages (1) The use native speakers. Listening to them has improved my pronunciation and helped me understand the rhythm and cadence of the Italian language. (2) Pimsleur gets you speaking right from the first minute. I was nervous about speaking but I have conquered that fear now.
YES, I DO!!!!! just kidding. no, i really did go overboard with the f-word, but i do have a potty mouth- raised with one, too. but hey, that's why i gave the little disclaimer at the beginning. if people don't want to hear profanity, they can click themselvces away. i do promise that all my future videos will not have so many"fucks" in them, but then again, i like cussing, at the appropriate moments. thanks for watching.
thanks for uploading thaiguy, this was a very candid commentary of the learning methods...i've flirted with a few different languages and different language programs and I would definitely say michel thomas and pimsleur are at the top because they emphasize using real life words and phrases instead of bogging people down with drills and rote memorization and shit like that
i completely agree with everything this guy says..i listened to michel first and now im nearing the end of pimsleur lvl 2 spanish. probably would've been better the other way round..although it's been helpful in a way because somethings i couldn't get my head around,or remember with michel, pimsleur has set it straight. this guy is also right about how words come to your head much faster after listening to pimsleur. why? i have no idea but they do.
@daisicooper2 the pimsleur course is 90 lessons, 30 min. each, totaling 45 hrs.. one lessons a day, done in 90 days, 2 day a day, 45 days, and so on....using pimsleur and michel thomas will get you to a proficient speaking level, but if it's fluency you want, that takes years of immersion. in a nutshell, you can reach a functioning survival level in as early as 2 days, but if you listen to the courses over and over again, you'll have an active core vocabulary of a solid 600 words.
@rammsteingod666 love the name. rammstein is one of my favorite bands. yeah, i would listen to the thomas courses several times over and over again. lot's of good information there. and do not forget the vocabulary course, or the language builder. listen to those as much as possible. with both the thomas and pimsleur courses, you should be able to build up a very good proficiency. good luck
@thaiguysabu Hi again. Would you use the Michel Thomas Foundation Course Review CDs to review the foundation course, or would you actually listen to the whole course repeatedly? Thank you.
PS. I have finally finished the foundation course!
I just burst out laughing when I heard your comment about the 4th level of Pimsleur being useless (about publisher terminology)...I had been loudly grumbling the same thing when I got there. I bogged down and quit out of it, and just went back and reviewed levels 2 and 3 again instead. I should probably contact Pimsleur and complain about how useless Level 4 is. Thanks for confirming. By the way, your assessment seems to be right on regarding Pimsleur vs. Michel Thomas.
I want to add a very important point. If you want to learn numbers, time, days of the week fluently in a very simple way, you have to use pimsleur method but if you want to learn structures of sentences and grammar with no pains which is very important as well take michel thomas course. So,in my opinion they complete each other
In my opinion pimsleur and michel thomas complete each other. you listen to pimsleur and speak like a native speaker but it doesn't concentrate on grammar. Michel thomas concentrates on the orgin of vocab and structure but unfortunately you don't speak like a native speaker. I finished french and italian {pimsleur and michel thomas} with all levels and now I am learning spanish {I finished 30 lessons pimsleur } and foundation and advanced spanish michel thomas
@avodarsh ..thank you.I am working on Michel thomas spanish and german,and I love how he explains the grammar,but the vocabulary is missing/the lady who does the voc.builder is horrible-was his ex-student/so I will go for the pimsleur.
@daisicooper2 ....hello! thanks for interacting with me. I agree with u that michel thomas vocabulary is made by his ex-student but don't forget that this is the only section spoken by the native speakers which is very important. as long as u know the concept of learning u can apply it. Let me tell u another thing, michel thomas vocabulary makes a shock for me first because michel thomas isn't in it but also it makes a challenge to me because they speak too fast like the native speaker. Try it.
I fully endorse what this guy is saying. I completed all 90 Pimsleur lessons in French German and Italian and they provided a very solid entry into each language (supplemented by Google translate and Forvo.com of course), and Michel Thomas was a terrific follow up to each of those. Pimsleur is a lot more formalized in its speech, making it a better precursor to learning the slurred "native-speaker" entonations that MT teaches you. And how we ALL love to hate the students on MT's tapes! GRRR!
i agree. I've finished both michel thomas courses and am now using pimsleur for spanish. i also bought an assimil spanish with ease book which i should recieve soon. I hope to have a decent grasp of the language in 6 months...the moral of the story here is MIX AND MATCH. Each product has it's pros and cons but use all and you get the full benefit. I have only been learning for a few months and can seem to have a pretty good convo in spanish without too much problem
Well I loved Michel Thomas beginner Spanish course.But something ruined everything.Rose Lee Hayden-who does the vocabulary did a very bad job.Iam working on her second cd,and still cannot talk to my boyfriend about my plans for the weekend or my feelings.This woman teaches words like politico and maybe "sophisticated"sentences,but cant use it in real life.Please heeeelp!!!What to do now?
Good video, good advice. Except, my advice for learning Spanish would be, do the Michel Thomas Spanish Foundation course first. It's only 8 1-hour CD's. This gives you a very good grounding in the basics of the language. Then do Pimsleur levels 1 to 3. Each level is made up of thirty 30-minute units = 45 hours. This will reinforce the structure of the language that you learned with Michel Thomas but also provides you with a lot of vocabulary. After that, do the Michel Thomas Advanced course.
Pimsleur is great. It's really good for pronunciation and developing and ear. For me the BIG drawback with Pimsleur is boredom. It's far less boring than my high school class but still boring. Boring but effective. I haven't tried the Thomas yet. I 'm presently trying to learn Italian. I burned through the first 16 lessons of Pimsleur's Italian and I'll finish all the way up to 90 but I'll take a detour and try the Thomas. Nice video. Thanks.
@vwsuperbeetle72 the rocket series seems to be awesome. i have checked out the chinese course but never went through with buying it. i'm just lazy, but for a hundred bucks, it beats the shit out of rosetta stone. you'll get so much more outta rocket. plus, rocket has the conversations that really help get your spontaneous conversation skills going. good luck in your studying.
Hi John...U mentioned using both Pimsler and MT would be best...Did u mean finish Pimsleur first and then start MT separately, or do both simultaneously? Any advice?
@AnanyaVilas i suggested that you listen to pimsleur first, then to the m.t. method, but honestly, it really doesn't matter. if you're the type of person that feels learning a different language is too hard, then listening to the m.t. method would be best, because it really gets you hyped up about learning , since it's so easy. if you're in no hurry, listen to the pimsleur first. soon, pimsleur will be coming out with a 4th level for their spanish course. good luck in your studying.
Hi John...U mentioned using both Pimsler and MT would be best...Did u mean finish Pimsleur first and then start MT separately, or do both simultaneously? Any advice?
