French with Ease

by Anthony Bulger

Book Overview

Includes 4 audio CDs (3h 10m) and a 591 page course book. This pack aims to take users from scratch to having a solid base in French within six months, and to feel comfortable with the language in as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 2700500954
• ISBN13: 9782700500950
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Assimil France
• Length: 421 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.6" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Method!

After many hours of internet research, I decided to go with this French learning method. It is great! My son and I spent about 15-25 minutes a day with this book and CD (he actually loaded the CD on his Ipod). We were able to understand some spoken French and communicate in French when we went to France last year. Of course, when we are communicating in French it's more like speaking in a "little kids" way because it is not our first language. But, we were able to communicate! All French speaking people that we encountered in France were very helpful and patient with us. BTW, we spent four weeks on our own and not part of any tour groups.

Amazing way to learn french!!

In my attempt to speak and understand french, I bought this book after I came back from France where i first heard about it. I have been reading it and listening in my ipod every day going to and from work. I have to say that this book is very good in giving you the essentials and taking you a step further. Every five lessons or so it has a review section and at the end of the book it shows a grammar summary which I found very helpful. The audio has good quality and the authors try to make it fun in every audio conversation. I would say that the only downside would be that some of the phrases (very few actually) I encountered in the book are not currently used anymore in France (according to what some french people told me). Also, I wish the method would actually introduce me to the future/conditional/imperfect tenses directly before it presents it in a dialogue and makes reference to it as being that tense. However, the grammar summary at the end of the book will definitely answer your questions on how to use these tenses.

ever wondered why the French can speak English so well?

I recently travelled to Paris, having crashed through Michel Thomas and done most of the Smart French CD-ROM (which I can recommend if you have little time to prepare). These helped a great deal. While browsing through the bookstores there, I kept bumping into the Assimil packs - the Smart French method appears to be a bit of a modification of the "natural assimilation" technique of these French-origin "with ease" series. "L'anglais sans peine" is one of the biggest selling items in French books, and it's how so many French people learn how to speak and to understand English. (They published their first edition back in 1944, according to the antique dealers on ebay.) Why? Because, if you take 20-30 minutes each day for a few months (preferably five), you'll find that the series is fun, and you don't have to strain to memorise. The most important thing is to do a little each day in the first two weeks, and you build on it from there. After two months now, I'm beginning to understand (listening-wise) internet radio news from www.rfi.fr and so on. So far, this is the most thorough and most fun.

Assimilate French Effortlessly

Assimil programs are based on effortless assimilation of the language material. I believe that Assimil programs are most popular language learning programs in Europe. From the very beginning you are immersed in the language. The program contains 113 lessons on 608 pages. You can also get 4 CDs with a little bit over 3 hours of entire French material from this book. The book is based on a logical but original approach. It combines a functional and varied vocabulary with sufficient grammar to enable you to master conversational French in just a few months. Each lesson contains of short dialogues and is accompanied by any notes and grammatical explations, which are also reviewed later on. Throughout the book are interspersed cartoons and jokes making learning of French even more enjoyable and fun. After you have completed New French With Ease (I recommend both book and tapes / CDs), you can proceed to the next level "Using French".

New French With Ease

I have used a lot of different sources in my attempt to teach myself French. Because the lessons flow so effortlessly I keep returning to "New French With Ease". The lessons are entertaining, and by using the CD's I am really learning to hear spoken French. I recommend it above all others.