Product Description

This one is a "must" for learning how the French REALLY talk! William Martin, retired political editor, The Oakland Tribune I've tried them all and this one is it! Joe Hogan, CBS With these Audio CDs you will work on natural conversations with our unique Active Sensory ComprehensionTM method. You will learn your new language both effectively and efficiently. You will develop your listening skills. For reference, we give you a booklet with the transcripts and the translations. Our color-coding system will help you pronounce the words and sentences the way you will hear them pronounced in real life conversations. This step by step approach to the language will help you understand French, like no other method, early in your studies. With these CDs you will start to understand and speak the language as spoken in the real world. If you are a true beginner, you might want to work with our SmartFrench Introduction to French, Vol.1 and SmartFrench Introduction to French, Vol.2 in order to work on the basic vocabulary, conjugation and grammar. Learning French requests that you learn to speak French and that you learn to understand it. Vol.1 and Vol.2 will teach you the basics in order to speak the language and these CDs will teach you to understand and be understood as you will develop strong listening skills. The best is to practice both exercises simultaneously. No matter what other sources you use in your language learning, the Smart thing to do is give yourself this key to confidence. Ian Jackson, CEO, Breathplay, Dallas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11862 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-01
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Audio CD
• 44 pages

Features

• Unique method. Authentic interviews, "...a Must!" W. Martin, ex-political editor, Oakland Tribune
• 3 CDs w/booklet to learn french from real french people
• It uses colors to show what is and what is not pronounced in spoken French
• Conversations written down exactly as spoken to speak french like natives
• French lessons with rules of the french language explained in a simple way

Review
I saw online that many native French teachers recommend this product. --Erika Huang

This is a must for learning how the French REALLY talk! I have spent hundreds on books, audios and video in trying to learn French. All have helped. But this one is a MUST. I recommend Smart French without reservation. --William Martin, Former Political Editor, The Oakland Tribune

When I heard my first lesson I honestly felt betrayed by my other programs--why didn't they simply tell the truth about French pronunciation like Smart French does? --Patricia Jones, attorney

Brad Bunnin – Berkeley, CA
This is the first learning program that made me laugh!Thanks for creating such a good product!

Judi Irving, CEO Hemacare Corporation
I would recommend SmartFrench to anyone who wants to understand and speak French.

Customer Reviews

Disappointed
I am really an intermediate student rather than beginner, but thought I'd start with the beginner CDs in this series. Like most intermediate students of a language, I need to work on listening comprehension. This program does strive for that, but in my opinion offers too few opportunities to listen to native French speakers. Too repetitious--I kept falling asleep, or having trouble paying attention. Can't believe I bought these CDs! The narrator keeps repeating points he had already made...I won't be bothering with the intermediate or advanced versions.

And of course I bought them based on reviews from others, which I consider to be a good indicator...not in this case, though!

I have 2 other sets which I consider better (the "Learn French In Your Car" is especially good for beginners), and a set from the library that is no longer available.

Excellent CDs
This is an excellent program for learning to speak French the way it's supposed to be spoken. I used to speak as a child in school, but haven't spoken the language for many years. As my kid is learning French, I'm trying to help. School classes teaches the hard stuff, like grammar, etc., and not exactly how to speak/listen to the language. We tried a few other programs and were fairly disappointed until we got SmartFrench. This is an excellent program where you learn to speak, and as importantly, listen to real conversations, at different speeds. There are also text to refer to, as well as the vocabulary list for the CD materials.

One thing to understand though, that this program (Beginner level) does assume some basic knowledge of the language, and therefore not exactly for the absolute beginners. For the absolute beginners who never had any experience with the language, the also excellent SmartFrench - Introduction to French 1 & 2 CDs, also by Christian Aubert are more appropriate to start with.

Finally, this is not a program that teaches you to conjugate verbs and such. There are many books and others for French grammar. This program excels at the one objective, training your listening and speaking skills so that you can speak French like the French do. It's a perfect program if you've had some French in the past and want to brush up on speaking/listening.

Have fun!

Great method. Poor content.
The method is great. Listening, then speaking, but for someone like myself with absolutely no French (ie a beginner)the content was inappropriate. I am planning a trip to France later this year. I still don't know any basic vocabulary, how to introduce myself. How to ask for directions, the bank, everyday stuff like that.

On a positive note, I thought , hey, this is what I need for Spanish. I did very well in high school Spanish but have never been comfortable trying to speak. This method actually gets you speaking right away. So with a solid vocabulary in Spanish and a knowledge of grammer, I expect Smart Spanish to get me speaking.