Reviews (1)

A tremendous value for the money
There ARE better courses for beginners, but they cost three times as much. This one is vastly superior to any course of comparable size and cost.

Instead of just teaching phrases and trace amounts of grammar, this course combines both of them well over 45 short chapters, 40 or so of which are separate topics covering a wide range of situations. This enables people who are interested in more than "at the hotel" or "at the train station" to learn more. Best of all, you can take the topics out of order, so if you'd prefer to learn a little about weather and letter writing BEFORE the chapter on the post office, for example, you can do so.

I strongly recommend you start with this course before investing a ton into one of the much larger ones. This lays a great foundation for its size - and if you lose interest in French, you won't be out too much. Lastly, if making quick progress is important to you, this course will help you learn far more quickly than the others of its size. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not a bad value, but a bit tedious
This set is a decent value. For your money, you get a fairly broad range of phrases and vocabulary. However, the organization of information assumes that you can keep interest listening to a bunch of discrete phrases repeated one after the other with no conversations or anything remotely natural. If you can, in fact, maintain interest while listening to these tapes repeatedly, then you'll do well with this set. If, on the other hand, you need something more dynamic, you might do well to look elsewhere. ... Read more

Book Description

What a great way to learn Spanish when you and your children are on the road! Developed by the experts at Living Language®, this book and cassette program includes 16 easy, fun, and effective language games centered around things you typically see while driving. Engaging songs, rhymes, and activities teach basic Spanish words and phrases effortlessly. No previous knowledge of Spanish is required.

Each kit includes:
 ¸  Activity book with 16 games and activities
 ¸  60-minute cassette with Spanish words, phrases, songs, rhymes, and more!
 ¸  40 play & learn stickers

... Read more

Reviews (3)

A good introduction for children
This tape and book set has activites you do with each lesson. Only a few words are introduced in each lesson (sometimes it would be nice if more supplemntary words were listed) It's a wonderful taste of the language for young ones, and then they'll be ready for a more complete course later.

Spanish in the kitchen
It dosnt give you enough words from things in the kitchen. It has activities fro you to do with your child and it skips to each activity. It dosnt cover enough vocabulary in my opinion. I found in order to learn enough vocabulary i had to go through about 5 lessons and them i felt bad for not doing all the acitvites.

Learning Spanish for all ages
This booklet and tape provide an interesting way to learn some Spanish with your child. The booklet and tape are divided into 16 activities focusing on different sets of words, for example, clothes, colors, verbs, numbers, body parts, foods, and more. The tape describes the 6-12 words to be learned for each activity using a lively English-Spanish banter between two people. My 4 year old loves to listen to a short segment of the tape in the car and then practice the words. The booklet provides activities mostly geared toward older children (6+ years old). As an adult I am also learning Spanish from the tape and booklet. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

No Japanese Characters
This book does not teach you how to read Japanese.
It teaches you how to speak Japanese pretty good.
I don't like books that don't teach Japanese characters.

Excellent package
I rented this package from the library because I really wanted to learn Japanese. I started off the first day by turning on one of the four cassettes and following along in the beautifully done 256 page workbook. They told me simple ways of learning Japanese and it was very easy. I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to learn Japanese and who has the time. If you don't have the time, I would suggest something shorter and at a more grueling pace. But I definitely give this two thumbs up!

It's simple to learn Japanese by using this book
I need more to learn Japanese Languag ... Read more

Reviews (4)

This is worthy of the trash can.
Do not buy this if you want your baby to learn French.The "French" is spoken by a native English speaker with a noticeable English accent, hence, words are not pronounced correctly.Additionally the words are repeated in English; in acquiring a language the language should be spoken without translation.A horrible, annoying tape.

This is worthy of the trash can.
Do not buy this if you want your baby to learn French.The "French" is spoken by a native English speaker with a noticeable English accent, hence, words are not pronounced correctly.Additionally the words are repeated in English; in acquiring a language the language should be spoken without translation.A horrible, annoying tape.

Basics for Absolute Beginners
This tape is a simple introduction to vocabulary and short phrases to use with your baby. It's appropriate for parents who speak little or no French, but those beyond the absolute beginner stage will find that they already know everything here (colors, clothing, animals, etc.). A children's French course on tape or even a CD of French songs will give you much more to go on. (The CDs by Daniel, like "ABCDEFG...I Learn French/J'apprends l'anglais" are marvelous.) Also, the woman on the tape has a noticeable Southern US accent in her English, which occasionally comes through ever-so-slightly in her French.

