Berlitz Basic French: The Unique, Simple, and Successful Approach to Language [Audio Cassette]

Berlitz Publishing Company (Author), Globe Pequot Press (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996 | ISBN-10: 2831557194 | ISBN-13: 978-2831557199 | Edition: Bk&Cssts

One of the most popular and successful beginning self-teaching language courses of its kind, Berlitz Basic offers a general introduction to a foreign language, with a particular emphasis on listening and speaking. Audio and text support provide a dual approach: Native speakers reinforce the audio's conversational focus, while the study guide provides exercises to test progress.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Basic French is a complete French language instruction kit which includes three 60-minute audio cassettes, a 192-page study guide (complete with texts, simple rules of grammar, notes, and exercises), and 24 lively, listen-and-repeat sound "scenes" covering everyday topics such as greetings, telling time, counting, changing money, and getting directions. Berlitz is the premier language instruction publisher and with Basic French has created a format that is a step-by-step method that will have you conversing with ease in only a few enjoyable hours. The key is speaking aloud, then repeating, and thereby building confidence as you build an everyday working vocabulary. Basic French is ideal for the business traveler, vacationer, and Francophiles who wish to converse in the native tongue when visiting areas as diverse as Quebec, Cajun Country, France, or the Mediterranean and southeast asian countries. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Audio Cassette: 200 pages
• Publisher: Berlitz Multimedia; Bk&Cssts edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2831557194
• ISBN-13: 978-2831557199
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #809,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Books on Cassette > Languages > French

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, easy--but for beginners who plan to learn more, October 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Berlitz Basic French: The Unique, Simple, and Successful Approach to Language (Audio Cassette)

I give this 5 stars not because I bought it "...and by the weekend I'd translated Maupassant!" --but because I think it is a very good tool to help BEGINNERS create and comprehend simple, conversational sentences--and say them correctly--by the third chapter or so. (There are 24 chapters.) The cassettes have approx. 3 hours of spoken french to listen to, to repeat, and to give you a good idea of the often arbitrary (and frustrating!) pronunciation. Each chapter presents several brief dialogues, listen-repeat and q&a exercises that really reinforce the vocabulary and grammar. There is NO English on the tapes, so they aren't ideal to listen to while you walk the dog or drive to work unless you've worked through the lesson already. All the more French to immerse yourself in! Definitions and grammar are presented as notes along the edge of each page, so they are not exactly comprehensive but I found them easy to understand and they got me through the exercises fine. If your idea of great language instruction is grammar-intensive and not neccesarily audio, this may not be for you. On the other hand if you learn best hearing the language in repeated, short (and not boring) episodes, this is right up your alley! Pronunciation isn't laid out methodically here, and the glossary is no substitute for a good dictionary, so you might benefit from those in addition to this set. (Try How to Pronounce French Correctly.) For people unfamiliar with or intimidated by French, but who want to learn more than some tourist phrases, this is a good place to start before moving on to materials that move at a faster pace and that have more demanding exercises. I was very pleased with it and much more confident when I began studying more seriously.

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an enjoyable introduction to conversational french, January 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Berlitz Basic French: The Unique, Simple, and Successful Approach to Language (Audio Cassette)

I found Basic French to be an enjoyable refresher for my long-forgotten college French. The 3 60-minute cassetes have 24 lessons which introduce verbs and nouns in related skits involving a French teacher, a student, a secretary and her manager. The skits have good instructional content, are pleasant and are plausible (for example, an early episode has the secretary counting her money, and one of the final episodes is a dinner party hosted by the manager). The episodes provide a variety of native speakers with varying (regional?) accents, and varying (but appropriate) moods of astonishment, annoyance, gratefulness and boredom. There is no boring drillwork but there is instructive repetition built into the skits.

My only complaint is that the past and future tenses are hurriedly covered in the last skits.

If I were to do this again, I would get the French Today package (4 60-minute cassettes) for the additional hour of practice material (which presumably provides some real practice with past and future tenses) and for the extra books such as the dictionary.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT -- A must have if you are a beginner., April 27, 2001

By 

G. Pierre "gpiib" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Berlitz Basic French: The Unique, Simple, and Successful Approach to Language (Audio Cassette)

I absolutely love this set. I have tried many differnt self taught packets and they all dissapointed me. This set makes me want to play the lessons over and over, they are very catchy which helps in remembering. With in three months YES I was able to communite faily well with my relatives in Montreal and France. Get it, it's great if you are planning a trip to a french country. The lessons are easy to catch on to. Good Luck!