French II : 3rd Edition [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Pimsleur (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pimsleur Language Program | Publication Date: February 23, 2004

French is an official language in 44 countries. It is spoken by 55 million people in France, 3 million in Belgium, 1.5 million in Switzerland, 6.5 million in Canada, and 5 million in former French + Belgian colonies. It is also an official language of the U.N.

Comprehensive French II includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Level I. Increased spoken and reading language ability. Level II will double your vocabulary and grammatical structures while increasing your spoken proficiency exponentially. Upon completion of a Level II, you will be able to:

* engage in fuller conversations involving yourself, your family, daily activities, interests and personal preferences,

* combine known elements into increasingly longer sentences and strings of sentences,

* create with language and function in informal situations,

* deal with concrete topics in the past, present, and future,

* meet social demands and limited job requirements,

* begin reading for meaning.

Note: In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I language program before proceeding to the Level II language program.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Paul Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world’s leading experts in applied linguistics. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed The Pimsleur Method based on two key principles:  the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory training that he called “Graduated Interval Recall.”  This Method has been applied to the many levels and languages of the Pimsleur Programs.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Pimsleur; 30 Lessons + Reading edition (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743506219
• ISBN-13: 978-0743506212
• Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 11.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Books on CD > Languages

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the best for beginners, September 21, 2005

By 

Steven Mason (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: French II : 3rd Edition (Audio CD)

I have tried a lot of audio methods, and Pimsleur is still the best by far. It is more expensive than most other audio methods, but it really works and it is enjoyable. Perhaps if you learn a language with family and friends and share the material, you can share the cost and practice with others! Or after you have completed the lessons, sell them (if you are generous, donate them to your library). Pimsleur really helps with proper pronunciation and uses a technique that makes what you learn stick in your brain - not any gimmicky memory tricks. Pimsleur covers a lot of basic material, but it does not overload the beginner with vocabulary or grammar - a case of less being more. However, I do wish Pimsleur included a print version of the audio material. At the end of 90 lessons (French I,II, and III), you will not speak at an intermediate level - no audio method can do that - but you will speak easily and well at a beginner level. Doing Pimsleur first, before taking a formal foreign language class, is the best way to go. I can't recommend Pimsleur highly enough.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best, August 14, 2005

By 

Sator (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: French II : 3rd Edition (Audio CD)

Pimsleur are absolutely the best.

I have brought the complete sets of three volumes for both French and Russian. I recommend them with glowing enthusiasm to many friends and work colleagues. In fact I would say I rave about them - something I seldom do.

I am a fluent speaker of English, German and Japanese. I have taught languages myself and have additionally studied French and Latin in the past. I am something of an amateur linguistic with a life-long love of languages. When I speak German (I studied it at university for a year) poeple's jaws drop because I sound like a native speaker. I love reading Goethe in German and also read technical journal articles on molecular biology, but I really wish I'd discovered Pimsleur earlier. Over the decades I have been exposed to countless different linguistic approaches to learning languages, but none have impressed me as much as that of Pimsleur. I have even ordered CD courses in German from Amazon.de from companies such as Langenscheidt. The language CDs available in German are far superior to the vaste majority of the courses you can get in the English language, but still only Pimsleur teaches language in the same way that I intuitively learned to learn languages on my own over the years. I am so happy that someone has gone out and 'bottled' the secret techniques of good language learners so that people everywhere can discover how much fun learning languages can be.

If you buy cheaper alternatives to Pimsleur you are short changing yourself severely. Costly though you may think they are, enrolling in a course or getting private tuition will cost you as much or probably far more. Being a fluent speaker of a language and being a good teacher are also quite different things, so you may yet end up with teacher who is fluent at a language but poor at teaching it. With Pimsleur you are guaranteed a meticulously structured approach to learning in which you can have complete confidence. Also many of us lead busy lives and may have trouble making it to classes. With Pimsleur CDs and an MP3 player you can learn while you drive, while waiting in long queues or while going around the supermarket. Half an hour here and there soon adds up.

Needless to say my Russian friends are floored when I speak Russian. They say I speak with virtually no accent. With time I think I will expand my knowledge to the point that people think I am a native speaker. I did that with German and I have every reason to believe that I will do it with Russian. I plan to one day read Dostoevsky in Russian. As for the French course I brought that for my partner. I also quickly did as many CDs as I could before our trip to France and again people were pleasantly surprised at the quality of my French. Before another trip to Geneva I went through some more lessons and people in shops would stop to compliment my French.

Lastly my minor list of criticisms:

1. Although the intuitive natural learning techniques of Pimsleur should be the basis of learning languages, I am still a great believer in studying old fashioned grammar (I did Latin!). For every language you can find yourself a ready nice grammatical text. I wish Pimsleur would sell a text book companion to their recordings that makes learning grammar as fun as their recordings.

2. The recorded sound quality on my Russian CDs was washy. The words sometimes sounded unclear. The French CDs so far have been much better though still less than perfect - but surely for this price I can't believe this is an issue.

3. Lack of full printed transcripts of all of the recordings. Maybe they can provide this on a CD-ROM if printing it is too expensive.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Merci mille fois pour Pimsleur!, May 8, 2008

By 

Words can be music "Chanteuse" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: French II : 3rd Edition (Audio CD)

I am just finishing French II, and am still quite pleased with this course (see review of French I). I am gaining facility in comprehension as well as ability to understand and speak more quickly. An example - several years ago I bought an Agatha Christie mystery in French and laboriously read the beginning, but had great difficulty in actually enjoying the mystery, due to having to decode so many idioms. I tried it again today - and actually enjoyed it, since the sentence structure and the connecting words were much more immediately comprehensible, after working with this course.

The accompanying reading lesson books are useful too. They are not the same as the oral material, but they serve as a nice review. They are small, light, and easy to take with you for a quick last-minute review.

A note on price - audiochips are cheaper than CDs and more efficient. The cost through Pimsleur Direct on the web is $400 for all three levels. Well worth it to me!