Rating: 
Summary: Expensive, but superior to all others
Review: I've spend thousands of dollars on language learning aides over the years, and I have found that Pimsleur is the best by far. I'm amazed that the other programs I wasted money on even sell since they are so ineffective. I've purchased Spanish II,III, French I-III and Italian I-III and they are all equally good. I've bought almost every other advertised product out there, but none of those lessons are structured like these. The Pimsleur method focuses on speech, not reading or writing, however.
If you can afford them, you will find they work better than any other system you can buy for learning to speak a new language.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent series for learning languages
Review: I've used the Pimsleur series for Spanish and Italian. They are better than any other language tapes or CD's to which I've listened. The only reason I wouldn't give them 5 stars is that Pimsleur tapes/CD's don't include mnemonics to facilitate recall and expedite learning. Much more vocabulary could be covered if the system were based on memory techniques instead of just repetition. Until my own series of language CD's hits the market, Pimsleur is the best you can do.
Rating:
Summary: 1 1/2 Thumps up!
Review: Like most folks here who are serious about becoming fairly fluent in a foreign language, I spent many years in classrooms learning Spanish and still am not comfortable enough to hold a conversation with a native speaker nor can I understand it when spoken to, unless it's spoken very slowly. Thanks to books and the classroom, I'm very good at reading it, though. However, I'm only half way through the Pimsleur Italian 1 and feel I can already speak and understand it far better than Spanish! Yes, I plan on polishing my Spanish with Pimsleur too!In order to prepare for an upcoming trip to Italy, I bought these CD's from a friend and spend the 30 minutes each day on a lesson. I personally feel it is important that when visiting a foreign country it's best to make an attempt to speak their language. You will be better received and hey, when in Rome, do like the Romans do, right? HINT: with the CD's, if you don't catch something (and this does happen), you will have to listen to the whole lesson all over again, so you might want to consider cassettes for greater flexibility. I hit "pause" when instructed to answer a question so I can construct my reply before the speaker blurbs out the answer. I like Pimsleur's approach to learning a lesson by hearing it. We didn't learn our first words by reading books, did we? However, there is a downside to this approach if your hearing is as bad as mine! I would find it more helpful if any new vocabulary introduced in the verbal lesson was included in the reading part at the end of each lesson. As it stands now, the reading is only a list of words or phrases and are not translated so you don't know what you are saying, and they are not related to the material in the lesson. I'm sure this is done this way just to loosen your tongue, but there are words spoken in the verbal part of the lesson that I still have yet to comprehend. It took me 2 or 3 lessons to figure out that the word for "I" was io. I kept imagining that they were saying "eel" or "ee-ohw." It wasn't until I saw it on the reading for a later lesson that I figured it out. Now, I'm still trying to comprehend the word for "you would like." I can't find it anywhere. Guess I'll have to by a book on Italian verbs!
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur is the best
Review: My husband spent a fortune "learning" Spanish through Berlitz and can't even compose a simple sentence. After Pimsleur's Italian I, I can't believe how much I can actually say in Italian!! And I am thinking in Italian. I don't have to translate back and forth in my head. Each lesson is short enough that I can listen to it on the way to work. I usually listen to each lesson twice, just to go back and correct areas where I may have had trouble. I can't wait to go back to Italy and try out my Italian!!
| 
