Is Pimsleur Expensive?

A Pimsleur course is less expensive than you may think.

 

People say that Pimsleur is expensive.  It's true -- Pimsleur courses cost more than other programs (Living Language, Barron's, Rosetta Stone).  Is Pimsleur worth the money?  Let’s compare Pimsleur with three popular alternatives.

 

Private Lessons

 

A private Chinese language tutor at my local university charges $25 per hour.  An English conversation partner charges the same amount.  Compared to them, what is the cost per hour for a Pimsleur comprehensive set at Catee’s Language World?  Each Comprehensive course comes with 16 hours of lessons. At $156.95 per course, the cost comes down to less than $11 per hour.  That’s less than half the cost of a language tutor.  If you listen to your courses twice, you can bring the hourly cost down even further. On an hourly basis, Pimsleur is cheaper (and more effective). Pimsleur courses will never tire of you, unlike your tutors. You can practice any time day and night. Will a tutor do that for you?

 

College Course

 

The price of a college course varies with the college, ranging from hundreds of dollars at a community college to thousands of dollars at private universities.  At my local college, a three credit hour Spanish course will cost you $918 (not including the lab fee).  This course meets one hour, 3 times a week, for about 15 weeks.  A total of 45 hours of instruction per semester.  The price: about $20 per hour.  Of course, some of you will protest by saying that Pimsleur does not teach reading and writing skills like college courses, and I agree.  The comparison is not completely fair.  But how much attention are you getting from the teacher during those 45 hours when each professor has 20 students (or more) per class?  I will ll also let you in on a little secret -- many universities use Pimsleur in their language labs.

 

Immersion Course

 

For our final comparison, there are language immersion courses.  I imagine few people have actually had the luxury of attending one of these affairs.  Imagine paying thousands of dollars for an international plane ticket. Then one must also pay for food and housing.  Obviously, this type of language learning is on a whole different level, and probalbly more expensive than many of us can afford.  It’s impossible to calculate the price per hour, but needless to say, it’s expensive and only for the most dedicated.  I can’t deny that it may be a better deal than Pimsleur.

 

Comparing the Numbers

 

Let’s compare the final tally.

 

Pimsleur: $11 / hour

College course: $20 / hour

Private tutor: $25 / hour (plus or minus $10 per hour)

Immersion course: Price per hour very high

 

In the end, Pimsleur language courses are affordable and practical compared to the alternatives.  The price per hour of language instruction is less than that of college courses or private tutoring.