Pimsleur German

Pimsleur offers highly interactive German audio lessons, roughly half an hour each, that give users way more opportunities to practice their oral skills than they would be likely to have in even the smallest of conversation classes.

I love Pimsleur German. The audio lessons are an amazing way to get yourself talking immediately and to work on your accent. There is a newer offering as well, called Pimsleur German Unlimited, which is a multimedia product including not only the audio lessons but also flashcards, games, chat rooms, and more.

I haven’t yet tried the Unlimited, but on the strength of the Pimsleur German audio lessons alone, I strongly recommend it. (The pricing is nearly identical for the Unlimited and the audio-only products, so you might as well get the more robust package and see what you think.) To ensure that Pimsleur German is right for you before you buy, you can try a sample lesson for free at the Pimsleur website. 

Navigating all the German options right now is a little confusing, so here are a few clarifications:

• There are currently a total of 100 Pimsleur German audio lessons available, 90 of which have been incorporated into the Unlimited product. You can buy lessons 91-100 separately as MP3s if you like.
• This year Pimsleur will be recording 30 new audio lessons, bringing the total number of audio lessons for German to 120. (Existing lessons 91-100 will be supplanted by these new lessons.)
• The next step will be to incorporate these new audio lessons into a four-level Pimsleur German Unlimited offering containing all 120 audio lessons.
• If you are commitmentphobic about your language-learning, you can buy Pimsleur German audio lessons in small quantities on their site and in even smaller quantities on iTunes, which allows you to buy just one a time.