SmartFrench - Introduction to French, Vol.1 (English and French Edition) Audio CD – December 14, 2007

I have been using these products for several months AS DIRECTED by their creator, Christian Aubert, and have found them extremely helpful. I've used both "SmartFrench - Introduction to French, Volumes 1 and 2" and also the 4-CD-Set "Beginner Level." What is so amazing about this material is that you truly can learn the language by just listening! If you are planning on a trip to France I would say this is the way to learn. You may not learn to read the language, but you will learn to understand what is said to you and to speak it to some extent, and that is the point. I plan on purchasing "SmartFrench for Travellers" before my trip to get more help in recognizing the written word.Mr. Aubert teaches something that I imagine few other language courses go into--he teaches the contractions that the French use in their conversations. Unless you learn to hear the words contracted (the way French natives actually say them), how can you hope to understand what is being spoken? Mr. Aubert also highlights IN RED the letters that are NOT pronounced in a sentence. (There is a PDF format of "SmartFrench - Introduction to French, Volumes 1 and 2" which can be printed out for your convenience, as well as a booklet included with the 4-CD-Set "Beginner Level").'Just listening is the key to your future progress' says Mr. Aubert, and he is right! I find myself (I'm a gardener) out in the yard telling my plants IN FRENCH, "Well, you've got to have everything!" (See "Beginner Level CD 1 - Soundis" and you'll know where I'm coming from;-) It is so much fun to have French words or phrases pop into my head from out of the blue, and I feel like a child learning her first language with ease. If you don't try this material and do it consistently, you'll never experience the joy I'm talking about. Five days a week I spend an hour on my treadmill with my earphones on, and I'm learning a language without the chore of memorizing. Imagine that! Pas mal!

Dear Mr. Christian Aubert:Merci beaucoup for offering the great learning tools Introduction to French, Volumes 1 & 2, and SmartFrench Audio CDs~Beginner. It is apparent that much time and thought has been spent on how best to present the lessons.Learning a new language is very challenging. There is a big difference between memorizing phrases and formal greetings; and a person actually being able to hold meaningful conversations. Your methods of teaching not only encourage retention, but also provide practical advice on how to speak the everyday language. No wonder you earn such glowing commendation on Amazon.com.The more time spent utilizing the audio CD's and supplementary materials the more the true essence of the French language is understood. The auxiliary tools offered on [..]. such as the Verb Blog, have provided added support, which is greatly appreciated.I will definitely recommend your product to others interested in learning to speak French.

This is a good language CD, but it is not the best. It is not professionally developed. There are some recording issues that are obvious, like intro and exit sounds playing over the speaker, and recording cut off in the middle of a word. This is also only TWO CDs that are ONLY an HOUR each, so it is not the best bang for the buck. I do like the fact that he picks the most common verbs and covers present, past and future conjugation of each. It takes a few plays before you really get the feel for them, but it is very helpful.

I think this is just personal preference, but I do not like the long explanations in between the lessons. Even though I'm a beginner, and I should probably be patient with learning, I found these lessons long and boring. For now, I'm sticking with Michel Thomas, which I think is a much more intuitive way to learn French, and is actually quite fun.

I wish that I had known that all but the last two tracks of the first disk were just repeating numbers and letters. Also Aubert talks too much (in English) so that very little French is learned. Maybe this volume is for absolute beginners and should be made clearer in the product description. For me it was mostly a waste of money.

I purchased Smart French - Inroduction to get all the numbers 1-100 at once (because Pimsleur French Level 1 and II gives you numbers once in a while.) I didn't use the alphabet too much, but the numbers were will worth it. The alphabet and numbers are in Vol. I.

Had such great hopes for SmartFrench-Introduction to French by Christian Aubert. I was looking for everyday words & phrases that we would use to communicate in Paris - nope. Aside from a few words, Mr Aubert teaches numbers - counting to 100 is not really useful - and his voice quickly becomes annoying. I borrowed a friends conversational French lessons - learned a few key phrases and was able to communicate in Paris just fine!

January 20, 2012This is a very well produced CD for a beginner's introduction to French. Using a red font to indicate what consonants/vowels are silent is very helpful. Mr. Aubert clearly and distinctly pronounces all of the words and gives very good suggestions for learning French.

Ive been using the whole range of SmartFrench products for some months now and am sure it is the best language course i have ever tried in book,cd or cd rom form.I would recommend starting with the introduction cd's before tackling the beginner version.The introduction cd's need repeated listening ,usually this is where it all falls apart (i found repeated listening to Michael Thomas cd's extremely difficult due to his strange accent ,pompous manner and wierd exchanges between his two students )i have listened to the smartfrench cd's some 11 or 12 times and still find them quite fresh and Christian Aubert's accent easy to listen to .Having worked on verbs,numbers and vocabulary from the introduction cd's i find i can express most of the things i want to say without a struggle.I have also used the Penguin Parallel French texts to suppliment my listening and ahve found these useful but not terribly relevent are much of the vocabulary is quite obscure , maybe Christian Aubert should write a Smart French parallel text book ,i would certainly buy that.I am now working on the beginner conversations which are similarly fascinating (peopled by a wig maker ,a chef,a model and various other real french people ,boring it is'nt ) the emphasis being on listening and speaking rather than reading.The cd rom is extremely easy to navigate around and as for reading smartfrench for travellers will be going with me when i go to Paris and the Dordogne this year as it is packed withvery useful phrases.On the stregnth of Smartfrench i purchased SmartsSpanish and was delighted to find it followed the same format using a native Sanish speaker and real Spanish people ,the attention to detail is the same and i am looking forward to exploring the product in greater detail in the near future.I find the main difference with the Smart Language series is that i practise every day and don't resent it one bit ,and yes ive found it relly sticks and tenses seem easy .So all in all a really great product which will teach you how to speak French the way real French people speak with the correct liasons and vocabulary as it has been compiled using recorded conversations .Unique and practcal ,well done SmartFrench.David Bentley .

Quick and speedy response. It looks like I will have to be quick in learning. Cheap for what the prodct is. I like it.

Very helpful.