Pimsleur Farsi Persian

Today I finished the thirtieth and final lesson available from Pimsleur for Iranian Persian (also known as Farsi). I am slightly in mourning; I love Pimsleur’s products so much, and I wish they had more lessons for this particular language. For the most popular ones, they have 120!

I have not to date encountered anything quite as good as Pimsleur at advancing my oral skills in foreign languages.

I completed Lesson 30 on a sunny run in Central Park, appreciating once again how conveniently this product fits into the corners of my life. I can run with it, walk, do errands, complete chores, wait in line, and so on. Pimsleur is portable, as it is an all-audio product. (Well, it has reading lessons, too, but I rarely do them, as I usually get my reading and writing from other sources.)

I can’t exaggerate the value of this portability. When you are a grownup with work, and kids, and/or other obligations, it can be hard to find time to set up a computer or sit down with a book.

But: Taking an elevator somewhere? Pop in your Pimsleur. Walking to the corner store? Pop in your Pimsleur. And so on.

Each lesson is about 30 minutes long and highly interactive. You don’t learn a ton of words, but you do get some very useful vocabulary along with a sense of the language’s architecture and a great deal of pronunciation practice. Try a free Persian lesson off their website to see if it suits you.

I never do Pimsleur in isolation; I always supplement with other materials as well. I use Memrise for vocabulary, I use grammar books, I use anything I can get my hands on, really. But Pimsleur has often acted as the spine of my learning programs, and I suspect it will continue to do so for other languages in the future.