Many language learners turn to audio programs to start speaking quickly.

Pimsleur is one of the oldest and most famous audio-based language courses in the world.

Its Korean course promises to help you hold basic conversations through daily 30-minute audio lessons.

However, the Korean curriculum offered by Pimsleur has some serious limitations for modern learners.

Before spending money on their subscription, you should know exactly what you’re getting into.

A better alternative: Talk In Korean

If you want to learn natural, everyday Korean, I highly recommend using Talk In Korean instead of Pimsleur.

Pimsleur teaches very stiff, formal language that native speakers rarely use in casual settings.

Talk In Korean is specifically designed to teach you the modern Korean that people actually speak in South Korea today.

Our curriculum breaks down the grammar clearly so you understand exactly how sentences are built.

You’ll learn a perfect balance of polite and casual Korean to fit any social situation.

How the Pimsleur Korean curriculum works

Pimsleur is entirely built around conversational audio lessons.

The core curriculum relies on spaced repetition to help you memorize words and phrases.

A narrator prompts you in English, and you must respond out loud in Korean.

The course is broken down into multiple levels, with each level containing thirty audio lessons.

You’re expected to complete one 30-minute lesson per day.

There’s very little reading or writing involved in the early stages of the program.

Pros of Pimsleur Korean

There are a few distinct benefits to using the Pimsleur method.

First, it forces you to speak out loud from day one.

Many learners study silently and freeze up when it’s time to actually talk.

Pimsleur prevents this by constantly prompting you to form sentences and speak them into the room.

Second, it’s excellent for developing good pronunciation.

The native speakers on the audio tracks enunciate very clearly.

They break difficult words down syllable by syllable starting from the end of the word.

This backward-building technique makes long Korean words much easier to pronounce.

Cons of Pimsleur Korean

Despite its strengths in pronunciation, Pimsleur Korean falls short in several major areas.

The biggest problem is that it teaches overly formal Korean.

Korean has a complex system of honorifics and politeness levels.

Pimsleur primarily relies on the highly formal “Habsho-che” (합쇼체) ending, which ends in -mnida (-습니다).

While this is polite, it sounds incredibly stiff and unnatural in daily life.

Native speakers mostly use the standard polite “Haeyo-che” (해요체) ending in everyday situations.

Here’s an example of the stiff phrasing Pimsleur often relies on.

Here’s how a native speaker would actually say that same sentence in a normal, polite conversation.

Another major flaw is the complete lack of grammar explanations.

Korean grammar is vastly different from English.

The sentence structure is Subject-Object-Verb, and words use tiny attached particles to show their role in the sentence.

Pimsleur just gives you the phrase and expects you to memorize it without explaining how the pieces fit together.

This makes it very difficult to create your own original sentences later on.

Final verdict

Pimsleur provides a decent way to practice Korean pronunciation and get used to speaking out loud.

However, the curriculum is simply too rigid and formal for modern language learners.

You’ll end up sounding like a news anchor or an old textbook rather than a real person.

The lack of grammar explanations will also severely limit your ability to build your own sentences.

To actually communicate effectively with native speakers, you need a program that teaches modern, practical Korean.

This is exactly why you should learn with Talk In Korean.

You’ll gain a deep understanding of the language and learn to speak just like the locals do in Seoul.