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Best Audio Books to Learn French in my spare time

10 replies

Eulalia · 23/09/2013 14:15

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to put this but here goes. I'd like to improve my French. I had an experience in France this year. We were on a driving holiday and I got ill and had to be admitted by 'Urgences' to a hospital in Burgundy. I was in for 5 nights and had an operation. The hospital was fantastic and most of the senior staff spoke English very well. The nurses did not and my French is pretty poor. We got by with the aid of Google Translate on their laptops (brought on the trolley) but some of the 'conversations' we had were at worst inadequate and frustrating, at best amusing. It made me realise how poor my French is and how much I am missing out. We intend to do a similar holiday next July and I'd like to be able to have a simple conversation, maybe read some of the newspapers, nothing too complex. At present I have some vocabulary but my knowledge of the grammar has disappeared in the mists of time. So... my question is can anyone recommend books/CDs to help me learn? I've looked on Amazon and there are a lot! Any recommendations? Many thanks.

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MaitreKarlsson · 23/09/2013 19:30

Bumping for you... Me too, so will watch with interest!

Eulalia · 24/09/2013 09:57

Thanks. If I don't here anything here think I will go for this -

www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-French-Stages-Collins-Learning/dp/0007521456/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379931813&sr=1-3&keywords=French+audio+books

And get the two books at the bottom of the page as well as to buy all 3 together isn't too expensive.

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Eulalia · 24/09/2013 09:57

hear I mean

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MooncupGoddess · 24/09/2013 09:59

The Michel Thomas CDs are brilliant for getting a sense of the structure of the language. Also less dull than doing lots of repetitive written exercises.

LeMousquetaireAnonyme · 24/09/2013 10:04

french method
the methods are good for actually speaking a language, not sure about the french one as it is my language so I haven't used it.

Eulalia · 24/09/2013 16:37

Thanks, the French with Ease audiobooks are coming up as £59 on Amazon, bit pricy. I read a review on Michel Thomas, very good for spoken French but not enough grammar. Too much choice! Think I am procrastinating a bit :) Also going to classes but locally they only do a 6 week course so going to do that early next summer just before the holiday.

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tabitha8 · 24/09/2013 19:58

I've found some of the Michel Thomas CDs in our local library. They even flogged an earlier set (I'd already bought those ones).
They can be converted to MP3...... Saves quite a bit of dosh.

Eulalia · 26/09/2013 13:50

tabitha8, great thanks for that! Have just checked the library and reserved a Michel Thomas CD set - 8 CDs so that should keep me going and it means I can buy some written material. There's loads of stuff on-line too so improving my French shouldn't cost too much at all. :)

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GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 02/10/2013 21:22

The Little Prince is lovely.

GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 02/10/2013 21:24

Sorry- I mean just as a nice piece of fiction to allow the language to wash over you. It's not actually a teaching aid!

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