Rating: 
Summary: It's topps for understanding and speaking
Review: The Pimsleur Intermediate French has been great for beefing up my listening and speaking ability. I've had 3 semesters of college French and knew everything on the tapes -on paper-. However, I could not have understood and said the things that I can now. It seems that understanding a new language has a lot to do with following the intonation and rhythm of native speakers. Now I can listen to a conversation and actually pick out which words I don't know rather than just understanding the first and last words in each sentence. Worth every penny!
Rating: 
Summary: Pimsleur method is still the best, but...
Review: When you finished this set, you can expect the following:(1) You will continue to learn a lot of basic sentence structures along with important French expressions from the audio lessons and the supplementary text booklet. (2) Your command of the language will improve subtly. I've found that when I had finished the 30 lessons (it took me about 2-1/2 months and on average 2 or 3 days on 1 lesson), I didn't think I know a lot more than when I started UNTIL I went back to go through each lesson again. I was amazed at the amount of materials I have actually picked up. It was then that I realized how NATURAL those expressions have become to me. I could recall about 90% of the lessons. The second time around (one day on each lesson) allows me to work on those 10%. (3) Do NOT expect to carry out a long conversation with a French person or be able to watch French TV programs and understand what everything they are saying. I feel that I am now very competent in handling simple questions - albeit within the range of questions and answers practiced in the course. The problem is that I don't have enough VOCABULARIES to go into a 'deep' conversation. VOCABULARIES are what this program doesn't give you. Indeed, this program excels in giving you all the BASIC FRAMEWORKS to build upon, but it's up to you later to expand your vocabularies and learn how verbs conjugate. (To learn more vocabularies, you may want to check out the 'Vocabulearn' series - it is not the greatest or easiest learning program but it does give you a lot of vocabularies.) I had very high expectations when I bought this set. Perhaps because of that I was slightly disappointed when I discovered that I still couldn't understand 30% of French television programs. But having gone back and reviewed the 30 lessons again, I realize I've actually learn quite a bit and the seemingly simple Pimsleur program has succeeded in making the language become very natural to me. Enjoy the program. It really works. Just remember that the strength of the Pimsleur program is its emphasis on SPEAKING skills and PRONOUNCIATION at the basic to intermediate level. You will be amazed at how much you've learned when you go back to do the whole set again after you've completed the 30 lessons. I am looking forward to the third set.
Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this series as a way to become conversant
Review: While this is an expensive set, it is well worth it. I have spent money on other french tapes and have found that no other series comes close in production quality and content. This series provides a perfect method to learn while driving. Not only are the tapes strictly conversational (no reference books) it provides a fairly comprehensive tutorial. I found that I had amazingly good recall of all the words, including verb conjugation, and sentence structure long after I had completed the tapes. I hope version III, which I have just ordered, will delve into the mystical subjunctive mood.
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