SmartFrench: Learn French from Real French People

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! 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!

This program is exactly what I was looking for!! I've been trying to teach myself French for a long time now and have spent a considerable amount of money on computer courses, books, CDs..etc. I especially wanted to converse in French when my husband and I went to PARIS this August. When we were there, it was as if I hadn't learned a thing!! I finally realised that my EAR wasn't trained to 'hear' french. What a disaster.Well.. that's where SMART FRENCH comes to the rescue. It trains the ear to 'hear' the language. Even though the AUDIO portion is of course a big part of the course, you also get to read the french conversation and, if you'd like, see it translated. What I greatly appreciated was the lesson that shows all the words and parts of words that AREN'T SPOKEN but only implied --> They're in RED! That's what's missing in traditional courses.Also, the instructor goes over the conversation once again at a slower pace, so you understand it better when it's spoken at the 'conversational pace'.I would suggest this course for someone who wants to truly understand contempory French.Thank you, Christian, for a much needed product!!Joy GreenOmaha, NE USA

Having recently decided to make a return trip to Paris next year, and remembering the difficulties I had getting along with my "text book French", I began to scour the internet searching for a new and different type of French course I could take that would enlighten me as to the REAL French spoken there and around the world. This would be the conversational French that you hear on the streets, on the radio, in the hotel, in the clubs, on the streets, in the cafe's and whereever else you venture to go. SMARTFRENCH IS THE ANSWER. You are provided with a CD of French conversations ranging from Beginner to Intermediate and Advanced lectures. Each section contains several conversations that you can listen to , watch on video if you prefer, read the transcripts or not, and listen in to the helpful hints on how to pronounce correctly what you hear or how to use the French elisions and knowing when and how to pronounce "silently" certain lettres and vowels of the spoken language and tricks and trades to making even YOUR spoken French sound as smooth and musical as the French do! (There is also included a booklet with the conversations available if you choose to follow along that way instead of on the computer screen) Lets face it, the French you learned in High School or College is not going to go far when you find yourself in a French speaking country or city like Paris and everyone seems to be talking at twice the speed you were accustomed to hearing in school or reading in books! THIS COURSE WILL HELP YOU TREMENDOUSLY. Satisfaction is GUARANTEED!

It is a very good, interesting program for such as myself who has been studying French for a while but still has difficulty understanding the spoken word. I feel that I have already made some progress.The program consists of a series of interviews. Each one is read at a slower speed first, then broken down into chunks for the student to repeat. In one of the sections the narrator keeps stopping to explain the grammar. Eventually you are asked to watch the video of the interview and finally 2 of the common phrases are explained. I found the accompanying booklet very good showing in red the letters which are usually silent.So why only 2 stars?1. As a pensioner my broadband package only allows me 2GB a month download, which I very rarely used until I bought this CD-ROM. I can't use the program as often as I would like unless I want to pay for a broadband upgrade which I would otherwise not need.2. There are no installation instructions with this program. It is not possible to use the "installation wizard" as other CD-ROMs do, and it was so complicated that I had to wait for my daughter to install it for me. Meanwhile I had to insert the disc each time I used it, increasing the chances of it being damaged.3. The CD-ROM is a duplicate of the CDs beginner and intermediate/advanced. Had I known this at the time I would have bought those instead but having paid for the program once I am not prepared to pay for the same thing a second time.So if, like me, you have difficulty understanding the spoken word, this program will be a useful addition to your course. But if you have a limit on your broadband, buy the CDs instead.

This CD just did not work no matter which computer I used. I've read another reviewer who had the same problem so buyer beware; make sure you test it as soon as you receive it in case it was a bad batch during production. Unfortunately I only opened it when I got to my home country and the cost of posting it back from here is so prohibitive It's not worth returning; it's now just an expensive frisbee.

I think this is a bit advanced for a beginner. It is good as a supplement if you are already learning to hear the sounds how they are pronounced and to expand your vocabulary with some new phrases but if you are just beginning I think a more structured system even if in the same style of listening as here you are not learning why and how things are working so it didnt work for me.

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 .

I bought this after reading reviews. I thought it would be fine for someone who took french at school but the CD is very hard going it goes straight into very hard dialogue and after having a couple of tries I had to give up. As its been opened I can't return it either so a waste of £33 as far as I am concerned.

Love this C.D and the book for proper French prouniations.She reccommends it.

Excellent teaching tool to enhance your french studies.

Swiftly delivered, I opened the package in eager anticipation, ready to speak fluent French at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately the disc just would not work. I know that my newer machine's CD/DVD drive can be temperamental, but whatever I tried it just would not read the disc. Undaunted, I fished out an older computer, with a different operating system, which has TWO DVD drives, only to find the disc would not work with either of them either.As ever, Amazon's return system could not be faulted and a replacement disc arrived within days, despite a post-Christmas backlog and dreadful weather. I opened the package in eager anticipation, ready to speak fluent French at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately...I understand that this particular system is made in America and I can only assume that inadequate protection for the disc in the releveant packaging alows it to be battered around in transit which corrupts the disc. It was loose within its packing, and the central protrusion to hold the disc in place seems to have scuffed a perfect circle radiating out at least an inch from the centre of the disc.Again, I cannot fault Amazon's response, but I am very, very disappointed with what seemed to be the ideal product for my needs, or, as we say in French: "Je suis très, très déçu par ce qui semblait être le produit idéal pour mes besoins."