Pimsleur Reviews

I have been studying with Pimsleur for many years. Before streaming, I bought their CDs and listened to them during morning walks. But with the $19.99 streaming monthly service, on my morning walks and in my car, I listen to how I imagine them to be, my fun two French roommates who just chat away everyday and are patient with me as I get better and better. I listen to each lesson once, then I review the sentences and vocabulary quiz, then listen to it again the next day. It's on all my devices and iphone, so it’s convenient to access, and the little games and exercises keep me sharp. I've almost completed Level 4 and am excited to start the last Level 5. The idiomatic expressions are challenging, so I print out the dialogues and tape them to my bathroom mirror and practice while I brush my teeth. I love how Pimsleur changes the way I think, and the things I think about by exposing me to another country and culture!

From a language learning point of view, as a beginner the approach is fairly outdated, or one dimensional in comparison to other options.

Awful awful company. Terrible and dated way of learning languages. They are clinging onto their free trial business model and will act in bad faith at every opportunity in order to keep customers money with disingenuous morals. They are a dying company - Dinosaurs with nothing left to offer apart form the fumes of a dying business model.

I have taken these criminals to the ombudsman, I suggest you do the same

They will literally steal your money.

Saw the promotions, including the one on their own website for a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Purchased the yearly subscription for approximately $165, but canceled it because didn't like it. When following up about my refund...guess what?! A generic email from someone just telling me that my subscription will not allow for a refund. This is after canceling the service and only using it for less than 15 days.

Absolutely terrible. Bad app, worse customer service. They are worse than common thieves. They’ve stolen my money and refuse to give a refund even though I don’t want to use their app nor can I because the levels they have available are too low and there’s no way to test out of them. Stay FAR away from this app. They will steal your money and cite their slimy policies to justify it even though they are clearly misusing those policies.

I am absolutely furious with them. I purchased one of their languages but my app did not give me access. I asked for help in the app and never received an answer. I emailed them (had to do it a few times) to be told to call them, using their US number. I am in EUROPE!!! It is costly to call them.
I finally called them and after 7 minutes asked their rep to call me back, which she did not want to do; so I told her I would interrupt the conversation and asked her to email me when the problem was solved, and of course nothing has happened.
I have paid for their product (which is probably good) and can't use it.

The customer service is non existent. This is an online business which insist on their worldwide customer base to contact them with a US phone number. The website is a joke. Try only to logout and you will still be logged in. Try order the "Arabic" language and the basket will have the "English for Spanish speakers". Contact them using their online contact form and who knows if they'll ever respond to it.

This company has the worst customer service I've seen in years. It was a holiday weekend, no email notice that there was an upcoming billing so I emailed them just 5 hours after they charged my card saying I did not want to proceed with their tool and to please refund. They were rude, short and obviously out to just scam me out of my $19.95 - no customer service. If you value service whatsoever you should go in any direction other than this one if you don't want to be taken advantage of.

Even though I cancelled my subscription, Pimsleur still drew money from my account after I had already cancelled. I wrote them asking for a refund and got no response.

I have been using Pimsleur for about 2 years now, off and on. I started out with the Italian Level 1 and I enjoyed it so much that I purchased some of the Hindi, Korean, and also Thai lessons.

Pimsleur makes learning easy with their explanations, examples, fun and repetitive teaching - otherwise known as the Pimsleur Approach. Also, the cost of the lessons are quite inexpensive. And, some lessons come with reading practice which boost your vocab.

The only downside to Pimsleur is that there are not complete explanations on grammar use. For instance, in Italian Level 1: Lesson 24, there is no explanation as to why you use "parli" versus "parla". Both mean "you speak". It's my understanding that one is informal (parli) and the other is formal (parla). But, I had to do my own research to find that out. Also, flashcards and study vocab are not accessible on the mobile app - only on the desktop version. (This is why I gave it 5 stars instead of 4.)

In conclusion, this is an awesome learning tool but I would advise picking up a dictionary and grammar book to go with your studies in case you have any questions on vocab that Pimsleur does not cover.

Update: 8/8/21
I'm still using Pimsleur. In fact, I'm about to finish Italian Level 2. (Truth be told, I would have already finished this level a long time ago, but life got in the way. I changed jobs and also studied Hindi for a while before deciding to go back and continue my Italian language study.)

This program is still one of the best out there. Pimsleur uses word repetition, word building, and native speakers to help you learn words fast and remember them long-term. For instance, every Pimsleur lesson begins with introducing new words for around 5 mins. Next, you start to repeat the material for 10 minutes. Then you build on that with more words to expand the conversation for 5 more minutes, then another review for 10 minutes. Each lesson is broken down into segments to introduce words, review them, introduce more words, and then review them. Some lesson times may vary, but this is the basic structure of every lesson.

As I progressed along, I have found that more grammar explanations have been made; but I do think that the explanation of some grammar usage could be expanded on - if not in the audio, then maybe in a supplemental that comes with the lesson.

I previously stated before that there were not review flashcards on the mobile version. Well it turns out that it depends on the type of phone that you use. I was using a medium-end smart phone when I started using Pimsleur, but now have upgraded to a high-end phone (Samsung Note 20) and I have access to all the features now and they do have flashcards. So, that was simply an issue with me not using a better phone. Although, flashcards were always available on their website, so it's not like I was missing out.

So, if you've ever had trouble learning a foreign language, give Pimsleur a try. Right now, the first lesson is free. Just create a free Pimsleur account, log in, and choose the language that you're interested in. Again, the first lesson is free so your can't go wrong.