Pimsleur Review

Tuesday, January 21st

2025 Hindi Lesson Reviews

Pimsleur

• First week free
• $14.95/month after free trial
• Cancel anytime
• Audio lessons
• Confidently speak in 30 days

Pimsleur is named after Dr. Paul Pimsleur, a French-American linguist and scholar whose language-learning methods aim to tap into your natural ability to learn through hearing and speaking. Four key "secrets” to learning Hindi through Pimsleur are interval recall to permanently pick up new words and phrases, step challenges, learning 1,500 basic words to speak in the first 30 days, and learning grammar by listening, not studying.

Immerse yourself in the language

Pimsleur's methods aim to make students be an active part of the learning process by helping you to recall and participate with vocabulary and dialogue, rather than just memorize it. The program offers an audio series that only takes about 30 minutes per day where you'll be asked to say something out loud or respond to a native Hindi speaker as if you're in conversation. You'll need to respond at different intervals which is effective in helping you recall things you've been learning in previous lessons just like you would in a real life scenario. For people who are visual learners, the presenter of the audio series will have students imagine scenarios which can be nearly as useful for memory as seeing a physical text.

2 levels

Claims that you will be able to confidently speak Hindi within 30 days of using Pimsleur are a major selling point for the company. However, many people say that this is highly unlikely unless you're diligently doing your daily lessons and practicing the language outside of the Pimsleur platform nearly all day long. There are levels 1-2 for the Hindi language (the amount of levels varies based on the language), so doing these alone probably won't make you completely fluent, but it can give you a solid foundation of the language.

Need a credit card for free trial

You can try Pimsleur free for 7 days, but you'll have to put in credit card information to start. Once your week is up, you'll automatically be enrolled in their month-to-month membership for $14.95/month or $134.95/year. This is actually slightly more expensive than some other language learning platforms. The monthly plans for a single language are "audio only” so you don't get voice coaching, flashcards, or "bonus content” (they don't actually specify what this includes). Rather, you'll just get audio lessons for Hindi alone, which truthfully may be enough for most people.

Utilize your free lesson

It would be in your best interest to try the free lesson that Pimsleur offers before handing over your credit card information to sign up for a membership. It's a quick and easy way to get a broad idea of what the course is like. The lesson consists of an audio and pronunciation practice lesson where you'll hear phrases out loud and repeat them back. The second section is a reading lesson where you're shown consonants with their pronunciation and you practice them out loud one by one. A series of flash cards, quick quizzes, and speaking practice are also part of the free lesson. Each tool builds on the others so that you do some repeated practice to make sure you really understand and remember the things you're being taught.

Premium plan makes the most sense

If you like what you see in the free trial, to upgrade to the all access premium plan and get more than just audio only, the cost is $20.95/month or $164.95/year. This includes all the languages taught through the platform. It's not much more than audio only access, so if you're set on using Pimsleur, it makes the most sense to go the premium all access route.

Effective method

There are video testimonials on Pimsleur's website from people who have used their tools to learn a new language. The company says that no compensation was provided to these people, so we have to hope that they are true and reliable. Of course all of them speak highly of the course and talk about how quickly they were able to learn a new language well enough to converse with native speakers. On third-party sites, many other customers actually have pretty good things to say about Pimsleur as well. A lot of people mention that if you're okay just doing audio lessons, it's a great way for people who commute to start picking up new vocabulary while they drive. We feel like the lessons require quite a bit of focusing, so we'd personally rather do this as a wind down activity before bed or on a lunch break when we aren't distracted with anything else. For those who resonate with the Pimsleur audio learning method, this is one of the best companies to use for learning Hindi.

Simple learning approach

The Pimsleur approach to language learning has been around since 1963. It's true that just listening to people speak a language and trying to copy them can immerse you in the learning of it faster than almost anything else. If this is the route you want to go, then Pimsleur is straightforward and will teach you by this method. If you're someone who wants a heavy emphasis on flashcards, one-on-one tutoring, practice quizzes, progress tracking, or teaching games, Pimsleur won't be your best bet (although the platform has added a number of visual tools to its Premium subscription over the years). Pimsleur isn't the most inexpensive or comprehensive learning tool, but it works for many people, so they've earned a good rating from us.