Learning French - tapes/CDs
 

We will be going to France later this year. I took four years of French in high school, but that has been about 12 years ago and I have forgotten a lot of the French I learned. I would like to brush up on my French a bit and hopefully jog my memory banks. I was hoping my library had the Pimsleur program, but it does not. My options at the library are Living Language, Just Listen 'n' Learn, or I believe something called French/30. The other option I am considering is buying the Pimsleur French program at Sam's, but they just have the one called Instant Conversation. Out of these choices, does anyone have any suggestions on which might be the best?<BR>Thanks for your help.

Look again in your library. I have tried<BR>and did not like Living Language, Just Listen 'n' Learn and Barron's. There were copies and copies of these in our library. Perhaps says something about what people think about them. I have stayed with the Pimsleur although I had to buy them as the few level 1 copies in my library were always checked out.<BR><BR>You can get better feel for what Pimsleur level you should start by going to a site such as:<BR>http://www.sybervision.com/freeaudio.htm<BR>and actually try out a lesson.

There's nothing like going to a Language School for individual lessons. I did the Pimsleur 20+ tapes and could understand but not converse. My husband took lessons (he also had French in school years ago)and can now speak conversational French with ease.<BR><BR>If you have the time (and money), that yields the best results. Good luck!

I am doing the Pimsleur first level tapes (3). I think this is all I will need for my 3 week trip. I also had french in school a long time ago. I am also doing the French in 10 minutes a day workbook, which I really like. I did both these methods with Italian last fall and it was great.

Hi Buffy,<BR>Pimsleur is really &quot;the gold standard&quot; if you're going to learn a language (or &quot;refresh&quot; your past learning of same)on your own. While some kind of classes that permit conversational exchanges may be optimal, they're not always a viable option for everyone. You may want to look into purchasing a used set of Pimsleur at amazon.com<BR><BR>Bon Voyage,<BR>BC

I realize it is not one of the choices the original poster asked about, but for those who have a bit of vocabulary, I really like the &quot;French in Action&quot; series of the Annenberg/CPB project. (You may have seen these on Public Television in years past). It's really an asset to have your own set of the 50-some lessons. You can check it out at:<BR><BR>www.learner.org<BR><BR>Previously available on VHS, they're now available on DVD.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I think I am leaning towards Pimsleur at this point.

Buffy - after considerable research, I decided to buy the Pimsleur French I comprehensive set (this is the first of 3 sets/levels)from this site -www.pluralitylanguage.com. After checking Amazon and Ebay, I paid roughly the same or less for the new set of 16 cd's - $198.00 (includes s&amp;h). They arrived in one week. <BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Melissa