Customer Reviews

French in Action: A Beginning Course in Language and Culture, Second Edition: Audio Program , Part 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This series is phenomenal.I have used it on my own and made good progress doing so. When I backslid, I hired a native-born French woman as a tutor and used this as our text. Our classes were constantly being broken up by her laughter. "She said what?" "That's so French!" "People say that all the time." She was right, too. I spend a lot of time in Paris now, too much of it eavesdropping on the folks at the next table. I can attest, the conversations are often right out of the book. The cultural insights are dead-on and invaluable. More often than anything else I have used to learn French, I find myself relying on the words, phrases and conversational patterns that I picked up in these lessons. I'm glad the cassettes are available as CDs now, because mine were wearing out!

Used in combination with the audio materials, this course promises so much more than the usual (colors, numbers, basic greetings, etc.), and places a strong emphasis on pronunciation and idioms. You finish with a useful knowledge of French--the kind people actually speak. Comprehension is difficult at first because the speakers talk at a normal pace without overemphasizing the words, but it is this technique that leaves one able to know what people are saying without having them slow down.

As for the method of delivery--it's fun! The textbook follows a narrative structure, specifically a story about Robert, an American student in France, and Mireille, a young and witty student at the famed Sorbonne in Paris. There is love, mystery, and lots of important cultural information on the way, as well as an underlying humor that made our class laugh quite often. I recommend it highly for use in a class, and if you are willing to dish out the cash, for independent study as well. It has everything you need to gain a firm grounding in French language, culture, and idioms.

The audio program complements both text and workbooks and is essential in learning the pronunciation, as well as for practicing hearing and understanding French spoken at full speed. Many of the exercises also work well without the books and can be used in the car.

This is an excellent introduction to French. You will need the textbook that must be ordered separately. I still have not found Part two of this product which would finish off the learning of basic French at about the second year level at a university in the states.

Wanna learn french? This series is excellent for beginners or people who want a nice, thorough review. The complete learning course comes with the activity book, the videos (DVD), and cassettes or cds to listen too. The videos are patterned in the style of a soap opera, following the actions of a young, half american-half french gentleman named Robert who moves to Paris to "find himself". Upon meeting a beautiful young lady named Mireille, we track Robert as he encounters typical everyday scenarios in Paris. For example, catching a taxi, riding the metro, or visiting historic sites like the Eiffel Tower.

Each episode ends with Professor Capretz walking us through the lesson and recapping new words, phrases, and other colloquialisms familiar to the french language. An excellent course for those who are serious and disciplined enough to learn a language on their own. Highly recommended.

DJ Come of Age
Francais/Anglais

I had exactly one year of French with this course, in summer school, several years before moving to France. When I got to France, I got a job almost immediately answering the telephone; before I knew it, I had got a job taking dictation and was getting requests for translation of artists' catalogues, scientific papers, poetry, and everything else imaginable. The French I spoke was both current and correct, and everyone felt at ease working with me. Pierre Capretz's method is entirely different from everyone else's method out there, and the use of clips from radio and TV commercials makes this better for understanding different people speaking to you rather than the same two over and over as in other courses, as French accents differ wildly. I recommend this to all my voice students.

well, i thoguht i was ordering the dvd's at first, but it ended up I really need the audio program for the class i'm taking. the cd's seem to work fine so far.

The use of audio by the Language teacher at our school to help the student hear the language.