French (With Ease) (French and English Edition)

Excellent for the “false beginners”. If you’ve tried to learn French previously, and maybe if you even can passably speak it when traveling, then this book is for you. I have used many many French learning resources over the years and this is by far my favorite. It introduces new vocabulary in a very approachable and fun way. I would suggest adding new vocabulary to a good SRS like Anki to reinforce the new vocabulary that you’ll pick up. Very highly recommended.

I've used Assimil and know it works well if you stick to it. Looking through this course for French, it seems like it's one of their best. There's over 100 lessons in bite-sized chunks. So, there's plenty of material to get started in French with. I'm excited to start using this course!

Having gone through this book cover to cover religiously, I can report that you will be able to gain a rough first introduction to French, but you can forget about speaking or listening comprehension if the only thing you do is to study this book. The limited size of each lesson makes it more approachable and the initial learning curve is gentle. No hassle with the alphabet or pronunciation rules. However, these very quickly come back to haunt you. The difficulty of the text became very steep towards the middle of the book and I was barely able to learn the text word by word, let alone being able to produce speech at the same level of sophistication. The fundamental flaw with these text book approaches is the passive nature of any textbook format. Just because a learner sees a paragraph and understands the translation does not mean the ability to reproduce even the same sentence has been internalized. Just by raising the difficulty gradually does not guarantee that the reader will also grow in his ability to produce the speech either in writing or a conversation. I spent way more than the required time to study the material and use a flashcards app to rote learn the vocabulary, but all I was doing was to barely keep up with the pace of memory decay. This is absolutely no substitute of immersion. You must force yourself to reproduce the french material orally without reference to the textbook, as this is what actually happens when you're in a conversation. You must place yourself at risk by actually using french in everyday life and communication with french speakers. The book can only get you through very basic rote learning elements. I appreciate the weird humor of the text, but I cannot get over just how outdated the material is. It feels like it was written in the 1980s or even earlier. I had no idea what a minitel is, that France has a PTT, and some of the jokes were a little oddly politically incorrect. The pervasive and unquestioned use of 'vous' also gave me a serious handicap when I finally started to communicate with real french speakers. At the end of the day, this book is probably no worse or better than any textbook in french. What you desperately need to do is to find an environment that forces you to produce speech and text in French, without any help from the book. This is the way native speakers learned the language and it will be the only way you can learn French.

It's not as exciting as my first language book (Language Hacking French by B. Lewis) but from what I've read, Assimil books are the gold standard. The exercises are easy, sometimes funny and I'm learning without putting a great deal of effort into it. From what I've hear through the polyglot grapevine, it's best to just pick a book and work through it. This one is a great start.

Perfect size, exactly what I was looking for. Easy to follow and understand. My only complaint is that some of the audio files in the CD were labeled wrong, so i had to refer to the book to correctly name the audio files on the CD. Also, had a hard time burning the cds onto my laptop. I had to use some other laptop to burn them, for some reason mine would not read them (not sure if it's a common problem). Above all, I'm really enjoying the lesson and feel that I'm benefiting from them.

This is the first language study program that I have truly loved. It's engaging and has been helping me learn what I've found to be the most challenging aspect of learning a new language: oral comprehension. It's wonderful and worth every penny... Highly recommended!

I bought this set on recommendation of my French tutor. I had been learning for almost a year using first Duolingo, then Busuu in combination with Fluent Forever, but I felt like I was quickly stagnating and not learning much French that would actually be useful in day-to-day conversation. My tutor is a strong believer in the Assimil system, which is quite old (originally from the 1920s) and some would say old-fashioned, but I've found it very helpful. The daily lessons are divided in such a way that you get phrases, questions, and quizzes at the top of the left-hand pages with relevant translations and answers on the right. The lower portion of the pages contains notes about usage, grammar, and pronunciation. The pronunciation sections are in the awful "bohnzhoor" style that doesn't really teach you how to pronounce words properly, but listening to the matching audio files can help you avoid picking up bad habits. (Also, you can find a variety of French "minimal pairs" tools on the web--I'm using Anki flashcards--and other native-spoken pronunciation tools to help you develop proper pronunciation outside the book.) The translations may also suffer a bit from age. Another reviewer gave the set one star because the book defined "cher" as "dear" rather than "expensive," which they said threw every other translation into doubt. Well, "dear" actually *is* a synonym for "expensive," one my grandmother used regularly. So the translations may occasionally be out of step with the times--like other parts of the book--but I haven't found anything yet that seems to be completely wrong. The stories used for teaching are basic, but diverse in topic, which helps keep things interesting. (Though they, like the very dated cartoons, sometimes veer into stereotypes that have no place in modern learning materials. The publication date is 1998, the tone is sometimes very 1958.) Rather than rote memorization of grammar or word lists, you pick up words and phrases much as a kid learning French natively would, by reading and hearing them in context. The various page notes are very helpful, explaining points of grammar or historical context and helping distinguish between what a person might see in written French vs. less formal spoken French. Plus the lesson-a-day approach and compact format of the book make it easy to take anywhere. Better yet, I get an excuse to avoid screen time, which some of the apps tend to encourage almost fanatically. In all, if you find yourself stuck for a way to learn French after trying all the "gamified" options on your phone, this could be a good choice.

All assimil products are great. I've learned Italian and Spanish using these methods with great success. Now I'm on to French. À bientôt

Excellent language programme for self-learning. This Assimil course sets out to really teach the French language with engaging content.

Excellent! Quick shipping. Items as described.

J'ai offert ce livre à une personne anglophone. Que des éloges; que je transmets sous forme de 4 étoiles.

Em pouco mais de duas semanas já tenho uma noção de francês melhor que a que adquiri alguns anos atrás em um ano de curso convencional.

Thanks