Customer Rating:  
Summary: School tool
Comment: I have had this for a while but wanted to give it a good go before reviewing.
The package comes with a book & 3 CD's. All are well presented & are easy to use.
The step by step/ sentence by sentence format works well but it really is only for beginners. The phrases are very basic and will only get you so far in real life.
However as a tool for teaching children this has some merit. It is clear & easily learnt & taught and with just a phrase a night your child could be helped on the 1st steps to learning another language! So too if you do not speak a word of French then this is a good starter though really you would be better off getting a course that takes you from beginner to a bit further than this.
All in all this does exactly what it sets out to do. It gets you started & gives you hope that learning French is not impossible. In particular if you are thinking of starting out helping your children then this is a useful tool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to La France!
Comment: Really hard to review any foreign language learning package as success here is dependent on...
1. Your ability (some are apt at languages - others struggle!)
2. Desire to plough through the course after the memories of that beautiful summer holiday start to fade!
That said, this is an OK package for the money - somewhere between tourist French and the begining of an attempt to learn for real - certainly a big step up from a simple phrase book - the short "bite sized chunk" approach based on situation learning, contains clear, concise and relevant pockets of the language - certanly enough to get you through most tourist situations and certainly helpful to those that find any new language a struggle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great cd set!
Comment: This is a fun and enjoyable cd set that is easy to follow. The example spoken and written phrases are exactly what you want to hear and see when you are new to a language.I liked the fact that is all seems modern and not at all like the old fashioned text that we learned in school.
I downloaded the discs to my Mp3 and made much more prgress than I expected leading up to our visit to France. Highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to the language
Comment: Having no knowledge of French (having learnt German at school) but with a keen interest to start learning, this course was an ideal way for me to get stuck in. The lessons revolve around keywords introduced in turn, which are then used in the subsequent conversations; then you have to try and remember them. The fact that they are used in dialogue within a context does make the words easier to remember. Each lesson is only 10 minutes or so long, which is particularly helpful for people with a short attention and motivation span (like me)! As a CD course, it is of course possible to transfer the tracks onto your mp3, so that you can revise your knowledge on the go - and the succinct and compact booklet helps as well.
The downsides are that it is perhaps a little too basic; for those already with at least schoolboy/girl level French, it will leave you wanting. A thorough completion of the course will probably get you to a good level of holiday French with some basic phrases, but if you are going to do some serious learning, I'd advise going for a traditional textbook and audio course as the booklet is a little too concise for that purpose. Similarly, if you are looking to improve your written communication or reading, this is also not suitable as it is predominantly a casual speaking course.
This audio course does what it saids on the tin - it eases you slowly and easily into the basics of spoken French, as the first step towards learning the language. If this course compels you to start studying French seriously, then all the better!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not double dutch
Comment: Sometimes titles like these can equal hard graft. Listening and re-listening. Whilst there is by its very nature an element of this -this hand holding exercise works rather nicely and begins at a nice easy level. My french was years ago intermediate and this has worked as a nice refresher -it has eased me back into what I hope will be end up being a reasonable grasp of the language.
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