| The Pimsleur method is a great way to start, but the five tapes can quickly be mastered. It would be better with more content/more tapes. Obviously you're not going to learn the language and strike up a conversation after following this course...but that was never my intent.....I was looking for a starting point. All-in-all I satisfied with the course and think it worth the price. With all that said, they could have hit a home run with 3 things. 1: more tapes, 2: a pronunciation key, 3: the reading guide for each unit should have covered the words used in the corresponding unit on tape. If Pimsleur expanded the course (before I mastered the language through other means) I would purchase it. |
| Tapes are DEFINITELY the way forward - unless you're going to live and work in a country for a couple of years or more. Even then, a head start is worth something. You won't learn much language in a couple of months in a country starting from scratch (unless you stay with friends who have the patience to teach you in a structured way). Of course, if you can afford face-to-face tuition or learn it in college, nice. If not, then tapes will at least teach you how to pronounce things "properly" (which is not to say idiomatically). They will give you a basic vocabulary. However, this course is so SLOW - the lessons are repetitious rather than allow the student to judge when to repeat something. One could get far more material into 5 tapes. I acquired them for my son and we were tempted to edit them into something compact. They do not equip you to hold a conversation but give you a basis. The alternative is "Ann Pale Kreyol" (Valdeman) which costs three times the price but has about six times the material and would prepare you competently to strike up a simple converstaion from the word go. The Pimsleur publishers might approach a full length course differently, but this abridged course is not good value for money. Students could make good the somewhat deficient volcabulary if they speak intermediate (or above) French because many French words have been drawn into the Kreyol vernacular - colours, for instance. The grammar is quite different and to be fair, the Pimsleur does drill many of its idioms into you. So, if you have six to eight months before you visit Haiti and can afford it, go for the "Ann Pale Kreyol" set. If not, this will do at a pinch. If you're a keen listener you'd soon start to pick the language up. It would also help to lay your hands on any easy books in Kreyol, even newspapers - and if you have a contact in Haiti, ask her/him to send you tapes of radio broadcasts. |
