Pimsleur Punjabi Conversational Course Level 1 Lessons 1-5

    Sat Sri Akaal, friends.

    I’ve been doing book reviews for years, but this book is the first of its kind. The Pimsleur Punjabi Conversational Course is a language-learning tool that, as you have likely guessed, is intended to help me learn Punjabi.

    I got the book as an audiobook, which is really its only functional format. In fact, the book’s introduction explicitly states that you should not look up words or consider spelling when engaging with the Pimsleur method. The method then relies on a lot of repetition; the narrators introduce phrases, you repeat them back syllable-by-syllable and then as whole words. I can’t deny that the repetition is effective; I feel like I’ll always remember to ask qui tuhanu Angrezzi onde heh? Or even tuhardu qui haal heh? (Do you understand English? How are you?). 

    That said, my style of learning isn’t exclusively auditory. I feel like I need to -see- the language. This is particularly true for some times when the pronunciation seemed to vary or shift. In particular, when they were teaching me how to say that I’m good, the male narrator seemed to say meh TEAK huh while the female narrator consistently sounded like meh PEAK huh. I had to defer to a Punjabi expert to clarify what I was hearing.

    I do wish that they gave you some more lessons for the cost; it gives some very introductory phrases, which is fine, but selling the lessons in packs of 5 left a little bit more to be desired. They sometimes explain why the language is the way it is, but I could have used a little more there. For instance, I was a little unclear on word order (and even the separation of some words), or why some words changed forms in different contexts. At times they explain the general idea; men say bolda to refer to the verb speaking and women use boldi. I *think* I’ve inferred that when you’re making a statement you say something like “manu Angrezzi bolda heh” but if you’re responding to a question you might say “manu Angrezzi bolda ho.”

    Anyway, I suppose it’s a matter of your philosophy of language and your learning style. The Pimsleur courses are reliant on conversational repetition. I wouldn’t mind, though, getting some more background on why the language works the way it does. I think coming out of French Immersion I got used to the idea of rules being well-established and then applying the rules; here it’s the reverse—you see rules in application and only afterward do you start to infer the rules. This approach made things like asking for directions particularly difficult because the word order is essentially reversed—something like “This road where is you know?” or when words changed in context; for instance, the word for speaking well is different from doing other things well. Actually, learning how to ask for directions was a hard unit and anecdotally it seemed like it went faster than the other units, but that may just have been my panic.

-Qui tuhanu Punjabi onde heh?

-Hanji. Qui tusee Amrikan ho?

-Naheenji. Parr manu tori tori Angrezzi. Manu Punjabi bhoti ziada nahee onde heh.

-Tuhanu ta Punjabi bahot changitera onde heh!

    I ended up reviewing each of the lessons several times, though they build in helpful repetition from previous units. I feel like I’ve more or less mastered the first three of the five units, but I’m still struggling over the directions and the words for saying you want something to eat or drink (helpful memory tip: if you associate words in a different language from the one you speak to words in your own language, it can help! For instance, “later” sounds like “bad witch” in English and I enjoy that very much.”

    Ultimately, Pimsleur courses are going to be very restrictive by nature. You’ll learn conversational phrases that might work in small talk. I’m sure that eventually the lessons will get increasingly difficult and more complex. Overall, though, I think I will need additional resources to help me learn the language—I need to see it, hear it from more voices, speak it, read it. I need the full experience, especially if my goal is to write some poems in Punjabi.

    If nothing else, trying to learn a language really can promote some empathy for all the people trying to master English—a different script, different sounds, different grammatical structure. Eesh it’s tough.

    Anyway, ਖੁਸ਼ ਪੜ੍ਹਨਾ!