Customer Reviews

French for Reading

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a beautifully structured book for teaching yourself to read French (not to write or speak French). It's weirdly expensive, and it needs updating, but it's great anyway. I needed to prepare for a translation exam required by my doctoral program, with a background of a year of French in the seventh grade and enough Spanish and Latin to have a feel for Romance languages. I used this book, making vocabulary flash cards along the way, and I passed my exam.

A tip for choosing a French/English dictionary suitable for beginners: See if there's an entry for "eu" ("had") that at least refers you to "avoir" ("to have"). If there isn't, find another dictionary--one that doesn't assume you know things like entirely irregular past participles.

...I can't imagine being in a class to learn French for reading -- you can do it all by yourself with this book -- save yourself tuition money and go for it.

I just passed my department's reading exam in French -- like other people mention, the book prepares you for multiple fields of readings (mine was in Japanese Literature) -- I used this book entirely to get me through it.

Forget Jean-Pierre and Marie -- this book has real documents and stories in French -- no generic contexts. Students of Literature will probably enjoy this book not only for the skills, but also the reading selection (you're reading Hugo, Baudelaire, Bergson, Rousseau in the original!). Students of history and science, have no fear -- there's good stuff for you too.

How I prepared for my exam: I read the book, but halfway through I went back and did daily review of previous chapters as I progressed -- things like the French subjunctive, imperfect tenses, etc are hard to grasp, but a little review and you'll comfortable with it. Vocabulary cards and a thorough review of theFalse Cognates at the back of the book are a must. After about 2 months of daily work (about 2-4 hours a day), I was able to read articles in my field with little difficulty. Bon chance!

Regarding using this book to help with speaking: This book has nothing about pronunciation, so if you care about speaking I recommend learning general spelling and pronunciation rules beforehand, so you have an idea of how to read this stuff aloud properly in case you find yourself inadvertently doing so. I had had some French in school, but I also listened to all three levels of Pimsleur French, which I found helpful for pronunciation practice. I would also recommend Pronounce It Perfectly in French for good spelling/pronunciation instruction.

But that's a different matter from how great this book is. I found it particularly wonderful because of the little guarantee on the back--that it covers all aspects of French grammar as required for overseas French schools. I got the feeling that after I had mastered this book, I wouldn't have to worry about running across some huge and surprising gap in my body of French knowledge. So far, that has held true.

This book is pretty hardcore, and I found it hard to be motivated to study it without having some concrete goal--mine was a trip to France. I had always eschewed reading, claiming I only cared about speaking--but I have realized that as an adult, it's much easier to pick up grammar quickly by reading, and since reading is easier than speaking/understanding, it gives you an early basis for general confidence in the language.

So, with a goal in mind, I painstakingly went through this book in (I think it was) about two months, making sure I knew all covered vocabulary and grammar before moving on, and then reviewing earlier chapters as suggested in the book. I also used it in conjunction with Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach, another book which I have greatly appreciated. I made (electronic) flashcards with vocabulary from both books, which I found to be exceedingly helpful. (I used the program SuperMemo with a PDA--I highly recommend it.) I think I probably spent about 10-12 hours per week on it.

After you're done with this book, you can check out other grammar books to review and clarify points that you need extra help with. The book is organized in an order that I guess was best for learning, but there is no good summary of verb endings, for example, so I especially liked the Schaum's Easy Outline for this type of thing.

I'm not a graduate student and I don't need to pass any exams, so I can't vouch for the book's capabilities in that area, but I can say it gave me confidence in reading, and in conjunction with the vocabulary book I was using, gave me confidence in understanding the spoken word, which is a first step toward confidence in speaking. There are lots of other things to do to improve one's speaking skills, but I think a big component is confidence, and this book was really helpful. Not to mention it's nice to be able to read things in French and not feel like it's "foreign" and that there are more things in each sentence that I don't know than that I do.

