Great question.

I think Pimsleur is good at what it does: getting you to a very basic level of speech. All you do is listen, repeat and answer, somewhat similar to Learn German Easily, and the program does the rest for you. I have only used Pimsleur Spanish but my impression is that they take a while before introducing new stuff. In other words, it’s sometimes too easy.

I like the short lessons because they give you a sense of control. It won’t overwhelm you. Anybody can complete a lesson of a few minutes and, like I said, it’s easier to repeat. In the end it comes down to personal preference, I guess, whether you like the shorter lessons with manual repetitions, so to speak, or the Pimsleur approach.

You talk about liking the length and how easily the sessions can be repeated, but what would your thoughts be in comparison, to say, Pimsleur, where the sessions are longer and have repetition built into them? If you know Pimsleur, what are your thoughts about their presentation in terms of balancing the capacity of information they’re asking your to contain with repetition per lesson?

It’s never “easy” to learn a new language. But there’s always some marketing involved, of course.

I think “Easily” refers to the fact that all you need to do is listen, read, repeat and answer questions. You don’t have to worry about grammar.