The first time I ever really used Pimsleur was for Russian. I’ve had about three cycles of studying Russian with Pimsleur (in January 2015, January 2016, and January 2017). I think the phrase я немного говорю по русски (“I speak a little Russian”) is burned so deeply into my brain that even if I was bludgeoned in the head, I could still blurt it out. This is a phrase that is taught in the first lesson and then continues to come up. I cannot even count how many times I’ve repeated this phrase over the years. And I’m glad I did, because that phrase is now in my mind forever – I will always know at least that bit of Russian.
The thing that sets Pimsleur apart from other audio language courses is that it’s not just a phrasebook. It breaks down each phrase and teaches you one word at a time. And then has you put sentences together yourself. It is also a SRS (spaced repetition system), which is what makes it such an effective earworm. You don’t just learn a phrase once and move on – it comes up again and again.
Because I’ve used Pimsleur annually for three years, I can also judge how much I’m improving in Russian over the years. The first year I used Pimsleur, I struggled. I was not really using other resources (it was mostly listening to Pimsleur and trying to learn Cyrillic), and I have a problem understanding audio without an accompanying visual, so it was hard for me to pick up the Russian that Pimsleur was teaching. I need to know how a word is written to really get it to stick. I couldn’t pick out subtle differences in the Pimsleur sentences – is that an “s” sound or a “ts” sound? A “ch” sound or a “sh” sound? Are those two separate words smooshed together or all one word? I stumbled through the phrases when Pimsleur asked me to put together a sentence. The second year, it came more easily. I had seen (most) of these words written down, and had a better sense of Russian in general. I could respond and form sentences in the allotted time. And this year, I breezed through the first handful of lessons with ease. They were in fact too easy. Lessons I had to repeat two or three times just last year before I could get 80% of it right, I could get through 100% the first time.
Even though I’m nowhere near conversational in Russian, it’s these moments that make me happy with doing languages in small chunks. Instead of muddling through Russian for months and most likely giving it up altogether, I’ve taken it a bit at a time and every year it becomes easier and more enjoyable. Last year, I had considered giving up Russian altogether. There are so many languages out there! I had given Russian a fair shot and it just had never worked out. This year, I have finally been charmed by Russian and will be honestly sad when Russian is over – and I can’t wait to come back to it again next year.
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