The best of its kind, January 25, 2004

First, a brief description of this reviewer. I took two semesters of elementary Arabic at a university one year ago. I was fortunate to have very good professors, who went beyond the textbook to teach a lot of stuff that wouldn't be covered until later (for example, verb conjugations and negation). However, all this was in modern standard Arabic. This dialect is used in the Quran and in writing, but generally not in speaking. I was a little disillusioned of the lack of conversational Arabic in the university courses available to me. A reviewer of a modern standard textbook wrote on Amazon that others said he sounded like the Quran or an ancient author. While I do not know whether it is that extreme, I think it is important to learn a conversation dialect for speaking with native speakers.

I was serious about learning conversational Arabic, and the Pimsleur comprehensive courses seem to have a good reputation and methodology, so I bought the Egyptian Arabic I comprehensive course. I chose Egyptian because Egypt is the most populous Arabic country, and the Egyptian dialect (each country or region has a dialect with its own twist on vocabulary) is widely understood in the Arab world due to the prevalence of Egyptian films.

It certainly made it easier that I had already studied Arabic for two semesters. I was used to the sounds and some of the basic vocabulary. Note however that much of the vocabulary is different from modern standard. While "street" is the same, for instance, "car" and "this" are different. So a person who has studied modern standard will have an easier time with the phonetics than the complete beginner, but one is not immune from learning new vocabulary--and lots of it.

I was afraid that a self-guided, completely audio course would use repetition as its main weapon, and repetition doesn't work great with me as my brain just fills up to the brim quickly, leaving me unable to recall anything quickly. However, Pimsleur uses a totally different methodology. Instead of a linear process, ("learn these words and their conjugations"), Pimsleur takes a more random approach. You might learn "you understand" for a lady in lesson 1 and "you understand" for a man in lesson 3. For each new word or phrase, especially in the first few lessons, each syllable is sounded out in reverse order. The Pimsleur program uses anticipation rather than repetition throughout the course. You are prompted in English to say something in Arabic, then there is a pause to allow you to answer out loud. Then the Arabic speakers say it, and your brain can compare the two, correcting if necessary. At the beginning of each lesson there is a conversation to listen to, I think to soften up your ears for Arabic. It also serves as a review to recall previous lessons' vocabulary. For the bulk of the lesson, the prompt-pause-answer format is used. At the end of some lessons, one participates in a mock conversation.

Each lesson has both review of previous material and new material in good measure. The Pimsleur program does not teach grammar rules at all. But it does teach words, phrases, and then asks you to string them together to make whole, useful sentences. From these you infer the grammar rules. Instead of learning rules by wrote, the program lets you build a gradual intuitive understanding of how the puzzle pieces of nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and phrases fit together in grammatically correct sentences. The Pimsleur program is based on 15 lesson CD's, each with two 30-minute lessons. There is an additional CD which, along with a small booklet, introduces you to Arabic writing.

I have gone through the 30 lessons, and am now in the process of going through them again. The result is that I have a basic knowledge of Egyptian Arabic. I find that I can really impress my new Arabic instructor. Just last class she asked whether I had been to Egypt, which I have not.

I only can think of three negative things to say about this program. First, there should be a level II course like Pimsleur has with other languages. Second, due to the random structure of the course, you don't learn all the verb conjugations. There is virtually no third-person verb conjugations introduced, for instance, you learn "I go", "you go", but not "she goes". This is why a level II course is so needed. Third, some people may be turned off by the price. Clearly the Pimsleur comprehensive programs are for serious learners. But really one gets what one pays for. I would encourage those who are interested in this product to shop around on price comparison sites or on popular auction sites (wink, wink), as shopping around will yield significant savings.

In conclusion, this was money well-spent.

Pimsleur: The Only Way to Learn a Foreign Language!, September 30, 2003

In response to the negative reviews I've read under various Pimsleur language courses, I wanted to clarify an important point for the prospective buyer. First, it is true that you will acquire a very limited vocabulary even after completing Level III of any Pimsleur language course. The important thing to keep in mind is that you are learning the core vocabulary of the language-the most commonly used words. But vocabulary is not the most important part of acquiring fluency in a new language. The most important part is gaining an innate sense of grammar and syntax. In other words, you must be able to string the vocabulary words together into meaningful phrases. You must be able to think in your new language. That ability is what Pimsleur will give you.

Talk to any student who has completed two college semesters of a foreign language, and he or she can spew off lists and lists of vocabulary. But the student does not have the ability to carry on even a simple conversation. Why not? Well, all of that vocabulary is meaningless without the innate sense of structure that Pimsleur provides.

My own experience: I completed Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic I back in early June of this year. After completing the course, I could recite a few useful phrases, but I felt that I lacked any real grasp of the language. Therefore, in late June of this year, I signed up for an Adult Education course in Conversational Egyptian Arabic at the local University. My teacher was soon amazed by my progress. By the end of that 6 week course, I was carrying on real conversations with the instructor while the rest of the class gaped in envy and frustration. Pimsleur had taught me how the language works, and armed with a few new vocabulary words, I was able to assimilate the new information into my innate sense of the syntax and structure of the language. In other words, Pimleur had taught me how to think in Arabic. Therefore, I was immediately able to use the new words with comfort and ease.

Yes, Pimsleur is expensive. But if you want to truly learn to think in your new language, it's the only way to go. The only better way to learn Egyptian Arabic would be to spend several months in Egypt. The cost of that makes the Pimsleur courses seem much more reasonable by comparison.

I've just started Pimsleur Japanese I, and plan to complete the full 90 lesson comprehensive program. I know it will be worth every penny!

An acceptable start, but needs support, August 31, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
This course benefits from the strengths and suffers from the weaknesses of all the Pimsleur courses I have studied (French and Russian). The strengths are the emphasis on spoken Egyptian Arabic, on the help in acquiring a good pronounciation, and in the repetition of some elementary structures so that the student feels reasonably comfortable. The weaknesses are the paucity of vocabulary and the lack of an anchor to any grammatical understanding, particularly of the verbs.

As with the other Pimsleur courses, one might say that this introductory set, by itself, can only be given a lukewarm recommendation. However, like the others, the recommendation becomes warmer once Levels II and III become available. For example, the complete French course can be recommended, but not simply Part I. I hope that Levels II and III for Egyptian Arabic will be developed. If they are, then it may make sense (even if it is expensive) to purchase the whole lot. To settle only for Part I is not entirely satisfactory.