Product Description Here is our 6 courses series on to learn French from A to Z and be able to speak with the French, understand them and be understood. SmartFrench Course #1 (Beginner Level): http://tinyurl.com/kmkm5brb SmartFrench Course #2 (Training on Contractions): http://tinyurl.com/2erhzpjp SmartFrench Course #3 (Beginner Conversation Level): http://tinyurl.com/mr49xdz3 SmartFrench Course #4 (Intermediate/Advanced Conversation Level): http://tinyurl.com/mrxmxxuf SmartFrench Course #5 (Training on Conjugation): http://tinyurl.com/589ze83w SmartFrench Course #6 (Training on French Films): http://tinyurl.com/a729nc58'Our son is using the product (as complement for GCSE prep.) and making leaps of progress already after years of frustration and struggling. Probably the best seller we have ever dealt with. Recommend unreservedly. 20 February 2010.' D. CRASS 'J Linn' Gt BritainVisit frenchwhisperer.com for info on our new online series Most people learn to speak french but not how to speak it. At the intermediate level, they still have difficulties to understand the language and they cannot be understood. These Audio CDs will develop your listening skills at the same time as you progress in your learning. Review We recently received an email questioning our 5 star reviews. We felt compelled to respond to our customer. This is our response: Dear X, To try to be seen by customers me and my team have to work extremely hard. We don't have the budget to appear on top of pages like others do. I am not a teacher at university either who could have his students write comments. It has another advantage though. We are necessarily closer to our customers and we like to help them as much as we can. What happens with the reviews is the result of a close contact with them. When customers write a favorable comment for delivery adding that the product is good, we ask them for a review. We offer free advice. They can call us to chat in French. We replace lost booklets for free. We give lists of vocabulary for free to all our buyers if they need. Naturally if they like our products, we ask them for a review and we ask them to paste it on all our products (as they are related). I am happy when our customers write good reviews and even so if it's written with spirit. If they copy from other reviewers, it's their choice. We love our customers and they love us. Everything can happen. We have once received an unfavorable review, which, we could prove, had been written by a competitor... and he pasted it to several of our products, just like 'another opinion' below! At Smart Language we would never think of writing a bad review, for any reason except if we'd returned a product and would be denied a refund. By the way, we have always refunded when asked and if you want to return yours, it's absolutely fine. Our method is unconventional and certain people will not like it. It's their right. We have been very fortunate over the years to communicate by email or on the phone with so many wonderful people. We received the generous free help of writers, lawyers, journalists, and professors, who had bought our products and wanted to help us (for the description, corrections or else). Our technique was born from the difficulties we experienced ourselves in communicating in English. It was absolutely necessary for us to help people avoid the same difficulties. That method really came from the heart and I am convinced that there is no better product on the market that develops the faculty of listening to the language and speak it like ours does. When a mother emailed us and told us that she wanted to make sure the product was suited for her son as the money was limited, I honestly told her that it was not designed for young people. She decided to try it anyway and afterwards, she emailed me again and told me: '... our son is using the product and making leaps of progress already after years of frustration and struggling'. Of course, once again I asked her to paste her comment everywhere possible. I am very and personally sorry if that offends some. With the budget we have, I don't know what else to do for our products to be discovered. The words of mouth have been good so far. On the descriptions we always mention to either start with the SmartFrench volumes of introduction or work with them simultaneously. When I was recording the lessons, our French sound engineer told me the method was right because he never took any English class. I asked him how long it took him to feel comfortable speaking English, he told me one year. For me, after 5 years of English classes, I could not have a regular comfortable conversation in English when I arrived in the US. It took me three years to feel comfortable. It seems that fixing the problem was harder than listening first to something you can't understand and mimicking when someone speaks... --Repeating dialogs seemed more efficient Read our discoveries about learning French on frenchwhisperer.com --Christian Aubert, frenchwhisperer.comWhen I heard my first lesson I honestly felt betrayed by my other programs--why didn't they simply tell the truth about French pronunciation like Smart French does? --Patricia Jones, attorneyThis method works. Period. I have a bookshelf full of French language learning tools (books, CD's, flashcards), and they seem useless now that I am using SmartFrench... It's unbelievable that this simple, easy approach has never been done before. I'm glad someone finally did it! Some of the most successful, useful inventions become obvious to the rest of us after someone comes up with the idea, and we smack our foreheads with the palm of our hands thinking: Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious! SmartFrench is like that. --Music critic, Belmont, MA USA
M**E
C'est Super!
I received my order of both Smart French CD Rom and the Smart French Intermediate & Advanced Level. I purchased both based on all of the positive reviews.Well, having worked with the first set of lessons on the CD Rom and after visiting the Smart French website for practice dictation, I must say that all the reviews were right! In addition, to practicing with the CD Rom, I listen daily to the audio CDs while commuting. I find that both the CD Rom and the audio CDs work hand in hand as genuine immersion. In short, the CD Rom, the audio CDs, and the SmartFrench website have boosted my acquisition of French considerably. This program is amazing and I have had the most enjoyable learning experience!I am a college student of French and knew intuitively that there must be a different way to learn French besides the conventional `method memorizing'. What's more, my grades in French have suffered because I have had to work against this intuition and against my particular learning style. Not everyone learns by memorizing, certainly not me. I learn through application, repetition, and association; as such, this program entirely corresponds to my learning style.I love and am committed to learning French. I think that finding Smart French is something of a miracle for me. This program has already begun to build the kind of confidence I need to successfully comprehend French. Now I can major in French and not settle for a substitute major. Put another way, now I know that I do not have to give up my first love. I cannot wait for Smart French's additional projects to hit the market. For now, I am entirely satisfied with this product. Indeed, I am thoroughly overjoyed!"
