French Complete Course (Living Language Complete Courses. Cassette Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Repetitious lists of phrases
Review: This book encompasses a good range of vocabulary, but consists of a person reading phrase after phrase after phrase, without translation (making it nearly useless for a beginner who wants to learn in his/her car), and read more slowly than actual French speakers speak. If you want to drill, drill, drill with the accompanying book in your hand, this is for you! If you want to learn French as it is spoken, look elsewhere. In my opinion, this course is a waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Great review if you haven't taken French since high school
Review: This CD set has enough variety to keep you from getting bored, and enough drill so that you'll start to be fluent with certain recurring useful phrases. The pronunciation is excellent and clear, and the interaction between the listener and the CD is very well paced. I wish I'd had this series in conjuction with my high school classes...it would have made a huge difference in being able to speak with confidence. I've tried a lot of French tapes, and this is the best I've found.

Rating:
Summary: Boring beyond belief: Pass on these, go for Berlitz
Review: You will be sorely disappointed if you buy these courses. The back cover of this book says "developed by US Government experts", and it shows: it is dull and mind-numbing in a way that only a government bureaucrat could love. The tapes are NOT conversational but repeat phrases in the coursebook. You are forced to constantly stop and start the tapes. More boring than high school French. I've used Berlitz tapes to learn Spanish before a trip and those are 1000x better, but also more expensive...however they are worth the money if you want to learn a language, or buy these tapes and get a lot of good naps in.

Rating:
Summary: Boring beyond belief: Pass on these, go for Berlitz
Review: You will be sorely disappointed if you buy these courses. The back cover of this book says "developed by US Government experts", and it shows: it is dull and mind-numbing in a way that only a government bureaucrat could love. The tapes are NOT conversational but repeat phrases in the coursebook. You are forced to constantly stop and start the tapes. More boring than high school French. I've used Berlitz tapes to learn Spanish before a trip and those are 1000x better, but also more expensive...however they are worth the money if you want to learn a language, or buy these tapes and get a lot of good naps in.