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SmartFrench? Any opinions? | ||
Tags: Language Program | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4911 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 1 of 3 26 November 2011 at 9:27pm | IP Logged |
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I've seen very good reviews of the SmartFrench on Amazon. However, the course promises miracles, and I don't believe a 3 CD set can produce miracles. Has anyone here tried any of the series? Can someone give a proper HTLAL review, cutting through the hype to the nitty gritty?
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| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5473 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 3 26 November 2011 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
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Yes I have used this product. I does not work miracles of course but no language product does. It is however a useful addition to other study materials.
Each exercise contains a recorded interview with a native French speaker. It is completely natural everyday speech - in other words not the unusually clear and distinct enunciation you find in audiobooks and language courses. They then add several educational reproductions of the same interview, speaking like you would find in a language course and explaining in English the many 'shortcuts' used by native speakers in informal speech. After listening to these educational tracks you are then well prepared to understand the original authentic interview which is the final track in each lesson. That is basically all this product is useful for. Enhancing aural comprehension and bridging the gap between what you hear in study material and what you hear in movies and on the street. It does not really make any attempt to teach grammar except where needed as explanations. I liked the product and believe it helped me and I don't think it was too expensive. It is however entirely based on speakers from France which made it a bit less useful to me. Only if your weakness is listening comprehension would I recommend this product. You could also work on this problem with a web site like french.yabla.com as well but you would not have the explanations of the speech patterns, only the examples. Edited by microsnout on 26 November 2011 at 11:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5567 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 3 of 3 27 November 2011 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
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I would agree with Microsnout - I should add that my main criticism is that the breakdown of the interviews
are said by one speaker - so that it is not always clear that a different speaker is speaking - this could have been easily corrected by having two speakers in the training phase. Still for training aural comprehension of real spoken French it is a good course - if you can put up with the clunky CD Rom software, this offers the best value. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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