Are Pimsleur CD's worht the $?

Some people would argue that Pimsleur are great, because they offer total immersion.

I tend to disagree.

The CDs have you to imagine that you are a six-month old child, listening and learning; using the method that our brain uses to pick up our first language. However, there is only so far that you can get like this. It means that your skills may be imbalanced (you may be able to string a few lines of Russian or Chinese together, but you surely will not be able to write them properly a proportion of the time.)

It also means that you know what to say in set situations, but it takes just as long to be able to ad-lib.

There is no given best way. You have to immerse yourself, somehow, in the language, and give frequent time to it; about 1 hr, every day. I personally prefer to learn grammar first, but I seem to be quite anomalous in that.

i agree, grammar is important, but if you only want to speak the language casually, it's not necessary.

the best way to learn a language, is to go to the country of origin, or surround yourself with it, that way you learn the slang etc. as well. try asking friends/random strangers who already speak it to help.

the worst way is through school. must be. i speak english, welsh, german, spanish and french, and german was the worst, because it was through school. Learning from tapes/cds takes a lot of determination, because there isn't a need for you to work at it, or practise.