Customer Reviews

SmartFrench Audio CDs Intermediate/Advanced

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you want to be like the majority of Americans who have taken a foreign language in high school or college and can hardly decipher a word of conversational French then Smart French is not for you. On the other hand, if you feel that the value of learning a foreign language is to understand NATIVE speakers and hear the language as it is actually spoken then Smart French is a MUST buy. This program will completely demystify the art to French spoken language--and it is an art. When I heard my first lesson I honestly felt betrayed by my other programs--why didn't they simply tell the truth about French pronunciation like Smart French does? That is why if you have had years of instruction or not even one French lesson this program will benefit you.

You get a booklet with the written dialogues, the alphabet, and helpful pronunciation tips. You also get a a CD software program which effortlessly takes you through a rich library of interesting conversations. You can watch the video and audio together or listen to the audio alone. The secret to Smart French is that it breaks it down for you--lesson by lesson. One of the most important things in learning a language is to utilize your listening skills--something that had always terrified me until Smart French. Go through each dialogue step by step and you will lose your fear and finally gain the confidence to trust your ears. Then pick up your old language books, tapes, and French movies and you will be amazed when you finally understand the speech patterns. I highly recommend this program--ENJOY!

I wouldn't recommend these CDs, and it's very difficult for me to believe the number of 5 star ratings. There are some very decent products out there with a lot of effort behind them. Some for less money than this one.

The key is to understand what these CDs are, and what they are not. SmartFrench is not a comprehensive language course. At all. It is only a set of 7 dialogues which are repeated at different speeds to help tune your ear to French, and help with your pronunciation. It is not a competitor for Pimsleur, which develops your recall response in the foreign language, or Learn in Your Car, which hones your grammar skills, or any variety of CDs available to build your vocabulary. These CDs do none of these things.

If you're looking to purchase your primary language learning tool or need a review, this definitely shouldn't be it. This should be way down on your list. If your French vocabulary is excellent, but your pronunciation is lacking, then these CDs might help. Then again, it would serve you just as well to rent a french movie with the subtitles on.

I have used SmartFrench Audio CD Intermediate/Advanced and I highly recommend it.
I personally have used it in conjunction with Behind the Wheel French in learning to speak French and have experienced a great deal of success as a result.
Having tried a variety of methods ranging from Bertlitz to Pimsleur, I would have to say that SmartFrench Audio CD Intermediate/Advanced is a breath of fresh air. It teaches you to speak 'real French' from real French people.
I enjoyed the variety of voices on the CD and the incremental teaching approach which gets you speaking in real conversational French sentences. This builds confidence and communicative ability in French and is essential to learning to communicate effectively.
Behind the Wheel French provided me with the sentences building techniques and high frequency vocabulary that sort of 'filled in the gaps' and gave me a complete and very effective learning experience.
Either course is wonderful but both together are a dynamic duo!!!

In the course of seeking a CDrom-based program to learn French with, I
read many descriptions and reviews on the various products out there.
SmartFrench made the most sense, even before I purchased it. After using it
for awhile, it still does. One doesn't just want to learn how to "speak" a
language: the goal is to communicate with others, to converse. Memorization technique
has its place, but what happens when the other person actually responds?
(Worse, what if the person happens to be French?!) The truth is, we don't
really speak even our native languages like it's taught in those books!
SmartFrench attempts to deal with that, and succeeds admirably. It's hard to
describe how, but in a way, you learn without really being aware of it. At
some point, you notice that you're picking out and understanding words &
phrases, say, while watching a French film. As the instructor says on the
SmartFrench CD: "listening is the key to your future progress". This is
really true. So, while it's fine to increase your vocabulary through other
means, I think SmartFrench is the more crucial learning method, and one that
will ultimately yield real results.

I found these CDs excellent. They have really helped me bone up for a trip to France. I have a degree in French and have looked high and low for some review material that is fun and challenging enough and have finally found it in these CDs. I noticed an immediate improvement in my pronunciation and confidence speaking French. Merci!

March 24, 2006

As a teacher - and student - of foreign languages, I found the 'total immersion' program presented by Christian Aubert simply brilliant. Not necessarily for those who expect to learn a foreign language overnight, but definitely an excellent medium for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. Mastering a foreign language takes more than just memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules; without being exposed to realistic settings of every day life in those countries in question, one's learning of foreign languages will always be limited and rather useless. So, if you are not among those patiently waiting for someone to develop 'The French Pill' - take it before going to bed and wake up the next day speaking perfect French - I strongly recommend you purchase this program and use over and over until you notice your understanding of the French language has considerably increased. It may not teach you how to spell correctly, but it will surely bail you out when you are trying to negotiate prices or avoiding being taken for a ride by those who normally pray on visitors who have learned their Bonjours through French for Dummies or other very appropriately named product. Two big thumbs up!!

As other reviewers have noted, this CD reveals the way French is actually spoken. I just returned from 3 weeks in France and the tape helped immensely; when speaking French I tend to separate words and phrases but one needs to speak in seamless sentences and this CD demonstrates that. It is definitely for intermediate/advanced students as I think beginners would find it overwhelming. Highly recommended.

This CD helped me a lot. They interview french people from various walks of life. You listen to the interview as read by the french narrator, and then after repeating it phrase by phrase, you listen to the actual conversation of the person who was interviewed. The conversation (even the narrated one) is pretty fast, therefore the real thing, which I liked. However, the thing that really bothered me about this CD is that the explanations are incredibly basic: for instance pronunciation and grammar instruction that any rank beginner would know! Eg: "Je, followed by ai, becomes J'ai." "C'est means it is" !! This kind of stuff is throughout the CD, even when you get to the advanced section! However, if you just cue through that inanity on your CD player you will get a lot out of this series.

No other program that I know of teaches like SmartFrench. Instead of the ineffective and monotonous lessons used by most language software, SmartFrench teaches you by way of real French conversations at real speed. Before SmartFrench, I was really frustrated. I thought I knew how to speak the language but each time I tried to listen to actual French conversations, I could never understand them! But with SmartFrench that all changed very quickly and radically. After just a few lessons, I turned on a French radio station and I could suddenly understand double what I could before I started using SmartFrench. It was like magic!

With all the glowing reviews I thought this cd-rom would be a good tool for learning French. It is NOT. There is no vocabulary, no grammar. All you do is listen to dialogues several times in varying speeds. The "helpful" commmentary is the same in every lesson. Spoken French is different from written French and while we are told over and over that certain words are not used in spoken French (like "ne" in "ne..pas") there is no commentary as to spoken French idiosyncrasies -for ex: in "tabac" the "c" is not pronounced but this is never pointed out. Yes I know you have to listen and read at the same time. My suggestion to make the program better: the "c" (in "tabac")and, in fact, all consonants, vowels that are not pronounced should be printed in "red" to help faciliate pronounciation for the beginner.

All you will get from this cd-rom (it's NOT a DVD) is the correct pronounciation but no basics. Let me repeat this. You will be able to parrot correct French pronounciation, liaisons and all, but nothing else. You may not know what a word means but you will know how to pronounce it. On this level it fails miserably