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A great way to get a quick start to speak the language. It's great to listen (and re-listen if needed) to the proper pronunciation and to the phrases that will help you immediately if you are in the country as I am.
J'aime Pimsleur. They simply listen and repeat. For those of us who know nothing of the language the repetition was great. Children are not taught I speak, you speak, he/she/it speaks. I've just purchased the lengthy version of French I and am very excited to get started. I'm only going to be in Paris for 5 days this visit but I want to have a few phrases under my belt. I know how to ask for things such as food, drink, directions. These tapes teach the way a child learns, completely through listening.
After listening to the tapes I went to other sources to read the actual words and was astonished at the differences in how I would say what I read and the actual pronunciation of the words. My current favorite is "I would like some wine, please." A French woman I know said she is impressed with my pronunciation and understanding of basic French. The only French I spoke before purchasing these tapes was to say my name is Melodee and I don't speak French. I'm clever enough to apply the rules and make sentences using different combinations of the words I've learned. Seeing the words after learning how the French pronounce them gives you a clear idea of where the nasal sounds are.
Comprenez-vous un petit français. "You get what you pay for."Well guess what, the CD is nothing but a ONE hour lesson.Comprenez-vous. I can't believe it. Remember the old saying. Comprenez-vous que je parle de.
For example, if you wanted to ask someone if they spoke french, you'd want to use the phrase "Est ce vous parlez l'anglais. The lessons are (8) 30-minute lessons. Thank god I used a gift certificate that someone gave me as opposed to my own good money. It explains in what context you might use a particular phrase. The first lesson was a few sentences of speech. (Do you speak English)." Well DUH. 27 minutes devoted to this first lesson.
Bits and pieces of each sentences are recylcled over and over again in the the other sentences of this same lesson. You also need a good EAR to hear the subtleties of the french nasal pronunciation. No wonder they can easily package (8) 30 minute lessons. I broke down and purchase this at a store because my local library had NO audio books that weren't already checked out. But the lessons are weird esp if you are using this to "brush up". The lessons are strangely presented.
The lessons seemed geared to making you memorize key phrases, which is a bit difficult when you can't see the words that you're pronouncing, which then makes it only memorizing sounds you hear. Now I'm just mad that I tore the darn plastic off and the store won't let me return this garbage. As some one who studied french 10 years ago in high school and college and looking to brush up for a week in france, book learning was easy but HEARING, PRONUNCIATIOn and SPEAKING were the hard parts. You then spent the next half hour of that lesson repeating EACH syllable of each word in each SHORT conversation over and over again. For example the first lesson is only 7 sentences long, about two people going back and forth if they understand french or english.
Each subsequent lesson spends about 70%-80% reviewing the previous lesson. I would save the money and buy the full French 1 Language Program which has 16 CDs (the first 4 are very similar to this one). Don't think that you are getting 8 different lessons. The quality of the lessons are good though, but I wish I knew that the 8 lessons don't teach much French at all.
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