French II : 3rd Edition

I am 3/4 of the way through French 2, and expect to move on to French 3 soon. A few years ago I completed Pimsleur Spanish 1 and 2 before a two week visit to Spain, and it helped me greatly. I enjoyed somewhat competently speaking a bit of Spanish when necessary, even though most of the Spaniards I visited were excellent English speakers.Now I have a week in France (the Nord and Paris) coming up so I want to know enough French to get around. So far, so good. It's easy to fit a 30 minute lesson into a day somewhere, and the self-pacing is, for me, ideal. Plus my kids get a big laugh when they see me with earbuds in, randomly burping out some mysterious sounding phrases from my lazyboy.Two suggestions. First to prospective buyers: get a workbook and a dictionary. To look up words, and get a bit of a grasp on grammar are big helps in learning the spoken language. I think the trick is *after* the lesson, to try to record at least some of the new words and you can review them later or put them on flashcards. I also like the 501 French Verbs for this. Just another way to get and keep this stuff in your mind.Second, a suggestion to the Pimsleur-Industrial Complex: less use of the informal tu please. I'm going to France for a scholarly conference and to see art, and I imagine many Pimsleur students are like me--middle aged and going for work. Nobody in France will address me as tu--if I know them that well we'll speak English. But I will need to address people as vous, so the more of that the better. Young people who might actually become friends with French folk and find the familiar tu of use will probably be learning it in formal classes. So I would prefer that 2nd person verbs use vous only. But that's just me.Otherwise, a great product. Wish I had learned French earlier in my life, but I do look forward to learning more of it with Pimsleur.

This is an excellent product. I previously used Pimsleur French I (3rd ed.), and progressed through it fast. it is an excellent method, and less expensive than Rosetta Stone. Repetition is the hallmark of adult education, and this product uses repetition in a well-studied and effective manner. You can work on it while doing other activities, as well. I am using it to refresh my French (I took French in grade school and high school), but havn't spoken French for about 15 years. I am going to France for a professional endeavor shortly, and I feel this product is definitely getting me up to speed.

First, the version I received is quite different in the packaging from the illustration, but contains the same disks. I received a package labeled Pimsleur Approach French II Gold. At first, I thought I received an incorrect substitution, but I verified that this is just a different packaging of the same materials.The course itself is VERY GOOD. I would give the instructional materials and methods 5 stars. It is expensive, BUT you do get 16 CDs in each level. Since I go through each course at least 3 times before moving to the next one, this is about 50-60 hours of practice per set, so the pricing is only a couple of dollars per hour.The vocabulary introduction pacing is very good. The combination of clear enunciation by 3 of the voices, plus an "authentic" fast-talking Frenchman giving you commands helps to force you to listen, respond, and understand.Grammar is taught naturally, rather than rote conjugation of verbs.Having tried MANY other "learn in your car" courses, this is absolutely the best and most productive one I have found.Why only a 4-star review? The packaging. Unlike the illustration, the "Gold" edition has the CDs in 2 cheap paper fold-out holders, each holding 8 disks. The first 8 disks (in folder 1) were fine, but when I opened the second folder, many of the disks were literally glued into the folder, like the folder was glued in place around the CDs, but many of them weren't properly in the right positions. If I can't successfully clean the glue and paper off the disks, I will be contacting Amazon for a replacement.Note - the French I package came as shown in the illustration, and the CDs were in proper sleeves.

I had purchased Pimsleur's Conversational French I (which included the first 8 CD's of Pimsleur French Level 1 at a cheaper price) to get an introduction. I then purchased Pimsleur French Level II and had some difficulty starting it without having the full 16 CDs of the Pimsleur French Level 1. So now I'm using 9-16 of the CD's and doing great. And then I will go back to French II. Note: I also purchased Smart French - Inroduction Vol. I to get all the numbers 1-100 at once (because Pimsleur gives you numbers once in a while.)

A great complement to my French classes.

This course is very useful in the car and really started enabling string french expressions together. French speaking friends were very impressed with our pronunciation and did not feel the need (like many frenchies do) to correct our grammar or accents. This is still not enough to carry a conversation, but for the purpose of touring in french speaking countries it is excellent.

I'd already tried Pimseur through my public library for free, so I knew what to expect. I really like the method. I also do a lot of driving, so it's fun to listen to and speak French while I'm in the car.

The Pimsleur Method is one of the best ways to learn a new language. I listen to a 30 minute lesson each time I commute to and from work - it is a fantastic use of time, combined with Internet-based visual learning methods during other times of the day. Highly recommended!