Merci! Holt concepts
This audio tape was recommended in American Baby Magazine as a good way to start language. It's a excellent way to start language with your baby. You can learn important words that will help start your baby learning a secondlanguage. The tape starts with number, parts of the body, colors, clothing,animals and other common words then it moves to simple phases that a motherwould use everyday. It's very easy to follow. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Ouch, My Ears!
English part on this CD is awesome - both the background music and the voices sound professionally done.The problem with Chinese is not that the vocalists are bad - for the most part they sound decent - but no matter how good voice you may have if you keep on trying to squish 5 - 10 syllables into a beat of music that can accommodate harmoniously only one or two - it's not going to work.

The music on this CD was created to accommodate English verses.When these English verses got translated to Chinese, the number of Chinese syllables that has to fit into the same music constantly comes out as being either not enough or too much.

it makes me wonder if musicians who were involved in creating these songs didn't have ears to hear how bad the combination sounds, or they didn't care, or thought that kids for whom it was made, would either not notice or care.

This recording could've been done beautifully if instead of using popular western music to accompany Chinese verses, they picked perhaps some Chinese music.

(...)

the good and the bad
I will attempt to give an objective review.
The good:
* Good concept: the book follows a little Chinese girl, Marie, throughout her day. On the way, you learn the Chinese words for family members, colors, clothing, body parts, days of the week, etc.
* Good Chinese pronunciation: Considering how many local dialects and accents there are in China, I am always concerned about pronunciation.I was pleased to find that the Chinese narrator speaks Mandarin with very good standard (Mainland Chinese) pronunciation.Note: standard Mandarin pronunciationin China and in Taiwan, though similar, have slight differences.
* Good English vocalists.

The bad:
* Poor Chinese vocalist: The narrator, who also does the singing, needs singing lessons! To be fair, she is not a terrible singer, she sings about as well as your average mom or grandma.But then again, your average mom or grandma would not be featured on a music CD, right?In several songs, she is off beat and off pitch.
* Hand-written book: Another thing I did not like is that the book is completely handwritten, so it is not very professional looking.
* Mistakes in the lyrics: I have found that the written Chinese lyrics do not always correspond to what is actually sung and some of the pinyin is incorrect.

Other neutral information:
* The songs are mostly standard western songs with make-shift translations.What bothers me is that many of the songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," have had standard Chinese lyrics for decades, yet the version in this CD sounds as if someone just decided to make up new lyrics.The translation tends to be more or less a direct translation of the English, which is probably what was intended. However, this also means that some of the songs sound very strange in Chinese.
* The Chinese lyrics are written only in pinyin without any Chinese characters, so I had to write them out myself.

Do I recommend this product? Well, that depends on who you are.I believe that this product is useful in introducing VERY YOUNG children to the sound of the Mandarin language.Since young children are a very forgiving audience, they probably won't object to the high-pitched, occasionally out-of-tune vocal performance.My bilingual 3-year-old son loves the CD.So if you have children under 5 and if you believe you can tolerate the singing, I would recommend this product.The product states that it is for kids ages 2 to 12, but I seriously doubt that any child above five years of age will enjoy the music.

Almost couldn't be worse
The idea of recording Chinese language children's songs is great, but unfortunately the music on this CD is terrible.The singing sounds like a bad female impersonator, and the music sounds like super-cheapo eletric organ samples. It's almost unbearable to listen to. My spouse who speaks chinese says the pronounciation was unrecognizable, maybe because of the very high pitched voice.

I hope someone else will give this idea a second try and use native chinese speaking children to sing and professional musicians for the music.

Excellent!
We've owned this CD for 2 years now and we listen to it often. My son is now 2 years old and his Chinese daycare teacher is constantly amazed at how well he is picking up Chinese. She tells me that he is learning Chinese much better than the other non-Chinese children. She has asked me more than once if we speak Chinese with him at home. No, we don't! However, I play the "Teach me Chinese", "Teach me More Chinese" and "Sing 'n Learn Chinese" CD's in our car all the time. That's the only Chinese my son hears outside of daycare.

I agree that the Chinese singing voice is a bit weak. I've heard other Chinese music, and it seems to be a quality of Chinese singing to have a high-pitched, nasal sound. The voice on this CD is no different. We got over that hurdle after about 1 week. Just like any new music that you don't really like the first time you hear it, it somehow grows on you. Now I listen to it and it sounds normal. There is also Chinese dialog spoken by children. The songs are all sung in English as well (mostly), and the English singing voices are very pleasant.