@to0freefor well, i would have to say my spanish is acceptable, but it's not perfect. i try to beef up my vocab when i work around mexicans. i try real hard to make my point as well as i can, but there's still a lot i don't know. i'm more accepted around my mexican workers a lot more than anyone else, simply because i make the effort to speak their language.
So true. The presenter in Michel Thomas Japanese Foundation was awful. I had a really hard time maintaining concentration because I found myself getting annoyed at her accent. And then they came out with Japanese Advanced and I almost had a stroke when I heard the new presenter who is undoubtedly the only person in the world who could have annoyed me more than the first lady.
I agree, those students suck big time. Pimsleur has gotta be better in that respect. I also agree that the best way to do the courses is Pimsleur first, then Thomas.
But why oh why do they have to have those students? Listening to them again and again, I just wanna blow my brains out after a half hour or so. Still, you gotta be persistent if you wanna learn a language. I've done several of the Thomas and Pimsleur courses and I got a lot out of them.
I'm at my first year of spanish-class at school (germany) and what can I say... I don't know if it is the teachers fault or just the didactic method they use for teaching languages, but even after 3 months I can not really form any coherent sentence at all. It is just learning vocabulary - memorizing shit. I just started using Pimsleur's Spanish and plan on using Michel Thomas afterwards. Will see what happens over the next weeks. Thanks for your video, bro. Good advice, I guess...
I am going to try Pimsleur first for German, then I will move onto Michel Thomas. Thank you for your recommendations, after I heard your Russian accent in the language I could undoubtely know that you are correct.
One word on those other Michel Thomas Method courses not by the man himself...the Dutch one is reputed to be even better than the French-Spanish ones. I agree in general that the non-MT MT Method courses are worse than the MT MT courses, but Dutch seems to be an exception. Having said that, I haven't tried it. Maybe the reason lies in the language itself, which is merry to learn. If you have a good English vocabulary, learning Dutch is long string of nice surprises.
So what phase of the Pimsleur program should I begin with, if I already have perfect conjugation recall and understand Wikipedia but still can't say 'The cat sat on the mat'.
Thanks for the thoughtful review. I've never tried Pimsleur, and only tried Michel Thomas Spanish after having used text-based approach. Somehow MT injected the grammar into my skull, with no effort on my part. And now I feel that basically I'm fluent in Spanish but with a vocabulary of only several words! It's a shame Thomas doesn't repeat the same magic and furnish me with vocabulary too. There is a vocabulary follow-on course, but it spends something like 3 hours covering Latinate words.
Great video! I would really like you to make another one in which you tell us a little bit about your experience using only audio programs since there's almost nothing on youtube on the subject. How long did it take you? at what point of fluency did you end up? etc.
@Jate0000 well, audio programs ARE all i use, since i've never paid for any of them. fluency is only obtained through immersion, but with the combination of the 2 courses i talked about, you can definitely achieve a high proficiency. those that would only listen to one lesson a day are obviously NOT true language learning freaks. i feel that i'm not satisfied until i've covered at least 8 lessons for the day, cause you will get tired. but doing it the way i do, you learn within only a week.
@Jate0000 Sorry, I don't want to be rude to thaiguysabu but I want to jump into your conversation and say yes, absolutely, you can read in Spanish like you'd been doing it all your life after Michel Thomas. I've tried Pimsleur and found it boring and a turn off but with Michel Thomas Spanish I learned to speak the language so fast I was shocked. I learned nothing in 3 years of French at school but was speaking fluent Spanish in days with MT and out of interest tried reading and it was easy.
Thank you! I'm currently on the first level of Pimsleur French. But I had never heard of Michel Thomas. I'm going to check that out after finishing all three levels of Pimsleur. I'm wondering. Are you now fluent or close to fluent in any of your target languages?
Is it possible for me to become fluent in French in 1 year? I do 1 Pimsleur French course everyday. My dad speaks French so he speaks to me a lot in French and gives me French lessons. What would you say would be an achievable time?
I would have liked the Michel Thomas French I program a lot more if it hadn't been for the "students" he is teaching on the audio. One of the students was so darn dense that I wanted to reach through the CD player and strangle them. On the other hand, I used a M.T. intermediate method for German and it didn't have the students. Much better!
I really dig Pimsleur and it was my gateway drug to going down the path of becoming functional in German, Spanish and French.
@arclight2012 trust me, you want those retarded students. if you are getting mad at them for getting it wrong, then you are obviously getting it right. i know. i've listened to every m.t. course out there, and there's always a stupid retard who just can't get anything right. the male student in the spanish course, the female in the french course, the male in the arabic course, etc.................
@arclight2012 I know what you mean. I'm listening to it right now and the female (who I think is Ann Curry) doesn't seem to be paying attention. The British man was very attentive though. Whenever Michel asked Ann something, he had to remind her.
@arclight2012 I'm pretty sure. I used to watch The Today Show a lot and her voice was pretty recognizable. Though I'm not 100% because nothing came up on Google with "Michel Thomas Ann Curry". I wish I new who the British guy was cause he seemed cool.
I am doing all 90 Lessons Pimsleur Spanish. After about what Lesson should I start watching Telemundo and Univision to help? I am at lesson 20 and know its probably a too soon.
@gregxiu Start watching ASAP, even if you don't know what anyone is saying. Immerse yourself in the environment of the language and you'll start recognizing vocabulary and phrases as you go. But do focus mostly on the active process of going through your Pimselur lessons.
me gustó mucho tu video. quede impresionado con el ruso que hablas... yo soy un apasionado de los idiomas extranjeros y le digo que los mejores cursos de idiomas que conozco efectivamente son: pimsleur, mtm y rosetta stone me parecen la crema y nata del aprendizaje de idiomas... bueno, gracias por darnos tu punto de vista. good luck
it doesn't matter what order that you decide to use. you can do m.t. first, then pimsleur. it really doesn't matter. just as long as you actually listen to both. the m.t. course explains a lot, but there are other phrases used in the pimsleur course that aren't in the m.t. course. you may choose not to use them, but you need to understand them. sometimes, we have to go over the stuff over and over again to retain everything. there's absolutely no shame in that. we're only human.
Here is my advice to you. Try to get both the Pimsleur method and the Michel Thomas method for free from a torrent website. If you can't or don't want to download the programs illegally. There is still another way. See if your library has the Pimsleur lessons, they just might. If you can get your hands on a Pimsleur, do the level 1 (beginners) for Spanish, and either level 2 (beginner-intermediate) or level 3 (intermediate) for your German. Hopefully I helped a bit...
I've been using Michael Thomas Spanish and it's totally awesome. I actually used the Harrap's french adaptation of it. I haven't used Pimsleur, I might check into that, but it may be a bit late to start with Pimsleur.
I need good resources to learn Mandarin though, if you have any suggestions.
