French by Association

by Michael Gruneberg

Book Overview

Introduces a basic French vocabulary and the first principles of French grammar through word-association techniques.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0844294454
• ISBN13: 9780844294452
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Teach an old dog

I have tried many books and tapes to learn French as I vacation there every year. Most are as forgetable as the french you are trying to learn. French by association by comparison has worked wonders, I actualy use the french I have learned in this book and It's very rewarding. This book has built up my french vocabulary wonderfuly.

A great tool, easy to use, builds confidence

This method has been working really well for me. Over the past few weeks, I've started intensively learning French using tapes, videos, CD-ROM software and this book (I really need to learn French for next year). None of the other materials compare to this book in the area of learning and retaining basic vocabulary. It has also been the most encouraging of all the tools, because it is easy to use and really builds my confidence that I can get a handle on this language!...

French by Association

I love this book, for as it is I found it very easy to learn and remember the French language and words. I highly recommend it.

The most effective way to learn a language

I was first introduced to the concept of learning a language 'by assocation' by a friend in my French class. Having experienced it's effectiveness I promptly bought the book 'French by association'. The book has completely transformed and re-invigorated my desire to learn the French langage. The method used in the book has removed all stress of learning the language and has allowed me to apply the principal method of association with every day learning of the language. The book is very easy to read and follow. Unlike any other language book - it bring's alive the words and keeps one's interest sustained. The book is very well structured allowing one to develop their vocabulary and grammar as one progresses through the book. What is normally a diificult subject in any language - the grammar is very easily explained and very easy to understand. One can work their way through the book quite easily within a week and certainly a weekend if the time is set aside. The book simply associates an English word to a French word through images in the mind. Some of the images are truly bizarre but have that added effect of maintaining one's interest and has the effect of relaxing the reader whilst learning the language at a rapid pace. I would describe the book as being totally unorthodox and totally different to traditional ways of learning the language. This is very refreshing. I would truly recommend this book and it's other language equivalent books to anyone learning a foreign language of whatever level. Having found the effectiveness of this technique I intend to apply it to Spanish and German in the near future when I hope to have the oppurtunity to study them as well. One the principal difficulties of learning a language is the inability to switch from English to French. There is no so trouble with this method as it utilises one's own knowledge of the English language to vividly capture those French word's and grammar which were previously difficult to learn. Another of the principal failures in the French language is 'memory loss' and the incorrect use of gender. This can be embarrassing and very common! The book largely overcomes these problems by allowing the learner to readily conjure up those words that were previously difficult to learn along with the correct gender if necessary. It puzzles me that this method of learnig is not more widely used. Having myself studied the French language using various techniques and even had one to one lessons with French speaking teachers - I can truly say that is by far the most effective way of learning a language.