Pimsleur Mandarin review: what 30 minutes a day actually teaches (video)
Pimsleur's Mandarin course is 150 half-hour audio lessons. What its recall method does well, the character gap, prices from $14.95, and who should skip it.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:19The short answer
- 0:40A lesson you answer aloud
- 1:25The schedule is the weaker claim
- 2:19How long it really takes
- 3:09Tones and characters
- 4:10No one to talk back
- 4:37The monthly plan is cheapest
- 5:10Pimsleur vs Duolingo
- 6:00What to do next
Transcript
Start
A Pimsleur lesson lasts 30 minutes. Yet in Pimsleur's own study, learners spent a median of about 45 minutes on each one. And that was Spanish, not Mandarin. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: our Pimsleur Mandarin review. What 30 minutes a day actually teaches.
The short answer
The short answer: yes, if you want to start speaking Mandarin by ear. You say each answer out loud before you hear it, and research strongly supports that. But the whole course is about 80 hours, it teaches pinyin instead of characters, and nothing in it holds a real conversation. Expect to pay about $20 a month.
A lesson you answer aloud
So what happens in a lesson? Two native speakers have a short dialogue. Then an English narrator takes it apart, phrase by phrase, and every few seconds, it's your turn. Here's our own example. The narrator asks how you'd say, 'I'd like to drink tea.' You answer in the pause: 我想喝茶. Then a native speaker says it right, and you check yourself. That pause is Pimsleur's best idea. Researchers call it retrieval practice. A review of 222 classroom studies found that quizzing yourself beats rereading, and recalling an answer teaches more than picking it from a list. If you do one thing right with Pimsleur, make it this: answer before the voice does, even when you're not sure.
The schedule is the weaker claim
Pimsleur's other big idea is timing. In a 1967 paper, Paul Pimsleur proposed bringing a word back at ever-longer gaps, each about five times the one before. We worked his rule forward. Start at 5 seconds, and the gaps grow to 25 seconds, about 2 minutes, about 10 minutes, and on out to about 113 days. Only the first four recalls fit inside one lesson. Spacing itself is solid science. A 2022 review of 48 language experiments found a medium-to-large effect. But the same review found even gaps worked as well as ever-longer ones, and Pimsleur himself didn't claim proof. So don't fuss over the timing: do a lesson a day. Our scorecard: strong on recall and spacing, unproven on growing gaps, partly there on feedback, and missing conversation and reading.
How long it really takes
So what does 30 minutes really take? The only outcome study we found is Pimsleur's own, from 2019: adults learning Spanish for two months, paid for by Pimsleur, with no comparison group. That's where the 45-minute median comes from: many learners replayed parts. Only about three in ten finished Level 1 in those two months. Most who finished moved up one step, to Novice Mid: the second rung of ten. And the whole course? About 75 hours of audio, or 80 with the reading lessons. Pimsleur says that takes you to a high-intermediate level. Against typical course hours, that's past survival phrases for a trip, but short of HSK 2, and short of a 10-minute everyday conversation. The US State Department budgets about 2,200 class hours for professional Mandarin.
Tones and characters
Pimsleur teaches tones like a patient teacher in a car: it says every word clearly, and you copy it. Its booklet uses one syllable, said four ways: 诗, poem. 十, ten. 史, history. 是, to be. But the audio can't hear you. Say 十 when you meant 是, and the lesson carries on. Premium's Voice Coach scores phrases you record, but Pimsleur doesn't say whether it checks tones. So add tone-pair listening, and someone who can hear you. Reading is mostly missing. Levels 1 to 4 teach pinyin, the Latin-letter spelling. Characters only begin in Level 5, and only a selection. Then a noodle shop in Beijing writes 牛肉面, beef noodle soup, in characters, with no pinyin above them. Even HSK 1 expects you to recognize 246 characters. Pinyin gets you started. It won't get you through a menu.
No one to talk back
The gap that worries us most is conversation. Every Pimsleur dialogue is scripted. You never have to understand an answer you didn't expect. Yet across 28 studies, conversation with feedback had large effects on learning. Pimsleur's conversation coach is a beta, for Latin American Spanish and French only, on the All Access plan. Pimsleur gets you ready to talk. You still need someone, or something, to talk to.
The monthly plan is cheapest
Now, money. At a lesson a day, you'll finish in about five months. Monthly, that's $74.75 for audio only, $99.75 for Premium, or $104.75 for All Access. Buying all five levels costs $575, so finishing monthly costs about a sixth of buying. Premium is the plan most people want: $5 more a month buys Voice Coach. And before you pay, there's a free first lesson and a 7-day trial.
Pimsleur vs Duolingo
Pimsleur or Duolingo? They train opposite halves of the language. Duolingo teaches far more words: about 6,000, with characters from the start, and it's free. Pimsleur makes you say far more: you answer out loud every few seconds, where Duolingo mostly has you tap and pick. If you can, use both: Duolingo for characters and vocabulary, Pimsleur for speaking and listening. Here's our pick for each goal. To start speaking, hands-free: Pimsleur. To get it without paying: your library. A free daily habit: Duolingo. Characters and an HSK path: HelloChinese. Live speaking practice with correction: SayMei, which is ours. It can't come in the car, though. And a human ear for your tones: an italki tutor, at about $20 an hour.
What to do next
So, if you go ahead with Pimsleur: try before you pay. Answer before the voice does. Repeat a lesson until you get about four answers in five. Start characters early, a few minutes a day. And find someone, or something, to talk to. You can talk with Mei Lin for free: your first lesson is 10 minutes, with no account and no card. The full review, with every source, is on the page at saymei dot app.