Pimsleur Quick & Simple French Review

Pimsleur Quick & Simple French is just that! I've worked with, and played with, 8 or 10 French language books/courses/packages. Most of them involve a book of greater or lesser complexity along with audio recordings. (A French book for beginners that has no audio component is worthless; there's no point in knowing what foreign words look like if you don't know what they're supposed to sound like.) The most comprehensive one I've used has multiple books and also includes videos, and provides for a pretty decent knowledge of French. This package from Pimsleur is interesting because it contains no book of any kind; only 4 CDs of audio recordings. It teaches basic words and phrases, from "hello/goodbye" to "What would you like to do?" or "Where would you like to eat?"

Now, I have seen a couple of other language packages that had just a little pamphlet with the recordings, and I felt like they were useless. Totally uninteresting. So what makes these audio recordings from Pimsleur different? It's the way they use the recordings. 

Each section of the recordings starts out with a short conversation in French, which you then learn to say parts of. The first word they teach is "Pardon" ("Excuse me.") Of course, this word isn't pronounced the same way in French as it is in English. And French pronunciation is pretty tricky for an American. So they actually teach the word one syllable at a time! You learn to say "par" and you learn to say "don" and then you put them together. Then you work on other parts of the conversation. (Of course, this "one syllable at a time" approach isn't used for every word, or there just wouldn't be enough time to learn much.) The next section starts out with another conversation, part of which you know from the previous conversation. And so it goes through all 4 CDs, each one building on the preceeding ones.

Repetition is key to learning a language, and usually it's boring. That's just all there is to it. But the way they do it here is different. It's not like, hear the word, say the word, back up the recording and listen and repeat again. The repetition is built-in. The French speaker says the word (or phrase) and waits; after giving you time to repeat it,  he (or she) says it again and waits... then says it again and waits. Because you don't have to constantly back up in the recording, you're more likely to listen and repeat every time they do it.

There are a couple tricks they use that I find particularly interesting. An American voice will say something like, "This is how you ask, 'What would you like to eat?'" Then the French voice goes through the repetition drill with you, teaching you how to ask the question. Then the American will say, "Ask me what I would like to eat." After you've had time to ask the question, then the French voice goes through the drill again. THEN... a few minutes later, after you've learned some other things... the American voice will again say, "Ask me what I would like to eat." It's a pop quiz!!! This technique keeps refreshing your memory as you go through the whole package.

The over-riding principle that keeps this package interesting and effective is that it constantly engages you, involves you in the process, and builds on what you've learned as you go. You're not just listening to someone saying random things that you can't relate to and that don't have any relation to each other, like a list of vocabulary words. Every French language package that I've played with has an audio component, and with most of them, I can put on the tape or CD, listen for a minute, and turn it off. It's like, "Who cares?" With this package from Pimsleur, even though I already know most of the material, if I turn it on, it hooks me, and I find myself listening and repeating, even if I don't want to!

So why do I give this package 4 stars instead of 5? Simply because of the fact that it's teaching only basics of listening and speaking. It's not really teaching much of the French language at all. In fact, I think it's intended to get you interested enough to buy a more comprehensive package. But for what it is, I think it's extremely effective.
And it's fun. I like it a lot.