A side effect of using the Teach Me Chinese CD's to teach my son Chinese is that I'm starting to pick it up too! I can sing several of the Chinese songs completely from memory now.

If you are serious about giving your child Chinese as their second language, I would definitely recommend the 'Teach me Chinese' series.

Major Disappointment
My kids screamed, "Turn it off! Please!"They could not stand listening to the very high pitched and out of tune voice. Needless to say, Teach me Chinese did not work for my children. I have had better luck with Sing 'n Learn Chinese. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Blessing in disguise.....
I have been working on imporving my Spanish for quite sometime.There is one instance in the book where it states inorder to learn and speak Spanish you have to think in Spanish.I have lived in South America, asolutely love Puerto Rico and just get by on my spanglish.I want to do better and I know I can with Vocabulearn.Combining learning with music helps me remember the listed Spanish vocabulary.If I am away from the tape for a while and start thinking about the beat of the music to myself I will associate the beat with a word I learned.I am so proud of myself.I will be making future purchases of Vocabulearn

An exceptional method for learning basic vocabulary.
The method of combining rote-memorization vocabulary drills with a musical beat was well thought out. I highly recommend this series to anyone trying to learn a new language. You will find yourself repeating the "jingles" throughout the day - like sometimes happens with catchy advertisements. Both the vocabulary and the short conversations switch from English->Spanish to Spanish->English. This not only allows the tape to be used for learning either language, but promotes "thinking" in both languages. Very well done ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Pronounce it really right
This is a concise little book which really teaches you how to pronounce Italian. It gives you a foundation to build on. Italian pronunciation follows rules but can be tough. Can you really say ghiacco? You need to in Italy becuase they don't put it in the glass. This book takes you through dipthongs, triphongs etc and at the end you really have an essential skill to learn Italian. Start here and then start listening to tapes and reading stuff. ... Read more

Book Description

In the series' debut story, irrepressible 6-year-old Nicholas and his family search for their beloved family cat Princess, who has escapedfrom her basket. A lively tale with an ending children will enjoy, the story features over 200 predictable words and phrases, including days of the week, numbers, family names, feelings, action words, present and past tense. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Products are OK, but Berlitz gives poor service.
I bought all three books in the series: A Visit to Grandma, The Missing Cat, and Five Crayons, all in one order. I didn't use them for a couple of weeks, and kept them in their boxes. Finally getting around to the books, TWO of the three audio cassettes broke within the first week of use. It has been more than a month and a half, and I've been emailing and calling Berlitz (multiple numbers; I feel like i'm getting the run around) to see about replacements, but to no avail. After all the emails and calls, Berlitz says that the best the can do is sell me the items again for half price. All I desire are the tapes. I have the books, of course. It's disheartening that this large, multi-national corporation 1) does not stand by its products, and 2) can't afford to send a customer two tapes.

With that out of the way, I do think the series is pretty good, though I've (obviously) really turned sour on the company. I've read the other reviews of these prodcts, and by and large agree. The illustrations are nice, and the narrations on the audio are professional enough. Some issues I do have:

They advertise that the tapes are 60 minutes long. They are, but they're playing with the language. While the cassettes are actually 60 minutes long, there is about 20 minutes of silence on the second side. So if you buy all three, you're purchasing 60 minutes of quiet time.

Speaking of the second side, it is interesting because that is the side containing songs--songs go along with the story. Apparently all the songs are the same (i.e., same music, lyrics, etc. just translated into different language) regardless of the language you are learning (French, German, Italian, etc.). This makes for some contorted lyrics at times. The writers really had to make it stretch in some parts to get all the syllables in, or to spread them out. So for example, in the back of the book, where the lyrics to the songs are, they give you the German on the left, and the English on the right. The English goes along quite well the song (it must have been written or drafted in English). It has even numbers of syllables per line, rhymes when it should, etc. The German, on the other hand, is almost unwieldy. Don't get me wrong. If you listen to it enough, you will learn, but it's clear that the song was not written in German. If the lines rhyme in German, it's probably a random event.

Also, this is the first time I have ever seen a cassette no labeled with "SIDE A" or "SIDE B."--so you don't know what side you're puttin in your cassette player. In the great scheme of things, I guess this is no big deal, but it shows the attention to detail that was *not* paid to this project.

