After Pimsleur

Joe   Monday, October 11, 2004, 21:58 GMT
For any of you who have gone through and done the entire Pimsleur series for a given language, what have you done afterward? I'm currently going to be starting on German II, and then there's German III but I don't know quite where to go from there. Additionally I have Teach Yourself German Grammar which I'll be using during Pimsleur to supplement and build up grammar.

One of the strongest points of Pimsleur is the immersion in speaking. So I'd like to keep that up with future lessons. What would you recommend? Are the FSI programs good? Certain textbooks?

Basically this also will be great information to have for whenever I learn other languages later on down the road, since I would plan to start with Pimsleur and supplementation and then advance on afterward.

Thanks!
Entil'zha   Thursday, October 14, 2004, 07:42 GMT
There is a Pimsleur IV, you know, but only has 10 units.

You could get hold of the Vocabulearn series, which will teach you loads of vocab and phrases, and you can do it in your car or wherever too.

A very good textbook that has both a beginner/intermediate level and an advanced one is 'Ultimate German' by Random House - lots of oral work and two sets of cassettes, one for 'in class' and one for 'on the go'.

Highly recommended!
Steve K   Thursday, October 14, 2004, 14:37 GMT
You need to get on to authentic content. Read and listen to real stuff. When reading, do so on the computer and use an online dictionary. But be very systematic in saving words and phrases. Do not bother trying to learn words and phrases from isolated examples. That is my advice.
Joe   Thursday, October 14, 2004, 21:54 GMT
Yeah, I know about German Plus, but it's only 10 more and obviously even if I do decide to use that, it's not going to finish up my German language learning. Pimsleur is great because it's a great way to build your base and to head out to learn more advanced material after mastering a lot of the basic forms of speech.

One of the assistant deans at USF whom I'm friendly with is from Germany, he's from Bremen, and the other day I had the pleasure of my first spontaneous conversation ever in a foreign language. It came surprisingly easy to me. It was nice, I had never had a foreign language conversation before, and those oral proficiency tests in HS Spanish don't count. lol

Thanks for your suggestions, Entil'zha and Steve. I definitely plan to utilize the internet for German. I wasn't sure yet if I should get a textbook or what? Pronunciation isn't an issue since I have a good mastery of German pronunciation when reading to the point where I can read and sound German, but I have no idea what I'm exactly reading. LOL