Pimsleur Instant Conversation French [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Pimsleur (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0743525736 | ISBN-13: 978-0743525732 | Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | Edition: Abridged

Speak French Instantly!

The Pimsleur® Method provides the most effective language -- learning program ever developed. More than one million people every year use it to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily -- without books, written exercises, or drills.

Easy and Practical

This package contains sixteen lessons that will get you started speaking today! Simply listen, follow the instructions, and then respond out loud, just as you would in an actual conversation. Complete one lesson each day, in consecutive order. When you've finished this program, you'll be thrilled to realize you can hold a real conversation in French!

Go beyond the 8-lesson Quick & Simple -- and double your language skills

Simple, step-by-step instruction

No classes to attend -- learn at your own convenience and pace

No books, written exercises, or memory drills

Listen-and-respond method lets you self-test your mastery

Increase Your Language Skills

Learning a new language is a tremendously rewarding achievement. Once you see how much you've learned in these sixteen lessons, we think you'll want to continue with the complete 30-lesson Pimsleur® Program. To help you, we'll give you a rebate of $150.00 when you purchase the Level I French Comprehensive Program. Please see bottom of package for details.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Pimsleur; Abridged edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743525736
• ISBN-13: 978-0743525732
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #851,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pimsleur is an excellent program!, January 28, 2003

By 

"javert93" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pimsleur Instant Conversation French (Audio CD)

Pimsleur is an excellent program, and I highly recommend it. The main focus on the program is to teach you french the same way you learned english - bit by bit. The program gives you the french phrase, and then uses several memory tricks to help you remember it. The end result? You find yourself instantly coming up with the responses, and being able to "hear" the native speakers without translating into english first! I personally spent several years studying french, both in school and at home, but I was never able to really "understand" the french until I went through this program. In fact, I have found that my only real barrier now is vocabulary, but you can get that from any electronic transaltor or dictionary.

As a side note: DO NOT pause the cd in the middle. The entire point in the program is to help you remember the words and phrases instantly, otherwise you will still find yourself translating from english every time. Even the instuctions tell you to repeat the lessons as many times as you need to, but DO NOT stop the lesson. If you don't get it right the first time, that's ok. After repeating the lesson a couple of times, you will find that you can get it on your own (without translating), and you will thank yourself for the extra effort in the long run. Otherwise, you may find yourself as frustrated with this program as you were with all the other french audio programs out there.

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for people who want a quick beginning, June 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pimsleur Instant Conversation French (Audio CD)

This is the first 16 lessons of the Pimsleur French Comprehensive I set. It teaches you how to make plans to have dinner or do something with friends or new people you meet, basic greetings, how to tell time, and ask how much something cost. No grammar is taught, but one can learn a surprisingly a lot of conversation after the 16 lessons. I would recommend this series for people who are going to French speaking countries and need a quick beginning to learning French. I have gone on to purchase the rest of the Pimsleur French program and am going through the lessons now. One minor problem: the CD does not allow enough time for you to come up with the answers. So definitely pause the CD before the speakers give you the answer. This will maximize the learning experience.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally!!, May 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pimsleur Instant Conversation French (Audio CD)

Great program. I've tried many language learning programs, but never wanted to speak it in public. For the first time I'm not embarassed trying to speak French to my a native French speaker. The French I Comprehensive repeats the first 16 lessons in Instant Conversation...Have already ...ordered French II Comprehensive... (Older programs refer to the "franc" and not the "euro", so watch for that.) Start with Instant Conversation and you'll want more!