ive used pimsleur before to develop very basic conversational skills for survival needs. like a baseline for asking for help, identifying oneself and the basic situation you are in. which also helped trigger my ear to hear language patterns instead of inscrutable sounds.

I did some basic Italian (🤌🏻🤟🏻), Spanish (to refresh for a trip), and Japanese for specific situations I was getting into. I like the structure of the lessons and starting conversationally, which is how humans enter into language anyway. I also like being a parrot and imitating. Italian is hilarious. I tried pimsleur mandarin just for the hell of it and struggled a lot with the tonal stuff, but also had nothing pressuring me to learn it and had no way to practice, so I didn't keep up with it. I'll probably try again, especially if I ever meet a native speaker I can practice with.

anyway, pimsleur is pretty easy to try, at least. but, even if you crush it, you'll be illiterate... so? probably multiple tools are gonna be necessary.