Given the paucity of German language materials on the market, purchasing these books, for children, unfortunately, is a must.

Great value -- easy and enjoyable way for kids to learn!
The Nicholas stories on tape are very easy to learn from because they are read slowly and clearly. They also keep the sentence structures pretty simple and repeat words and phrases a lot, which might be annoying for a book in your native language, but is very helpful to children learning a second language. My children don't like to listen to regular Spanish books on tape (often spoken quickly and the words seem to run together, more complex vocabulary, verb conjugations, etc.). However, they enjoy all the tapes in this series, even after we've heard them 50 times each.

My son is in kindergarten in a Spanish immersion school, so we always keep these tapes playing in the car to give him extra practice listening to Spanish. The tape has a dictionary portion with 50 words from the story, spoken first in English and then twice in Spanish. This might sound dry, but our kids really like this portion of the tape. Even our 20-month-old repeats both the English and the Spanish words during the dictionary section.

The story is read only in Spanish on the tape -- this has worked fine for us. However, the book is written in both Spanish and English, so if you wanted to enhance your child's understanding of what they were hearing, you could read them the story occasionally in English.

I would recommend first buying The Missing Cat and then A Visit to Grandma before buying The Five Crayons. (The music on The Five Crayons, while perhaps more culturally authentic, has some fast songs and is sung in a style that makes it a little more difficult to understand the words). In general, I've found that for my children to understand the songs, it helped a lot if I sat down with the book and read the English translations of the lyrics to them.

Overall, I'd say all that this series of books and tapes are a very good value -- lots of learning to be gained for a very small amount of money. If they made more tapes in this series, we would certainly buy them!

My favorite kids foreign language book ever!
My 2 year old loves this book. The pictures are great as are the voices of the characters on the tape. The dictionary in the back of the book is repeated for you on the tape. My son repeats every word of it. I haven't got the other books by the same author but you can bet I'm going to get them!

This is a great way to learn.
We have both the German and Italian. Even my 4-year-old is learning. The story in each language is the same, it's nice to compare the different languages. After the story there are many useful words are said on the cassette (of course you can follow in the book too) followed by songs.

A super book that's fun to read and teaches the language.
I like the format of the book with the repetition of phrases that are frequently used. Also liked the variations on the verbs which helps to teach grammer. In addition, the story is pleasant. I listen to the tape and read the book frequently to enrich my vocabulary and it doesn't get "stale". Also let my grandchildren listen and they are picking up words and phrases. I also have the "five crayons" and "visit to grandmom" which I will start on after I have mastered this book. (I also take an adult language course, this is just fun.) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Passport Cassetes
I bought a German version of this. It is very coloful, easy to follow, and includes how to do introductions, learn your colors, numbers, animals, and a lot more. Includes many songs and games to make it easier to learn. Wonderful for children and others. Includes many pictures and fun facts about the country itself. Excellent! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Child pleasing and up to date,a great learning tool!
As a parent of Homeschooled children it is sometimes a challenge to find quality materials the children love. I give Rock N Learn Phonics a thumbs up. My children love it, and are catching on quickly, while having fun too! ... Read more

Book Description

This completely revised and updated audio/book pack gives you a practical, quick, and convenient way to communicate in Japanese. The 90-minute audio cassette and latest edition of our best-selling Phrase Book & Dictionaryprovide the conversational skills you'll need to handle a variety of situations while traveling abroad - from ordering a meal and reserving a hotel room toasking for directions and finding emergency help. Dialogues featuring nativespeakers present over 400 essential expressions. Flexible format allows you tolisten and repeat in your car, at home, or on the go. Quick-reference, color-coded phrase book includes more than 1,200 useful words and phrases, travel tips, dictionary, and pronunciation guide. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Don't waste your money...
I never listened to the tape that came with this guide, but I didn't find the book too usefull... The phrases included were really not helpful in finding your way around japan, since they did not include any colloqial language at all. Overall, I think I beginners Japanese textbook would have helped me out more..

don't bother with a CD
While the phrasebook itself is rather useful and well-organised(although while I was living in Japan I found Lonely Planet immensely more suitable), the phrases they use on CD are generally useless.

