Fluenz French 1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts

by Fluenz

Product Features

• 90 sessions of up to two and one-half hours each -- the most comprehensive software application covering the first three levels of French anywhere. Fluenz French 1+2+3 will guide you in English through the challenges of French with a proven system.
• The Fluenz language tutor guides you on video every step of the way, recreating a one-on-one tutoring experience, utilizing explanations in English, placing you in real-world contexts, and immersing you in the culture.
• Fluenz blends beautiful full-motion video with a range of engaging, interactive workouts to improve your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills -- including a recording engine to perfect your accent.
• Fluenz's unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies, and students at Harvard Business School and other leading universities.
• Includes Fluenz French 1, Fluenz French 2, and Fluenz French 3 DVD-ROMs, three audio CDs for additional learning, exclusive, downloadable podcasts and flashcards for further practice, and the handy Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of important words and phrases.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• ASIN: B003O56UYS
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 1, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,428 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #10 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > French

Product Description

Discover French through the magic of a great teacher. The Fluenz tutor's custom-made approach guides you in English every step of the way through the challenges of the language, while immersing you in the beauty of the culture.

Fluenz French is based on three principles:

1) There's no substitute for a great tutor. It's often difficult to motivate yourself to learn a language on your own. Having a teacher to challenge and inspire you, while explaining exactly how the language works, makes all the difference.

2) The best way for adults to learn French is with explanations in English. Linguistics research shows that adults learn languages differently than children and really benefit from having clear explanations of how the language works. For example, it is extremely difficult to understand the French past tense, pass? compos?, or make sense of French liaisons without a clear explanation in English. Fluenz makes a difference because a real tutor guides you in English along a path specifically designed for French.

3) It's best to learn the most relevant words in French right away. Instead of focusing on child-like phrases such as "red apple, green apple," Fluenz has you ordering food, giving directions to a cab driver, making hotel reservations, and handling a wide range of real-world situations right from the start. And, with 13 types of workouts covering verbal expression and comprehension, as well as reading and writing, you practice and internalize what you learn in the video tutorials.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning this Romance Language the Right Way, June 29, 2010

By 

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

This review is from: Fluenz French 1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

Length:: 2:53 Mins

Fluenz is the only way to learn French the right way!

Fluenz French level 3 is currently only sold in a bundle and isn't available as a standalone set yet. Luckily, I purchased Fluenz 1 and 2 a year ago and the folks at Fluenz have been nothing but generous. When F2 was released they offered me the upgrade at a very affordable price. Version 2 came with some nice enhancements such as the ability to install the software to your desktop, new navigation options, etc. Naturally, the same was done when Fluenz 3 was released and I received an email that level 3 had become available. I just received my copy over the weekend and my review is here to help anyone who is looking into learning a new language, not sure what brand to try, don't want to be bothered with learning from a text book, debating if one should buy Fluenz, etc.

In level 3 of Fluenz French, Sonia Gill (Interactive Tutor) of French 1 and 2 is no more. Instead, the audience is now introduced to a new tutor by the name of, Caroline Janin who was born in France. I have to say that her accent is impeccable and only helps one with their pronunciation in capturing that oh so romantic sound that is so French. Once again, the program is setup with thirty lessons to choose from. Three of the lessons are only review sessions and do not contain a conversation, followed by the tutor breaking down the conversation and teaching you sentence structure, conjugation, etc. I felt a bit robbed that there were three review sessions because I do love the learning sessions with the interactive tutor and hearing her speak is like soaking up knowledge in a sponge. However, I knew this was going to be the case because the prior 2 levels were setup the same way. When I say interactive tutor, I mean there is a video of the tutor breaking down a conversation that was just played while teaching a lesson. It doesn't mean that if one has a question that one can type in a question or ask the tutor to say a sentence in French and expect to get a response. That isn't the case.

Caroline was born in France and that's probably why she breaks down the lessons in a more detailed way. She'll not just explain why something is feminine or masculine, but she'll also go into depth with the different endings, pronunciation, when to make a liaison, and so much more. This was apparent in level 1 and 2, but I feel its so much more hands on in level 3 then it was on prior levels. When you enter each lesson you get the option of hearing the conversation with French subtitles, French and English Subtitles, and if you want to be bold there is a third option of no subtitles. Afterwards, the tutor breaks down the conversation word by word and teaches you little tidbits when introducing new verbs and so forth. She also helps with sentence structure and lets you know if the noun comes first, should the verb come first, or if adjectives come before nouns, etc. For anyone who has learned French, everyone knows that when you translate a sentence from French to English, word for word, that you will end up sounding like Yoda from Stars Wars. English: I feel good. French to English Translation: I good feel.

One of the best highlights about Fluenz 3 is that each lesson with the tutor is always over ten minutes. There were many videos on here that were close to being seventeen minutes. I love this. I can watch a thirty minute video of the tutor teaching and it wouldn't bother me. In fact, I wish all the videos were twenty plus minutes. Once she is done with the lesson, one gets the opportunity to review everything that was taught with review lessons built into the program that consist of recording your voice to hear how one sounds when speaking French from what was just taught, matching sentences, typing words out in French when its written in English, and so forth. You can do each review as many times as you'd like and can always go back at your leisure. I only have 2 gripes. One flaw about the program is that you can only run it from your hard drive 5 or 10 tens before you have to pop in the CD for the program to work. This is for verification reasons and I understand where Fluenz is coming from because they only want the actual consumer who made the purchase to use the program and protect their software from encountering any piracy issues etc. So if you thought you were gonna buy the program, install it on your hard drive, and lend it to a friend to keep, or sell it online - THINK AGAIN! If you are going to lend it to a friend, you better pray they live next door. The other problem I have is the price tag. Purchasing all 3 CDs at once can be half of someone's rent money, so I do wish it was a bit cheaper.

