Customer Reviews

Learn to Speak French Deluxe Traveler's Edition 2003

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

 

 

I have the Learn to speak French CD set from "The Learning Company" and it is absolutely WONDERFUL! I've been to France many times since "learning" French with this program and it really works! After each lesson you talk into your microphone what you have learned and it rates your French as a tourist or a native. If you don't do well you can do it again and again until you get it right. I've tried many programs and lessons and this is absolutely the BEST! You have to get it and you will be saying Merci to The Learning Company for teaching you such a wonderful language. It's so easy!

I bought this software to brush up on french before a trip to Paris. I thought it was excellent and the interactive nature of the program made it really fun. It's also convenient that it comes with situation specific lessons and drills (business,travel,shopping) so that you can tailor your learning to your needs if you don't have time to do the entire program. Highly recommend it to others.

I am very impressed with this product. For starters you get a lot of stuff for [the price] and this software has to be one of the best deals I've seen on any software. In addition to the 4 CDROMs you get a DVD, an audio CD, a ... Fodors Guide book, a very handy reference book, and a high-quality microphone. That's alot for [the price]. The software was very easy to install and everything went smoothly with the installation on Windows 2000. The software itself is excellent and very easy to use. Many many excellents lessons to work through. Short of hiring a private tutor I think this is probably one of the best ways to learn a foreign language. The simulated conversions are very impressive. I highly recommend this product!

I actually bought this product in Oct 2003. I knew I would be vacationing in Paris in May 2004. I worked through the programs one after the other for the past 6 months. Well, I went to Paris and was able to order in restaurants, buy things and converse at a basic level. The program works if you work at it. Where I think the program excels is in correct pronounciation. Hearing the people in the programs speak over and over and using the verbal dictionary helped me learn to pronounce correctly. The program includes a microphone and Fodors travel guide, along with a set of CDs and a VCR tape. The CD's contain the most important part of the program. Part of the focus of the program is to speak into the microphone and be graded on your speech quality. I think this is overrated and concentrated on pronouncing as the actors in the programs do. Also, as mentioned by another reviewer, the Fodors travel guide is a great reference tool if you actually plan to go to France. This program is well worth the money. Caution: It will not make you fluent. I don't think any program can achieve that.

Learn to Speak French is a terrible product. The Learning Company says it can be used on Windows XP, but it just isn't true. It loaded well and seemed to run OK, but within 10 minutes it crashed the system because it used up all the resources. There seems to be a bug that doesn't allow resources to close when you leave an area.

When I went to TLC home page to look for a bug fix I discovered that L to SF is supported over the web only and no support by e-mail or telephone is available.

There is a fix to correct some problem with Win 2000 so, with nothing to lose, I downloaded it and attempted to install it. The first step was to go to the drive that had the L to SF CD in it. I did this and when I clicked OK it returned to the C drive. Nothing I tried would take me to the D drive.

Maybe this works well on earlier versions of Windows, but on a Pentium 4, 2.8 Ghz, with 1 Gig of RAM it was useless.

Says that it works with Windows XP. Well, that's a load. I actually left the computer on overnight so this stupid cd could load, but it was "thinking" all night. As soon as I loaded the cd and clicked on "start" in order to load it, it just froze. I tried at least 5 times before I just gave up and sent it back. What really sucks is that we are leaving for Paris in 4 weeks and I can't even think of what to get that would give me the basics fast enough. So, save your money if you have Windows XP.

Re: Program not working in XP. I have an old set of Learn To Speak French Ver 6.0, 1996 for Windows 3.1xx! and today, could not get it to work in XP too. But, ok, it's a 1996 version. Maybe the 2003 ediditon does work in XP if you use XP's Program Compatibility Wizard, found in "Start", "All Programs" ,"Accessories." I got an old WinFax program to work in XP using this method.

Though I tried all kind of things for hours with the 3.1XX verson in XP Home Edition, Ver 6, 1996, especially the the Compatibility Wizard, I could not get it to work. The CD tried to load an old 1996 Quick Time program over my latest versions, then hung up with a dead, blue install screen. I tried for hours -- I am not that bad a computer user --- to get around this, but failed. I just tossed the disks into the garbage.

Though I remember when I DID successfully use the Version 6 program in 2000 in Windows 98,it was pretty fantastic, dialogue sound and all. Rather advanced and sophisticated. I liked fact I could load the 2 CDs on my Hard Disk. I used its movies and french dialogue with its very good 388 page workbook. I wish I had it working today, but at least I have the 388 workbook.

I lived in Brussels 7 yrears as an American expatriate there, and the program helped me to understand the sound of French dialogue. I did OK with my French in Brussels and Paris. I will try to get an updateded version that I might get to work in XP.