French language learning via CD and/or books

[Brightonbelle]

Hi there,

I have been given the opportunity by my company to learn French, which they will be happy to pay for. i have already signed up for a local college class in beginners french out of my own pocket, but this only lasts a couple of months. I want to take up their offer with something that would see me through beginners to advanced French, so i am able to continue learning after my course finishes at no extra cost to me. In my mind this points me in the direction of books and/or CDs, which they can pay for the intial outlay and i can use after my initial course and beyond (they will not pay for more than one course).

I would like some advice on the best CD courses/online courses/books that people have used to learn French. i learnt GCSE french way back 20 years ago, and since then my french has been limited to about 3 phrases, asking for a table, the toilet or the ski lift!![:D]

I would like to say that price is no object, but i am not sure they would look too kindly on something that cost too much!

Thanks for your help

 

Marianne

[cooperlola]

Everybody has their favourites, but I find the CLE "Vocabulaire/Grammaire/Communication Progressif/ve du Francais" very user-friendly for home study - particularly if you can combine them with class lessons, or have already got a reasonable grounding in the lingo.  To my mind they are well structured and some of the very few good books I've found for non-beginners (being entirely in French/using graphics to get the point over.)

[Will]

The Michel Thomas courses are very good, and if you go for the full course it should cover all you would need.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michel-Thomas-French-Special/dp/0340814020

[baypond]

I use Linguaphone which are OK. I find the format (storyline) boring though, and usually fall asleep while trying to listen to them (especially dangerous if you are driving at the time!)

One to one tuition is the best way to learn quickly and have it tailored to you strengths and weaknesses. Its expensive though.

[Gardengirl]

Another vote for Michel Thomas. I bought some for our daughter-in-law, who had very little French before that.

Jo

[Théière]

Michel Thomas, speak French witha German accent [:D]

Rosetta stone anyone?

[Brightonbelle]

Thanks all,

I am interested in Michel Thomas Vs Rosetta Stone. I have heard good things from both, but am not really sure where the difference between them lies.

Anyone got any opinions??

 

Marianne

[Will]

Michel Thomas is excellent for conversation, but if you want to learn written French seriously as well as spoken French you should be looking at something else. One of the main points of the Michel Thomas is that written exercises, homework etc are not considered necessary. I don't know Rosetta Stone very well, it seems to be basically an audio course too, but looks as if it might include some written elements.

Incidentally, Michel Thomas was Polish by birth. Because of his Jewish ancestry he was brought up in another part of present-day Poland that was then in Germany, to escape anti-Semitism at home, but the rise of Hitler (the forum software censors the 'n' word) forced him to leave for France at the age of 19. Michel Thomas was the French name he adopted while in the French resistance during WW2. He had a very distinguished service with the resistance, and after the war he moved to the USA where he opened a language school. His biography is well worth reading.

He does have a just-discernable foreign accent when speaking French, but native English speakers are not likely to shed their English accents and acquire Thomas' exact way of speaking through listening to him - and most of the course is conducted through the mouths of two English students, one good and one rubbish.

[Théière]

I was the rubbish one [:D][:)][:D]

But very confortaaaaarbbleé with the course, well disk one  [:D]

 

[Âme]

Théière, that illustrates Will's point about Michel Thomas & written French perfectly. [;-)] (I'll use that emoticon coz there isn't one for a smarta**e!)  But I understood what you meant and communication is the aim of the game.

I've done Michel Thomas (fast, basic spoken language), started Linguaphone (yawn) got some of the Cle books (still working on them) and done various classes (usefulness depends on the teacher & the other students).

It's horses for courses (ha,ha) but personally I'd invest in face-to-face teaching by a mother-tongue speaker. This is the only way to get accent and intonation corrected and to avoid picking up bad habits that are harder to iron out later.

Bonne chance.

[Daft Doctor]

I too have done the Michel Thomas courses and tried an online subscription to Rosetta Stone. I found that if you do the MT courses 2 or 3 times it really does sink in and my confidence with handling some of the tenses improved dramatically after I'd done the advanced course a few times. The beauty of the MT stuff is that you can do it almost anywhere, download it on to your ipod, listen to it in the car,etc, so you can get through it fairly quickly. I even used it via my ipod on long train journeys, just imagined my responses rather than said them out loud!

I found Rosetta Stone a bit too basic and repetitive for my likng, and of course you need access to a pc or laptop (and ideally the mike and headphones provided) to use it. It tended to get forgotten about, so I didn't get value for the £150 or so I shelled out.

For a quick and decent start in conversational french and french language structure I think Michel Thomas takes some beating.

[Brightonbelle]

Thanks everyone!!

i think that i will go for the MT advanced course that i will get my company to buy and stick with evening classes that i am paying for myself.

Hopefully if all goes well, i should at least be able to speak some decent french by the time the plan is to get out there for a significant part of the year sometime in 2011 early 2012.

merci!

Marianne

[Suzzie]

Hi:  I have completed 5 years of part time french at a local college and a private language school.  I also holiday in France every summer for 4 or 5 weeks where I am lucky enough to get private tuition from an English guy who teaches french children in school.  I have bought numerous books and CDs and out of ALL of them, by far the best is Michel Thomas.  As has been said, you can load the CDs onto your Ipod and listen whilst walking the dog, doing chores or travelling - it really is very easy to understand.  However, if you are a complete beginner you should buy the beginners course first as the advanced course maybe a bit too hard for a beginner to understand.  I have also found 'Breakthrough French 1' by Stephanie Rybak really good - you get the book and CDs - it has all the grammar and vocabulary you will need.  Get yourself a good dictionary too.  There is also a free french language website called About.com  Here you can do online studying, tests, quizes etc - very useful.

[Gardengirl]

A small extra my husband has found useful is www.bitesizedlanguages.com. I think they do other languages, too. You read a sentence and can  listen to it spoken, over and over if necessary. There isn't a line of progression, as far as I remember, but it arrives by email daily in small-sized bites, complete with translation, and you then have that resource available to you to reuse. It could be a useful add-on. I think I heard about it on this forum originally.

Jo