SmartFrench CD-ROM 1

List Price: $49.95 Discount Price: $44.95

Features:

• For Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced
• Repetition of excerpts of complete conversations
• French language rules explained in a simple way
• CD-Rom with booklet containing actual transcripts of French natives
• Color-coding shows what is and what is not pronounced in spoken French

Customer Reviews:

Great method to tune your ear to "real" spoken French/ comprehend it/ and start speaking it. [Posted on 2008-01-28]
What I LOVE about this SmartFrench CD-rom is the video interviews with 19 different people (chef, fashion model, musician--you get the idea). You can watch a video of each person talking about their career (very interesting!) to see their mannerisms, hear them speak, and you can choose to click on "translation" so that the English translation appears on screen above the video simultaneously. You can also choose to see the text in French above the video to see how French is written. The French words are color coded so that whatever is not pronounced (silent) is printed in another color. That is SO helpful to me! Now I am able to read a little, too.

It's one thing to learn French in a classroom, but it is different thing entirely to hear it spoken by native French speakers. This CD-rom helps to tune your ear so that it makes sense.

I also use the PDF booklet a lot. It goes over how to pronounce the alphabet, numbers and silent letters. It has charts of `sounds'. I have a lot of materials at home to help me learn French, and most methods forget to teach/review the basics.

Also included are "Useful dialogues when you visit France" for use in the subway, on the street, in the taxi, café, at the concierge's desk, restaurant, a friends wedding, post office, museum, hotel and airport.

I really love using this SmartFrench CD-rom. I was a beginning French speaker before our trip to France 3 months ago. Being in France helped attune my ear to the language, but I could only pick up a few words. This CD-rom is helping me to comprehend a LOT more French when I hear my French friends talking, and I am beginning to speak so that I am understood!

Very effective! [Posted on 2008-04-27]
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.

The best, most authentic french learning source!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Posted on 2008-05-08]
I have MA in linguistics and intercultural communication and I went through many programs and sources during my studying other languages (Russian,German and English and Italian) that now I can state with full right : Learning foreign language is 80% faster when you learn it with your ears. There is no other source like this one! When I opened the software on my computer and started to click on options, I couldn'tbelieve the choices you get there. You have so many of them to learn authentic french (offered to you in three level choice!), each of them is like served on the plate for you, just open your mouth.
It is designed very entertaining and you don't get tired and exhausted, like in many other sources, after you listen to the dialogue you have to take a book and read on your own and read examples (which pronunciation is not guided for you), not here: Christian explains grammar as it is met in the offered dialogue, reads other examples with these structure usage! while he voices over with extremely correct pronunciation (like no other source!). You have options either listen to him in french and repeat, or if it is comfortable for you to have translation at the same time, he actually translates it and then gives french equivalent for you. Your memory for correct reproduction of foreign language increases this way amazingly! When I would tutor my students, my main method was to make them translate into foreign language form their own on the fly or in written form. Works wonderful as they would improve their skills in no time, they were even surprised without putting that much effort as you have to put for traditional learning.You have to have it if you are serious about the language, all 3 levels in onepackage, it is amazing!

The best for learning French [Posted on 2008-09-16]
For the record, I do not work for SmartFrench, so this review is my own. This is a wonderful product because it has conversations (interviews) with people in French, and on CD-ROM one can also see the visual....their facial expressions, hand gestures, etc. This is very very helpful since the French talk with their body language as well as with words. A person can tailor this to suit themselves...watch and listen, listen only, read the script, jump around, etc etc. These are native French speakers, speaking naturally, which means running their words together, dropping the endings of words, etc etc...For learning real French, it is essential to develop an ear for the way French is really spoken, and this will do it. The BEST way to learn a language is immersion....listening to native speakers, letting it seep into the subconscious, and eventually jumping in and trying to speak. Grammar should be the last thing a person learns. I think this CD-ROM is truly wonderful, and such a pleasure to experience. Thank you Christian Aubert!!!

The best foreign language method -- and I've tried a few [Posted on 2008-09-25]
SmartFrench and SmartSpanish at first glance may appear unorthodox. Their method is so different from the "standard" foreign language teaching techniques that most Americans are accustomed to, that some people may be put off because it's not what they expected. But if you have an open mind and are willing to try a new approach, you will be rewarded.

For a motivated adult who wants to not just go through the motions, but really learn a language and get to the point of actually being able to converse and function in a foreign language, the SmartFrench series is vastly superior to Berlitz and most every other audio CD method I have seen.

I am a native English speaker who learned French and Spanish as an adult (in my twenties). I can now say that I am fluent in both those languages, but I also spent a lot of time and sweat in inefficient study that, looking back, could have been much accelerated. I only wish SmartFrench and SmartSpanish had existed then.

I've tried a wide range of methods, including traditional in-person language schools. I took five years of German in high school and college, and while I got excellent grades and my grasp of vocabulary and grammar was good on paper, if you drop me into a German beer hall I have no idea what people are saying -- and that's the problem with the way most foreign language is taught. I "know" German, but I can't speak it. If that's your goal, SmartFrench may not be for you. But if your goal is to get quickly to the point where you can actually converse in a foreign language, then I can't recommend this audio product highly enough.

SmartFrench doesn't follow the traditional academic pattern. If you judge it by that expectation, you'll be disappointed, and I think this accounts for the negative reviews. It does something much more valuable -- teaches language the way the brain is actually wired to learn language. It may feel unfamiliar at first, but if you stick with it, you'll see results that will actually pay off, and probably quicker than you expect.

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