One final thing I can say about this book is that it is definitely not a waste of time! If you already know the material covered in a certain chapter, you can move through it quickly, and it's probably a good review, but if you don't already know it, you'll learn essential information. I highly recommend this for anyone with a low level of French who wants to make a concerted effort to greatly improve in a condensed period of time--which is how I was--and I'm sure it's useful for others, too.

This is a brilliant book for anyone who needs to quickly learn enough French to reliably translate from written French to written English.

After one month of working through 15 to 20 pages a day, I passed the translation exam I need for my degree in art history--with NO prior background in French.

In fear and desperation I bought about 15 books: grammars, workbooks, etc. In the end this, and a dictionary, were all I needed. Forget reading a straight grammar; it's useless without exercises. And forget introductory style workbooks. They won't get you far enough fast enough.

If you are like me and can't stand the thought of wrote memorization, this book is particularly good. The exercises are perfectly calculated to repeat the right vocabularly enough times in the right order and contexts so that you learn it through use rather than memorization--as you would in an immersion program for speaking--only much more quickly.

I only wish comparable texts existed for German and Italian.

I had worked through another "Read French to Pass Your Doctoral Comp" text prior to discovering this book. The difference was night-and-day. Other books can get you over the "hump" of your graduate reading exam. But they do little else: One learns from them to "decode" French. But if you want to learn to *read* the language--and if you are a beginner, as I was--you will need to learn grammar and to drill. This book has it all.

After working through this book, I was able to read French-language books and articles in my area (history and international relations), and to use these sources in research for my book. The "decoding" method was too frustrating for me, since my pace was snail-like, or escargot-like, perhaps. Now I can read at a decent pace, without fear of making frequent errors in translation.

French is not a "hard" language, in the way that the other languages that I need for my research are "hard." But I would say don't be fooled. It is a very subtle language. The placement of the "que" in a "ne . . . que" phrase can make a tremendous amount of difference. If you really need to read French, this is a wonderful book.

Regarding other reviewers' comments: I think that it is worth the price. As another reviewer put it, you can use this book in place of a reading course and save money. Besides, reading courses often use this book, so you may end up buying it anyway. Finally, I didn't find that I was able to work through it as quickly as some others on this site. It took me about four months. But I am very slow at learning languages, so, as they say, actual results may vary.

This book is a lifesaver! It is geared toward graduate students who need to rapidly acquire a reading knowledge of French to pass a language exam. For this purpose, French for Reading helped me out immensely. In high school and as an undergraduate, I had taken French to meet the bare graduation requirements. Jump ahead five years, when I was confronted with the need to pass French translation exam to complete a doctoral degree. Needless to say, after five years of barely thinking about the language, my basic knowledge of French was not up to the task. With the help of this book and studying it for an hour or two daily over a two month period, I am now reading mature French texts far above the level of that which is typically given to a graduate student on a language exam. I was able to pass my translation exam with almost no difficulty.

I feel this book is appropriate for all levels of skill, from a beginner to a more advanced student who needs to review an already in-depth knowledge of French. French for Reading starts with the basics. Vocabulary is gradually introduced and repetetively reviewed as the lessons become more and more complicated. A student could easily start from the beginning (like myself) or just as easily flip to the section of the book where he or she needs review. Furthermore, the book is appropriate to all fields of study. The texts in the book vary from science, to history, to religion and philosophy. The authors of the texts include names such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo. As some reviewers of this book have correctly pointed out, the book's scientific texts are a quite dated. However, does this really matter when one is using them to learn how to translate French? My greatest critique of the book centers on its cost. At nearly sixty dollars new, this paperback is a blow to anyone's pocketbook, especially that of a poor graduate student. However, for quality and peace of mind, French for Reading is worth every penny.

I needed to brush up on my reading French, and I bought this book.