@philinmotion it's never too late to start with pimsleur. you can not obtain fluency from just one program. no program will give you that. especially not rosetta stone. i loved the m.t. spanish course, and have listened to it several times, but it isn't perfect. there are still a lot of things that are not explained, but that's alright. for mandarin, the pimsleur course is awesome. there are over 460 words and phrases to learn from just listening. a very good beginning core vocabulary indeed.
@thaiguysabu thank you for your response. I have actually been using a lot of different ressources for learning spanish, though I found the michael thomas method very efficient for learning the foundation and learning to build sentences.
Nice to hear that Pimsleur Mandarin would be a good start for learning Mandarin.
@philinmotion don't rule out pimsleur spanish, and if you can find it in a torrent, look for learning spanish like crazy. lot's of vocabulary. and effortlessly learned.
isn't pimsleur more expensive than stone ? im very close to paying the 700$ on pimsleur, but i just found a torrent and im praying to god its the whole thing o_0 (or its a 1.32 GB virus :( )
@gatsu6969 more or less, stone is more than pimsleur, especially on amazon.com. sometimes they are the same price. all in all, if you are actually paying for it, you are a sucker. if you are torrenting it, make sure that it is a winrar file, which has been securely packed, plus a winrar file does send up flags to assholes keeping watch for people downloading copyrighted material. i personally use vuze, but i used to use emule. i've downloaded every pimsleur course because of programs like those.
i fuckin agree whit this guy .. pimsleur is the shit starting a new language .. if dont agree then try it on a language you want to learn .. Downloaded french courses and learned 40% of it in 4 months . despite im spanish native speaker pimsleur helped on the accents .. looking forward on german now . 5 stars thaiguysabu
pimsleur is repetition repetition repetition, it takes a snowball effect, i like that, but its the combination of things, use all resources you can, engulf yourself in the language, pimsleur, rosetta stone, michel thomas, tell me more, movies, music, use it all
Beginners, you need to listen to Michel Thomas, he breaks down the structure of spanish. You can learn vocabulary later, what good does learning vocabulary 1st when you can't understand the context of the conversation
Yeah, MTM rocks. Plus the guy smuggled Jews to safety, escaped a concentration camp, fought with the French resistance, and escaped the Butcher of Lyon all before he was 30. I'd listen to anything he had to teach!
I am English and I have used Pimsleur to about track 15 for Modern Greek and I have used Michel Thomas Method for French to track 5. Personally I have found the MTM better as it is more enjoyable. It is good to hear him teaching other people, to hear their mistakes, etc. With Pimsleur Modern Greek I found that I learnt quite a lot to start with, but then it became harder and harder to keep going as not only did I find it difficult to understand the grammar, but it is quite dull.
@ADMusker i understand the dullness. the worse are tracks 11 through 20 in all the pimsleur courses, since they drill the fuck out of all the numbers. still, it has its benefits. from the comprehensive courses, you can easily obtain a 450 word vocabulary, core and strategically placed in your head, or, at least in mine. i loved the french course. both students are idiots in this one, especially the female.
@thaiguysabu Ha ha. Thanks for the reply and sorry for my slow one. I have decided to choose one language and to stick with it until a high degree of fluency, as at the moment I keep changing. So, I have been using the MTM and the Pimsleur Spanish courses for a while now. With this particular language, I find the Pimsleur course a lot better, mainly because the male student on the MTM Spanish course is infuriatingly stupid; he ruins it for me and I cannot listen to it.
@thaiguysabu course to be a little dull, but as you said in the video, it is also the one that allows sentences to immediately spring into my mind in conversation (with my Spanish house mate). I shall take your advice and push passed the 11-20 lessons and then hopefully it will become more enjoyable. Hopefully Pimsleur will drill this into me and the Spanish course that I am enrolling on will give me more depth as I will actually be studing the language.
@thaiguysabu Apologies for the third message (stupid character limits). The male student on the MTM French seemed like a nice guy and picked the language up at a reasonable pace. The lady seemed a lot slower and quite stupid, but that seemed to encourage me when I was struggling. However, in the MTM Spanish course, the male student is not likeable in any way. I guess MTM only works for me depending on the instructor and the students.
not sure if I commented here before but I love Michel Thomas and his method of teaching. I dont know what the other person is talking about but its not intimidating, if anything my mind is tickled (lol) whenever I listen to his tracks, it's just so full of knowledge and makes me think. Pimsleur just makes me repeat like a parrot (if anything its the opposite of MT's method) but it is good though to learn.. I just get SO BORED listening lol @_@
I used michel thomas for mandarin and i have to say it was pretty good. But that's not to say it's better then ANY method, each to his own and all our minds are different and learn in different ways.
misterdragonboy 6 hours ago
Would you recommend following up Michel Thomas' entire French course and then using Pimsleur's entire French course, or... would you say that vice-versa (as you state in the vid) would be the best approach?
cference 1 week ago
"..This really horrible sounding guy" - (re Mandarin course)
Yes! I'm so glad I'm not the only one that thinks this.+1 like to you sir ;-D
I agree with your points in this video. I've been a fan of Pimsleur for ages and found Michel Spanish to be awesome. I would be interested in your opinion on what - aside from the really horrible sounding guy - differs in the methodologies for the new ones, and even Michel's Italian/German that you mentioned
Supremerob20 2 weeks ago
I finished the Michel Thomas spanish cd but the lady who teaches the vocabulary is so boring and I don't like her!So I bought Walt Disney cartoon I thought is a great way to learn and remember.Now-lol-the english language doesn't fit the spanish subtitle and even the spanish language is different from the spanish subtitle.It is ridiculous!I`ve never thought that Disney is so not a perfectionest.Can you please recommend me something?
daisicooper2 3 weeks ago
Comment removed
daisicooper2 3 weeks ago
I'm buying both. I have Rosetta Stone for 2 years and didn't learn a thing lucky my Ex bought it not me lol. Great review
popdee954 1 month ago
why the pointless swearing?
dariuspitney1 1 month ago
you just convinced me to download pimsleur!! Great job with the Russian!
LovvaBoi 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Warning! Everyone, Do not buy anything from pimsleur approach. They are scam artists! Do google research on Pimsleur Approach Scam.
DevilButtKicker 1 month ago
How many levels of Pimsleur Russian had you gone through when you did this video? I am almost halfway through Pimsleur Swedish (there's only one level available in that language, but at least it's a full set of 30 lessons) and I feel that my Swedish won't be equivalent to your Russian by the end of it. I also am awful at improvising in the new language. Any phrase longer than about 3 or 4 seconds and I have to stop and think... Anyway, thanks for the video.
cril1001001 1 month ago
@cril1001001 sorry for the late response. i did all 3 levels of russian before i did this video. funny thing is, i did this video for spanish, and ended up speaking russian. i think it's because i like russian the best.
thaiguysabu 1 month ago
Fan-fucking-tastic review!
