Foreign language tapes
 

Any suggestions for foreign lamguage tapes/CD's??? My wife wants to learn how to better communicate in French. I of course take the old approach to speaking a foreign language by just speaking English louder and slower.

If you wife's interest is the basic phrases she may want to try this internet site first: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
I am not familiar with the French module, since I have been studying the German. But, I though the German module to be better than any basic language tapes that I have used. There are lots of free resources on the internet to help one learn a foreign language; you just need to look for them.

I think you get what you pay for and I have never seen anything free on the web that will teach you a language.

I highly recommend the Pimsleur Courses. Three levels, tapes or CDs. I did all three levels and with some additional vocabulary and grammar studies from cheap books available at bookstores you should do very well.

Check E=bay for used courses.

Larry J

LarryJ, would Pimsleur be good for someone who has taken French before, in a previous life (high school and college)? Does it teach more than basic conversation? Does it teach conjugation, etc? Thanks.

I also like the Pimsleur series. Try your public library, as complete sets of Pimsleur for each of 3 levels will cost about $300 each set. Most libraries can get them from another on loan.

I, too, have found the Pimsleur series very helpful, but expensive.

I think for someone who has had French before you might want level 2 or 3, but it's still helpful.

Larry, I have to disagree with you. Here is a FANTASTIC site for learning French on the web. You have to register, but it's free.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

Ther are about fifty half hour audio/video lessons.

To Iregio

Conjugation is not taught by Pimsleur in the disciplined sense. You will learn some conjugation through vocabulary expansion and converstional situations as you advance through the lesssons. I really do think you must do all three courses to learn enough to actually have conversations with non-English speaking Frenchmen.

In my opinion borrowing from a library really won't do it for you. I have found that to learn and retain you must repeat all the lessons many times. If you borrow I would recommend borrowing the CD version instead of the tapes and then download the lessons to an mp3 player so you can repeat and review over and over. I have spent two years on the entire 90 lesson 3 part series and still review a lesson every day. I do 30 lessons or 1 complete level each month and still occasionally pick up something that I had not fully absorbed before. I found it helpful to create an English-French study guide of each new word or phrase from each lesson. I then sorted those alphabetically for quick reference. I no longer use this guide as I have mastered all 90 lessons.

Dr. Pimsleur designed these courses based on his experience of how people retain new information. It is almost entirely oral with just a very small amount of reading. His courses may not be a silver bullet but they are the best of the many I have seen or tried.

For conjuagation help you can find good verb books at Border's and other bookstores for under $10. No matter what course you use to reach an acceptable level of fluency you will need to supplement the course with additional material. I spend 3 months each year in France and that helps. Pimsleur claims that after completing all three levels you will achieve an "intermediate advanced" level.

Bonne chance.
Larry J

I have used many different study materials but the one that got me actually speaking french was a course of tapes by MichelThomas. It is like being in a classroom situation but one that you can play over and over again. You can find him on the internet.

Marcy, thanks for that pointer to the online French lessons. I remember when that series ran on public TV several years ago. I didn't catch too many of them, but I always thought they were great and wished they'd run again. What a wonderful resource to have them available online!

I too have all the Michel Thomas tapes ...You can get them at the public libary ...I asked them to order it for me..The tapes are 40-50$ on the net but dont bother.I had only the first two tapes and it helped with basic French (enough to be polite and get directions etc)

Sending it ttt so my wife can find it easier. Thanks for the help

I took French in high school and a year in college..but I still am finding the Pimsleur French I tapes good. I don't know what we did in French class in high school, but it sure wasn't a lot of conversation as these tapes all sound new to me.

They are superb. I got it from the Lingo Shop and very soon will return for a large discount on the French II

By the way I was in high school MANY MANY years ago.