Primsleur vs. Rocket Language?

Language Learning Resources
1

Hi all!

I started Rocket Italian about a month ago after reading Donovan’s reviews and recommendations for it, but just recently heard of Primsleur and read his review on it. I feel like Primsleur would be a better way to start, due to the all-audio method, but Primsleur isn’t even mentioned as a top resource for Italian on this Guild site. Rocket Italian includes a lot of reading, writing, and memorization, which Donovan talks about hindering language learning. I am definitely a person who pictures vocabulary words in my head when trying to speak the language, slowing me down significantly (my issue with taking 6 years of Spanish in school and still struggling with it), so I’m apprehensive about continuing with Rocket Italian……

I know the quality of each of these resources depends on the target language you’re studying, but does anyone have any input on this? Do you recommend Primsleur? I mostly don’t want to spend money on it when I already bought Rocket Italian, unless it’s worth it.

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I have studied five languages over 40+ years, using books, Linguaphone, Rosetta Stone, various web platforms (incl. ItalianPod101) and most recently, Rocket Italian. To my mind, Rocket is streets ahead. I’ve made unprecedented progress with Rocket over 4+ years of daily use (the slow but sure school). I have read various Pimsleur reviews over the years which were ok, but not overwhelming, so my vote would be to persist with Rocket and not buy Pimsleur. Bear in mind that Rocket do an overhaul of their content every few years or so, all at no extra cost. Just my opinion. Buona fortuna. Chris

3

Thanks for your response Chris! Good to hear. I appreciate the feedback.

Take care!