RedRanger999 1 month ago
as i've seen both in use myself. People who use pimsleur, have way better pronunciation than people who has used michel thomas. Michel thomas is nice, but it really doesn't help people pronounce things correctly; especially when there isn't a native speaker in the tape.
ephriami 2 months ago
@ephriami i agree. his french course was a bit off, and so was his german.
thaiguysabu 2 months ago
Comment removed
Guitarstratdude 2 months ago
@Guitarstratdude why pull the comment?
thaiguysabu 2 months ago
hahaha
MrZebraUTTERS 2 months ago
Second everything (without foul language ;-) ) about Pimsleur. Absolutely superb to everything on the market.
uzhasniy 2 months ago
this guy SWEARS a lot
Bregowald 3 months ago
@Bregowald god fucking bless america!
thaiguysabu 3 months ago
@thaiguysabu my bad. i meant canada. o canada.......
thaiguysabu 3 months ago 3
@thaiguysabu To be honest If there were no swear words it would be hard to watch the video....
soltbolz 2 months ago
@soltbolz of course, cause i'm a boring son of a bitch. but thanks anyways for trying....
thaiguysabu 2 months ago
By the way, everyone: you can get Pimsleur and MIchel Thomas for free on isohunt and thepiratebay websites. I downloaded all of them.
Why pay for it when u can get it for free?
Bregowald 3 months ago
@Bregowald i would rather say: why pay for it when michel is dead and he wont get the money? same for pimsleur, though with pimsleur you could as well say: why pay for it when its a load of fucking shit?
olegsokolov 2 months ago
I think the Michel Thomas German course is actually very good. You can't forget: as a child Thomas lived and was educated in Germany. I have little doubt he knew German much better than he knew any of the other languages he taught, certainly better than he knew Spanish or Italian. That said, I haven't used the S or F courses--you might be correct in saying they're better than the German one; I just don't know why they would be.
profd65 3 months ago
@profd65 i think i said that because i had already known german, being taught in school 20 years ago. i was so hung up on the s and f courses, i didn't get the same impact from german because i already spoke it. that being said, i did relisten to the german course and low andbehold, i learned things i didn't know before. the german vocabulary course is very good. i said the same about the italian course, yet i relistened to that and fell in love with it. all 4 courses that he taught were great.
thaiguysabu 3 months ago
hey man i'm using pimsleur french and i was wondering how to use the readings that come with it? do i actually HAVE TO READ IT? im confused on when i should read them it if i HAVE to read it.
ttothey34 3 months ago
@ttothey34 sure, if you want, but honestly, i don't even fuck with that shit. no need for it. i only wish to speak the language, and anyways, you shouldn't have problems reading french when the time comes.
thaiguysabu 3 months ago
thanks...
julesrichard 3 months ago
thanks i am going to try pimsleur
DIONNA8160 3 months ago
You russian is something. I'm telling it as russian native speaker.
borovinskix 4 months ago
@borovinskix spaceeba, but it still needs a little work. i just never study, or, i just don't study enough.
thaiguysabu 4 months ago
@thaiguysabu really, man. I was wandering should I use pimsleur and/or thomas with my arabic. But when I saw you speaking russian like this, I decided I'm definitely gonna use both of them. Thanks for the review, it's fan'fucking'tastic.
borovinskix 4 months ago
@borovinskix well thank you very fucking much! spaceeba za koplement. tavareesch.
thaiguysabu 4 months ago
@thaiguysabu if you want to advance your russian further, my advice is: read A LOT and watch russian movies. After 10 000 pages and 200 films you will be golden. Удачи.
borovinskix 4 months ago
Thank you for uploading this. It´s nice to see someone give a well thought-out opinion without just bashing one method. Personally I love Michel Thomas because it´s fun and teaches the conjugation of verbs, which I think is generally the hardest thing to learn in any language. I use flashcards for vocab. But Pimsleur is nice too, and the criticism it gets is ridiculous. Have you tried Assimil, by the way? I´m trying it now, and I really like it.
GreyFenn 4 months ago
Start with Pimsleur, then continue with Thomas, then read out loud and write every day. Do English, Mandarin and Spanish, and you'll be able to communicate with literally billions of people.
My question is: does anyone know of an audio method (like Pimsleur or Thomas) that has been created for Eastern Syriac? I'm an Assyrian that REALLLLY wants to learn to speak it fluently first.
Ou8y2k2 4 months ago
@Ou8y2k2 there's no such thing as "learn to speak it fluently first".
thaiguysabu 4 months ago
@thaiguysabu Fine, I'd like to learn to speak it as well as my relatives that don't know how to read it. lol
Ou8y2k2 4 months ago
I want to add a note when learning Pimsleur way, Sometimes you find it difficult to understand the right pronunciation of the native speaker and you repeat the words with no understanding of the right pronunciation So my advice to you if u find difficult pronunciation, Write the word in google translation and that will help u see the spelling of the word. I mean you listen and see the word and that will make it easy to speak fluently.
avodarsh 5 months ago 2
Pimsleur French breaks down every word in a sentence in detail, I found it too repetitious, almost to the point of boredom. Whereas Michel Thomas French takes you straight into using phrases and sentences, for me it feels more natural, less mechanical than Pimsleur. Use whichever method works for you, but I took to the Michel Thomas French method like a duck takes to water.
kevzbox215 5 months ago
I like the way you went straight to the point, mate. Sharp... Your Russian sounds pretty damn good, btw. I'm starting to learn german with the Michel Thomas method, but now after watching your explanation, I think I might download the pimsleur and only then go for Michel Thomas.
songsfromeverywhere 5 months ago
lol at MT's dumb french student. I'm curious BTW on what they look like. Anyone has a pic?
bryce13larkin 5 months ago
@EternallyDark good luck. 'glad you liked the cursing. somebody has to do it.
thaiguysabu 5 months ago
Straightforward, we need more videos on YouTube like this man.
DcTrini 5 months ago 13
@DcTrini thank you very much.
thaiguysabu 5 months ago
cool story, bro. will look for the pimsleur method on german
lecarlosier 5 months ago
Pimsleur is definitely the best beginning to any language study. Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I,II,&III saved this white boy's ass in college.
IASOU2005 6 months ago
Where did you download the Pimsleur Spanish??
victory01 6 months ago
@victory01 well it certainly wasn't a consented download from pimsleur. just get yourself a torrent program like vuze, and search and download.
thaiguysabu 6 months ago
@thaiguysabu Thanks man. I actually got the Michel Thomas version already but want to take your advice and try the Pimsleur first. But after hearing a sample of both, they are quite similar.
