Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Fantastic way to learn. October 3, 2008
I bought this originally for myself as I am studying French, German and Spanish (for fun would you believe) but it is so easy to learn that my 7 year old has it on her iPod and we are starting to have conversations.
(I also speak to her in German at times and due to how easy these CD's are, she is able to have limited chats in that too.)
There are some tunes in the background which phrases are laid over in time, and you hear them and lock them in your mind along with the tune. The guys voice is almost hypnotic and the woman who speaks with him is clear and easy to understand making it ultra easy to repeat and learn.
She will often make the odd comment about language rules, but the CD doesn't bombard you with nouns, verbs, conjucating and all the other stuff that only serves to addle your brain when trying to learn a language. It has a little booklet in with the cover so you may refer if your a bit unsure or if you want to know how to spell anything.
I wouldn't try and learn any other way now, as this has been quick and easy and even better, hard to forget and my 7 year old has picked it up brilliantly. A great addition to her French lessons at school.
Great for kids and adults and well worth trying if you've struggled to absorb languages before. (available in many other languages too)
 A great intro for the scared July 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I couldn't do languages at school, wasn't bad at other things, but with languages I always had a kind of block in the brain. But having a partner and his family who spoke French made me try to learn as an adult, and this has truly helped me. I'm not going to tell you that I'm suddenly fluent, but listening to this CD made me realise that I could do it. I learnt the whole CD after several listenings and felt a real achivement, and it spurred me on to learn more (I went onto Michel Thomas who is great). I'm actually enjoying language learning now which I didn't before, and it was because this CD made French accessible to me, if not providing a huge range of vocab. You could go straight to Michel Thomas from nothing, but this did a great job of giving me a little and boosting my confidence first. I listen in my car on the way to work and that requires no effort at all re reading or computer work. Get the second CD too, it's very good, though again quite scary at first!
The easy & enjoyable way to learn a language for holiday use July 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As someone who has studied languages to degree level and also taught foreign languages in secondary school, it would be fair to say that I am generally sceptical of DIY langauage teaching CDs - and often with good cause. However, Earworms CDs are an absolutely invaluable learning resource. They will equip you, with minimal effort on your part, with a basic understanding of the language building blocks - which coupled with vocab covering the usual holiday scenarios, such as ordering drinks, food, buying things, counting, etc, will enable you to begin to start to extrapolate from what you have heard on the CD and, with the help of a dictionary, build your own sentences to meet your specific needs. Some grammar is explained - just enough to help with exactly what I've just said above - but not too much to be overwhelming.
I would thoroughly recommend these CDs to anyone who wants just 'holiday' language, or to anyone who is wishing to study the language in greater depth but would like a gentle introduction first.
The learning process is stress-free and fun. These CDs are so easy to listen to, as the background tracks are non-intrusive, rhythmical, and really do help to nudge the words and phrases into your memory. Everything is repeated several times, with one presenter speaking English and the other saying the same things in the target language. Everything is delivered in time to the music, which aids recollection later, there is good use of humour now and then, and all phrases are broken down so that you can see exactly how they have been made up. The emphasis is on repetition, so there is no feeling that things are moving too quickly. The idea is that you just relax, rather than straining to follow a fast-moving coaching CD. It really does work - once you have listed to the CD a few times, you will find you are remembering whole phrases.
Fun, flirtatious and easy to learn! May 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have listened to Volume 2 (on my iPod whilst cycling into work) 3 times now and am already finding myself coming out with the phrases either in my head or when talking to the rest of my family.
The couple are very flirtatious, which also works as it helps to take your mind off trying too hard and the lady's accent and voice is beautiful, add into that the soft rymthical tunes behind the voices and you have an excellent product I would highly recommend.
Moving to France to live is a challenge to say the least. As a family we have bought almost every type of course available however this one is by far our favourite.
Good Rapid French- better with an iPod! February 13, 2007
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Bought Rapid French Vol.1 a year ago and had listenend to the product sitting at home in front of the CD player. Gave up with it after two weeks as the effort of taking an hour off from my schedule wasn't worth it for me.
Gave the product another try after buying an iPod and since then I have found it worked much better- the background music and the rhythmic repititions of English phrases and the French translation immediately whilst set to 'techno' music seemed to burn into my head well- perhaps too well as I developed sinusitis for the first ten days. Was worth it in the end!
Rapid French Vol.1 (and an iPod!) has been the easiest and most effective way of listening and learning basic French- its effortless and I can now listen to French radio podcasts and pick out some words and get the general gist of what they're saying.
Only complaint is that 200 words are a bit basic, but will remedy that when I get Vol. 2!
|
