@JayB: I think some of the Pimsleur courses do have more than 30 lessons, don’t they? "
Yes, some courses do. Unfortunately, for the languages I’ve been interested in Pimsleur only provides 30 lessons. I’m guessing that’s the reason Richard is only going to be doing 30 lessons in Hungarian, too. That’s all they offer.
Steve: “It is definitely of interest to hear that Richard takes 3 months to achieve A1 in Turkish, although he may be too modest.”
I think he’s being modest. Probably very modest.
In February, Judith Meyer (Sprachprofi) and I made it to A2 in Finnish in 35 hours within a 30-day frame. We were evaluated by a professor of Finnish at the University of Helsinki. You can read about it here (Accelerated Challenge (Feb) - Finnish (General discussion) Language Learning Forum). Grant it, it was not an official test, but we did 2 written tests and one oral test with him. There is no reason to think Richard wouldn’t have done the same, or better.
Some comments about Pimsleur:
I basically started my Russian journey with 3 levels of Russian Pimsleur. It was very enjoyable and I was always eager for the next lesson, sometimes doing them much faster than suggested.
I would do another course in Pimsleur, but not expect it to do much with only 1 level. IMO, more levels are necessary and with grammar supplements.
By the way, I later listened to Pimsleur Russian again and transcribed (and memorized) hundreds of phrases that I consider was another foundational action that gave me an extremely solid base.
@timroof: “By the way, I later listened to Pimsleur Russian again and transcribed (and memorized) hundreds of phrases that I consider was another foundational action that gave me an extremely solid base.”
I’ve also done that. It was actually really helpful to me, too, particularly after having completed another course. I would re-study something and think “Hmm… so THAT’S why they taught it that way. That makes total sense.” I would have preferred to have had that “Aha!” moment the first time around, though.