Customer Reviews

French by Association (Link Word)

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I was first introduced to the concept of learning a language 'by assocation' by a friend in my French class. Having experienced it's effectiveness I promptly bought the book 'French by association'. The book has completely transformed and re-invigorated my desire to learn the French langage. The method used in the book has removed all stress of learning the language and has allowed me to apply the principal method of association with every day learning of the language. The book is very easy to read and follow. Unlike any other language book - it bring's alive the words and keeps one's interest sustained. The book is very well structured allowing one to develop their vocabulary and grammar as one progresses through the book. What is normally a diificult subject in any language - the grammar is very easily explained and very easy to understand. One can work their way through the book quite easily within a week and certainly a weekend if the time is set aside. The book simply associates an English word to a French word through images in the mind. Some of the images are truly bizarre but have that added effect of maintaining one's interest and has the effect of relaxing the reader whilst learning the language at a rapid pace. I would describe the book as being totally unorthodox and totally different to traditional ways of learning the language. This is very refreshing. I would truly recommend this book and it's other language equivalent books to anyone learning a foreign language of whatever level. Having found the effectiveness of this technique I intend to apply it to Spanish and German in the near future when I hope to have the oppurtunity to study them as well. One the principal difficulties of learning a language is the inability to switch from English to French. There is no so trouble with this method as it utilises one's own knowledge of the English language to vividly capture those French word's and grammar which were previously difficult to learn. Another of the principal failures in the French language is 'memory loss' and the incorrect use of gender. This can be embarrassing and very common! The book largely overcomes these problems by allowing the learner to readily conjure up those words that were previously difficult to learn along with the correct gender if necessary. It puzzles me that this method of learnig is not more widely used. Having myself studied the French language using various techniques and even had one to one lessons with French speaking teachers - I can truly say that is by far the most effective way of learning a language.

I have tried many books and tapes to learn French as I vacation there every year. Most are as forgetable as the french you are trying to learn. French by association by comparison has worked wonders, I actualy use the french I have learned in this book and It's very rewarding. This book has built up my french vocabulary wonderfuly.

I have taken many French courses and purchased many French language books but have had difficulty retaining want I had learned. Learning through memorization became tedious and started to feel more like a chore. However French By Association offered a different approach. Through its "learning by association" principle, I have been able to learn new words very quickly in a fun way and more importantly, I have been able to retain the information. I have learned to create a mental image of the words so that when I am thinking of a word a mental image appears, the wackier the better. This is my first review of a book on Amazon. I thought it would be important to share my view with people who may be experiencing difficulty in learning another language. I highly recommend it. Best of Luck!

The technique of association is actually quite useful in picking up vocabulary. Unfortunately, the vocabulary you will pick up here is so limited -- and the "associations" so strained -- that I found it to be of little use.

Still, the idea behind association is sound, and if you create your own associations to fix difficult words into your mind, you'll find yourself picking up a foreign language much more quickly. I'd recommend using this book to learn the technique, then making up associations of your own to memorize words with which you are having difficulty.

This is also not a book which will stand on its own: use this in conjunction with another text or set of texts.

This method has been working really well for me. Over the past few weeks, I've started intensively learning French using tapes, videos, CD-ROM software and this book (I really need to learn French for next year). None of the other materials compare to this book in the area of learning and retaining basic vocabulary. It has also been the most encouraging of all the tools, because it is easy to use and really builds my confidence that I can get a handle on this language!...

I love this book, for as it is I found it very easy to learn and remember the French language and words. I highly recommend it.

The most important concept in this book is "Think of each image in your mind's eye for about ten seconds".

Link Word is explained more completely with more vivid examples in The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lewis. A much more useful resource is Before You Know It (available as a stand-alone CD and incorporated in other programs of Transparent Software such as Learn French Now.

French by Association is ok but other resources are much superior.

Im able to think in French from just the things learned in the book. The vocabulary you come away with is 300+ words, which isnt at all bad considering that you only need about 2000 words to converse easily in a language, and you get all of those words within just several hours, with near picture perfect recall...

I havent studied French before, but after reading this book, Im able to speak the language very slowly and badly, and think in it.

For the rest of the French I study, I will use the same mnemonic excercises for remembering words/genders. I expect fluency in just a few months from the HUGE jumpstart I have got from this book =)

You come away from the few hours of reading this book with the same knowledge that I would think MOST people would come out of a college level French 101 class with.

This is a good foundation to start a French language study, and you wont find a better, quicker foundation that this.

Ill be ordering these books for as many languages as I can find, and Ill be using the technique to remember words on my own.

This was the most addictive book Ive ever read =/

I found this way to learn French very effective. I 'm not a beginner, but neither am I expert in French. Although I already knew many of the words taught in this book, the technique enabled me to quickly learn those words which I didn't know. I also began employing association to learn new words I encounter elsewhere and with great relief I am retaining words which have given me trouble in the past. It's a good book which should be helpful to many students of French. The gender association is very valuable as well.