Pimsleur French: A Good Choice for Learning French

With a history dating back to the Latin language of the Roman Empire, French is one of the most popular Romance languages. Today, more than 300 million people speak French as their native tongue or second language. Originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, the French colonization spread French to parts of Africa, Vietnam, Canada, and many islands nations. For an American studying foreign languages, French is a very popular option. With that in mind, it wasn't hard for me to decide that French would be a very beneficial language to use especially for travel abroad. Like most people however, I am challenged by not having enough time to sit down and learn not only conversation, but reading and writing.

Now the difficulties of learning to read in French are not addressed in the Pimsleur French courses offered. For most American students of French, however, this will not present a problem since the goal is practical everyday conversation and this is where Pimsleur excels. The Pimsleur language learning system is a language acquisition method designed by Dr. Paul Pimsleur. In short the method works almost entirely through listening. The lessons are 30 minutes long so they are very digestible for even the busiest person and Pimsleur courses give the student the ability to

* ask for information, directions, and give basic information about yourself and family,
* communicate basic information on various topics and participate in casual conversations,
* handle minimum courtesy and travel requirements,
* satisfy personal needs
* native-like pronunciation.

As someone who has used Pimsleur for several languages including French, as a rule of thumb you should strive for a minimum of 70 percent comprehension, at which point you can move on to the next lesson. As the lessons repeat themselves and add new material, it is not necessary for you to master each lesson perfectly before moving on. So if your thinking about studying French you may want to try Pimsleur French.

Good luck with you French!