E**R
It was a true disappointment and not worth the investment
No, it neither certainly was not what I expected, nor did it live up to the praises of the reviews I read before ordering it. All you did was listen to French speakers with very little grammar and no real give-and-take dialog, which is necessary for accurate conversation. It may help one's reading ability a little, but in my opinion, it does absolutely nothing to improve one's conversation ability. It was a true disappointment and not worth the investment. (I have CD's from French classes, which I took about 10 years ago, which are far superior).
K**R
Good, but some issues
These are a series of interviews (really monologues) held in French, which are then repeated by a narrator 5 times in short phrases with some commentary and "helpful hints".The concept is good, but the execution has problems.First, the "helpful hints" are repeated essentially verbatim in each lesson. You will grow very tired of hearing "spoken French is very different from written French", "the French link their words when they speak", and similar phrases.Second, the audio quality of the original interviews ranges from tolerable to barely audible over the background noise - good luck trying to listen to some of these in your car (as I do). The audio quality of the narrator who repeats the text is fine, but they really needed to clean up the original audio.Third, and perhaps worst - as the narrator reads the text, the phrasing is wildly unpredictable. Imagine taking a series of paragraphs of text, running them together into a single long series, then arbitrarily breaking the series of words at random places between words. I.e., you will hear a 3-word sequence that ends one sentence followed immediately (no spoken break or indication of any change) by another 2-3 word sequence that is the start of the next sentence. Using the first line of this paragraph as an example, imagine someone reading "... wildly unpredictable imagine taking ..." and try to make sense of that while listening to the CD.Related to this is that the narrator reads the text in nearly a monotone, and there is no indication which of the persons from the interview is supposed to be speaking, or if the text is a question, statement, interjection, etc. Unless you are reading along in the booklet (hard to do in a car), this is very confusing.The interviews are interesting, but I would also have preferred some less esoteric jobs. The best ones are with a Berlitz manager and an art gallery owner who knew Picasso - both of these mostly use terminology one might actually use in common discourse.
K**H
Very effective!
My investment in SmartFrench was the best money I've spent in a long time. I'd had some French experience in my growing up years while living overseas, and some high school and college French. But though I had a basic understanding and comprehension of the language, I didn't feel comfortable enough to actually open my mouth and attempt an actual conversation! About three months ago I purchased the Intermediate/Advanced cds from SmartFrench. The best way to describe the effect that my exposure to these cds has had, is to say that my mouth feels comfortable (and even rather delightful) with French rolling about in it now! After all the listening and repetition (the cds have been my constant driving companions), I'm no longer feeling tentative about pronunciation, or even the rhythm of the language. It's as though I've learned some dance steps and am now free to, albeit somewhat tentatively, move about the dance floor!It's also very enlightening to listen to the French interviews and learn to understand what is being said by the non-teacher-types!In addition to the new freedom I feel with the language, SmartFrench has clarified a lot of what categorizes a non-French speaker as just that - and has given practical advice on how to sound more French and less obviously foreign.French feels approachable and adventuresome to me again, and I'm excited that I discovered these wonderful cds.
F**D
Just OK
Just OK, Behind the Wheel French 2 much better
A**Y
Damaged disks twice
I had bought these years ago and loved it. Bought them again when I was trying to review french and was sent damaged disks and the wrong disks. I returned them and got the correct disks but they are damaged as well. The first couple se tions work... but all of the conversations... why I bought them do not work. It is apparently too late to return them
K**1
Really helps you get accustomed to French spoken at normal ...
Really helps you get accustomed to French spoken at normal speed and in normal conversation. Very soon was able to understand everything.
A**R
Tres cher pour tres peu
Les paroles/textes sont ennuyeux comme Michel Thomas. Les traductions en sont faible.The recordings are poor. the texts are often boring. the beginners level looks far too difficult (I only read the texts as I bought the intermediate level but the booklet covers the whole course)The translations into english use the wrong tense virtually throughout (the french dont know how to ue our past perfect very well and don't have a separate tense for 'I used to'. The proof reader overlooked all this and there were several spelling mistakes even in the french text. My advise is not to bother....listen to real french people speak on the radio...I recommend 'France Culture'or buy the 'French Experience' that has masses of texts of french people speaking, and keep listening and repeating..it's certainly more interesting.
C**K
repetitive rip-off
This is a massive rip-off. CD2 and CD3 is a waste of time and could be reduced by 60%. There is no need for the relentless repetition, ie the repetition of the dialogues, and the same repetions concerning the difference between spoken and written French. The useful phrases advice is useful for beginners but not for intermediates and those at an advanced level. The dialogues should occur twice only per dialogue. One at the slower speed and one at the natural French speed. Allow the listeners to decide on how much repetition they want. Not all people learn via imposed repetion. The space left over from the cuts I suggest could be filled with everyday conversations from the practicalities of day to day life
E**E
Might be better for other people
Doesn't really do it for me - maybe I just need to persist
C**A
Sounds Good
4.5 stars really. This system is extremely clever the way the text demonstrates and underlines the pronunciation. It is also a help when one refers to the BBc French language dialogues which also has a variety of social situations.I would have liked a few more conversations for my money.Nevertheless it is a very useful tool to get one's ear attuned to spoken French.Liz T-W
Trustpilot
2 months ago
2 weeks ago