Rather than creating a phrasebook customised for each country, Berlitz decided to make a generic audio-supplement for each language it publishes a phrasebook for, with the same phrases whether it's French, Portuguese or Japanese (they even re-used all English recording from other language CDs ). As a result, you will spend a large amount of time learning how to resolve various hotel and restaurant problems (highly unlikely in Japan), or how to say "keep the change" to a taxi driver (insulting and embarassing him in a process), but none -- on how to check in a ryokan, or what to say while visiting a hot spring.

I would definitely recommend the phrasebook by itself, but give this particular CD version a pass ... Read more

Book Description

Berlitz Kids' The Five Crayons is the introduction to theAdventures with Nicholas series. Featuring easy German vocabulary and simple sentences, this story teaches colors, numbers from one to ten, rooms and furniture, animals, weather expressions, means of transportation, locationwords, and more. There is a catchy, thematically related song for each chapter.Listen to the audio story and sing along with each of the songs--it's a fun learningexperience for students, parents, or teachers. Author: Berlitz Publishing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fun story, good vocabulary builder, music is fine not great
My four year old really enjoys listening to the story and unknowingly has picked up Spanish vocabulary. The book art is good too. I would recommend this for a child who has some (but not necessarily a lot) of familiarity with Spanish. ... Read more

Book Description

A book audio combination pack that includes a best-selling Berlitz Phrase Book and provides the business or pleasure traveler with basic survival language skills and foreign language phrases. Each pack has beencompletely revised to include up-to-date language, more cultural tips, and mini dialogues that depict typical situations a traveler may encounter. In addition, the audiocassettes now reflect the content materials of the Phrase Books. Anarrator introduces and explains the language elements, refers to exercises in the Phrase Book, and prompts learners. Audio materials, all recorded by a variety of native speakers, explore, review, and reinforce the phrases, dialogues, andvocabulary of the text. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Berlitz Greek
This is a good guide for learning Greek. It has a simple format, and the c.d. shows exactly how to pronounce words. It was easy to use, and can be used for quick reference.

Not as useful as I had hoped...
The Berlitz book contains a lot of information, but it is neither organized nor readily accessible. It contains an abridged English-Greek dictionary, but lacks a Greek-English one. The tape has multiple problems. It does not follow the book verbatim. And there is a lot of filler on the tape ("Now let's repeat that whole bit and you take the part of the teller... Did you understand that part? We hope you don't need a doctor, but..."). At least one word, Oreeste, is used in a dialogue and never defined! I have used the Barron's "Now you're talking" series for German, Italian, and French, which has a cassette tape, miniscript, and book. They are superior, and cover much more useful material on the tape. I have gotten by well in Europe using nothing but their tape and phrasebook. Unfortunately, there was no Barron's Greek program.

A new edition of an old standby -- not necessarily improved
This is a completely revised edition of the Berlitz Greek Phrase Book and Cassette Pack. The earlier edition dates back to 1973. Unfortunately, it is not at all clear that the new edition is an improvement over the older one. The new phrase book is a bit longer -- 224 pages vs 192, but the very useful summary of Greek grammar is no longer present, nor is the index of Greek words that appear in the text. The sections are still color coded, but the names of the sections are no longer given along the righthand margins of the pages, having been replaced by rather cryptic icons in the corners. As a result it is no longer possible to find sections quickly by thumbing through the pages. On the positive side, two sections have been added with the Greek words appearing in large type -- one as a guide for reading restaurant menus, the other to help in identifying words and phrases that might appear on signs and public notices.

Even more drastic changes have been made in the tape cassette. The new cassette is longer, a little over 90 minutes compared to a little less than 90 minutes for the old one, and it covers more ground. But in the old cassette most Greek phrases were spoken twice -- first slowly and then at normal speed. There is no such repetition on the new cassette, making it much more difficult for novices to grasp the unfamiliar language. And the old edition came with a "Miniscript," in which the text of the cassette was given verbatim. This greatly assisted the user in following along with the tape, and it is entirely absent from the new edition. Although the new tape does track the text of the phrase book fairly closely, this is not at all the same as having a verbatim text available to work with.

