Customer Reviews

Mastering French, Level 1 (with Audio CDs)

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

 

 

My goal was to re-learn French after a 15 year lapse in order to prepare for a trip to Brussels and Paris. I quickly realized that I had to tune my ear and pronounciation. I could not do this with grammar books so I turned to this set as an aural aid and have been quite pleased.

The concepts are taught through dialogue, grammar lessons, and drills. The speakers speak at conversational speed and thus you are geared to understanding how the French language is actually spoken. This was a difficult initial hurdle for me, but after a while, my ear began to hear the words (e.g. "Je ne sais" pas is prounounced more like "zhoon say pa") and I began to understand and be understood. Also, the accompanying book is very useful.

The drills can be monotonous, but I found them very helpful. After participating in the sections, one undoubtedly has learned the concepts.

The specific grammar lessons are very rudimentary. They focus on only the present tense of a few irregular verbs (ętre, avoir, aller, faire) and the -er verbs, definite articles, indefinite articles, partive, and maybe a few other concepts; HOWEVER, the drills and dialogues cover much more and provide the most value.

In my opinion, this set is really only useful for someone like me who has previously studied French and needs to re-tool. I do not see how this could serve as ones first introduction to the language.

Some things that I did not like:
1. The primary male speaker is sometimes hard to comprehend
2. In an effort to change all occurences of "franc" with "euro" a female speaker overdubs the original in a VERY abrupt manner.
3. The CD was obviously cut from a cassette since I can very clearly hear what was playing on the other side of the cassette.
4. There are a few times when they sprinkle in future tense or imparfait without explaining at all. If one did not know these concepts, one would be lost.
5. There is no mention anywhere about the "tu" familiar form of any verb.

Overall though, I have been happy listening to this on my way to and from work.

*****I will add that one thing I did not realize when I purchased this rather expensive set is that you can get it all TOTALLY FREE from the government's Foreign Service Institute's web site: [...] This is the same EXACT material, audio and text.*****

I had very few problems with this book and CD set. I started it, having never spoken a word of French in my life in part because I want to achieve fluency but also because I want to be able read some French texts. I have now completed all the exercises in the "Part I" and am partway through the companion "Part II," which unfortunately is only available on cassette. I have found all the lessons to be very helpful. Each unit introduces several grammatical components, as well as some new vocabulary to give you some thoroughness. Units have several phases - there are generally two conversations, which introduce the reader to conversational-pace material, a sequence of learning and practice drills, and a series of questions you are expected to answer orally - all in French. There are also quizzes at the end of each unit with answers in the back to give you a sense of how your are progressing. I thought the whole thing was sort of complex and time consuming, like it says, but well worth the trouble - my French seems to be coming along quite well. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because I think it could be made a little more interesting with slight changes in the material. All in all, though, it's well worth it.

The FSI (original name) language courses are very good ways of learning another language. Instead of trying to be all fancy, this course simply presents French in a simple way that really helps you learn. If you complete all four levels of this course you can expect to have a very high speaking ability.

The learning method may be new to some people. There's a lot of audio so vocal practice is very thorough. It's basically up to you to decide when you want to move to the next lesson. In a sense you "over-learn" material, however this only helps you to learn things better.

For beginners I recommend doing Michel Thomas's French Course first. A lot of the information in that prepares you to use Mastering French.

This course if more for the serious learner. If you are just planing to learn basic knowledge of the language to get by, I recommend something like Pimsleur. If you really want to be proficient in the language then this course is for you.

I think this course is really good. It really prepares one for speaking and comprehending French. I have the slightly older version (it sill has francs being mentioned) and have found it to be very helpful. The method used is self-paced, so you move on to new material once you master the drills and have memorized the dialogs for the most part. It's also very helpful that there are plenty of drills to test yourself after you read a new point from the book.

While similar, it is not identical to the format used for other FSI courses, and covers more vocabulary and less grammar points in the first level. The audio also offers little English translation, only each drills' instructions and the review at the end of this level. Yet this is a good thing (you have a book with translations) because you are immersed more into the language.

Unfortunately only level 1 and 2 of the original FSI course are available through Barron's. The rest of the course has to be bought elsewhere. In addition, while the audio was fuzzy, it was still comprehendable and only a couple times was it was hard to understand the speaker.

I would most definitely recommend this course over Pimsleur, especially when you compare the price. So if you're looking to really learn French, then I suggest this course (and the other three levels) to do so. Even thought the course is outdated, it works and that's what matters!

I finished this book in just three weeks, but I remember every word that was taught in the course. I feel right now that the words I learned will never leave my mind.

Just about three weeks ago, before using this book, I knew nearly no french (just "bonjour", "merci", and "bon voyage"), not did I know how to pronounce the language. After finishing the book however, I could say many basic sentences, more than most of my classmates could after taking 2 years of french.

Here are some good things about the set:

1. There are many drills that help you know the topic very well. They can be boring, but the payoff is great.

2. The speakers talk at normal conversation speed. This prepares you well for situations you might encounter in a french-speaking country. Also, it forces you to throughly know what is being taught since only then can you have enough time to respond to the drills. (Beginners may find it hard to adapt, but they should improve quickly).

I did not like the following:

1. No pronunciation is taught (at least not in my book). They assume you know it already. This was the biggest obstacle when I started. If you are a beginner, buy another elementary course (or get one from your library) or search online for some pronunciation lessons, because they will help you immensely.

