Customer Reviews

My French Coach

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I moved to a French speaking part of Europe a few months ago and have been determined to learn French ever since. I enrolled in a university level course, hired a tutor, and try to practice at my local pub as much as possible.

I was doing "OK" but then I heard about this title. I ordered it from Amazon and I have to say I am IMPRESSED! This is exactly the type of study program I needed. Unlike listening to straight audio (Berlitz Rush Hour French) the DS makes the process interactive. You get ranked (from enfant on up) based on your completion of the levels. The title has an excellent recording feature to let you record a word or phrase and then either listen to it alone, or play it back in unison with the French audio.

The many games you must play to master words to unlock the levels are challenging, somewhat addictive, but fun. I try and play all of them on the DIFFICULT level as they make me work harder.

But, it's not perfect:

One glaring thing missing is they do not list the masculine or feminine identifiers for the verbs. That would have made this a perfect tool because the M Vs. F tense is still a killer for me as I try to weave sentences together.

Also, they make a very strange error in that "Tu" or informal version of "You" is listed as "Formal" and the formal version "Vous" is listed as "Informal." That's a very blatant error.

The dictionary is very limtied. For example, while it has the word for "puppy" there is no word for "dog." It also does not provide definitions, so you'll need a dictionary to ascertain the exact meaning of a word because as in English, a single word can have many different meanings.

The audio and visual "phrase book" for social situations and traveling is probably worth the price of the game alone. It came in very hand on a recent trip outside Paris.

I play this every morning for about between 10 - 15 minutes. It also helps pass time when I have to wait someplace, e.g., barber shop, car dealership, etc. My vocabulary is now over 500 words and even my French tutor (a very picky and precise Parisian) started recommending it to her other students.

No matter what your level, from don't-have-a-clue-about-French to advanced level people who want to brush up on vocabulary, this title will be a useful training tool and a quality way to practice and brush up on existing French skills.

I have to give UBI Soft and Nintendo credit for scoring another way to attract adults to the DS. Unlike a bulky laptop I can play this thing anywhere and that's what makes it so appealing. It really is a quality and inexpensive learning tool, but could be even better with a little tweaking in (hopefully) newer releases.



My rating for this should be four and not five stars.

Ubisoft did a wonderful job with this game; it's a very well done learning tool. I do notice, however, that the instructor (a rather comely woman!!) does speak exceptionally fast and this may not be the case for all dialects of french. Additionally, there are other dialects of french (case in point, my in-laws are french and sometimes use different words or phrases than are taught here).

Nevertheless, activities that assit with spelling, sentence building and conjugations are an invaluable addition. Having a conjugation chart is helpful and players can find themselves using the charts initially and then replaying the game without the chart. This is where real learning takes place. TRES BIEN!!

The game is also entertaining. What is nice is that being "conversational", this reivewer did not start with lesson one. Upon commencing, the game gives a "pretest"; based on those results, the player will start at a level that is right for them. For example, I started around lesson 18. It's worth mentioning, however, that one can go back to the initial lessons and it is good to do so for review.

For the price, it's a very good way to either learn a language at least conversationally and/or even sharpen language skills for those who are conversational or for those who took the language in school in years past. The reference section is very helpful for looking up both words and phrases.

EXCELLENT tool for the cost!!

This is an absolutely wonderful title in the DS line up. I have been wanting to learn French for years, & finally I have a way to do it easily. I've used this multiple times now & it is very addicting & leaves me with a feeling that I've really learned something. I would DEFINITELY recommend this title.

this is a decent game/edutainment title in terms of production and content, but it's severely limited. there are relatively few mini-games, and the focus is almost solely on vocabulary and short phrases. several verbs are introduced, but there's very little reinforcement and conjugation is never fully explained. after you get to lesson 35 or so the rest of the "1000" lessons consist of completely unrelated groupings of often useless vocabulary (e.g. "quarry"). there are tons of cognates (e.g. "cookie", which is the same in french) which could've been spaced out a little more, and there are numerous notable mistakes (e.g. one lesson skips over presenting half of the word list and still tests you on them, and there are places where a word is presented as the translation, but then a different word is used when quizzing). all in all this is a good, but def. not great, package. clearly a quick money-maker that with a bit more time and effort could've been truly indispensable.

I took French for 4 years in high school and wanted to keep up with it, and so bought this game - encouraged by the good reviews it was receiving.

I'm on lesson 66 of the "1000" lessons and come bearing some specifics on the content.

The first 40 lessons each have 10 words you have to "master" - a phrase or two in French using the vocab - and a grammar note or two. After that, the rest of the "1000 lessons" are simply 10 words that you have to "master" - worse is that these group of words have almost absolutely nothing to do with each other. Also, after the 50th lesson, you can't access the "lessons" after that - you can only see the latest "lesson". Basically, it's like vocab flashcards but single-serving only.

