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Rick Potter
10-26-2013, 8:28 PM
Anybody heard of the Pimsleur Approach language learning courses? I have always wanted to get better at my minimal Spanish, and an ad popped up for it.

They say they will sent you some CD's in the mail for only $10, that will get you speaking rudimentary sentences in a language. I listened to the whole spiel, and decided 'what do I have to lose, it's only $10', so I filled out the order blank, then read the fine print. Turns out it is like an old fashioned book club, where you automatically get new ones every so often, and have to return them in order to not buy them. It is not clear about whether I can call to cancel the extra lessons in advance. In my case, Spanish, there are four more sets of CD's that will automatically come, at a total cost of $1024.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with it?

Rick Potter

David Weaver
10-26-2013, 8:43 PM
I've heard advertisements for it. I'd never order any of those things that say they're free or close to free because there's always a catch. Either they will fraudulently bill you even if you opt out, or the fine print will be devious.

Usually figure if you can order something like that on amazon, that's a better place to get it, because they know they're going to try to wear you out to get more than $10 out of you - that probably doesn't cover the cost of the advertisement. Better yet, look for it used on ebay. If something is good, copies of it on ebay will have a pretty strong used price.

At this point, you might want to cancel your credit card or alert the card company that you were misled. I would imagine you'll find that the telemarketing company will make it very hard to return the items, either by pretending you didn't send them back or by being very slow to issue a refund.

Tom Giles
10-26-2013, 8:44 PM
It's a very good course. I found 3 levels on feebay for about $150 on cassettes. Took a while to find the deal as most Pimsleur auctions are for CDs and go for a lot more.

Rick Potter
10-26-2013, 9:52 PM
After checking for complaints, I found that the Pimsleur APPROACH is not the real Pimsleur. Pimsleur.com is the real one, and Amazon has the first course for $34 with no automatic renewals.

Lots of complaints listed for the APPROACH company.

David, I read the fine print before pushing the order button, never ordered it.

Tom, is it anything like it advertises? Did you gain much by just listening to the lessons? I am still thinking about ordering the first set from Amazon.

Rick Potter

Tom Giles
10-27-2013, 8:29 AM
Rick,

I don't know the difference between Pimsleur and Pimsler Approach. I think they are the same course just one has shady marketing. Either way the course is too expensive to buy from Pimsleur. The basic $10 course isn't going to give you very much. You can try ebay or some public library's have the full course for loan. You can take a sample lesson on their web site to see if you like their method.

Another option is FSI Language Courses. Written by the state department it is dated (60's I think) but comprehensive. It is an audio course available free online but can be hard to find. I would post the link but for some reason I can't cut n paste here.

- I'm a beginner but I'm beyond the basics. I base my opinions above on conversations and recommendations from successful learners.
- Spanish courses are like exercise equipment, they don't work by osmosis.
- No one course will make you fluent.

There are also some good online free resources.

- Coffee Break Spanish and Notes in Spanish are a couple of good podcasts.
- Mi Vida Loca, a mystery in 22 episodes by the BBC for beginners. You can follow Merche as she tries to stay out of trouble.
- Destinos, 52 episodes, a Spanish learning show that was on PBS but available online free. Follow Raquel as she tries to solve a mystery. The Annenberg website has a lot of supplemental materiel. You can also find the textbook on ebay cheap but you don't have to have it.

Rick Potter
10-27-2013, 6:54 PM
Thanks Tom,
I will check out all those resources. I had courses in HS a lifetime ago, picked up a lot when I was in Mexico for three weeks, a half lifetime ago, now I can remember just enough to supervise workers I pick up at HD or the street corner.

Rick Potter

Frank Drew
10-30-2013, 11:30 AM
Rick,

In my experience (I already had French and Spanish and not so very long ago took Italian), if you can find a live course, with instructors and fellow students, it might be easier that way to stay interested and motivated, and really learn. At least it was for me, with the Italian, but you might be better than I am at self-directed learning and stick-to-it-iveness.

That said, I've heard good things about Pimsleur; I've never heard of Pimsleur Approach, but $1024 strikes me as totally out of line.

David Weaver
10-30-2013, 11:58 AM
David, I read the fine print before pushing the order button, never ordered it.


Good. I suspect any of those things on TV that tell you that you can learn a language quickly, learn to flip houses quickly, learn to use an easy method to get your kids to behave like angels....but always give you a free or almost free intro, are things that are more interested in charging you money than giving you a good product. If they thought their product was good, they would be able to tell you the price from the outset and tell you why it was worth it.

It seems like there are TONS of those things that are more of a hook cold sale type of thing, or an attempt to get you signed up to something that is almost impossible to get out of despite the print making it sound like it's easy to get out. More than there are legitimate items being sold. If they can afford all of that TV, radio and magazine print advertising, they're doing something to make a lot of money selling something that doesn't cost them much.

Jim Becker
11-02-2013, 9:03 PM
We used Pimsleur to learn some Russian prior to adopting our daughters from that country. The system works pretty well. The downside is that a lot of the first two levels is spent around typical "adult" conversation and transactions. We did not join any "club" and bought the courses outright. The other heavy-hitter in the language learning business also pitches the inexpensive "introductory" lesson with the expectation that you'll subscribe to more.