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 Excellent! Jul 31, 2008
If you want to learn French like the French children do, use this product. If you want to start with grammar and vocabulary, try the excellent SmartFrench - Introduction to French, Vol.1 and 2. I use both in combination with this product and I am very satisfied. It's very clear, very efficient and very fast. Thank you.
2 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 A tacky rip off Jul 01, 2008
"SmartFrench' Audio CDs (Intermediate/Advanced
Half the program was in Beginner French, "Intermediate French" took up eight pages, "Advanced French" took up all of nine pages. No Vocabulary, no grammar. It was a $23 joke. No addresses to contact so the money went down the drain.
HOW YOU GOT A GROUP OF 4 STAR REVIEWS AND NONE LESS LAUDATORY SUGGESTS THET THE AUTHORS HAD A BUNCH OF RELATIVES!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Effective product to train French Listening Skill Jun 13, 2008
I have been studying French from textbooks so far. My greatest weakness is understanding how French people speak in real life amongst themselves. While I can read reasonably well, I have difficulty understanding native French spoken at normal speeds. I also struggle to understand French movies.
SmartFrench addresses my needs quite well. It offers a CD product that emphasizes listening to native French people speaking at normal everyday speed and then meticulously explaining how the spoken words, phrases, sentences are actually pronounced and linked together. For non-natives like us, a major reason that French pronunciation and aural comprehension are so difficult is due to liaisons and unpronounced syllables/words during speech. Smartfrench addresses this very well by highlighting the places where words are glided together i.e. liaisons and also where the syllables/words are silent. The CD and the booklet that comes with the CD marks out in red all the alphabets/words that are silent during speech and underscores all the liaison links. This is radically different from my other French courses where I hear natives speaking but not told where, how and why certain alphabets or words are silent or abbreviated during speech or where the liaisons occur. The CD goes through 15 interesting dialogs with a beautiful model, a chef, a gallery owner, a singer, a diplomat and so on. Their speech accent, style and level of formality varies, which give good practice in listening to how different natives speak. The product's website offers a DEMO that gives a flavor of how the program works.
I found SmartFrench to be the most focussed on teaching the student how to listen by giving valuable tips and an effective listening road-map along the way. It does not distract by trying to teach grammar & vocabulary at the same tim, but single-mindedly zeroed in on helping the student to develop the critical listening techniques for understanding real life French. For beginners, this approach may be daunting, but I would still recommend to practice listening right away, at the inception of learning French. This will familiarize the ear to the sound, rhythm and intonation of real-life native speech and trains the ear from day one how to listen. The SmartFrench technique is very effective in that regard. For rank beginners, SmartFrench offers a separate 'Introduction to French' product that teaches basic grammar, conjugation, vocabulary and sentence building, to complement its unique Listening method mentioned earlier. You can check it out at their website.
If you want to train your listening skills to eventually understand what the natives are saying, or watch an undubbed movie, news or documentary, SmartFrench is a great training product to add to your French language tool-kit.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Very powerful learning tool May 06, 2008
This whole programm is designed with the most important and thorough goal: help learners to comprehend language and be free to communicate it not on the beginner level, but equally to native speakers with the appropriate versatile vocabulary: professionally stuctured and organized natural dialogs, with complexity and good vocabulary that will help you to learn from native speakers without the need to travel in order to learn the language. Up to date course. This information isn't just thrown at you, but is being guided through, by the author who created this courses. You feel more like you are in the classrom and he is tutoring you, this is so valuable when you are trying to learn it fast with our our speedy needs. The name speaks for itself. Smart person's choice definitely!
Thanks a lot Christian!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Very effective! Apr 27, 2008
My investment in SmartFrench was the best money I've spent in a long time. I'd had some French experience in my growing up years while living overseas, and some high school and college French. But though I had a basic understanding and comprehension of the language, I didn't feel comfortable enough to actually open my mouth and attempt an actual conversation! About three months ago I purchased the Intermediate/Advanced cds from SmartFrench. The best way to describe the effect that my exposure to these cds has had, is to say that my mouth feels comfortable (and even rather delightful) with French rolling about in it now! After all the listening and repetition (the cds have been my constant driving companions), I'm no longer feeling tentative about pronunciation, or even the rhythm of the language. It's as though I've learned some dance steps and am now free to, albeit somewhat tentatively, move about the dance floor!
It's also very enlightening to listen to the French interviews and learn to understand what is being said by the non-teacher-types!
In addition to the new freedom I feel with the language, SmartFrench has clarified a lot of what categorizes a non-French speaker as just that - and has given practical advice on how to sound more French and less obviously foreign.
French feels approachable and adventuresome to me again, and I'm excited that I discovered these wonderful cds.
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