Posts
Rating: 7/10
Publisher: Teach Yourself
Pros:
Very clear native French speakers who speak slowly enough to understand all words fairly easily
Gives contextual dialogues, translations, information on structures, some verbal conjugations
Good production values
Cons:
The little tune introducing each section is a bit clichéd.
Conclusion:
This course is targeted at the complete beginner or traveller who wishes to learn a few phrases to use in travelling contexts. It makes use of similar vocabulary to enable you to recognise the same phrase in different contexts. The speakers are fluent native French actors, using a pace that is fairly slow, enabling easy recognition.
Dialogues are based on the following contexts:
- Introductions
- Making a reservation as well as eating/drinking at a restaurant
- Booking and staying at a hotel
- Buying tickets to a theme park
- Travel by train
- Hiring a car
- Going to the Chemist/Drugstore
- Asking directions
- Talking to the police
- Dinner at friend's place
- At a flea market
- Departing
A great course as an introduction to the French language for people who are travelling on holiday to France. The French speakers are very easy to listen to, and the English information and translations are provided by a woman with a clear (distinctly English accented) voice. Not a bad start for someone just wanting a basic taste of the language without too much effort.
You can purchase this course through Audible at the Amazon website
Further Comments:
The dialogues are definitely with travellers in mind, so some of the phrases are similar in order to feel competent in picking up the language quickly. This makes the course easier, but maybe a little disorienting when encountering a wider range of responses than is given in such a short course. This is not a detriment to the course, however, as it is not meant to be exhaustive.
The music introduces each new dialogue, which is useful for orienting your progress skipping through the audio on an iPod or similar. I would have liked a verbal indication of sections (eg. "Dialogue 4 Part 2") however, to enable easy navigation on iPod. This is a minor irritant however.
As a basic course it covers a very useful range of contexts, targeting useful activities that a traveller would easily encounter. Recommended for beginners or travellers who want to tackle the French experience.
