Customer Reviews

Mastering French, Level 2: 12 Cassettes (Foreign Service Institute)

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3 star:		(2)
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Mastering French, Level II, is for those who understand and accept that one must work to learn a language. I have been through it twice and find that my grasp of tricky syntax exceeds that of those who were unwilling to 'drill' (which is how language is learned). I would rather utilize Mastering French's variety of drills offered here than have only one drill per subject - which becomes boring. The hours of taped French offered on the 12 - 90min. tapes allow you to fill your ears with the language in an effective and interesting way.

Barron's has re-packaged the public domain Foreign Service Institute program and has done very little with it other than that. The sound (from tapes that are like 50 years old) has not been cleaned up; no helpful additions to the text have been made. They put friendly (and misleading) text on the outside of the package, and interspersed some information about "French culture" along with the audio drills.

If you have wondered why so many features of French grammar appear not to be covered by Level 1 and Level 2--it's because Barron's has not bothered to package the second half of the program! You can get all four levels from Multilingual Books online...they have re-mastered the audio cleaning up the sound and putting it on CD. However, they charge quite a lot more than Barron's for each level, so if you don't mind a bit of low-quality sound, you can save a lot getting Levels 1 and 2 from Barron's. (Okay, it's not all bad--I just had a horrible time with the last few tapes of Level 1--they were barely intelligible, and unfortunately it was the section dealing with numbers--an important part!) But be sure to continue on with Levels 3 and 4 to get the complete program.

In my opinion, you'll be best off using this series after you're pretty familiar with French grammar (and vocabulary) but are sometimes hesitant in constructing sentences. I agree with the other reviewers who said that fluency = not having to think about what you're saying. And extensive verbal drilling is an efficient way to achieve that. The only way you'll have the patience to go through the tedious drills is if you believe they will work!

You may want to have a French grammar reference with you as you go through the drills. The drills for a particular (explained) concept often include other constructs which have not been explained. You'll get used to saying them correctly without knowing why, but I personally like knowing the formal "grammar rule" for various constructions because it makes it easier for me to remember them later. There is a French <-> English lexicon in the back for words that were used in the exercises, which is quite helpful--so no extra dictionary is necessary.

When doing the drills, you MUST interact with the tape/CD (say the sentences out loud), or it will do you much less good. (By the way, the book is also apparently sold separately from the audio, which would be absolutely useless--the key is the audio portion.) You should go through each drill enough times that you can do it without the book, without thinking, and without hesitating. (If the drill is on a concept you already know well, this may only be one time.) Hint: get a tape player with a counter.

This series is useful, and the two levels by Barrons are a good bargain if you realize what you're getting, but I give it one demerit for the misleading packaging and the suboptimal audio quality.

Grueling at times, yes, worth it, absolutely! The only way to become fluent is to become so used to saying something that searching for the right words or grammatical syntax is no longer necessary or at least not as much of a chore. The drill approach is the best without a doubt.

Be prepared to pull your hair out, but the results come quickly and tend to stick longer than with other conventional language instruction packages.

I commute to work each day for about 2 hours and do this program. I recommend this learning program for those who have extra time here and there- commuting, laying out at the beach, traveling, whatever. Over time all of the tidbits of information here will sink in to your brain. But these are more than tidbits- they are the most essential and basic words and everyday phrases to get by and converse in French on an intermediate level. Of course, keeping up with Parisian and local 'argot' is probably impossible unless you live in the respective area, but what is learned from this system will get you through in speaking French properly, regardless of the fluctuating neighborhood nuances. What I would have liked to have heard more of are expressions like "Quelle belle piece!" for sometimes the dictation is a bit monotonous. I find foreign languages, and French in particular, easiest to remember when it is charged with emotive expression and even situational comedy- which these tapes somewhat lack. Overall, however, it may be preferable to come off as a tempered French speaker. Thus, this French learning system is recommended for its thoroughness.

Same format, native speakers, and instruction methodology as in Level I. The going will be a bit easier in this second part because by now you should have already mastered some of the pronunciation hurdles that trouble English speakers. Purchasing both Level I and II gives you 24 ninety-minute cassettes of audio which is quite a value if you like old-school "overlearning" type of instruction (i.e. rote memorization, repetition practice, lexical drills). It's a dated approach but still works well.

If you are still using cassettes, this is the best overall program. Nice pacing with native speakers. It never assumes too much, though it is an intermdediate program, so you feel you are moving at a manageable pace. No one program is the ultimate solution. This is just another aid to get you there, to fluency hopefully.

This material will be of great help to you if you are a serious French learner.
Material covers a great deal of subjects
The book is absolutely necessary to follow-up the "tapes" and material in the course are from what I call "teacher's notes".
Book is a serial of photocopies made of original type-writered paper sheets. Underlines are made by hand and in a very poor manner.
Very old fashioned and outdated.

Again, this material will help you a lot as a second resource If you are a visual person, this book contains no photos, drawings or anything in the like.

Regards,

Moises Gallardo