2. The speakers can be hard to understand. Combined with talking fast, beginners may be lost. I believe this is a very old recording, and some parts are unclear. Also, to change everything to the new euro currency, some other woman talks quickly to replace these instances. I first thought the tape was screwed up, but then figured out the reason.

3. Very little grammar is taught, and many times, the dialogues add in sentences that would not make much sense without learning the grammar (for example, the past tense appears sometimes, and so does direct/indirect object pronouns that often cause english-speakers huge problems).

Overall, this course is only for really serious students (like mentioned in the book anyway) that really want to be fluent. If you are an absolute beginner, get a little bit of french background (pronunciation, basic phrases perhaps), and the course will be just as effective. Once you get the hang of this course's style, you'll find your french skills flying.

I've taken French in the past, and decided I'd like to learn it well enough to be fluent. I'd looked at many language learning products and thought that this one might be a good compromise between price and the full bells and whistles of, say, the Rosetta Stone software.

I'm deeply disappointed.

The very first set of tracks is a conversation in rapid, slightly slurred French (particularly on the part of the male speaker). The listener is told, after the first hearing, to repeat the conversation one line at a time, then take each of the roles, but the time given between hearing a line and repeating it isn't sufficient time to stumble through the unfamiliar string of sounds, much less grasp any kind of meaning from it. The book provides a translation of the conversation, but there is no time to learn what the words mean if one is to keep up with the speakers.

By the third track I was ready to fling the whole kit against the wall. And this is from someone who is already familiar with basic words, phrases, and pronunciation. I can only imagine what kind of utter frustration and despair a complete beginner would feel.

If a diligent beginner were to study the words and phrases in the book before listening, then listen to the tracks over and over again, repeating the words parrot-like, eventually the learner might memorize the words and their pronunciation. But this is a dreadfully dull way to learn, and does little to help one hold a conversation. The book provides only translations of the conversations and drills, and a few grammar lessons. It fails to provide much in the way of insight into idioms or usage.

I've since found better success with a combination of the Pimsleur language course and the "French in 10 minutes a Day" workbook and CD package. The "10 minutes a Day" language series, with its colorful interactive workbook and lively CDs, is perfect for a raw beginner. The Pimsleur series is the perfect "learn in the car" course. Its drawback is that it comes with no written text (hence my recommendation of the 10 Minutes a Day series to accompany it). Just hearing French spoken won't give you any clue as to how it is written. But the Pimsleur method breaks down pronunciation, engages the learner in conversations, and creates interactivity by asking, "Do you remember how to say..." well after a particular word or phrase was taught. The course introduces only a few new words and phrases in each 30 minute lesson, then allows practice using the new vocabulary. It's friendly, interactive, and engaging, and much better than other "learn in the car" tapes that only have you parrot back lists of vocabulary terms.

I'm so frustrated with Barron's product that I'm going to try to return it. That's too much money to waste on a product that is barely usable.

This is just part of the FSI (Foreign Service Institute) program, repackaged under the Barrons name. This program is probably best after some exposure to the French language - from Pimsleur or Michel Thomas for example. The audio quality isn't the best, since the tapes were originally recorded in the 60's, but I don't see this as a problem, since you'll have to get used to real prople who do not always speak clearly. I wouldn't pay much for this though, since the whole course is in the public domain and can be found for free (legally) on the web.

This is an excellent product to start with if your goal is fluency in French. It is an audio-based approach to learning, like Pimsleur. But unlike Pimsleur, it comes with a textbook that transcribes everything on the CDs and also contains basic grammar information so you can see how to spell the words you are saying. With over 12 hours of audio, you can practice listening to French and speaking it extensively. The audio material includes brief snippets of important information (in English) about French culture that a tourist might like to know. Grammar explanations in the book are minimal but every new grammar point is reinforced over and over again, in many contexts, in the spoken audio material so you get a very good grasp of each new grammar point that is introduced.

This course does have one major flaw, and that is that it contains no information about how to pronounce French, so a complete newcomer will be very puzzled by the huge discrepancy between French spelling and pronunciation. This, however, can be remedied if you study a little about French pronunciation before starting this course. If you already have some familiarity with French, you should have little or no trouble working out the pronunciations used in this course. If you're not familiar with French pronunciation, I would recommend the audio-book package "French at a Glance" to start with, to read about French pronunciation rules and hear and practice some phrases. Also, to any student of French, I strongly recommend the book "501 French Verbs" as a superb grammar supplement.

You will not quite "master" French with this course but it does lay a very solid foundation for further study. This course comprises six units, the first one-fourth of the complete U.S. State Department French course. After completing the six lessons of "Mastering French," you can move on to the next six in "Mastering French, Level 2." For those who are interested, lessons 13-24 are available from Audio-Forum and www.101language.com but are quite expensive, unless you buy only the books with no audio. Complete the first 12 lessons and you should be fairly conversant in French, complete all 24 and you will be nearly fluent.

This is a good quality product that is a little behind the times. When you import the CD's to your itunes account, the descriptions and numbering are not consistent from CD to CD. For example on Disc 1, the tracks are numbered 0101, 0102, etc., which is great. However, on Disc 7 they are just numbered "Track 1" w/no indication which disc, nor is the "author" or "title" noted in the applicable columns. This makes it VERY hard to find the disc, much less the track you want to listen to for some discs. As I said, the instructional quality is superb, but you would think that with the new edition they could get a little more with the tech program! If you want to physically use the CD's in a CD player, this issue would not apply, but had I known how antiquated the uplink would be, I would not have bought it.

Was happy with the condition of this product and the promptness with which it was delivered.