Customer Reviews

Teach Me Everyday French

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

 

 

To qualify, I am no expert in acquiring languages. However, I will say that I was a bit disappointed with this "program". First the book is too cartoonish and simple for my tastes, offering little substance besides providing the words to the songs on the cd (and without too much pronunciation help). The concept of the program is great- taking familiar English songs and including them in both languages. I have heard some people comment that it is good to have the French quickly spoken, as if by a native speaker. Well, that is the case with a good chunk of this cd: the first song is practically impossible to make out in French (at least for an adult with no French knowledge)- what's the point if you can't understand her enough to learn the French version of the song? Now, I do have confidence in the "absorbent minds" of young children, so maybe it will work on a more absorbent mind than my own. Thus, if you are looking for an approach based on simple exposure of infants and very small children to open their ears to the language so to speak, (and not a real teaching "program") this may be for you. I will say also, that my 3 1/2 year old really enjoys the music and has picked up a few phrases from the cd in only a few listens (you can't beat the familiarity of the songs); her enjoyment brings this up to four stars. And again, far be it for me to underestimate the power of their language acquisition skills in the early years!

Update: We haven't learned French yet, but my daughter still enjoys listening to the music and we've picked up a few phrases-- so I will emphasize the value of this cd for EXPOSURE to foreign languages! Still four stars.

The book is good quality, the dialogue on the cd is exactly what I was looking for: everyday conversational french for my 8 year old to listen to. However the adult singers have somewhat grating voices and they sing each song with english and french lyrics which slows down the lesson, and the translation isn't exact(or even remotely close on some songs) so I'm not sure why they even have the english version. They also repeat the english version on some songs so many times my daughter asks me to "please just turn it off." French material for teaching french to children younger than middle school is extremely hard to come by and so I try almost everything I come across, this just doesn't fit my with my needs but would be good for a less formal setting.