Price: $173.27+

Overall Rating:
77%

Pimsleur Digital French review

By Gerrit du Plessis

In my humble opinion, if Linguaphone French Complete is a bit too heavy on the printed books, Pimsleur French is way too light on them. Pimsleur's philosophy is almost the complete opposite of Linguaphone's - whereas the Linguaphone people believe that you should hear and read the language before trying to express yourself in it, Dr. Paul Pimsleur countered that children do not read the language until years after they begin speaking it. So the early levels of Pimsleur French do not have any printed material accompanying them at all - just the very repetitive recordings.

Auditory learners - people who actually do learn best by listening - often find this a very effective way of learning French online. But it's a visual learner's nightmare, and it's too static for those who learn best by interactive methods like playing games. And finally, it's not a terribly good value for the price. For these reasons, I've given Pimsleur Digital French Phase 1 a 77% rating.

If you are new to learning French, then I recommend you start with a proven course like Rocket French.

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