French Experience 1 Language Pack and CDs (French Experience)

I found this pack useful for the beginning of a french course. You can't listen to the CDs in the car though, you need to have the book in front of you, which I found frustrating. I wanted to listen on the way to work, so ended up getting free Podcasts to listen to - they were better than the CDs in this pack. Having said that, the book guides you through lots of different sections, such as food and travel, and the CDs have exercises on each section. In the book, there are transcripts of the CD interviews as well as paper based exercises and additional info like background details of France - although there are not many of these. The most useful thing I found about this course was the boxes in each section of the book called 'Info Langue' and 'Mot a Mot' and the verb info. I am now 3 months into leanring French and I need a more detailed book than this but it has defeinately really helped me.

I was attracted to buy this pack because of the excellent Spanish language pack (SUENOS) published by the BBC. To my disappointment, I find the French Experience pack not very useful for beginners! It doesn't explain much about the sentences and use of phrases. It is also hard to follow the audio tracks. The Spanish pack contains many interesting facts about the Spanish-speaking world but this is not the case in the French Experience pack.

I have been studying French now for around six months and originally bought this to suplement the 1 hour a week French Class. I don't find it that great as a course in french. Basically it does not go into the language in enough depth, its OK as background and a supplement but you very quickly need verb tables and a broader text book if you are serious about the language. The CDs are useful as they are recorded interviews with French people so provide useful listening opportunities.