Pimsleur Review

Thursday, January 23rd

2025 Korean Lesson Reviews

Pimsleur

• Focuses on learning through listening
• No practice of reading or writing Korean
• Free one-week trial
• $14.95/month for access to all Korean audio lessons
• $19.95/month for Korean Premium (audio-only + "visual tools”)
• $20.95/month for access to all 50+ Pimsleur languages

Pimsleur is a language learning method renowned for its audio-based approach, focusing on conversational proficiency and auditory comprehension. Developed by Dr. Paul Pimsleur, the program emphasizes active participation through spaced repetition and organic learning, where learners engage in realistic dialogues and repeat phrases to internalize language patterns.

Structured lessons

Pimsleur's structured lessons gradually introduce new vocabulary and grammar in context, building upon previous knowledge to reinforce learning. The program covers a wide range of languages and offers levels from beginner to advanced, catering to learners of varying proficiency levels. With its portable format and emphasis on oral proficiency, Pimsleur provides an effective and convenient option for language learners seeking to develop practical speaking and listening skills.

Heavy focus on audio learning

While Pimsleur has a fantastic reputation overall and could be an excellent option if your only goal is to be able to understand spoken Korean and be able to speak it yourself, the focus on audio learning (with a reading component only available if you're using the desktop version, as far as we could tell) is a huge drawback with a language with an alphabet different from the one you already use (you can't sound it out phonetically if you don't know how the letters translate into the sounds you recognize).

Create an account to get a free lesson

But, let's assume that maybe your primary goal is to be able to converse freely in Korean (or to understand that K-drama you're binge-watching without having the English subtitles on). Go to the top of the Pimsleur site and choose the link for a free lesson. You'll have to create an account to access it, but it's a great way to see (or hear?) how the platform works.

7-day free trial on paid subscriptions

You can also take advantage of the 7-day free trial of Pimsleur before you commit - just make sure to cancel before that week is up, or you'll automatically be charged $14.95 for your first month's subscription, to the credit card you entered when creating your account for the trial.

3 paid plans to choose from

That was the point where we felt a little... misled?...by Pimsleur. When we chose Korean in the dropdown box, we were taken to a page to "pick the right plan”. That's where we found that it's $14.95/month for the audio-only Korean lessons, but we could pay $19.95 for a Premium subscription with "visual tools”. Those include flashcards, a "Speak Easy” roleplay tool, and several other features. Finally, for just $1 more a month, we could get access to all 50+ Pimsleur languages at the Premium level. We would have preferred to see all of that spelled out from the get-go, and not sprung on us as a surprise when we were just trying to get to the free trial. And, by the way, if you already know you want to commit to Pimsleur for a whole year, you can save up to 34% by paying annually ($134.95 to $164.95, depending on which tier you choose among Korean Audio-Only, Korean Premium, or All Access).

Audio + Visuals is worth the extra money

If you can wade through all of that, however, Pimsleur winds up being a lot more well-rounded than you might initially think. The sample lesson for Korean pulls out all the stops, showing you not only the first full audio lesson, but previewing everything available when you go for the Audio + Visuals. These extras include a voice coach to perfect your pronunciation with speech recognition, a phonetic approach to reading (with lessons that don't always correspond to the vocabulary you're learning), flash cards, a quick match quiz, and "Speak Easy” for working on your rhythm, cadence, and accent in Korean.

You'll need to be able to speak out loud while you listen

One thing to point out: even if you're going for the audio-only style of learning Korean, you're going to need a learning environment where you can speak out loud: think of your car on your daily commute, but maybe not on a crowded subway or while walking down the streets of a big city. A big part of the Pimsleur process is repeating after the native speaker, and you don't necessarily want everyone around you to have to listen to you practicing.

120 lessons across 4 levels of Korean

How far can you go with Pimsleur? Their Korean lessons consist of 4 different levels, each of which consists of thirty 30-minute daily audio lessons. In addition to each level's 15 hours of audio language instruction, the Premium subscription gives you access to those additional tools; at each level of Korean, you'll get 300 digital flashcards (which can conveniently be toggled to show you the English approximation of the sounds, the Hangeul alone, or both together), 300 Quick Match Questions, 30 Speak Easy conversations, and 30 "light bulb moments” to introduce Korean culture and history.

Up to 4 people can share a Premium membership

Pimsleur wants to make it even easier for you to study Korean, by syncing your lessons across whatever devices you're using to log into your account. And, speaking of accounts, you can add up to three additional household members when you choose a Premium membership. So, you and your roomies could all be working on Korean, or with the all-access tier, you can make progress on Korean while your spouse brushes up on her Spanish and your son starts learning Mandarin Chinese.

Works very well for audio learners

So, does Pimsleur work for learning Korean? For those who love learning intuitively through audio, the answer is typically an enthusiastic "yes”. We found some users who completed the Level 1 of Korean on Pimsleur and tested into a relatively high level on Duolingo (just for comparison), which usually takes many, many months to accomplish. (We used Duolingo's Korean lessons for 30 days straight and got almost nowhere, but you can read more about that in our separate review of that platform). And, for less than $25 a month, you can access all of Pimsleur's languages, which is pretty reasonable if you're ready to invest some time in your studies.

Visual learners will probably be frustrated

But, for us personally, the mostly-audio approach was frustrating. We wanted to see how the letters work to make what we were saying, and found ourselves creating English-alphabet approximations in our head to try and match what we were repeating. You probably won't be shocked to learn that we had a pretty big headache after just the first 10 minutes of the sample Korean lesson. As more visual learners, we weren't "wowed” by the way Pimsleur teaches the language, but at the same time, we can see (pun intended) how it would be the perfect option for those who learn by hearing or even for those who have challenges with reading (such as dyslexia).

Worth it to take the free lesson first

Our advice? Take Pimsleur's free lesson for Korean. All you have to do is create an account, no credit card info required. If you fall in love with it, or if you want to see if their more advanced levels are a good fit for the Korean you already know, sign up for a one-week trial of the Premium service on the month-to-month plan. You can always change your membership to the annual subscription once you know that Pimsleur is your absolute favorite way to learn the language and you want to save money in the long run. $20/month isn't a huge spend on the month-to-month plan (or $25 if you want to use all of the languages in the Pimsleur library), and you can cancel your membership at any time.

Great platform but not everyone's perfect fit

Overall, we give Pimsleur an above average rating for its Korean lessons. There's something to be said for the way it approaches language learning, trying to approximate the natural way we all acquired our first language. And, if you love learning through friendly, thorough audio lessons on the go, Pimsleur has that and more. It's just that the audio-focused approach will miss the mark for many students who crave the visuals right from the first lesson, which keeps Pimsleur from a higher ranking among providers of Korean lessons.