Pimsleur is also an excellent choice if you need to study survival phrases for an upcoming trip. The first phrases taught by Pimsleur are popular tourist phrases (“Do you speak English?” “Excuse me,” “How much does this cost?” and so on). It also swiftly teaches you a large vocabulary.
However, Pimsleur has a big flaw: reading and writing. The app includes some supplementary reading exercises, but they are quite basic. Pimsleur’s true strength is as an audio tool; if you also want to learn to read and write, you should use something else.
Pimsleur also requires a larger time commitment than other resources. It requests 30 minutes every day, without the flashcards and other bells and whistles found in the app. It’s a good commute companion (and there’s a dedicated screen for driving), but that’s about as much multitasking as anyone’s brain can manage.
The final issue is that Pimsleur is expensive. If it’s too expensive for you, that’s fine; you may still have a terrific language-learning experience with the more economical resources listed here. We will state, however, that if you have the money to pay for one resource and the time to set aside, we strongly advise you to pay for this one. While other resources spend more attention on grammatical rules and complicated mechanics, nothing else we’ve seen teaches as much useable material in as little time. This is the most expensive app we tested at the start of my journey, and it’s the one we’re currently paying for.
Number 2. Duolingo
