Customer Reviews

French for Dummies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Like an pre-adolescent, FRENCH FOR DUMMIES can't make up its mind what it wants to be when it grows up. It wants to be more than phrase book, but it (by its own admission) it does not want to be a text book. In the end, it falls short on both counts.

It opts for quick answers and shortcuts, so much so that students wanting to do more than repeat stock phrases will be sorely dissapointed. Yes, you could spend the asking price for the book, then set about memorizing the dialogues, but what for? You could tell a doctor, "I have an upset stomach" (J'ai mal au cœur), but not "I am having chest pain."

In the end, the wise reader would do well either to go about seriously learning the language (and for that I would recommend the text that accompanies the PBS series French in Action) or buy an inexpensive phrase book or two. (Or three... Anyone traveling to Paris ought to order WICKED FRENCH a tongue-in-cheek phrase book so that when you are being ignored by the haughty staff at a cafe can ask a waiter "C'est vrai que vous avez honte de votre menu?" (Is it true that you are ashamed of your menu.) Not exactly the type of phrases found in Berlitz's phrase book.

But please, pass on this one.

I purchased this book in a Hongkong bookshop because it was the only choice and I am sorry that I did. The authors say that they want to teach essential communication skills, but their text is basically a phrase book that teaches a large number of one-liners. It is deficient in the progressive, building block approach that is so essential to language learning. Moreover, the book often digresses into too much cultural and travel information. For example, we are told how to read temperatures in Celsius, where to find a nightclub, and the advantages of buying a museum pass. Fine, but I bought the book because I wanted to study French. There are also more than a few pesky typographical mistakes and instances where the dialogue on the CD doesn't exactly agree with what is written in the text. A neophyte learning French has enough to deal with without having to figure out what the authors are trying to say. Finally, the book tries to be too cute in de-mystifying language learning and is constantly talking down to its readers. (They waste a total of six pages on cartoons written in English that make fun of studying French.) A book with a name like 'French for Dummies' should try to exceed expectations. Unfortunately, this book tends to live up to its title.

No book can make you fluent in a language. But this is a great resource for those who only want to learn enough to get by while traveling or who want a good back-up for other instructional methods.
You'll get a solid working vocabulary, easy-to-understand pronuciation tips and a foundation in basic grammar.

There's about 50 pages worth of material in this 350 page book. You're better off buying a pocket guide. In fact, I have a tiny French phrase book from Oxford that contains more info and fits nicely in my pocket. They must have rushed this book to market pretty quickly. The CD doesn't contain the audio from the last chapter (sloppy), I've discovered misspellings (sloppy), and there are strange blue ink blobs throughout the book (sloppy). The dictionary in the back is the pits. Despite my criticism, it's not a terrible book. The audio CD is clear and helpful. But there are better values out there.

I have come to the conclusion that one can NOT learn french without attending the old-fashion French class-room based seminars! I tried books, audio-cassettes, and interactive PC softwares yet I made no progress! But once I started attending the classes, all the books and cassettes I had helped me to advance at a rate faster than all my class-peers!

Having that in mind, this book is a good book to read once you start a French course. It's comprehensive on the basic concepts and it's fun to read as well. It will give you some tips that your French instructor might miss or overlook. It will also enhance your vocabulary.

The CD however is quite disappointing! It pronounces the alphabet, which is good. But only few of the conversations are available on the CD. I think that if they had the pronounciations of various words available as well then it would've been much more helpful.

If you're expecting to learn French by reading a funny book or by listening to cassettes while driving, then get real! Learning a new language is a difficult task. Don't expect that a book or a cassette will make it any easier.

I cannot understand all the poor reviews for this text. I am a French native who has taught French at the University level and tutored many people in preparation for their trip to France. While I would not use this book in a university setting nor for an in-depth study of the French language, I have successfully used it to prepare travelers with the basics and my tutored students love this book !

With the help of this text, I am able to teach them the most French in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of effort. So, for this purpose, the book is excellent. It covers the most commonly used sentences in various settings of everyday life, interspersed with a lot of handy facts about French life, French customs and things that anyone visiting France should know about French culture and French people in general.

The book is well-organized, topics are easy to find and the pronunciation is, for the most part, very accurate. I continue to be amazed at how fast my pupils learn to speak basic, useful sentences in a way that can be understood.

This book will not teach someone to follow a deep conversation with French natives but no book does that. It takes years to master a foreign language and French is no exception. I have reviewed dozens of French language books out there and found this one to be far superior for a quick primer on the language.

The written portion was pretty good and concise. Though I wish it had some sort of abridged French to English dictionary. The CD, on the other hand, is quite possibly the dumbest CD I've ever listened to. First they do a long conversation in French b/t two people (various topics: i.e., flying on a plane, making a reservation at a restaurant, etc), then they go through each line one by one, and give you time to pronounce it yourself. Sounds good, right? Well, they neglect to tell you just what the heck you're saying. They NEVER translate it to English. A couple of the conversations can be found in the book (though you have to search for them, the audio CD doesn't tell you where) but most are not in the book, in English, to follow along. My wife and I were AMAZED they didn't give you the English translation. So, if you use this CD, you'll end up with great French pronunciation, you just won't know what the heck you're saying. This dummies book must have been written by a bunch of dummies.

It can be a good book for beginners...it is for sure. I did not expect anything as i knew already it would be presented like that.
In general, you can find really necessary material there, so , good luck to the learners of French!!!;)))

I am so disappointed by this book. It almost made me give French up. I have now determined to buy another French Book. One of my friends who had learned French laughed at me because I tried to read French in an English way because of the "new approach" of using English phonetics from this Book. Up till today, I am not even able to pronounce Bonjour well, according to my friend, because the book teaches me to read it as "boNzhoor". I believe French and English are two completely different languages. Although they share a great amount of common vocabulary, they have totally different pronunciation. I can say no more but please do think over carefully before making your purchase.

This book is great for learning the basic method of thought to understanding the French, and indeed many other Latin based languages, it really teaches you to think in a way that makes learning the language much easier.