Did you listen to the CDs more than once? I'm finding it a little tricky to have anything sink in but MT says no hw and all that in the beginning.
victory01 6 months ago
@victory01 i've listened to both courses at least three times now, and plan to do it again at one point, especially now that there's a 4th pimsleur level.
thaiguysabu 6 months ago
How much of the Russian pimsleur did you listen to? I'd like to learn russian and am not sure what I'll need to buy. did you do all three levels?
zacharyfmtaylor 6 months ago
@zacharyfmtaylor yes, i am re-listening to level 3 right now. you develope a decent core vocabulary, once you've learned everything it teaches. it's better to repeat the course several times for maximum retention. because you say each word so many times, the words truly are stuck in your head. with the reading course you learn about 600 words. just audio, about 450. that includes the many different conjugations of verbs. i wish pimsleur would make a 4th level like they did for spanish.
thaiguysabu 6 months ago
I like how in the first minute he's really calm and articulate. Then he just bursts into the "Well, fuck Pimsleur. You fucking repeat shit all the time". Hahaha. I wasn't expecting that and I burst out laughing.
zacharyfmtaylor 6 months ago
Good advice about listening to Pimsleur THEN Michel Thomas. I have the complete MT Italian collection but I haven't listened to it because I find that Thomas' snappiness and occasional impatience a little scary and off-putting. I can well imagine him grilling Nazis after the war.
MissLadyboy007 7 months ago
I love Pimsleur. They have at least two great advantages (1) The use native speakers. Listening to them has improved my pronunciation and helped me understand the rhythm and cadence of the Italian language. (2) Pimsleur gets you speaking right from the first minute. I was nervous about speaking but I have conquered that fear now.
MissLadyboy007 7 months ago
In short, there is but a one way to skin a cat ....
Xieerqi 8 months ago
@Xieerqi well put.
thaiguysabu 8 months ago
YES, I DO!!!!! just kidding. no, i really did go overboard with the f-word, but i do have a potty mouth- raised with one, too. but hey, that's why i gave the little disclaimer at the beginning. if people don't want to hear profanity, they can click themselvces away. i do promise that all my future videos will not have so many"fucks" in them, but then again, i like cussing, at the appropriate moments. thanks for watching.
thaiguysabu 8 months ago
just one thing dude, do you have to use so many cuss words
JohnRed9 8 months ago
thanks for uploading thaiguy, this was a very candid commentary of the learning methods...i've flirted with a few different languages and different language programs and I would definitely say michel thomas and pimsleur are at the top because they emphasize using real life words and phrases instead of bogging people down with drills and rote memorization and shit like that
imwmv 8 months ago
i completely agree with everything this guy says..i listened to michel first and now im nearing the end of pimsleur lvl 2 spanish. probably would've been better the other way round..although it's been helpful in a way because somethings i couldn't get my head around,or remember with michel, pimsleur has set it straight. this guy is also right about how words come to your head much faster after listening to pimsleur. why? i have no idea but they do.
bargainboymakem1 8 months ago
Dude your fantastic and inspiring! I'm getting out my Pimsleur and starting over.
NelsonStJames 9 months ago
Thanks for the advice I will now try to use both methods to learn what I need to learn thank you
johnfm1061 9 months ago
Bastard...you made me wanna learn Russian now lololol
NaturalSin22 9 months ago
Hey...i know that more language you speak easier to learn a new,but could u please tell me how long it takes for you now to learn a new language?
daisicooper2 9 months ago
@daisicooper2 the pimsleur course is 90 lessons, 30 min. each, totaling 45 hrs.. one lessons a day, done in 90 days, 2 day a day, 45 days, and so on....using pimsleur and michel thomas will get you to a proficient speaking level, but if it's fluency you want, that takes years of immersion. in a nutshell, you can reach a functioning survival level in as early as 2 days, but if you listen to the courses over and over again, you'll have an active core vocabulary of a solid 600 words.
thaiguysabu 9 months ago
@rammsteingod666 love the name. rammstein is one of my favorite bands. yeah, i would listen to the thomas courses several times over and over again. lot's of good information there. and do not forget the vocabulary course, or the language builder. listen to those as much as possible. with both the thomas and pimsleur courses, you should be able to build up a very good proficiency. good luck
thaiguysabu 9 months ago
@thaiguysabu Hi again. Would you use the Michel Thomas Foundation Course Review CDs to review the foundation course, or would you actually listen to the whole course repeatedly? Thank you.
PS. I have finally finished the foundation course!
ADMusker 8 months ago
I just burst out laughing when I heard your comment about the 4th level of Pimsleur being useless (about publisher terminology)...I had been loudly grumbling the same thing when I got there. I bogged down and quit out of it, and just went back and reviewed levels 2 and 3 again instead. I should probably contact Pimsleur and complain about how useless Level 4 is. Thanks for confirming. By the way, your assessment seems to be right on regarding Pimsleur vs. Michel Thomas.
baconjo 9 months ago
Your Russian sounds awesome. Great video, I'm going to follow your suggestion when learning French.
AtheistHaircut 9 months ago
I want to add a very important point. If you want to learn numbers, time, days of the week fluently in a very simple way, you have to use pimsleur method but if you want to learn structures of sentences and grammar with no pains which is very important as well take michel thomas course. So,in my opinion they complete each other
avodarsh 9 months ago
In my opinion pimsleur and michel thomas complete each other. you listen to pimsleur and speak like a native speaker but it doesn't concentrate on grammar. Michel thomas concentrates on the orgin of vocab and structure but unfortunately you don't speak like a native speaker. I finished french and italian {pimsleur and michel thomas} with all levels and now I am learning spanish {I finished 30 lessons pimsleur } and foundation and advanced spanish michel thomas
avodarsh 10 months ago
@avodarsh ..thank you.I am working on Michel thomas spanish and german,and I love how he explains the grammar,but the vocabulary is missing/the lady who does the voc.builder is horrible-was his ex-student/so I will go for the pimsleur.
daisicooper2 8 months ago
@daisicooper2 ....hello! thanks for interacting with me. I agree with u that michel thomas vocabulary is made by his ex-student but don't forget that this is the only section spoken by the native speakers which is very important. as long as u know the concept of learning u can apply it. Let me tell u another thing, michel thomas vocabulary makes a shock for me first because michel thomas isn't in it but also it makes a challenge to me because they speak too fast like the native speaker. Try it.
avodarsh 5 months ago
I fully endorse what this guy is saying. I completed all 90 Pimsleur lessons in French German and Italian and they provided a very solid entry into each language (supplemented by Google translate and Forvo.com of course), and Michel Thomas was a terrific follow up to each of those. Pimsleur is a lot more formalized in its speech, making it a better precursor to learning the slurred "native-speaker" entonations that MT teaches you. And how we ALL love to hate the students on MT's tapes! GRRR!