Another thing is that the grammar that they do introduce has no seeming logic behind it. Those 40 grammar points don't really amount to anything substantial. I doubt someone completely new to the language would be able to pick up what it meant. Here are the following unsatisfactory things they included for grammar:

* The game throws some verbs at you and tells you to learn how to conjugate them - but never really tells you how to do so (like what is the pattern for verbs ending in -er and -ir).
* When it does break down the conjugation, it only does it for a handful of verbs like the really irregular aller (to go), avoir (to have), and etre (to be).
* The game barely goes over articles and how they adjust and combine depending on gender and number (such as du, de la, des).
* One of the major misses is that the gender of the nouns is not considered unless when used in phrases (a big disadvantage since most of the games emphasize working on the word alone).
* Only the present tense is featured.
* Even though the game "says" to put words together on one's own - one of only a few phrases that they do teach is how to say a particular body part hurts. The game does not teach you how to build meaningful sentences with their "10000" words.
* Basically, this doesn't teach any grammar really (they don't explicitly point out things like how adjectives can come after a noun unlike in English and the vocab includes reflexive verbs and they don't even mention what reflexive verbs are).

But, I don't regret buying this (note: I got it for [...]) because it does have some cool features that made it worth buying:

* Others have noted that the minigames are much better than simple flash cards, and it's really helpful that whenever a keyboard is used that the french pronunciation of the alphabet is used.
* If you're traveling to a French-speaking country and was bringing a DS along anyway, the game has a really handy phrasebook that you can search through.
* The best part of this game is that with the phrases and words, there is an option of hearing the French spoken by someone (I'm assuming) fluent and then, having the chance to record yourself say it and then hear it played back - alone or simultaneously with the French recording.

All in all, the game had great potential, but I don't think they had a real development team arranged that researched how language learning should be approached. And I understand that it's meant to make money and that it probably has done very well, but they really had an opportunity to make this game so attractive that some might think of purchasing a DS for it. Hopefully, they'll release a better one with a cutdown on the elevator music on loop.

I have to admit that I'm addicted. I spent 6 hours Christmas Day playing this game. I was just going to take the pretest to see what I remembered from college, but after scoring into level 10 I was hooked. While the kids played with their new toys, I pecked away at this one. It took about 5-10 minutes per lesson and by bedtime, I'd completed level 80. It was a great review. My son who I originally bought it for will be lucky to do one lesson a day, but by the time we go to Quebec he should be able to understand a little. This game really is great for all ages and ability levels. Thanks for the review UbiSoft!

I bought My French Coach today as a means of refreshing my knowledge of French. I did it for two years at elementary school, five years at high school, and two and a half years at college, but it's been a while since I used it and I felt that I was losing competence. So, My French Coach seemed a good way to get some practice. My main interest was in refreshing my vocabulary, so that aspect of it didn't bother me.

Unfortunately, on the third lesson, there is a glaring mistake. It says that "tu" is the formal form of you. It most definitely is not. That's one of the first things you learn in French class. So, given that, I wonder how reliable the rest of it is. My French is good enough that I'll catch all of its errors, but it would be bad if it was your primary means of learning the language.

I had this game for 2 days and played it for a few hours...only to realize that it's a horribly made game.

The grammar is never really touched upon, and the use of articles (critical in French) is overlooked almost completely. You are taught words like pastèque (watermelon) but are never taught that it's really "une pastèque", a feminine word.

If you ever have a vocab word longer than 14 letters, then it won't show up in most minigames and you'll have to play other games to pick it up, and you have to if you want to go to the next lesson. I reached lesson 24 before I gave up on this silly game.

My French Coach is fine for learning new words. Early on in the sequence there are some lessons that impart new concepts, but at some point, it seems to morph into nothing more than a vocabulary builder totally void of any grammatical concepts or lessons. That's fine I guess. I had hoped for at least some sort of rudimentary lesson structure to build upon throughout the many, many levels which one can progress. It can't hurt you to spend time with this game. Just don't expect too much in the way of improving your grammatical skills.

The game teaches Tu is the formal form of You. I'm rusty on my French but not the basics. Tu is the informal form of You, and Vous is the formal form of You. I'm sure others fluent in French verify that. I can't see how they messed up on that, as it is very basic.

Simply google: french you tu vous. You will see other sources state that Tu is informal. The game teaches Tu as (fml.) when it should be (infml.)

Probably not ideal to be learning to use the incorrect form of You when you visit France and talk to strangers but oh well. Vous will apply to most everyone: strangers, older people, waiters, store clerk, doctor, and anyone you don't wish to offend.

Overall, I'd say it's ok as a supplemental activity to learning, but not as a main source. Best to look out for errors as you go along with the game, and check against another source. Otherwise it's fun as an activity involving French language.