Level 3 takes upon what was taught in the past 2 levels and enhances it to the next plateau. I love level 3 because it gets in depth with grammar and sentence structure and even adds some character to the dialogue, so one doesn't sound so robotic, such as: How are you? I am good. What is the weather like? It's bad. I am a college student and needed so much help with French because the professor was only free to teach when class was in session. This program has been such a life saved and I truly adore its intuitive and instinctual style of teaching and learning.

Get ready to expand ones vocabulary and say things that one has always wanted to say, but in French. Pick up your copy and Fluenz and brace yourself for a realm of romance, history, class, and so much more.

Pros:
- Ability to install CD program directly to your PC Hard drive
- Excellent new tutor
- Finally starts getting in depth with sentence structure and grammar (Pass compose, superlative, past, present tense, etc)
- Intuitive program
- Easy setup
- 27 lessons
- 3 review lessons
- Easy navigation
- Fluenz CD included podcast to add to your iPod/MP3 player

Cons:
- Can only run from PC alone for 5/10 times before popping in the CD for verification
- Price tag is a bit on the hefty side and I wish it was priced a bit lower
- Where is Fluenz French 4,5,6,7,8...?

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars French Tutor in a Box., September 20, 2010

By 

A. Brennan (La Jolla, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fluenz French 1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

A little background. I became interested in learning French because my daughter (2.5 y/o) attends the San Diego French American School where they teach in French. I want to be able to converse with her in French and read her stories , so on and so forth. I took two years of Spanish in high school, I am not a Spanish Speaker, but I can communicate pretty well. I have been told I "have an ear" for language and excellent natural pronunciation of foreign languages by native speakers.

I initially was in the market to purchase the "other guy" in CD/DVD based language instruction - they are very well known, Fluenz, lesser so. But, I balked at the price, and before I dropped that kind of coin, I wanted to see what other people thought about it. In other words, was it worth it? I read dozens of reviews, and one in particular that made a good argument against the "learn it like your learned your first language" method of instruction. A co-worker mentioned Fluenz, he had not used it, but had "heard good things", additionally, he had used the "other guy" and agreed with the arguments against it.

I am very skeptical by nature, and accordingly, I tend to break things down logically. I very much like the logic behind the Fluenz approach to learning. Use something you know (rules of English grammar) to teach you something you don't know (French). The multiple methods of teaching (listening, repeating, word by word break down of the sentence, recording, writing, podcasts, social situations (greetings/travel etc.) used by Fluenz is fantastic.

I have not progressed very far into the program yet, but I very strongly feel that I will be a French Speaker once I have completed it. The teachers at my daughter's school know that I am not a french speaker, but I have been trying out what little I have learned so far and they were impressed.

Should you buy this?

Ultimately, your ability to learn a new language is limited only by the amount of work you put into it. There is no "silver bullet" learning program that will instantly transform you in to a bilingual person. Fluenz is just a tool, I would argue based on my exposure to it, a pretty good tool.

Its flexible - you can do it on your time, not a school schedule or a French tutor's schedule. Its not too expensive. They have a money back guarantee. What have you got to lose?

By the way. You can install it on multiple personal computers in your home - so you and the wife (kids, etc) can do it for the price of one. You do have to stick the DVD in once every 5 sessions.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart Approach to French, August 4, 2010

By 

Java R. (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluenz French 1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

After working with Fluenz Spanish a few years ago I decided to give Fluenz French a try. At that time I found that Fluenz and Rosetta were very different products and that essentially their approaches were best suited to different parts of the learning process.
My experience with Fluenz French has confirmed many of the opinions I had regarding Fluenz Spanish, but I can also say that the product has been improved since I last used it.
The basics for Fluenz French are very solid. The program dissects the French language for the benefit of English speakers, offering a great roadmap to learners. Each session provides a building block in which the words and structures are clearly explained in relation to the overall scheme of French, but also in relation to English. This makes the learning process truly intuitive. The sequence in which elements are presented made a lot of sense in a way that was practical, which helps as you start to grasp the language.
The teachers are top quality. Sonia, from the first two levels, I already knew from my Spanish course. She is very good at explaining how something works, and providing plenty of tips on how to make it useful in one's own conversation. Her comments are funny and informative. Caroline is not only very French, which is a plus in for someone who is learning the language, but her French is as beautiful as advertised.
The workouts continue to be essential, and their workings have been much improved since I last tried the program. From the bookmark function which tells me where I left off last time I used the program, to small improvements on the typing, the way corrections are now shown, and other details, there is clear evidence of a company that cares.
Overall I can say that Fluenz continues to have a very good answer to the question of how someone can get to understand a language on their own--instead of memorizing phrases and words. I find French to be more difficult to learn than Spanish both in its pronunciation, its phonetic rules, and its grammar. Things are just not as straight forward, which is exactly why an approach that takes its time explaining the foundations and which guides learners through the many challenges can really make a difference.