username14251 10 months ago
Привет Джон! Ты действительно хорошо звучишь по-русски) Я рад за тебя. Я вот изучаю английский и твой коментарий мне тоже полезный.
lovbos 10 months ago
LMAO I feel like im at a party having a conversation. Now you are getting too close and im regretting asking you anything.
crabbit87 11 months ago
i agree. I've finished both michel thomas courses and am now using pimsleur for spanish. i also bought an assimil spanish with ease book which i should recieve soon. I hope to have a decent grasp of the language in 6 months...the moral of the story here is MIX AND MATCH. Each product has it's pros and cons but use all and you get the full benefit. I have only been learning for a few months and can seem to have a pretty good convo in spanish without too much problem
Slayer100 11 months ago
i love your potty mouth..kept everything very interesting and REAL :D
SchwarzerMannn 11 months ago
Well I loved Michel Thomas beginner Spanish course.But something ruined everything.Rose Lee Hayden-who does the vocabulary did a very bad job.Iam working on her second cd,and still cannot talk to my boyfriend about my plans for the weekend or my feelings.This woman teaches words like politico and maybe "sophisticated"sentences,but cant use it in real life.Please heeeelp!!!What to do now?
daisicooper2 1 year ago
@daisicooper2 Howabout this:
Estoy planeando... a tomarme una vacación, aprender (un otra idioma), ser un villano y robar a un banco :p
Quiero ir... (see below)
Tengo ganas de... ir (a la playa, a los montañas, a un otra pueblo), descansar, quedarme en las casa, nadar (en el mar, un laguna etc.)
Me siento... (triste, feliz, enojado, aburrido)
Estoy... cansado/lleno de vida/muy despierto
That will get you started!
flaze3 11 months ago
Good video, good advice. Except, my advice for learning Spanish would be, do the Michel Thomas Spanish Foundation course first. It's only 8 1-hour CD's. This gives you a very good grounding in the basics of the language. Then do Pimsleur levels 1 to 3. Each level is made up of thirty 30-minute units = 45 hours. This will reinforce the structure of the language that you learned with Michel Thomas but also provides you with a lot of vocabulary. After that, do the Michel Thomas Advanced course.
BazzaSaysHi 1 year ago
YOU'RE FUCKKIKKINGG AWESOME O_o
RandomArrictine 1 year ago
Pimsleur is great. It's really good for pronunciation and developing and ear. For me the BIG drawback with Pimsleur is boredom. It's far less boring than my high school class but still boring. Boring but effective. I haven't tried the Thomas yet. I 'm presently trying to learn Italian. I burned through the first 16 lessons of Pimsleur's Italian and I'll finish all the way up to 90 but I'll take a detour and try the Thomas. Nice video. Thanks.
jdbrown371 1 year ago
what do you mean buy it used and not brand new... where can you buy it 2nd hand?
sunline101 1 year ago
I'm curious about your thoughts on rocket Chinese , if you have checked it out or know of it .
vwsuperbeetle72 1 year ago
@vwsuperbeetle72 the rocket series seems to be awesome. i have checked out the chinese course but never went through with buying it. i'm just lazy, but for a hundred bucks, it beats the shit out of rosetta stone. you'll get so much more outta rocket. plus, rocket has the conversations that really help get your spontaneous conversation skills going. good luck in your studying.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
Hi John...U mentioned using both Pimsler and MT would be best...Did u mean finish Pimsleur first and then start MT separately, or do both simultaneously? Any advice?
AnanyaVilas 1 year ago
@AnanyaVilas i suggested that you listen to pimsleur first, then to the m.t. method, but honestly, it really doesn't matter. if you're the type of person that feels learning a different language is too hard, then listening to the m.t. method would be best, because it really gets you hyped up about learning , since it's so easy. if you're in no hurry, listen to the pimsleur first. soon, pimsleur will be coming out with a 4th level for their spanish course. good luck in your studying.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Would you listen to all 120 Pimsleur lessons, then start on the Michel, or listen to first 30 Pimsleur and then the first Michel?
ADMusker 1 year ago
Hi John...U mentioned using both Pimsler and MT would be best...Did u mean finish Pimsleur first and then start MT separately, or do both simultaneously? Any advice?
AnanyaVilas 1 year ago
so hows your Spanish ?
to0freefor 1 year ago
@to0freefor well, i would have to say my spanish is acceptable, but it's not perfect. i try to beef up my vocab when i work around mexicans. i try real hard to make my point as well as i can, but there's still a lot i don't know. i'm more accepted around my mexican workers a lot more than anyone else, simply because i make the effort to speak their language.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
The best is Earworms Learning
qwertyfshag 1 year ago
@qwertyfshag not much of a selection. will have to make final analysis later.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
good video my man,,some beneficial tips.
africaRBG 1 year ago
So true. The presenter in Michel Thomas Japanese Foundation was awful. I had a really hard time maintaining concentration because I found myself getting annoyed at her accent. And then they came out with Japanese Advanced and I almost had a stroke when I heard the new presenter who is undoubtedly the only person in the world who could have annoyed me more than the first lady.
ProMarkChris 1 year ago
I agree, those students suck big time. Pimsleur has gotta be better in that respect. I also agree that the best way to do the courses is Pimsleur first, then Thomas.
But why oh why do they have to have those students? Listening to them again and again, I just wanna blow my brains out after a half hour or so. Still, you gotta be persistent if you wanna learn a language. I've done several of the Thomas and Pimsleur courses and I got a lot out of them.
pbprov 1 year ago
some one knows what he is talking about.
good job
OranTernopol 1 year ago
I'm at my first year of spanish-class at school (germany) and what can I say... I don't know if it is the teachers fault or just the didactic method they use for teaching languages, but even after 3 months I can not really form any coherent sentence at all. It is just learning vocabulary - memorizing shit. I just started using Pimsleur's Spanish and plan on using Michel Thomas afterwards. Will see what happens over the next weeks. Thanks for your video, bro. Good advice, I guess...
edmundstoiberderdepp 1 year ago
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ProMarkChris 1 year ago
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ProMarkChris 1 year ago
great video... great info
viklondon 1 year ago
I am going to try Pimsleur first for German, then I will move onto Michel Thomas. Thank you for your recommendations, after I heard your Russian accent in the language I could undoubtely know that you are correct.
Ki11zJ0y 1 year ago
I agree man, Pimsleur is a fantastic course!
