17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty OK, June 29, 2008
This review is from: French, Plus: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
If the Pimsleur Levels 1,2, and 3 worked for you, this will, too. It's strictly aural learning, and it's well-paced.
The usual complaints apply as well. There are no break bands in the lessons, so if you're using CDs, it's very inconvenient to review one specific section unless it is right at the beginning of the lesson.
My big complaint is about the content: it's surprisingly focused on the publishing industry. Is that really generalizable to the rest of the language? Do most people learn French so they can work in publishing? Or is it just a way for the publisher of the series to turn a profit on their employee training?
Pimsleur Spanish ended with a scenario of a trip. There was a series of introductions, some general business interaction, some entertaining, and a goodbye party. It seemed much more likely to be useful than a bookseller's convention in Paris.
I know I could foresee more use for the Spanish terms for "meeting agenda", or "dancing" than I could for the French terms for "author's rights" (which they drilled with extraordinary frequency) or "book cover" or "bookstore owner."
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent But Very Incomplete, June 8, 2009
This review is from: French, Plus: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
As one who had completed 100 French lessons with the Pimsleur method, I must agree that it did indeed work to some extent. The method is powerful, efficient and pleasing, you finish each lesson with new words you are able to use immediately. It's developed in such a way, leaving you with an impression as you would had always been a French speaker.
This is, however, professionally deceiving. I will hence summarize my personal con-experience with the Pimsleur method in general, and with the French Pimsleur language program specifically.
CONTENT ISSUES
1. I've completed 100 30-minute lessons, and, among others, I was not taught any of the following very essential every-day used words: Body parts; months (except for January and February); almost no colors are taught and drilled (except for red and white as the basic colors of wine, blue and green in the last 2 minutes of lesson number 100 as colors of books); many daily found objects (no animals are taught, the vehicle list is very limited, except for the ordinary car and airplane nothing else is revealed to you, no trees or plants apart from the general word "flowers"); it's as well limited in daily human activities (here are some words I've learned with Rosetta Stone at some point at the beginning: second-third etc., empty/full, light/dark, etc.; it gives no clue on clothing, building types (the word "house" is told only as part of the "publishing house", see more on this publishing theme later), and so on.
However, the publisher was successful in creating scenes, chats and street talks using limited and poor vocabulary. In real life, they have almost no value.
EXPLANATORY MATTERS
2. According to my understanding, one must have some prior knowledge or exposure to no less then one foreign language in order to find these lessons useful. English is for myself a second (in fact the third) language, and I've noticed how different modern (and of course, American more then the European) English grammar is from other European languages. Many conjugative words used in English, are not used in other languages, others are used differently, giving room for failure and non-proper use by the native English speaker. Without my knowledge of other languages, this method would definitely take me a much longer time, as the program (or added media, see next paragraph) does not reveal to you the fundamentals of French grammar. You cannot expect the novice to self-understand basics.
As an alternative, you might grab any dictionary with a few introduction pages of French regular and irregular verbs. I've found use of the Larousse Mini Dictionary, it contains a dozen of informative pages on the "art" of the language, and hence reduces the "risk" of errors.
READING MATERIAL
3. The reading contents were not wisely chosen. There must be a philosophy why S&S decided not to include a list of words taught apart from the core lesson, but the beginner would get a lot more out of the lessons had they done so. The excuse "your French will have an English accent" - given it the new Users Guide, is absurd, as it should be accompanied by an audio file, as with the current reading booklets, and as in all other language learning programs.
The command écouter et répéter (listen and repeat) was in my opinion created for parrots but for humans with comprehension. How could you expect an intellectual person to just repeat after the pre-recorded speaker without having an idea of how the word looks like, how it is spelled, and what makes the earlier-taught word masculine or feminine, past or present? Some terms do have a brief explanation added, but all this should have been included in a proper reading booklet. In fact, you are told to read aloud many words you are not familiar with, when such a word is approached, you lose your confidence, as you are unable to recall it's meaning until you remember that it was never taught to you.
SUMMARY
To summarize: The content largely emphasizes on: Greetings, food and dining, travel/directions, entertainment, somewhat on shopping, banking and business, and shockingly (as mentioned by the previous reviewer) on the publishing industry, and the reading material is not adequate.
I cannot give it the fifth star, as it lacks very important and critical terms and words. However, if you are able to get it at a good price (the list price is very high), you will get an idea of how to start reading French, as it is very different from the English, as most words contain silent letters, in the middle as at the end.
One great point, however, about the Pimsleur language program is, it earns a star on pronunciation, for the manner the foreign language is presented is, when truthfully followed, allows you to correctly and precisely perceive the words, very close to a native tongue.
Bonne chance!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pimsleur Misses the Mark with French Plus, July 10, 2009
This review is from: French, Plus: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
Having used Pimsleur to learn four languages, I was looking forward to French Plus to enhance my conversational skills. Overall, Pimsleur does a great job of introducing a language and providing sufficient skills to get along fine in a language in day-to-day situations. However, Pimsleur chose to focus on the publishing business in French Plus rather than offer a wider range of subjects that would be useful to a broader customer base. I had read previous comments by other users that they had done this, and should have been forewarned, but even so, I was surprised that so much time was spent on such a narrow subject. As a result, I feel that Pimsleur missed an opportunity to produce another worthwhile tool. French I-III were fine, but French Plus was a disappointment.
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