Instant Immersion French

Rating:
Summary: A good start but falls short of the mark.
Review: For an upcoming trip to France I received a copy of Instant Immersion French. The box claims this is the fastest and most intuitive way to learn French. After carefully listening to the tapes several times I can say I do know a lot of words and pharses but I doubt I could have a conversation with a French person in any other situation other than a scripted context. The box also states that the tapes are suitable for all ages,however, my fourteen-year-old daughter is bored by the conversations.
The other deficiency of the tapes is the lack of a book to work with. Personally I would like to be able to read a street sign or a menu and this intuitive conversation method does not allow for that to happen. I used the book FRENCH IN TEN MINUTES A DAY to supplement the reading and writing portion of my French education.
Unfortunately, I don't have a recommendation for a better method. Others on Amazon.com have recommended Michael Thomas or the very expensive Pimsleur system as better for learning French fast and easily.The best part of the system it will give you a basis to learn more French and it is very inexpensive to get started.

Rating:
Summary: A good start but falls short of the mark.
Review: For an upcoming trip to France I received a copy of Instant Immersion French. The box claims this is the fastest and most intuitive way to learn French. After carefully listening to the tapes several times I can say I do know a lot of words and pharses but I doubt I could have a conversation with a French person in any other situation other than a scripted context. The box also states that the tapes are suitable for all ages,however, my fourteen-year-old daughter is bored by the conversations.
The other deficiency of the tapes is the lack of a book to work with. Personally I would like to be able to read a street sign or a menu and this intuitive conversation method does not allow for that to happen. I used the book FRENCH IN TEN MINUTES A DAY to supplement the reading and writing portion of my French education.
Unfortunately, I don't have a recommendation for a better method. Others on Amazon.com have recommended Michael Thomas or the very expensive Pimsleur system as better for learning French fast and easily.The best part of the system it will give you a basis to learn more French and it is very inexpensive to get started.

Rating:
Summary: The Duchy of Strelsau
Review: I have rated these tapes "5 Star", but because the producers have neglected to include a conversation manual along with a word list, it should actually be downgraded a couple of stars. Utilizing a couple of cliches, you can over come these ommissions. "You only get out of it what you put into it!" and "Nothing worthwhile is ever accomplished without effort!" The extra effort you have to take to get around this problem only adds to your knowledge. As in using a dictionary, you learn 3 new words before you ever get to the one you were looking up.

While this is no excuse for the producers cheapy route, especially if, as a previous reviewer remarked, this material already existed, it should only slow you down a tad. I wrote to "Topics Entertainment" concerning this matter, and while I received a most concerned, pleasant and immediate reply, they did defended their "Immersion" technique, "The Euro Method"; however, inferring that they were considering such items for the future and coming out with some "Work Books" around the middle of 2003.
It is truly difficult to pick up on some of the words on these tapes without the aid of a conversation manual, but by utilizing other sources you can work around the short comings of this audio program. You are never actually going to be able to learn a language using only one source, so, get over it! I enthusiastically feel that this set of audio tapes is just a "great place to start" and you can actually make the short comings work to your advantage. Another personal cliche - "You must always make an advantage out of a disadvantage!"

They are as they claim, eminently portable and usable under a great variety of places and conditions; in your "Walkman", in your automobile, desk tape player, stereo console - and you don't have to sit in front of a computer monitor playing silly kids games to make them work for you. Just do it! They work. Too bad they haven't provided an advanced course in this audio tape format!

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Tapes!
Review: These tapes are really great for learning to speak French. Granted, they won't teach you everything but not a lot of products can. The tapes simulate situations mainly for traveling to French-speak destinations for business or vacationing. So these tapes are great for if you are planning a trip. It doesn't touch grammar but even if they did have a book or something it porably wouldn't be as effective as some other methods for learning the actual grammar. I thought I would learn more caual just speaking and comunicationg French but over all this is a great buy.

Rating:
Summary: Au contraire! This is a fine set of tapes!
Review: This series was available in the 80's under a different name with books that transcribed the tapes. Although the book is no longer included, I found this an excellent set of tapes. I used them to re-learn what I had learned in High School (some time ago!) and progress further. This series is one of the BEST for learning on the go: Perfect for the car. I agree that written French is completely ignored. However, if your prime goal is to understand and speak French, this is an amazing value, and will take you quite far.

The original series described the 10 tapes as bringing the listener throught the equivalent of two years of College level French. Some may not like that the first half is all formal French ("Vous" instead of "Tu", etc.).

Having said all this, I am finally going to leave my public library's copy alone and purchase one from Amazon!

Rating:
Summary: Instant Immersion French
Review: This set of 10 audio tapes did exactly what I wanted it to do - it helped me get the sound of the language and with my pronunciation, two of the main problems I have with self-learning a language. The two vocabulary tapes have hundreds of the most common words in the French language, which became familiar and useful when watching French movies or listening to French shows on public television. I also got to be able to remember which nouns were masculine and which were feminine. I found that reading the Pocket Langenscheidt French Dictionary as I listened to the tapes helped me visualize the spellings of the words and helped me starting to read.

Rating:
Summary: waste of money
Review: You will be able to recognize several French words, but you'll never learn how to read and write. It is very easy to use, you have to click pictures to answer simple questions, but for serious learner it is waste of money. Even if you do not want to read or write, but only understand spoken French, it has very limited vocabulary and will not help you. I am not sure if any software will teach you grammar, but for studying it I would suggest buying books.

Rating:
Summary: waste of money
Review: You will be able to recognize several French words, but you'll never learn how to read and write. It is very easy to use, you have to click pictures to answer simple questions, but for serious learner it is waste of money. Even if you do not want to read or write, but only understand spoken French, it has very limited vocabulary and will not help you. I am not sure if any software will teach you grammar, but for studying it I would suggest buying books.