Ray mentioned that after starting Pimsleur Cantonese he quickly had occasion to use it after a Cantonese Mass when a woman started speaking to him in it.
I just had a similar unexpected experience.
One of the few flaws of the Pimsleur sets is that they don’t come with a vocabulary list, and sometimes I’m not 100% sure I’ve heard the word correctly on the CDs. Thus, whenever I’m working a Pimsleur set, I go out and buy a cheap-o phrasebook/dictionary to look up the spellings of words for confirmation. (Dover has a really good line of $4 phrasebook/dictionaries).
Tonight I went to the bookstore to get an inexpensive Japanese phrasebook/dictionary, and I couldn’t resist buying a few additional language books (e.g., a Japanese grammar, an Indonesian phrasebook, a Filipino [Tagalog] phrasebook). When I got to the checkout counter, a big, Hawaiian-shirted, Hawaiian-looking salesperson named Max looked at the books I was buying and asked if I was going to be traveling in Southeast Asia.
I said: “Naw, I’m just learning their languages.”
At which point he asked–in Japanese–if I understood Japanese.
I replied that I understand a little Japanese, and I apparently said it fluidly enough that his eyes got a little big (his surprise probably magnified by my customary cowboy attire) and he said, continuing in Japanese, that I was quite good.
I replied that I was not very good (the customary thing to say when given such a compliment in Japanese), and then added, switching to English, that I’m just starting out. He said, in English, that he was still impressed.
After paying for the books, we switched back to Japanese and I thanked him politely and we bade each other farewell.
So there you have it: proof of the effectiveness of the Pimsleur Method! Just 24 hours after starting to study Japanese and after only two half-hour lessons I successfully held my first unplanned, real-world conversation in the language. Yee-haw!
How do you say “yee-haw!” in Japanese? 😀
Hi Jimmy,
Being from the Philippines, I am quite curious why you picked up a Filipino phrasebook? It’s never been a popular language to learn. And why Indonesian as well?
Francis
I’ve been wanting to pick up a little Tagalog for a while. There are a lot of Filipino Catholics here in San Diego, and I want to be able to say a few words to them in Tagalog to honor their culture.
Similar thing with Indonesian. See my comment here.
Are there any good resources for learning how to read a language that can be used in conjunction with Primsleur’s audio techniques? I recently started learning Arabic through Primsleur and wanted to start learning the alphabet. Would “Teach Yourself Arabic Script” from the “Teach Yourself” series be a good start?
Shukran,
Andy
If you get the full Arabic I set, it comes with a little booklet and extra lessons to teach you the alphabet. The technique they use is a good one that involves audio reinforcement of what you’re reading, as well as their ususal “Okay, now *you* do it” audio approach.
This is typical of the full 30-lesson sets. If the language you are learning has another alphabet (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic), it will come with a booklet like this. Don’t yet have the full 30-lesson sets for Japanese yet (just bought a starter so far), so am not sure what would come with that. Perhaps a booklet focusing on one or both of the two Japanese syllabaries (alphabets where ever character represents a syllable instead of a single sound).
If you want a book, I recommend “The Arabic Alphabet” by Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano. I’ve used it myself, and it strikes me as easier to use than the Teach Yourself volume, which I’ve looked at in the bookstore and wasn’t overly impressed by it.
Incidentally, good luck with Arabic. The Church need more Catholic apologists who can speak Arabic and interact with Muslim apologists, and the government needs more Arabic translators.
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