Pimsleur: Language Learning 4+

I took Spanish through high school and 2 semesters in college. I still cannot speak conversationally, and the less I use it the more I forget it. As a nurse I encounter patients that only speak Spanish, and then I witness doctors insisting they do not need a translator and they could “use their 5 senses” but they cannot understand what the patient is actually telling them. Or they will not see a patient until the end of their visit in the emergency department because of the inconvenience of needing to get the translator iPad… that i have literally brought into the room. They literally just put tests in based on their complaint that is in the computer. I was appalled and I can only do so much but I know that my short time in one small southern town will not change the culture.

I have wanted to learn Spanish for a long time but I never took the time. What stumped me in school was all of the conjugation. And breaking down sentences. And when I read that this is what Pimsleur says is the problem with traditional learning, that made complete sense! I typically listen to audibles and podcasts so now I just listen to Pimsleur instead and it is very natural. Driving to work, on an airplane, walking around the store, doing the dishes, cleaning the house, cooking. I can listen anywhere and I’m actually remembering new words and have started using it at work already. LOVE THIS APP. If you’re hesitant…. I’m telling you just do it.

I’ve always wanted to learn a second language, but for some reason, I always thought that I didn’t have the intelligence to do it. well, I certainly learned that intelligence can be very subjective, because I have learned so much in such a small window of time and the more you keep going, The more fun you start having with it. i’ve decided that I want to learn how to speak Finnish, the national language of Finland. Something else that really took me by surprise was the fact that as you start learning words, you start making those neuronal pathways between where the original word in your mother tongue language is stored in the word that you learn through your second language, and once that connection is made it stays there, and in the beginning, you’ll start to hear the words, and then the English version of the word Will pop into your head as the definition. And then, as time goes on even more, and you’re learning more and more advanced words, you literally start to think in the new language. all I can say, is I recommend this program to anybody who wants to be able to start speaking a new language right away within the first lesson because it is true. You do learn how to speak some bear essential words in the first lesson.

First off, credit where it’s due: over the past 5 months I worked through Italian 1-5. I’ve been in Italy now for three weeks and am having a much easier time integrating at work thanks to what I’ve learned with Pimsleur.
I have been almost constantly frustrated with the app’s seeming dislike of working offline, and its tendency to delete lessons I’ve already downloaded. Thus if I live in an area with poor cell reception but have WiFi at home, I might go out for a walk hoping to do a Pimsleur lesson already downloaded to my phone, and two minutes into my walk find that the lesson is suddenly no longer there. When this happens, the app tends to display a message to the effect of ‘Functionality updated. Re-download lesson’. I’ve found this extremely inconvenient.
Finally, the lesson download functionality itself is inconvenient: say you want to download Level 1, all 30 lessons. You have to individually select each lesson. Ok, no big deal. But then you want to do something else while the messages are downloading: nope. If you switch screens within the app, if you try to open a different app, or if your screensaver kicks on, downloading stops, so you have to restart your download.
Obviously, despite the frustration, using the app is still easier than buying the CD’s and carrying around a CD player. But come on, Pimsleur. Your developers can do better.