I think it's an effective method ... the author introduces the grammar a little at a time, and provides anywhere from 10 to 25 sentences to illustrate the grammatical points. It's a programmed type of approach; each French sentence is accompanied by the English translation (you cover up the English until you've translated the French).

If you work conscientiously through the entire book, you'll have a sound knowledge of written French. (not spoken French, written French)

Two negatives: some of the material is dry and dated. Which isn't too bad - if you assimilate the patterns and the grammar, you'll be able to apply them to more current material. The second drawback is the price. Sixty bucks for a PAPERBACK??!! Granted, it's a thick book, but come on, people. Twenty five or thirty dollars would be a fairer price.

If money is no object, you'll do well with this book.

This book contextualizes the grammar and made learning to read French a very easy task. The authentic reading passages are much outdated, but the fact that I could read and understand them with no difficulty gave me a considerable amount of confidence going into the doctoral language exam. This book should be used to complement coursework done with a professional tutor or French professor, or as the text for a French translation course; but, for the language enthusiast, it is explicit enough to use to prepare for the lanaguage exams without the assistance of someone who is quite familiar with French grammar. I highly recommend it!

I am a graduate student at Yale, and just last month achieved a "high pass" on my French reading exam. I can thank this book for passing that requirement--I had no background in French, took no classes, and received no tutoring from anyone. I worked my way through this book off and on over the course of 10 months or so in preparation, and supplemented my work in this book with regular reading of "Le Monde" on the web and some reading in my own academic field. So, as many others here can attest, this book is a truly effective self-teaching tool. Someone who is truly focused and has a lot of time to devote to French each day should be able to work through this book in 2-3 months. If you are incorporating French study into an already hectic schedule and are somewhat sporadic in your studying (thereby necessitating more frequent reviewing of past material), the course will of course take longer.

The great value of this book is that, unlike many other textbooks, it is designed for self-study. Once a new grammatical concept is explained and examples are given, there will be a number of French sentences to translate in order to gain practice with the new concept. English translations for each sentence are provided (the answers are covered up with a card as one works through each sentence in one's head), providing immediate feedback and correction if something has been misunderstood. New vocabulary is incorporated along the way in these excercises. The exercises in each chapter employ vocabulary that will help prepare the student for the reading selection(s) at the end of each chapter. These selections are from academic French of various disciplines, and are not translated but come with comprehension questions (and answers) to test the student's understanding. Difficult words and constructions in these selections are glossed in the footnotes; of course, these aids become more sparse (and less necessary) in later chapters. Nearly 100% of all the French words appearing in this book appear in the book's glossary, making cumbersome work with a dictionary unnecessary, thereby saving a lot of time. This also makes it easy to throw the book into a bag for studying on the road--there is no need to have anything other than this book and a pen to proceed (though I did like making flashcards of new and important vocabulary as I went along).

This book builds the student's confidence quickly, provides a solid foundation in French grammar, and helps the student to comprehend the basics of a passage even when some words or constructions are unfamiliar. The book is so effective that I did not hesitate to buy a used, clean version of "German for Reading" (also by Sandberg, with the same format) for nearly $90. Please note: if you do buy this book used, you must make sure that you buy a clean copy without another student's marks. Marking missed exercises and circling unfamiliar words that need to be reviewed is an essential part of using this book.

I remember reading several of the other reviews of this text back in 2004 and being encouraged by them. I purchased it at that time as an incoming first year doctoral student in Religious Studies. I must say, Sandberg's effort does as advertised. I approached it methodically, working through it no more than two hours each day, completing about 12 to 14 chapters. I stayed consistent in my approach, making sure I never went more than two days in a row without working on French. I, as well as several others I know who used this text, was able to pass my French proficiency exam the first time around (without even working through the entire book)! Please note, however, that I went back through the first 12 chapters a second time as a refresher. At that point, I felt confident that I could translate most theological texts. I ultimately translated a section from Les Damnes de la Terre by Frantz Fanon. Highly recommended.