It was an eye opener for me to realize the simple fact that: You will learn what you practice. If you practice reading and speaking words, that is what you wi

It was an eye opener for me to realize the simple fact that: You will learn what you practice. If you practice reading and speaking words, that is what you will learn. Unfortunately the language is not in its essence consisting of words (although that's a part of it), but sentences. Also, the pronunciation is much more important than people realize, because it is extremely hard to re-learn a pronunciation you have learned wrong. And this is why I love and have had pretty surprising results with Pimsleur. As a testament, I did 7 lessons of Pimsleur Hebrew before visiting Israel for a conference. Talking to people in the elevator, I pronounced my "Ani lo mevin ivritt" with such a perfect pronunciation that they started talking to me full gas ahead. I also did a few dozen lessons of German, and felt I improved my knowledge more than I did during 2-3 years of school study. What I like with Pimsleur is how combines a number of very well thought out factors: - It practices real world sentences that are useful in conversations from minute 1 - It drills down to the single individual syllable, to make sure you got the pronunciation right - The correct pronunciation and real world sentences and topic in turn makes it much easier IMO to pick up what people in the language are talking about (I overhear my languages I study a lot on the subway etc now) - It only requires 30 minute audio-based listening and practicing per day, which means it is perfect for a bike commute or daily run/walk. - The spaced repetition works really great