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3.0 out of 5 stars
Adequate as an Adjunct to Regular Classes, April 30 2004
By A Customer
I got this set from my library, for free, which is what I'd recommend others do as the price is ridiculous for what you get. I have had several years of formal university-level French, and try to keep up with occasional conversation classes at Alliance Francaise, etc. I got this to brush up on listening/pronunciation for an upcoming trip, as I haven't spoken French much or used it for a while. That is context for my review, which is that these discs were much more limited and basic in their content than I expected, and I gather this is their top level (there is no French IV). I don't believe anyone who says they learn to speak French solely through Pimsleur. I think we must have very different ideas as to what "speaking" a language means. Sure, you could parrot a few basic phrases, but have little understanding of grammar, conjugation, or even what you are saying or how to spell or read it. Pimsleur focuses on some topics which are not of particular importance, either, and beats them to death. For example, they are obsessed with people being engineers for some reason and have many lessons devoted to saying so-and-so is an engineer. This is not something I have ever had to say in France. I know this is a Pimsleur obsession as I have also used their Spanish I-II sets (I don't know Spanish as well as French), and they spend a lot of time talking about engineers on those discs, also. They are also obsessed on the first few lessons of this set with the phrase "I was raised in .... wherever." Okay, maybe that's something someone might want to know, but they go on and on with this phrasing for several lessons (so far, I haven't finished). That isn't usually what people ask you in France, or what you want to say -- they may ask where you are from (right now), not where you were raised as a child. I don't think Pimsleur really translates some of the things they teach on their discs correctly, either, they paraphrase. Sometimes this is okay, and sometimes it isn't necessary, as a correct translation of what they are really saying would be more instructive and useful to know. This is another reason I don't think you can learn French very well from these discs, because they aren't accurate as to what they are saying. In some ways, the dialogue often seems like they are gearing it to business travelers, as Berlitz does, rather than what I guess is their main target (regular vacationers). I can understand these folks on this disc as I've had several years of real French classes and have travelled to France, but for the level this set is (which is perhaps around the end of the first year of a regular year-long French class in a regular school), the woman, in particular, speaks very quickly and I think would be hard for many to understand. I think it is inappropriate for this level of language lessons to have someone speaking that fast.
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