Fluenz French 1 - Macintosh

by Fluenz

Product Features

• Build your vocabulary and language abilities
• Spell and write accurately
• Speak without a script
• Retain what you've learned
• Read and understand your new language

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 5 x 5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• ASIN: B0013E5GME
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 22, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,823 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

The only interactive language program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of great one-on-one tutoring.

Be Fluent in French

The Harvard, Cornell, and University of Chicago graduates who developed Fluenz were determined to create a program that conveyed the uniqueness of French while providing a step-by-step path through the language. By bringing the magic of a great teacher to the computer screen, Fluenz French makes reaching fluency in this beautiful language possible for every single learner.

Love French, Actually Learn It

As believers in the uniqueness of French, the program designers wanted to move beyond the cookie-cutter approach typical of computer language education: methods that boast a suspiciously simple way to learn French and treat adults like children by emphasizing the association of words and pictures.

Fluenz brings the magic of an amazing teacher to lead, challenge, and inspire adults and teens with a real love for French. The application is ideal for those who need everyday conversation skills, as well as for those who want to establish a strong foundation for advanced learning.

An effective approach for English Speakers

There is no more effective way to understand French liaisons, verb conjugations, and masculine/feminine endings than from a tutor explaining these important subtleties in English. And there is no way to learn French well without mastering these fundamental elements of the language. Because French and English share roots dating back to the 11th century, they have many similarities that can help English-speakers reach fluency.

The Magic of Learning: Audio CD for Your Car or iPod

The Fluenz French Audio CD is the ideal complement to the interactive program. The CD was produced at the Fluenz Lab to provide engaging audio workouts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Fluenz, April 5, 2008

By 

M. Caban (Saratoga , NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fluenz French 1 - Macintosh (DVD-ROM)

I am not good at learning language for two reasons. One, I get bored easily and two, my mind just doesn't concentrate well. Fluenz French has a personal touch, with a likable teacher. She keeps things moving just enough to keep me from getting bored, and teaches in a way that makes sense.
I've tried different programs. Alot of them are memorization. I found that to be discouraging because much of the french language has different sounds and different grammar rules. Too much for my brain to deal with.
Fluenz french teaches these rules and helps learning the pronounciation easier and fun, while learning how to communicate at the same time.
In doing Fluenz French, I had alot of, " Oh, I get it !", moments. The sounds of the language started to make sense, This really encouraged me alot, and made learning much, much easier and enjoyable..

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for brand new students of French, October 4, 2009

By 

Hayyamini "hammoreh" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluenz French 1 - Macintosh (DVD-ROM)

I have done all 30 lessons in Fluenz French 1. On the whole, it was a positive experience. Their approach is somewhat different from the traditional approach in that they focus on grammatical patterns and vocabulary most useful for the adult who is planning to travel to France. It is not, however, phrase book French. It is much more grammatical in orientation than that, as they try to help you grasp the essential structure of the language. Because of its focus on language structure, it is also very different from Rosetta Stone, with its picture-based teaching. A few salient other points about the program are:
* It keeps the vocabulary quite small, and limits grammatical structures to present tense statements and questions. Thus, one is not overwhelmed with new material. On the other hand, you won't get near as much exposure to elements of the French language as you would in a traditional semester of freshman French. What you learn, you should learn well, but it will be very limited in scope.
* It has many exercises and drills that involve translating, listening, and speaking. You will repeat certain patterns many times in different exercises. You will type the French words and phrases many times. This makes for solid learning, but you might get bored if you already know some French, repeating many things you already know many times. It may seem that the pace is too slow. On the whole, however, I think that you would come out of this with a much better mastery of the material than you would get by doing Pimsleur, where there is no typing at all.
* They do need to re-do parts and issue a new version. In some places, corrections are obviously dubbed in, and it badly mars what otherwise comes across as a quality production.
I think this program would be a good introduction to French for someone who knows none at all. For example, it would be great for someone to do in the summer before taking a college course in French, where the pace of learning would be faster and quantity of material would be much larger.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, But Price Tag is PAINFUL!, May 12, 2009

By 

Always Samsung "ravereviews" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluenz French 1 - Macintosh (DVD-ROM)

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.