Customer Reviews

Bilingual Baby, FRENCH, Vol 1 [VHS]

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

 

 

First of all, the above is true. I made the poor mistake of buying both --mostly because this one was so terrible and I thought the other one would be better. It was terrible for the following reasons: 1. The narrator is NOT a native French speaker as the video advertises and thus she mispronounces many of the words 2. I also really hate the fact that the words are not introduced with their articles, as they are supposed to be in French. You never just say "ball" in French as we do in English, you would say either "un ballon" or "le ballon" ("the ball", "a ball"). Moreover, without the articles, you don't learn the gender of the nouns, something we don't have in English and one of the most difficult things for us to learn in foreign languages. I am STILL struggling with genders after 20 years of speaking french (because I am not a native speaker but have lived in France for many years). More aggregiously, instead of including one of the many charming French childrens songs, they include a translation of "Mary had a Little Lamb (it doesn't even rhyme). This is all quite disappointing bc the whole point of teaching your child a foreign language at this age is that they don't need to learn it in translation (or in an English language context) they can learn it within the French language and cultural context. Please, don't waste your money. I can only imagine that the Spanish language version contains all of these same problems, by the way...

Done all in French (with only very small English subtitles to help parents and only shown briefly) - only way for French immersion. Colorful images, children's faces, parents' faces. Learn good basics in French - colors, things, numbers, Maman, Papa, etc. Pronounced slowly the word first, then used in a small sentence. I recommend it highly. An introduction to French songs (music only) used at the end of the tape. On the tape box, it is recommended for ages 1 to 5. But I have used it already for a 3 month old to get the gears started for French.

I purchased baby bilingual French and Spanish about a month ago. The Baby Bilingual series is a great idea, but don't expect baby to be engrossed in the images on the screen as he or she might be with other baby videos.

The music in the background is nice, classical music. The visual component is nice, as well, and shows real life people and toys. My one year old enjoys watching the videos, but they don't hold her attention as well as other classical music based baby videos have done. I would have liked to see more movement and variety on the screen to hold my babie's attention better.

The videos don't hold my attention too well either, as both the French and Spanish versions are very similiar (actually, almost identical) as they show almost identical visuals and teach baby exactly the same words. Again, more variety would have been nice.

I began showing this video to my daughter when she was 6 mos. old (once a day) and two years later she still loves it. She will stop whatever she is doing and sit down and listen from beginning to end. On the other hand, my 1 year old daughter has never been interested in it-- even though I introduced the video in the same way as I had with my older daughter. As for me-- I like the music, the format, and the fact that they do not introduce too much information.