French (Basic)

Rating:
Summary: An incredible intro to the language
Review: Before you buy this, you should know that it is only the first half of the comprehensive French I, and if you're traveling independently (as I was), you'll need the whole thing. After finishing off the 16 lessons of this, I found that my local library had the comprehensive set, and was able to use that to prepare for my trip.

That said, the Pimsleur method is stunning. The first few lessons can seem a bit frustrating--all you learn is different ways to say "Do you speak English?" and "Do you speak French." What you don't realize is that the program is actually giving you a sophisticated introduction to French sentence structure just using a few words, and you fly ahead from there.

Where this differs from tapes that just give you phrases is that it actually gives you the ability to form your own sentences, adapting to different situations. The program never teaches you specifically how to handle, say, getting a room in a hotel, but when I was backpacking through small villages in France, I was able to handle this without a hitch.

You will need a phrasebook or a dictionary on your trip to fill in the vocabulary gaps, and if you plan on counting past fifty or saying anything in the past tense, you will need to obtain the comprehensive program. But if you're going to France in a tour group and just want to be able to understand a bit of what's going on around you, this is perfect.

The effectiveness of this program cannot be overstated. My library has levels II and III. I'm planning on going through those and heading off to backpack in Quebec this summer.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but I won't be able to read anything...
Review: By the time I finished the 16th lesson, I was responding quickly to the tapes, including the permutations that were not simple parroting of what the announcer said. To me, this meant that I was learning the language.

The only drawback is that it is COMPLETELY on tape, other than the language card that comes with it. I wonder how well I'll do in restaurants and with printed directions.

That said, I came back to Amazon.com looking for a followup tape from Pimsleur, in the same series. I really liked it, and if I could give a fractional star, it would have been 4.5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent course!
Review: I was skeptical about the pimsleur method at first, so I bought this basic french course for $34 and a Barrons "Mastering French" in 14 CDs for $90.

After comparing the two, the pimsleur method is by far the best way to learn french, if you're a lazy person. With pimsleur, you don't need to read books and memorize vocabulary words and grammars. When I listen to the Barrons CDs, it is impossible to learn french without reading the book that was included with the set. The Barrons method is pretty much classroom-type learning while the pimsleur method is street-type learning.

I guess it depends on how much time you have and the type of person you are. If you want to learn French while sitting down at a desk with a book and pencil, then Pimsleur is not for you. On the other hand, if you want to learn French while commuting to work or jogging (watch out for cars!), etc,.. then Pimsleur is the way to go.

It's true that Pimsleur method is slow, i.e. on the first CD you learn very simple phrases like "Do you understand French?" But it is highly effective. And considering that you don't need to open a book at all, I think it is well worth it. You'll learn French effectively with very little effort (and that's how we measure how good these things are, right? afterall, anyone can learn a language if they put 100% effort).

Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars for the system, not this basic
Review: I'm nearly finished with the Pimsleur Comprehensive French I course... Like most of the other reviewers, I think the Pimsleur method is the absolute best for all the reasons they've listed. But people interested in buying this particular item, the Pimsleur Basic, should understand that the only reason for buying it is to get a taste of the larger program. This set contains the first 8 lessons of the French I program (without the reading segments), and you are not going to learn very much in 8 lessons. My advice is to go ahead and take the plunge - buy the comprehensive. ...this isn't the type of course you keep around for later review - it is too slow for that, and you could buy the Ultimate French Review ...to look something up you've forgotten. So go through the Pimsleur course...and move on to Pimsleur II. That's what I'm doing.

Rating:
Summary: A breakthrough
Review: I've tried every home-study device out there -- basic instruction books with tapes, grammar handbooks, interactive CD-ROMs, flash cards, children's books, even those French magnetic poetry words, and got practically nowhere. With the Pimsleur CDs, I am finally making progress. No, I'm not claiming I can carry on a detailed conversation, but I am speaking French aloud without fear or embarrassment, and am comprehending elementary phrases at the speed and fluency of everyday conversation. And yes, this method does make you an *illiterate* French speaker, but reading and writing French doesn't do much good in real life if you cannot spontaneously speak and understand it at a fluent speed.

At first I was annoyed that the lessons crawled at such a slow pace... after all, like everyone else I want to be fluent in a foreign language by next week. However, I find that my retention of what I learned is much better in these smaller chunks of information. It seems to help enormously to have a solid grasp of manipulating a few fundamental words and phrases, rather than fleeting knowledge of many.