Romanian

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginner
Review: Este foarte bine! Listen, I bought about 8 or 9 other products with little to no results. Then, I got Pimsleur and learned everything it taught, in the way it taught, in the time it taught. When I arrived in Romania, people were very encouraging and surprised that I spoke so well/correctly.

Now, of course, the fact is that this Pimsleur edition is only a beginner course. It will get you started in conversations and help you get around Romania with the basics. It is the BEST way to get started.

I wish Pimsleur had additional courses for intermediate, advanced and just a vocabulary builder, since their methodology does work well. However, now that I mastered Pimsleur and gotten one trip under my belt, I am now using Teach Yourself Romanian to further enhance my skills before my next trip to Romania.

Rating:
Summary: Good supplement to a traditional textbook
Review: I completed the Pimsleur course prior to taking a one-week trip to Romania. In addition to the Pimsleur course, I also used the "Colloquial Romanian" course by Gonczol-Davies and Deletant. I found this combination to work very well. While I didn't learn as much grammar or vocab from the Pimsleur course, it reinforced the grammar structures I had studied in the Colloquial course and helped me to use them with confidence. Moreover, it helped my pronunciation greatly - I even received a few compliments on my pronunciation from Romanians. This was my first experience using a Pimsleur course, and overall I was very pleased. Given the dearth of Romanian study materials, I consider this to be a useful resource. I don't know if I would feel comfortable learning a language exclusively through Pimsleur's audio method, but I think it makes a good supplement to more traditional language study. My only complaint is that this is an abridged course; a full-length course would be ideal.

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars
Review: I didn't purchase this course but found it at the library and decided to try it out...It's a good start that helps you with proper pronunciataion but it's a little slow and repetitive and only a few new words are added with each new unit lesson.

But aside from that....It's a fun way to learn....I did it in my car...it's very easy and quick and the method does work well...it's easy to remember! And it also gives you a lot of time to respond so you don't have to stop the disc or pause...which is very nice...you don't feel like you're rushed...

Rating:
Summary: good technique--course is too short
Review: The Pimsleur method really works. The type of repetition it usese is timed in such a way that the phrases really do stay with you and learning becomes so much easier than book learning.

The Romanian course is rather short (only 10 classes). It would be great if they were longer and more in depth like some of the other languages that Pimsleur courses offer.

Rating:
Summary: good technique--course is too short
Review: To its credit, the Romanian tapes contained in this volume were an excellent way to practice proper Romanian pronunciataion. And, they were a valuable resource for learning the Romanian language.

The tapes started simply and gradually increased in complexity as they progressed. Unfortunately, the transition between tapes was too gradual. When progressing through the tapes, as few as three or four words were added in a single 1/2 hour tape.

In my opinion, Pimleur (sp?) missed the primary advantage of the tape format -- the ability to replay them until they are mastered. By missing this point, they only placed 2 hours of material on 5 hours of tape.

Rating:
Summary: Repeditive, not worth the cost
Review: To its credit, the Romanian tapes contained in this volume were an excellent way to practice proper Romanian pronunciataion. And, they were a valuable resource for learning the Romanian language.

The tapes started simply and gradually increased in complexity as they progressed. Unfortunately, the transition between tapes was too gradual. When progressing through the tapes, as few as three or four words were added in a single 1/2 hour tape.

In my opinion, Pimleur (sp?) missed the primary advantage of the tape format -- the ability to replay them until they are mastered. By missing this point, they only placed 2 hours of material on 5 hours of tape.