Customer Reviews

Fluenz French 1 + 2 - Macintosh

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

 

 

I went through all 3 levels of Rosetta Stone French and at the end I didn't feel like I understood the language very well. The grammar was still a mystery because there aren't any explanations in English and I couldn't carry on a conversation.

Using Fluenz has helped me to get a much better grasp of the grammar and I'm now able to piece sentences together on my own. I'm on level 2 right now and starting to get into new vocabulary that wasn't covered in RS. It's definitely worth the price. I just wish they had German available as well.

WOW! Daughter lives in Quebec, Had to REALLY get French going FAST. FLUENZ to the rescue! It was Beautiful graphically, it was VERY user friendly (you DON'T have to be brilliant with computers to use it easily) and my accent was Complimented by native French speakers!
Finished French 1&2, can't wait for French 3. Tried TELL ME MORE from Aurolog, and was baffled by it, and felt it complicated, NO USER SUPPORT, and not interesting.

FLUENZ ROCKS!!

This product helped me a great deal. I am a college student and am required to take French. I took huge breaks in between classes and it has really helped me review and become more conversational in class. It does seem to be geared toward potential tourists going to France, but that's okay, it's a great review tool or for complete beginners.

Fluenz French lived up to its reputation as being easy to use and helping the user to learn French. However, do not expect the software to teach you fluent French in only three weeks! By pushing myself at a fast pace through the material, I found that I was able to complete most of disk one and know enough French to do basic things in France. However, I was by no means fluent.

So the long and short of it: the software is excellent, but my schedule was not.

I recently purchased Fluenz French 1 and 2 and I like the program in spite of a minor bug associated with moving forward in the initial lesson. However, during the course of a day, I move back and forth between two locations and I would like to make use of my spare time at either location by working on French; this is especially unwieldy with the Fluenz package. To use the program on a given computer, the DVD must be physically present and so I must carry the DVD with me all the time. I think that this is unreasonable and unnecessary. I have Adobe Photoshop and the license agreement for that program allows me make a legal copy on my desktop and another on my laptop. I have a game program (Bridge Baron) that also provides the same arrangement. Clearly, this is possible with a variety of programs but, unfortunately, the makers of Fluenz have chosen not to offer that convenience.

I really enjoyed the demo that was provided on the Fluenz website for French. I was pretty much sold and decided to purchase this very expensive program in hopes that I would fully learn the language & be immersed in everything French. For the hefty price tag, I expected a bit more.

Let me start off by saying, I love the French language. I think it's a beautiful language and in my opinion - the only romance language. I don't count Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese. I also think French people are very classy & sophisticated etc. Not animalistic barbarians like people in the US.

I'm a college student taking intro to French and needed way more help learning the language, aside from the time spent in class. Since my professor doesn't offer tutoring sessions, I needed to find alternatives. It was either this or Rosetta Stone & RS doesn't offer a free demo on their site that satisfied my hunger for knowledge on a product before purchase. Plus, the price tag on RS French one thru three was way over my budget. Another thing I disliked about Rosetta Stone is the fact you can not use it on multiple PC and laptops. I have one of each in separate rooms, so I need the flexibility. Fluenz seemed like the way to go. I was very much lost in class and couldn't remember definite, indefinite, conjugation of verbs etc. There are so many rules to the French Language. So, I needed a learning tool that was actually going to work.

I couldn't wait to get into the first lesson because I loved lesson three (That was being offered as a free demo). To my surprise Sonia Gill (Interactive Tutor) did not start off the lesson one with the alphabet. I am passed the alphabet at this stage, but a refresher lesson wouldn't hurt and I could only wonder why the first lesson wasn't the alphabet. What would beginners do? Each video lesson can range from six minutes to ten minutes. I wouldn't mind if the lesson went on for an hour, as long as I'm learning. I have only gotten through lesson 6 and don't want to give a biased review for something I have not fully completed. So far, I am pleased. Hopefully, when I progress further, she will get more in-depth with the verbs, conjugations, inversion, passé compose etc, because that is crucial in French grammar. The Fluenz navigator seemed like a waste. And the iPod Audio seemed like a rip off to me. There was only two audio CDs as promised, but each track ranges from six to ten minutes, with each CD carrying eight to ten tracks. So, I'm not exactly thrilled about that. I felt really ripped off. I thought the audio CDs were the actual lessons transitioned over to a CD for the iPod.

It seems like Fluenz is trying their best to recreate the actual experience of being in a class room, but they haven't fully seen it through the eyes of the student yet. I do think recreating that experience is an excellent approach. Overall, I am pleased so far. But for the price I expected a bit more. I would sacrifice the pretty packaging, so the actual DVD-Rom program had more content. I would have loved my purchase even more if the price tag was split in half.