Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Cerebellum Corp
• VHS Release Date: April 3, 2000
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630521445X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,255 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you're looking to really learn the French language, as opposed to briefly memorizing a few phrases to help you find a bathroom or complain to the doctor of your traveler's stomach, the Standard Deviants have the video for you. Their French, Part I is a language lesson for the MTV generation. Short segments, funky graphics, and personable, youthful teachers make watching this tape entertaining, rather like Sesame Street for grownups. Using the "functional approach," making sure people can communicate and accomplish tasks in the new language, the video introduces French with phrases and full sentences, presenting ideas through demonstration. The point is to help you think in French. Dialogue is clearly transcribed on the screen, so you can see what the words look like, and two cards included with the tape give translations of some of the dialogues and useful vocabulary. Note, though, that all of the explanations are given in English, as opposed to an immersion program (meaning all in French, including explanations) such as French in Action. Which style works best is purely a matter of personal preference. Skits put the conversations into context and provide levity. Yet, as is clearly stated in the beginning of the lesson, this series is intended to be a supplement to a class, and French really needs to be practiced through speaking and writing. The benefit, though, of video is you can rewind as much as needed to master pronunciation and to let the concepts sink in. The tape opens with pronunciation, with close-ups of faces as they pronounce the alphabet to help you learn how to shape your mouth around the French letters. It then covers a range of topics including -er verbs, gender, articles, adverbs, être, adjectives, pronouns, avoir, numbers, aller, and faire. While the video could benefit from more native French speakers, this is a delightful introduction to the language, and a fun complement to a high school or college French class. Don't miss the flubbed lines during the credits. French, Part 2 is also available. --Jenny Brown

Product Description

With these videos, you'll tackle French head-on, using the proven and effective functional approach. Along the way, the Standard Deviants will teach you all the finer points of the most romantic of all the romance languages. Includes such topics as: the French alphabet, pronunciation, accents, infinitives, gender, definite articles, pronouns, the verbs être, avoir, aller, faire, adjectives, indefinite articles, adverbs. Running time: 1 hr 45 min

"Good for more than laughs; it also helps students cram for exams." --SWING Magazine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable French Review and Refresher, July 18, 2000

By 

Winterdark (Centreville, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Standard Deviants: French, Part 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a person who studied French in school but never mastered it, I loved the Standard Deviants' French 1 tape. It gave a brief but comprehensive review of all the basic important parts of speech. It also emphasized pronunciation, an aspect of French not properly represented in the classes I'd taken in high school and collage. The tape says it can't be used to learn French. It's correct. It really needs to be used with a French course, or some other method of learning the language. As a resource to aid in learning comprehension, or as a refresher course for folks like me, however, I give it full marks. Most of the actors and graphics are engaging. A few things were overly corny. I could have done without the weird, old-fashion cowboy guy yelling at me, or the girl talking out of her passport picture. But, these were minor momentary irritants that didn't take away from the effectiveness of the tape...besides the cowboy guy sort of grew on me after a while. The Standard Deviants' tape did one thing I really liked. Learning a foreign language requires repetition. Most tapes I've seen in the past either offered too much repetition for me, which left me bored and uninterested in continuing, or not enough repetition, which left me confused. The Standard Deviants' found a solution to this dilemma. At first, I was surprised at how quickly they covered each subject. Then, I realized why. It's a video tape. One can rewind it as often as one desires. They covered each thing once with nearly no review and then urged the viewer to rewind the section as many times as they needed. This left it up to each individual viewer to decide how much repetition they wanted. A very clever idea! Overall, I found the tape helpful and enjoyable.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for those who know zero french, May 12, 2004

By 

Harry (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Standard Deviants - French, Part 1 (DVD)

I strongly reccomend this DVD for those who are just starting to learn French. This DVD covers the very basics that will be needed to understand anything French. It introduces the viewer to understanding that a verb in French (like "go" in english, "aller" in French) is different based on who is doing the action. If I "go", then "go" is written "vais"; if we "go", then it is written "allons" and pronounced differently. I found this element of learning French painful at the start, that instead of learning one word for "go" I had to learn six. But once I became accostumed to it, learning became much easier. You can also expect to learn a little about numbers and colors, and a few verbs and nouns.

This DVD in no way will leave you knowing enough French to go and speak it. This DVD, and part II, leaves the student with enough basic information so that learning will become much easier. For example, I used the TV series "French in Action". At the start of my studies with lessons 1-6, I had a great deal of trouble understanding what was going on. After watching the Standard Deviants DVD it became much easeir.

One more thing about this DVD. It was entertaining and enjoyable to watch. I did not feel like I was working to learn, rather I felt more like I was watching a show and everything was sticking, that I was remembering what they taught. I highly recommend this for the absolute begenner.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you're a beginner, this DVD is NOT for you., March 6, 2006

By 

J. Savage (DC Area, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Standard Deviants - Parlez-vous Francais? (Learning French - The Basics) (DVD)

If you recently decided that you would like to learn French, this DVD is not for you. They FLY through the material. Even when they want you to repeat after a presenter they still go fast! I noticed that I kept rewinding the video to try and make sense of what they just presented. It was so annoying having to rewind constantly! The beginning of the video discloses that the DVD is a supplement to classroom study. If you ask me, they need to put this disclosure (in flashing neon lights) on the cover and product description because by no means will you learn anything from this video without prior classroom experience.

In summary, if you're just starting to learn French this DVD is not for you. If you already know the French language and want to brush up on your skills, this DVD might suit you well.

I'm really glad I was able to rent this DVD (through Blockbuster Online) before I made the mistake of buying it.

My search for a good instructional French DVD continues...