All in all, this new edition strikes me as a distinct step backward from the older one. The old phrase book can still be found in the used book market, but it will probably be much harder to lay hands on the old tape cassette ... Read more

Book Description

A Musical Fiesta

Join the fun with this jubilant celebration of Latin American music, hosted by Michele Valeri, composer of the best-selling Dinosaur Rock. Young listeners will love to sing along with Michele and her unforgettable characters--Gunther, Maria Elena, and a friendly cucaracha named Juanito. With songs in both Spanish and English, this lively introduction to Latin American customs and music is a toe-tapping, hand-clapping delight.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

Terrific bilingual kids' fun!
I was so happy to find that Amazon.com had this tape in stock. I loaned our original copy to a friend and have never gotten it back. (I don't blame my friend!) Michele Valeri and her ensemble have put together a rollicking, narrative journey through much of Latin America, using little skits (I believe in her live act she used puppets for some characters) and original songs with a Latin beat. She sings in English and Spanish, jumping from one language to another, but always in a way that helps English-speaking children understand the meaning of the Spanish phrases from their context or her explanation. For example, the title track's chorus goes: "Mi casa es su casa [my house is your house], Whenever you are here, Mi casa es su casa, Sit down and rest my dear." My children had more fun listening to this tape. And as they got older, it even kept a carpool of 5 young boys absorbed on a 15-minute ride to school for days at a time! I can't recommend this gentle, fun, musical journey "south of the border" highly enough for all kids, not just those studying Spanish or kids (like 2 of mine) who came to us from Latin American countries speaking Spanish, and had to make a transition from one language to another. Muchas gracias, Michele! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Mamma Mia! What a great way to introduce Italian
I can't say enough great things about this method. The combination of Italian conversation and easy to follow songs is fabulous. The songs exclusively in Italian are catchy and easy to pick up and the use of typical american songs in half english and half Italian is a great learning tool for kids to understand what the words mean. My 3 1/2 year old has mastered the alphabet, the days of the week and the numbers as well as all of the songs in an amazingly short period of time....My only regret is that there is no volume 2!!

Enjoyable nursery rhyme style story and songbook
This was the perfect introduction to Italian for my one year old. With a simple story of one girls day, numbers 1 - 10, the days of the week, and other basic vocabulary are introduced in a format that is completely entertaining. Childrens songs are sung in both English and Italian with a companion coloring book. At 18 months of age this was my son's favorite cassette to listen to in the morning. ... Read more

Book Description

Great for beginners. Songs that teach the alphabet, farm animals, counting, family members, parts of the body, days of the week, colors, fruit, opposites and shapes in French. Packaged with an activity/lyrics book. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Not for True Beginners, But Excellent Nonetheless!
It is true that this set is not for those who are completely unfamiliar with the French language. It is important that the adult (parent or teacher) have a basic familiarity with the French language. That said, this set is a real value. First of all, the learning is based around activity-centered songs--which children adore. They learn to sing the alphabet in French, the days of the week, counting, animals, body parts and more. My kids really enjoy the interactive nature of the songs and since all children love to sing, I think it helps them to remember the words and associate them with the appropriate things. If you are a teacher, this set would be terrific to use in a classroom setting with young children. Although the set says it is good for any age, I would suggest it is optimal for children under 10.

The teacher needs to know french!
It was with great anticipation that my daughters and I awaited this book and tape set. We couldn't wait to learn French! It was a great disappointment however, when we opened it up and found not a word of English. The teacher needs to know French in order to use this product as there is no English to use as a comparison. The pictures are not very good and the words go way too fast. I gave two stars becuase I imagine this set will be useful once we know French and need some review.

The kids remember everything taught because of these songs.
Only by chance did I come to know about these wonderful tapes. I was vacationing in Quebec one summer, and a friend, knowing that I teach French to young children (my own children included), bought this tape for me as a gift. I couldn't have meen more pleased with Francais pour debutants.

I teach French and Spanish to English-speaking children as an enrichment program in several public and private schools, and I am always looking for lively materials to use in my classes. I teach children how to speak French and Spanish in a way that they learned their own language, i.e. though a natural method of conversation, through songs, and through game playing.

My classes being with a song because this seems to lighten the atmosphere of the classroom. My favorite song that we sing is "Comptons les animaux." I make stick puppets for all my students, and as we sing about one of the animals, we hold up the puppet as we're singing. Each student has a complete "barnyard" of the ten animals and they enjoy singing as they hold up the particular animal. When we sing "Les parties du corps," we point to that part of the body we are singing about, and we dance as we sing. The children always request to sing " L'alphabet". What is evident is that the children remember the vocabulary that is being taught because these songs are so lively and full of fun.

This may seem almost hard to believe, but I only teach each of my classes one hour, one day per week, and the children remember everything that is taught to them by means of these these songs. ... Read more