Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Basic French (Teach Yourself Books)

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

 

 

Titles do not lie. This is book is truely only for those who want BASIC and can teach themselves. If you`re like me and need things explained several times this book is good since you can reread it. But at the same time with very few examples, if you don`t understand it the first time, chances are you`re not going to understand it by rereading the same thing several times. Know your learning patterns before you buy this book!

I've worked with several beginning French books, and this is the best by far--at least for someone with my background and learning patterns. It might be a bit tough if you don't have any background whatsoever in any romance language, but it seems to me that learning a language always takes a lot more work than the ads for books often claim. Work methodically through this book and you'll have a good solid base upon which to build when you go to France or start reading French books and newspapers.

I really got sucked into buying several of the TY French books at the same time, mostly due to their appearance and scanning them in the bookstore. This title is the only one I can recommend. It is much better than the TY French Grammar; as a reviewer of that book pointed out, that book has a very skimpy index and odd organization that make it hard to look up a topic. This book, while I wish it went for less "chatty" chapter titles (e.g., "articles" instead of "How to say 'the'")does have a logical organization. Unfortunately, it has no index at all, so it works better as a chapter by chapter course than as a reference, but I found the way the topics were presented to be logical and comprehensible. Good tips on approaching a language as well, such as telling you not to get bogged down when a foreign language doesn't follow the same patterns or idioms your native tongue does.

I checked this book out of the library in preparation for an upcoming trip to Paris. It is probably too compact for entry level learning for most people. But I last took a French course in 1970, and I have never had the opportunity to use the language since then. I found the book to be an excellent refresher text and will be going to Paris with a lot more confidence. I have just ordered a copy for myself.