TokyoZeplin 1 year ago
One word on those other Michel Thomas Method courses not by the man himself...the Dutch one is reputed to be even better than the French-Spanish ones. I agree in general that the non-MT MT Method courses are worse than the MT MT courses, but Dutch seems to be an exception. Having said that, I haven't tried it. Maybe the reason lies in the language itself, which is merry to learn. If you have a good English vocabulary, learning Dutch is long string of nice surprises.
inkstersco 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
How many languages do you speak ??
curlybobz 1 year ago
So what phase of the Pimsleur program should I begin with, if I already have perfect conjugation recall and understand Wikipedia but still can't say 'The cat sat on the mat'.
inkstersco 1 year ago
Thanks for the thoughtful review. I've never tried Pimsleur, and only tried Michel Thomas Spanish after having used text-based approach. Somehow MT injected the grammar into my skull, with no effort on my part. And now I feel that basically I'm fluent in Spanish but with a vocabulary of only several words! It's a shame Thomas doesn't repeat the same magic and furnish me with vocabulary too. There is a vocabulary follow-on course, but it spends something like 3 hours covering Latinate words.
inkstersco 1 year ago
dude, awesome vid. i do love it when you find a video about something you like and the person is not only engaging but speak like a real person.
i'm getting stuck into pimsluer and like you say in the comments I think 8 lessons a day is about right as long as you have the time.
pedriano999 1 year ago
WOW! Thanks, aha great Russian, great information. Just wondering, where do you download your lessons from?
jennyv0 1 year ago
@jennyv0 i used emule years ago, but your best bet is vuze. go to vuze.com and download the program.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu isn it micheal thomas?
tissetatten 1 year ago
@tissetatten Nope, Michel
evilbetty11 1 year ago
Great video! I would really like you to make another one in which you tell us a little bit about your experience using only audio programs since there's almost nothing on youtube on the subject. How long did it take you? at what point of fluency did you end up? etc.
Jate0000 1 year ago
@Jate0000 well, audio programs ARE all i use, since i've never paid for any of them. fluency is only obtained through immersion, but with the combination of the 2 courses i talked about, you can definitely achieve a high proficiency. those that would only listen to one lesson a day are obviously NOT true language learning freaks. i feel that i'm not satisfied until i've covered at least 8 lessons for the day, cause you will get tired. but doing it the way i do, you learn within only a week.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu 8 lessons! is that like 4 hours a day (pimsleur)? What about reading? can you read in those new languages?
Jate0000 1 year ago
@Jate0000 Sorry, I don't want to be rude to thaiguysabu but I want to jump into your conversation and say yes, absolutely, you can read in Spanish like you'd been doing it all your life after Michel Thomas. I've tried Pimsleur and found it boring and a turn off but with Michel Thomas Spanish I learned to speak the language so fast I was shocked. I learned nothing in 3 years of French at school but was speaking fluent Spanish in days with MT and out of interest tried reading and it was easy.
sausagedogheaven 1 year ago
Thank you! I'm currently on the first level of Pimsleur French. But I had never heard of Michel Thomas. I'm going to check that out after finishing all three levels of Pimsleur. I'm wondering. Are you now fluent or close to fluent in any of your target languages?
Is it possible for me to become fluent in French in 1 year? I do 1 Pimsleur French course everyday. My dad speaks French so he speaks to me a lot in French and gives me French lessons. What would you say would be an achievable time?
YouStoleMyTube 1 year ago
I would have liked the Michel Thomas French I program a lot more if it hadn't been for the "students" he is teaching on the audio. One of the students was so darn dense that I wanted to reach through the CD player and strangle them. On the other hand, I used a M.T. intermediate method for German and it didn't have the students. Much better!
I really dig Pimsleur and it was my gateway drug to going down the path of becoming functional in German, Spanish and French.
arclight2012 1 year ago
@arclight2012 trust me, you want those retarded students. if you are getting mad at them for getting it wrong, then you are obviously getting it right. i know. i've listened to every m.t. course out there, and there's always a stupid retard who just can't get anything right. the male student in the spanish course, the female in the french course, the male in the arabic course, etc.................
thaiguysabu 1 year ago 6
@arclight2012 I know what you mean. I'm listening to it right now and the female (who I think is Ann Curry) doesn't seem to be paying attention. The British man was very attentive though. Whenever Michel asked Ann something, he had to remind her.
SolidCorn 1 year ago
@SolidCorn It's Ann Curry?!?!?!?! Oh, that is so disappointing!!!
arclight2012 1 year ago
@arclight2012 I'm pretty sure. I used to watch The Today Show a lot and her voice was pretty recognizable. Though I'm not 100% because nothing came up on Google with "Michel Thomas Ann Curry". I wish I new who the British guy was cause he seemed cool.
SolidCorn 1 year ago
I am doing all 90 Lessons Pimsleur Spanish. After about what Lesson should I start watching Telemundo and Univision to help? I am at lesson 20 and know its probably a too soon.
gregxiu 1 year ago
@gregxiu Start watching ASAP, even if you don't know what anyone is saying. Immerse yourself in the environment of the language and you'll start recognizing vocabulary and phrases as you go. But do focus mostly on the active process of going through your Pimselur lessons.
arclight2012 1 year ago
1:23 is really funny!! great video, i'm trying pimsleur russian!
chluain1 1 year ago
me gustó mucho tu video. quede impresionado con el ruso que hablas... yo soy un apasionado de los idiomas extranjeros y le digo que los mejores cursos de idiomas que conozco efectivamente son: pimsleur, mtm y rosetta stone me parecen la crema y nata del aprendizaje de idiomas... bueno, gracias por darnos tu punto de vista. good luck
Williamjey 1 year ago
it doesn't matter what order that you decide to use. you can do m.t. first, then pimsleur. it really doesn't matter. just as long as you actually listen to both. the m.t. course explains a lot, but there are other phrases used in the pimsleur course that aren't in the m.t. course. you may choose not to use them, but you need to understand them. sometimes, we have to go over the stuff over and over again to retain everything. there's absolutely no shame in that. we're only human.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
I found this so useful! thanks a lot
I want to learn beginners spanish.. I think I will do Pimsleur first then Michel Thomas...
But, I am at an intermediate to advanced German speaker... idk which to do for that :/ my grammar needs improving too hmmm MT or Pimsluer?
parsprincess 1 year ago
@parsprincess
Here is my advice to you. Try to get both the Pimsleur method and the Michel Thomas method for free from a torrent website. If you can't or don't want to download the programs illegally. There is still another way. See if your library has the Pimsleur lessons, they just might. If you can get your hands on a Pimsleur, do the level 1 (beginners) for Spanish, and either level 2 (beginner-intermediate) or level 3 (intermediate) for your German. Hopefully I helped a bit...
YouStoleMyTube 1 year ago
@YouStoleMyTube Harpur Colins offer a free trial from Paul Noble. Try it on their site.
Wendybendy100 1 year ago 2
@Wendybendy100 Hey I tried that guy's course. He is really amazing. Awesome. Two days later I could actually speak French!!!!
carversdelight 1 year ago 2
Have you checked out Living Language programs?if so,thoughts?
steve91803 1 year ago
Im learning Russian and German and tips lol.
volcomzz93 1 year ago
I've been using Michael Thomas Spanish and it's totally awesome. I actually used the Harrap's french adaptation of it. I haven't used Pimsleur, I might check into that, but it may be a bit late to start with Pimsleur.
