Living Language French Verbs: Skill Builder

Rating:
Summary: Superb. The perfect way to brush you on French verb forms
Review: Having tried several other methods, I found this course the absolute best for reviewing French verb forms in a non-boring fashion. The tapes are well-organized and intelligently done. They do move on at a swift pace but that is exactly what one needs to brush up on a prior knowledge of any language. Normally I resist hearing anything but the foreign language on an audiotape course (the constant interruptions into English usually tend to confuse more than they clarify). In this case, case, however, the English is non-intrusive and allows one to use the tapes without necessarily consulting the written guide. I use it while I'm cleaning thehouse, driving, or doing some mundane chore. Highly recommended. Hope they create a CD version of these tapes soon. (For a more sit-down mode of learning, check out the spectacularly interesting, interactive Learn French Now! software available for both Macs and PCs. Innovative and intelligently-done software that is also fun- in short, a great companion to this series.)

Rating:
Summary: Superb. The perfect way to brush you on French verb forms
Review: Having tried several other methods, I found this course the absolute best for reviewing French verb forms in a non-boring fashion. The tapes are well-organized and intelligently done. They do move on at a swift pace but that is exactly what one needs to brush up on a prior knowledge of any language. Normally I resist hearing anything but the foreign language on an audiotape course (the constant interruptions into English usually tend to confuse more than they clarify). In this case, case, however, the English is non-intrusive and allows one to use the tapes without necessarily consulting the written guide. I use it while I'm cleaning thehouse, driving, or doing some mundane chore. Highly recommended. Hope they create a CD version of these tapes soon. (For a more sit-down mode of learning, check out the spectacularly interesting, interactive Learn French Now! software available for both Macs and PCs. Innovative and intelligently-done software that is also fun- in short, a great companion to this series.)

Rating:
Summary: It is something that I am looking for!
Review: I like these tapes! I have tried some other tape courses, and finally find these tapes which truly worth with their prices! I am always poor in listening, so these tapes give me a good opportunity to practise. These tapes combine verb conjugations with listening and oral skills; therefore, you don't only get verb skills improved, but also oral skills brushed up. As you know, speaking and writing are completely two different things. I studied English and Spanish before, and made terrible mistakes of concentrating too much on written but forgetting spoken. So these tapes give me a good start to listen to what native speaker actually speak in the conversation.

Another thing I like these tapes was that the conversation part is suitable for intermediate level of students: not too fast and not too slow. The dialogues really made a good introduction to French conversations.

I did not give 5 stars because first, there are few faults between the book and the tapes. Sometimes the dialogues in the book do not completely match with those on the tapes. The second thing is that I feel the author should make more exercises on the tape for us to practise verb conjugations, a great part contributing to conversational fluency. The third thing is that the pause should be placed between the English translations and the French sentences, not after the English and the French sentences speaking right one after the other.

Anyway, these tapes are great bargin! The most important part of the language is to speak and listen, and these tapes does both! As I have tried some other tapes before, they are either not satisfactorily made, or does not worth their prices.

Rating:
Summary: It is something that I am looking for!
Review: I like these tapes! I have tried some other tape courses, and finally find these tapes which truly worth with their prices! I am always poor in listening, so these tapes give me a good opportunity to practise. These tapes combine verb conjugations with listening and oral skills; therefore, you don't only get verb skills improved, but also oral skills brushed up. As you know, speaking and writing are completely two different things. I studied English and Spanish before, and made terrible mistakes of concentrating too much on written but forgetting spoken. So these tapes give me a good start to listen to what native speaker actually speak in the conversation.

Another thing I like these tapes was that the conversation part is suitable for intermediate level of students: not too fast and not too slow. The dialogues really made a good introduction to French conversations.

I did not give 5 stars because first, there are few faults between the book and the tapes. Sometimes the dialogues in the book do not completely match with those on the tapes. The second thing is that I feel the author should make more exercises on the tape for us to practise verb conjugations, a great part contributing to conversational fluency. The third thing is that the pause should be placed between the English translations and the French sentences, not after the English and the French sentences speaking right one after the other.

Anyway, these tapes are great bargin! The most important part of the language is to speak and listen, and these tapes does both! As I have tried some other tapes before, they are either not satisfactorily made, or does not worth their prices.

Rating:
Summary: The best $25.00 you will ever spend learning French!
Review: In a world of very expensive French audio and book courses, for example Pimsleur French at over $200.00 a section, almost $700.00 or more for the entire course, and a huge number of mid priced sets, many of them excellent, the Living Language French Verbs Skill Builder is absolutely the best $25.00 you will ever spend on ANY French learning tool.

It covers all essential topics, has a friendly conversational style, using many of the same voice actors as Pimsleur and Barron's courses, and employs realistic real world statements and dialogs to highlight and explain the use of verbs in ALL tenses. The only drawback is that it is still on cassette tape, not CD Audio, but hopefully Living Language will remedy this soon.

If you're beginning with French this is an invaluable asset, much more realistically useable than the massive "every French verb on earth" books of conjugation tables. If you already have some basic French skills you could use this set alone to significantly improve your speaking and conversational skills.

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Listened while driving. Was pretty much perfect for learning grammar and making good use of my commmute time. Started easy, but ended up giving a comprehensive understanding. My level: took french in school years ago, have maintained an interest in french cinema ever since. You could probably call my french capability lower level intermediate conversational (not fluent).

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Listened while driving. Was pretty much perfect for learning grammar and making good use of my commmute time. Started easy, but ended up giving a comprehensive understanding. My level: took french in school years ago, have maintained an interest in french cinema ever since. You could probably call my french capability lower level intermediate conversational (not fluent).