Customer Reviews

Pimsleur Instant Conversation French

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

 

 

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.

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.

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!

These CDs do not come with any written instructions. It is strickly learning by listening and repeating. I guess the idea is to learn French like babies do. The problem is it is not possible to duplicate the learning enviroment of a French baby. You need to know some basic French grammar. Otherwise you will be confused by why things are said the way they do and the many variations. For those that have some basic French grammar, this set of CDs is very good.

The learning technique is excellent. It's a bit difficult at times not "seeing" the words - especially when you get to France and see things written you only heard. But, after the 8 lessons (version I bought only has 8 lessons, not 16), I now know how to approach a complete stranger and ask them if they would like to get something to eat or drink and we can go to the hotel or my place for some beer or wine. Not the French content I was looking for to help me get by! I would like to learn some useful french content like how to order food or shop, as well as numbers so I can pay for my food!

This is an excellent tool for learning conversational French. It is especially good if you have had some French lessons in the past, it serves as a great review while you learn more words and expressions.

The cd is easy to follow in lessons that are around a half hour long each. When I found I stumbled over a lesson, I would repeat it until I felt comfortable moving on to the next lesson. Each lesson builds on the last lesson, while also reviewing the last lesson. I highly recommend this series. It works best if you force yourself to do it every day and then you find the expressions running through your head through the course of the day. I think it's fabulous!

Pimsleur is fairly famous for the audio courses. They use a lot of repetition, and don't focus TOO much on the grammar, it's more conversational French (as per the blurb). French 1 will give a grounding in French and allow fairly simple conversations, but it is only a start.

I was looking for a quick French conversation learning CD set so I could learn some key phrases before my trip to France to visit a friend. I was pretty pleased with the first 3 chapters of this French Learning CD as it discussed greetings, general information about pronunciation, and how to ask for directions. However, by chapter 4 it was apparent this was made for an audience going to France to pick up on French women/men. I learned how to ask a person if they wanted to get a drink with me at my place/hotel or theirs, and how to ask when someone would like to go out. In one of the example conversation the American man asks a French woman where a street is and follows up with, "How are you?" and "Would you like to get something to eat?". In the example she (accurately) sounds very surprised at the change in conversation direction and kindly declines his offer. I can only imagine what I'm going to learn in the next four chapters. :(