I need good resources to learn Mandarin though, if you have any suggestions.
Great video, really liked it. Thanks !
philinmotion 1 year ago
@philinmotion it's never too late to start with pimsleur. you can not obtain fluency from just one program. no program will give you that. especially not rosetta stone. i loved the m.t. spanish course, and have listened to it several times, but it isn't perfect. there are still a lot of things that are not explained, but that's alright. for mandarin, the pimsleur course is awesome. there are over 460 words and phrases to learn from just listening. a very good beginning core vocabulary indeed.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu thank you for your response. I have actually been using a lot of different ressources for learning spanish, though I found the michael thomas method very efficient for learning the foundation and learning to build sentences.
Nice to hear that Pimsleur Mandarin would be a good start for learning Mandarin.
philinmotion 1 year ago
@philinmotion don't rule out pimsleur spanish, and if you can find it in a torrent, look for learning spanish like crazy. lot's of vocabulary. and effortlessly learned.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu thanks, I'll look into that. =)
philinmotion 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu also I just started out with Synergy Spanish which is really good. Ressembles the Michael Thomas method but seems to move faster.
philinmotion 1 year ago
@philinmotion that's great if it works, but i do not trust language programs that move too fast. hope it all works out.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Im learning Russian and German and tips lol.
And psh download rosetta stone for free torrentz(.)com is the shit!! lmao
volcomzz93 1 year ago
Michel Thomas Method all the way
WhiteKnighT161 1 year ago
isn't pimsleur more expensive than stone ? im very close to paying the 700$ on pimsleur, but i just found a torrent and im praying to god its the whole thing o_0 (or its a 1.32 GB virus :( )
gatsu6969 1 year ago
@gatsu6969 more or less, stone is more than pimsleur, especially on amazon.com. sometimes they are the same price. all in all, if you are actually paying for it, you are a sucker. if you are torrenting it, make sure that it is a winrar file, which has been securely packed, plus a winrar file does send up flags to assholes keeping watch for people downloading copyrighted material. i personally use vuze, but i used to use emule. i've downloaded every pimsleur course because of programs like those.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Can you find all the languages online?
I had trouble finding some of them. Like Russian and Chinese..
pimsleurmarketplace
I bought 1 used, copied it sending it back.
Rshen11 1 year ago
@Rshen11 if you are going to pay for them, go to amazon.com and buy them used. russian and mandarin chinese shouldn't be that difficult to find.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Thanks i think im goign to
Download the rest.
I Checked Amazon its more Expensive then Pimsmarketplace
I just bought the Russian level 1 for like 30 bucks cuse they have a buy back program.
Rshen11 1 year ago
@Rshen11 yeah really. why bother spending all that money when you can get the shit for free?!
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
i fuckin agree whit this guy .. pimsleur is the shit starting a new language .. if dont agree then try it on a language you want to learn .. Downloaded french courses and learned 40% of it in 4 months . despite im spanish native speaker pimsleur helped on the accents .. looking forward on german now . 5 stars thaiguysabu
pelonchas08 1 year ago
pimsleur is repetition repetition repetition, it takes a snowball effect, i like that, but its the combination of things, use all resources you can, engulf yourself in the language, pimsleur, rosetta stone, michel thomas, tell me more, movies, music, use it all
doodoobrown1987 1 year ago
@doodoobrown1987 yes the true way to learn a language. TOTAL IMMERSION.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
Beginners, you need to listen to Michel Thomas, he breaks down the structure of spanish. You can learn vocabulary later, what good does learning vocabulary 1st when you can't understand the context of the conversation
1st Michel Thomas
2nd Pimsleur for vocabulary
solidyahoo 1 year ago
Michel Thomas > Pimsleur
solidyahoo 1 year ago
Yeah, MTM rocks. Plus the guy smuggled Jews to safety, escaped a concentration camp, fought with the French resistance, and escaped the Butcher of Lyon all before he was 30. I'd listen to anything he had to teach!
minearchy 1 year ago
Good video.
I am English and I have used Pimsleur to about track 15 for Modern Greek and I have used Michel Thomas Method for French to track 5. Personally I have found the MTM better as it is more enjoyable. It is good to hear him teaching other people, to hear their mistakes, etc. With Pimsleur Modern Greek I found that I learnt quite a lot to start with, but then it became harder and harder to keep going as not only did I find it difficult to understand the grammar, but it is quite dull.
ADMusker 1 year ago
@ADMusker i understand the dullness. the worse are tracks 11 through 20 in all the pimsleur courses, since they drill the fuck out of all the numbers. still, it has its benefits. from the comprehensive courses, you can easily obtain a 450 word vocabulary, core and strategically placed in your head, or, at least in mine. i loved the french course. both students are idiots in this one, especially the female.
thaiguysabu 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Ha ha. Thanks for the reply and sorry for my slow one. I have decided to choose one language and to stick with it until a high degree of fluency, as at the moment I keep changing. So, I have been using the MTM and the Pimsleur Spanish courses for a while now. With this particular language, I find the Pimsleur course a lot better, mainly because the male student on the MTM Spanish course is infuriatingly stupid; he ruins it for me and I cannot listen to it.
I do find the Pimsleur
ADMusker 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu course to be a little dull, but as you said in the video, it is also the one that allows sentences to immediately spring into my mind in conversation (with my Spanish house mate). I shall take your advice and push passed the 11-20 lessons and then hopefully it will become more enjoyable. Hopefully Pimsleur will drill this into me and the Spanish course that I am enrolling on will give me more depth as I will actually be studing the language.
I also agree that Rosetta Stone is poor.
ADMusker 1 year ago
@thaiguysabu Apologies for the third message (stupid character limits). The male student on the MTM French seemed like a nice guy and picked the language up at a reasonable pace. The lady seemed a lot slower and quite stupid, but that seemed to encourage me when I was struggling. However, in the MTM Spanish course, the male student is not likeable in any way. I guess MTM only works for me depending on the instructor and the students.
ADMusker 1 year ago
Great video dude! Five star all the way. And what the hey I'll give you another star just for the heck of it.
dietrichian 1 year ago
did u do basic or conversational or the comprehensive level 1 and 2 for russian?
I want to be able to learn to write in it too, when i learn Modern Greek.
Hurls47 1 year ago
not sure if I commented here before but I love Michel Thomas and his method of teaching. I dont know what the other person is talking about but its not intimidating, if anything my mind is tickled (lol) whenever I listen to his tracks, it's just so full of knowledge and makes me think. Pimsleur just makes me repeat like a parrot (if anything its the opposite of MT's method) but it is good though to learn.. I just get SO BORED listening lol @_@
SquishyCandyftw 1 year ago