Pimsleur French Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand French with Pimsleur Language Programs

This course has been great so far. I am on lesson 12 of 16 right now. The lessons are only 30 minutes long, and very easy to follow. I was quite suprised at the amount of language retention I have with this course. They don't just have you repeat a bunch of random vocabulary words either. It is structured sentences, which builds on the previous lessons. Just when you think you will forget something from a previous lesson, they ask you to repeat it again so you will remember it. Some of the lessons I have had to listen to several times before I can remember most of what they cover, but that helps me to remember it even better when I try to use it later. I am very impressed with the qaulity and content of this program. The price was great too. You can learn at your own pace, and don't have to worry about being lost if you miss something, because you can always replay the CD to review the information as many times as needed before moving on to the next one. I will definatly look to Pimsleur again when I finish this series to expand my French vocabulary and speaking skills even more.

I have been trying for years to get better in French, but have little time to study other than my commute drive-time, so I have bought and tried virtually every audio CD for French (Berlitz, Instant Immersion, Smart French, Behind the Wheel, and the audio CDs from Rosetta Stone). They all had good and bad points, but I would finish the set (usually going through it at least 2-3 times) with a slightly larger vocabulary, but not feeling like I really made much progress in being able to converse with someone in French. If you have the time and can study French at a computer, Rosetta Stone is probably the best overall. If, like me, you want something you can work on while driving, the Pimsleur course is the best I have found. At first, I wasn't sure about the repetition. It seemed like too much, but now I appreciate that the focused frequent repetition is much more effective than it seemed at first. Instead of trying to expand your vocabulary quickly or trying to get you to conjugate every verb perfectly (like some of the others), Pimsleur is aimed at getting you conversational in French with a usable set of basic syntaxes. Update October 2013. There is one fatal flaw with this product - there is no volume 2 (or any additional volumes). The Pimsleur system is excellent, but this particular product is a teaser. Once you finish this, you want more, but there are no more sets of this. Instead, you need to go with the Pimsleur Comprehensive French package, which is five volumes with many more discs per volume. AND each volume is around $200, so the complete course is around $1000. If you want an excellent introduction to learning French, this is an inexpensive starter kit. HOWEVER, if you think you are ready to make the commitment to learn, skip this and go right to the Pimsleur Comprehensive set, volume 1, which has everything in this product and a lot more.

I really like the conversational French course. I learned French when I was a teen so this is a good refresher. I am a visual person, so I would have liked the conversations written down, but that's not the Pimsleur method. I read the reviews before I purchased the CDs, and one person commented that the booklets mentioned in the CD's are non-existent. I found them on the Pimsleur website, under languages. The CD directs you to Pimsleur.com/booklets, which is incorrect. You can find them though, and download them. I would not try this course if I did not know French already.

I'm at lesson 12 of level 1 now. We'll see how effective this is when I go to Paris in September. I seem to be learning a great deal. Three people are heard on the CDs, a man speaking English who tells the learner what is going on (gives instructions, translates the words presented, gives tips, etc.), and two French speakers, a man and a woman who repeat words, and even syllables, for the learner, have conversations, and who, at lesson 11, start to give instructions in French. There is a great deal of repetition, both of grammar and of pronunciation, and of bringing back material learned earlier to make sure we haven't forgotten. It starts at a very easy level, and gradually we learn how to build sentences of increasing complexity. There seems to be a rhythm that is helpful: a fair amount of new material, followed, just when I am feeling overloaded, with some review of older material that is by now easy and makes me realize I really have learned something. As the sentences are getting longer, I am finding it helpful to use the pause button on the CD player so I have time to think without feeling rushed before the French speaker gives the right answer. As is recommended, working on it every day seems to help my overall learning, even if I have to repeat a lesson. I am so pleased I have ordered the next two levels.

Dr Pimsleur was a linguist who spoke several languages fluently. His method (used here) is based on the way infants learn languages. There are no books at the outset becasue there's nothing to read. All you do is find a quiet space where you can listen and repeat for half an hour or less each day, and in a fortnight, you'll be able to understand people speaking the language and be able to respond! If I hadn't already tried it with Portuguese and Greek, I'd be sceptical, but this is like magic!

This was a great purchase! The only problem now is that they’ve got me hooked and the next set doesn’t come as cheap. But I love using them in the car. They do have vocabulary checks after each lesson though which doesn’t fit in as well with using this as a car tool, but they only take a couple minutes to do so if you park somewhere for a couple minutes and get through that it’s easy to get on with the next lesson.

たいへんお得かと思います。 ただ、これだけではまだまだで続編に相当するものがいっぱい残っています。ダウンロード版もありますが、すべてやるとなると結構お金がかかります。もちろん教室に通うことを考えると、とってもお得ではあります。すべてやり終えたところで再評価が必要とも思われるます。

Very useful and helpful to aid in French learning.

No company does it like Pimsleur.