Product Description

The 16-lesson (8 CDs) Conversational Course gives customers the first half of the incredibly effective and efficient, world-famous Pimsleur Comprehensive Program. Customers will love the experience of acquiring the essential grammar and vocabulary of French, during the spoken practice sessions. It is this ease of language acquisition that makes the full Comprehensive Pimsleur Program so popular and successful for adult language learners.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22110 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-03
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 8
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed."-- AudioFile Magazine

"EXTREMELY ACCESSIBLE...each section within the lessons is short enough to hold our attention, and there is enough repetition to teach even those who consider themselves slow learners...Pimsleur [programs] are extremely thorough and easy to use -- quite lively!"-- Boston Herald

"Learn French while commuting, German while jogging, Spanish (or Russian, Italian, and Japanese) while cooking all with NO WRITTEN MATERIALS!"-- New York Daily News

"Designed for the ear and not the eye...the lessons provide PERFECT 30-minute bites of work."-- St Louis Post-Dispatch

"Learn to habla español or parlez français before your next trip aboard. The interactive LESSONS CHALLENGE STUDENTS to use new words in conversation instead of memorize them."-- American Way (American Airlines inflight magazine)

"I tried other language programs with little success...This is the best by far!"-- Pamela A. Mitchell, Pilot, International Society of Women Airline Pilots

About the Author
Dr. Paul Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed The Pimsleur Method based on two key principles:  the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory training that he called ?Graduated Interval Recall.?  This Method has been applied to the many levels and languages of the Pimsleur Programs.

Customer Reviews

Great product
This is a fantastic product, and one of the best ways to really get an early handle on grammar, and an outstanding way to practice speaking and pronounciation at any level. However, please do not do not get disapointed when you don't speak perfect French in 8 hours. This will give you basic tools to build on, but then you need to spend some time in a French country, or take several years of university classes.

When considering the investment in a foriegn language, consider that it may take 1000 hours (for an extremely easy language like French) to feel very comfortable in the language. That's one hour of serious study each day for three years. Or you can go sit in a Parisian cafe and talk to people who are willing to tutor you (extremely hard to find without some pretty good skills to start with) and you might get there in a few months.

I like this product because it's the very best available for naturally teaching you the grammar basics and for helping you to build the core vocabulary (stuff like and, but, or, many, few, the, a, an, whowhatwhenwherewhy), the core language structure (negation, word order), and it's outstanding for it's ability to teach language sounds...

A side note...be willing to sleep between lesson times. Something happens when you sleep, and you'll be better at it by the next lesson. That's why it's important to do this every single day, so that you have the maximum number of study-sleep cycles.

Perfect for beginners......
This is the first French language product that has been an effective tool for me to actually learn French. I've taken local classes, used Rosetta Stone, and purchased Smart French audio CDS. Yes...I am an old dog and its very hard for me to learn new tricks. Pimsleur was effective because of the reviews that occur throughout the audio set. You just don't memorize it one time and then never hear it again. The next session builds on the previous session with a some "new material" and by the end you've built a "small" but effective vocabulary. I also learned specific language rules that were omitted or assumed common knowledge in my French class. I understand that other users may want a written book or guide. However, I've found that with French, it is better NOT to know how the word is spelled because it doesn't sound anything like the way it's spelled. It's definitely better to learn the correct pronounciation FIRST. I highly recommend this audio series. It was much more effective than the Smart French Audio CDs.

Convenient to use and easy to transport
Pimsleur's Conversational French CDs are very easy to use and convenient. We keep them in the car because we are there often. Everyone joins in repeating the phrases. Most of the sentences are ones that you would use in getting about a French speaking area. However, I would have liked having a written booklet with it, because it is difficult to determine b or v and some other pronunciations. On the whole I feel it is worth the reasonable we paid for it. The lessons progress from one to the other so that there is a continuity in learning.