Customer Reviews

French I (Comprehensive)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have used all three of the Pimsleur French courses and highly recommend them to anyone wanting a good, basic start in the French language. The speakers are very clear and easy to understand. There is never a question of pronounciation since the words and sentences are repeated over and over in many ways. They are also interactive...it's impossible to listen and not get involved. These are the only language tapes that have ever worked for me. Expensive? Yes, but you get what you pay for.

This is a fantastic series. Although it is expensive, the investment is well worth it. The audio quality is crystal clear, without any background noise. The instructional voices are easy to understand and have a pleasant tone to them.

French I is well thought out and relatively easy to follow. I listen to it on my way to work everyday.

Although, I must point out that I have a friend from Quebec whose main language is French. I let him listen to the tapes, and he said that there were two distinctly different dialects. He said that the female's voice was Parisian (i.e., from Paris) and that the male's voice was a commercial dialect (i.e., like you would hear on a television news show). It would have been nice if these tapes would have pointed this out.

Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.

The Pimsleur French tapes are expensive but well worth it.This is the best method I have ever seen for learning to speak another language. They teach you a limited set of vocabulary and concepts, but in a way that you can really use everything that you learn, and you can use it flexibly, spontaneously, comfortably and accurately. The method is very intuitive and doesn't rely on grammatical explanations. They use a lot of English at the beginning and gradually switch over into using more and more French. They lead you gradually into speaking and into saying things that you didn't realize you had learned how to say. Highly recommended!

I've used five other language tapes to learn French. This is the best method, but the most expensive. Most tapes give you the word once. This method builds upon words you have learned and hence the repitition. After you give the answer in French it is said by the speaker to reinforce your learning. Your are taught correct pronunciation and grammer. Also you learn about the silent last letters in French and the fine differences in how words are pronounced. Spometimes they go too fast, but you can replay that section.

I have done the Pimsleur Spanish series before a trip to Spain. And, although not fluent, I was well able to say everything I needed to say, with a little help from a dictionary. In addtion, I could carry on pleasant, limited coversations with non-English speaking Spaniards. I could understand Spanish announcements at the airport, and even a bit of the news. Inspired by this, I bought the French series. I had 2 years of French many years ago in school, could read it, but never could speak a bit. That will change now. Pimsleur is absolutely the best program if you have problems learning how to hear and produce the language. If you naturally pick up how to speak with little input , you will probably not be happy here. But, if you think that you "can't learn languages," or that "it's hard to learn to speak" that's not true - YOU CAN - it will be expensive, and it will take work and dedication. (I listen to the half hour lesson twice 5 days a week.) You may have a limited vocabulary, but it will be a very useful vocabulary and you will know it!

I only knew about five French words before I started this series and now I can form complete, intelligible sentences. I've been told by two French women that I have a great accent! These tapes teach language the way we learn our native language. You hear, you repeat. No one is taught verb conjugation in their native language until they have complete command of speaking the language. This is what Pimsleur does. I may not be able to read French, mais je comprend an peu et je parle an peu. What I do is, after mastering a lesson, I go online to a French language site to actually see the words. Most of the time I would never get the pronunciation right by reading the words. I love these tapes and highly recommend them.

I am doing this program about a month. As a complete beginner for French, satisfaction of learning process is quite high. I feel that dialogues are little bit out of date but I think that's not a real matter. Ah one thing when I get this product from seller I didn't get the book let for reading practice so I had to find book let file from somewhere.