Customer Reviews

Berlitz Self-Teacher: French

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Preparing for a recent trip to France, I bought several books and audio tapes on French. The Berlitz Self-Teacher was by far the most helpful resource. By spelling each French word out phoenetically each time its used, it eliminates the tedious cross-referencing time required by other books. The quizzes at the end of each chapter (along with corresponding answers for each question) were extremely well-executed and helpful in learning the language. The illustrations were also very useful for the more visually-minded among us.

I have used the Berlitz Self Teacher and lot's of other books to learn French. I must say that the Berlitz Self Teacher is the best book out there.
If you follow the instructions provided you will be able to speak French well, and with more practice become pretty fluent.
But you have to speak out loud and at the end of each lesson, finish the Thinking in French exercises and form more questions on your own based on the material in the preceding Chapter.
If you do that, and it will take some time and effort, you will discover, that this method works!!!!!!
This book uses a better method than French Made Simple, Living Language French, Express Track to French and many others. I have used them all.
After I finished this book I went to Europe on vacation, and I was able to communicate very well in the language.
This book actually teaches you to become fluent in French, not just to speak Phrasebook French.

This book is wonderful. Even if you know no French and are willing to work diligently and speak out loud, (which admittedly isn't easy!) you will find sooner rather than later, you'll be able to converse, en francais as it were. The lessons are simple and direct, well structured and the answer keys are accurate, I would also recommend parents to buy this for their school kids and a copy for themselves and join the fun. The structure of the book will also help you when you have completed it and ready to move on to an intermediate level of reading and speaking!

Amusez-vous bien

I have a minor in French. My love of the language began in elementary school, leading to three years of French classes in high school and continued study in college. This book is excellent for beginners as well as those who have advanced exposure to the language. This book is visually appealing: it complements any formal course of instruction. It serves as excellent "reinforcement" review for those who wish to 'come back' to the language after years of disuse.

Just the steak....without the sizzle!!!! I agree with a previous reviewer that there is a reason why a 60 year old text has held up so well over the years. The instruction is intuitive and builds logically. The pronunciation is transilliterated to facilitate pronunciation. Each leçon is approximately 3 pages long. A certain activity is described in about 50 sentences. Each sentence is in French, transilliterated French, and English. Subsequent sentences build upon the prior ones. At the end of each leçon is a self test of about 15 questions, with answers. Each leçon might take 10-15 minutes, depending on your skills. Effective study sessions can be multiples of that duration of time. Each chapter also has a "Note to Student", where important explanations are given. Concise...convenient....easy...and fun!!!!
This text is also a wonderful adjunct to any other French course(s) you might be using. I believe that there is a tendency to use the latest, most expensive, most hyped language course methods out there. While we all learn differently, a daily, conscientious approach is required, regardless of the course (or cost). My experience with Amazon has been that the most highly rated products do not disappoint. Many of the popular language courses today harp on immersion, as opposed to vocabulary and conjugations. They claim that your first language was learned that way. While I do not disagree, and concur that throwing you in the deep end will force you to learn to swim, the adult brain does learn differently than the child's. Sometimes we need to know WHY it was said like that. Buy, use and enjoy this gem!! You will not be disappointed. Bonne chance!!!!

This is great stuff! I developed better-than-decent proficiency at both French and German, starting from ground zero, working with these books for only a week or so. I would prefer a few more rules frankly stated as such: I found that I had to infer rules from what at first seemed like irregularities or surprises in a sample text. I don't know how the author(s) managed, but the odd assortment of dialogues is evidently sufficiently ingeniously chosen that one builds a strong practical vocabulary--certainly to make oneself clearly understood and to have educated foreigners truthfully tell you that they're most impressed with the extent of your command of language X. Warning: German will prove somewhat more difficult than French, as the conjugations are more detailed, the genders are more numerous (three versus two), and the declensions of adjectives and nouns will definitely present an onerous burden that one never fully gets used to. (BTW, the older printings were preferable--I'd rather have an honest green overcoat with the German or French text than have a black-and-white overcoat with an arrow pointing to it that says in English, "Um, er, pretend that this thing here is colored green.")

I started with Berlitz Self-Teacher Spanish. Having completed the Spanish text, I have decided to expand my study to French.

Although there is no updated since 1949, this is still the good source of any language study. I like this series because French and Spanish texts share the same contents for many parts so I can compare words and phrases with both books. This is the good way not to forget (and not to be confused with) what I have already learnt.

It would be nice if we could get the CD version. Any update would be more appreciated. But this book definitely works for the purpose afterall.

This is a very nice book for people who are completely new to the language and for people that do not have a good grasp of the pronunciation of the language. This book along with a good student English/French dictionary is a good place to start for a beginner.

I've been learning French, and I have to say, the pronunciation guides in this are just flat out wrong. You can't learn to speak a new language based on the sounds of your own language. Have you ever heard English spoken with such a thick accent that you can't understand? That is from speaking English without learning the English sounds, and you will sound the same way in other countries if you try to learn their languages using English sounds. LISTEN to the language. This is why I think audio supplements are so critical to learning a language. I also find that by having the (flawed) pronunciation spellings throughout the book, it slows down your ability to learn to read the language in its natural spelling, basically like a crutch. If you just want to learn how French looks and works on paper, fine, but if you want to be understood in your new language, look elsewhere. Language learning has come a long way in the last 61 years (since this book was last edited).

I'm very pleased with this book. I've been listening to audio tapes but those only help me speak French. As an English speaking person, it is difficult for me to associate the spoken word with how it is written in French.

With this book, it is easy to read and understand the words and easy to sound out how it should be spoken. As I'm reading, I find words that I've learned how to say and can start recognizing how it is written. Also,I discovered that I don't always hear the tapes as clearly as I thought and I have been saying the word incorrectly.