I’ve recently completed the first 30 days of Pimsleur for Mandarin. Thirty days in, I thought I’d give my thoughts on how it’s going so far.
As a bit of background: although I’m half-Japanese, I wouldn’t consider myself a native-level speaker of it. But I also never had to sit down and learn the foundations of the language either, as I got it instinctively through hearing it as a baby. As an adult, I’ve some self-study so I can learn how to read and so on.
So Mandarin is really my first time in actually learning a language from scratch!
Pimsleur’s hook is that you do their 30-minute audio lessons every day for 150 days. Each lesson starts off with a short conversation in Mandarin, then the instructor will ask you to repeat certain phrases, or will give you a phrase in English, and expect you to repeat it back in Mandarin. At the end of the 150 days, you will have reached some level of conversational Mandarin.
My first impressions of Pimsleur
My first impression of Pimsleur was that it was frustrating. The instructor will say things like “do you remember how to say … in Mandarin?” and I just felt really annoyed when I could not remember at all. You are supposed to repeat days in the course if you feel like you aren’t quite grasping the lesson, so I did do that a number of times.
Pimsleur has been around for a long time now (like 40 - 50 years), so I also question why it hasn’t really tried to modernise itself more. I’m a big user of Wanikani for Japanese kanji. With its spaced repetition system, the words you don’t know will keep on coming back at intervals that gradually get longer, until they get drilled into your brain. Pimsleur’s lessons are the same for everybody, but I feel like it would be more efficient and useful if it was actually tailored to the phrases you were having the most trouble with.
I’ve had a bit of a mindset shift now though which I think has helped reduce the frustration. Before, I felt like I needed to remember the phrases and words to keep on proceeding with the next lesson, but now I’m just treating it more like a 30 minute listening and speaking practice. If I can’t remember it - that’s fine - onto the next one!
What I like about Pimsleur
I think the most valuable part of Pimsleur is that you can start using it from 0. It’s only 30 minutes a day, and it’s all audio, which is a really approachable format. I find that I can listen to it while doing chores, or while on long drives. I wouldn’t quite say it’s fun, but compared to opening a textbook after a long day of work, this is way better.
Personally, speaking is the most important skill for me as well, since I want to learn how to communicate with my partner’s grandparents. I don’t care so much about reading or writing at this stage. So Pimsleur is the perfect format for that.
What’s next?
I’m planning to keep on going with Pimsleur going forward. I want to commit to doing all 150 days, although I expect it will take me longer than that, as I occasionally skip a day and/or repeat one. I set myself to finish it all in 2025, which gives me plenty of time.
I think with the mindset shift of taking Pimsleur less seriously, I’m also going to need to start supplementing my Mandarin study with something else. I’m planning on trying out HanziHero, which is a Mandarin flashcard system similar to Wanikani.
Leave a comment