Teach Yourself French Complete Course

Rating:
Summary: Caution: all TY courses are written by the British
Review: Be careful if you're a fellow American trying to learn from TY; the pronunciation guides are not very useful because they're based on British pronunciation. Because of this you get explanations like "The French 'a' is pronounced like the 'a' in 'cat,'" while for us that sound would look more like "cot." Rely mostly on the tapes for pronunciation. Also, watch out for odd (to our eyes) punctuation; it's not explained because the French and British systems are pretty much identical, and you'll just have to pick it up yourself. I haven't taken this French course, but this warning applies to all TY courses. Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: Having the Beginner's Book Helps
Review: I used the "Teach Yourself: Beginner's French" book and cassettes first, which made it easier to use this more complex follow-up book. I think this is what made this book easier to follow, given the complaints others have listed in their reviews. I think the two should be used in conjunction, and I am satisfied with the results, although I credit some of that satisfaction to having already been exposed to a Romance language, Spanish. Overall, I think this book is worth the money, considering how expensive many other learn-at-home programs can be.

Rating:
Summary: Great... if you're brushing up
Review: Since I already understand a decent amount of French, this is a dandy way to bring back what I've lost in memory. But I really have to wonder if this would work for someone completely new to the language. If you are completely new to French, the tapes are definitely a must by sheer virtue of French not being a phonetic language. It's much like English in the sense that the way a word is spelled has little to no bearing on how it's pronounced.