The Easy French vs. Rosetta Stone or The Learnables

[jejily]

Has anyone used La Francais Facile (The Easy French)?

 

What was your opinion?

 

DS10 is very interested in learning French.

 

I took French in college, but can recall very little. (Hey, gimme a break! It was 20 years ago! :blink:) I think (hope) much of it will come back to me.

 

Anyway, I liked the looks of The Easy French, but wondered if anyone out there has tried it and can give me their feedback.

 

Also... can a 10yo learn from the Rosetta Stone program, or is it more for teens and adults?

 

Thanks!

[nmoira]

We're big Learnables fans, but I would caution that the child would have to be motivated for this program to work. Rosetta Stone would be suitable for a 10 yo. Many here like it, but I didn't have much retention.

 

We've started out with The Learnables Spanish (after Puertas Abiertas, an early elementary program), and will either double up for follow up with a second program (perhaps Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More) after the next level. Somewhere in there we'll get a tutor.

[Donna A.]

I'm watching this thread, as my oldest dd is wanting to study French, as well.

[emzhengjiu]

We tried Rosetta Stone with no success. I especially found it frustrating but I'm the kind of person that likes more analysis. My daughters liked the program enough but didn't retain much of the information. The immersion technique was definitely not for us.

Judy

[GailV]

I am using The Easy French with an 8yo. We have the 2004 version -- I'm not sure if it's been updated since then.

 

Here's a random list of observations:

 

There isn't a lot of drill with this. Some words are repeated through the course --- things like gentille, Bonjour, s'il vous plait, oh la la (which is vocab in just about every other lesson), but others are mentioned once or twice and left to be forgotten unless you decide to make flash cards and review. I think it's entirely possible to work your way through the entire course and only retain how to say hello, please, thank you, and oh la la.

 

Good use of idiomatic phrases, like "mes chouettes" for "my sweeties".

 

Lots of cultural info.

 

Heavy Christian content. Not usable if this is offensive to you.

 

The use of only 2 women's voices to depict multiple characters is sometimes confusing. One of the speakers mispronounces the word "library" (in English), which upsets me all out of proportion to the error.

 

We were charmed by the cat in the beginning -- the cat talks to the little girl. We thought it was a great story line. Then the family moves away, leaving the cat with nary a backward glance (I like to think it belonged to the neighbors, and they didn't just abandon it) and they move to Canada where they get a dog. The dogs don't talk. It's really an uneven story line in that regard, starting out with talking animals.

 

The worksheets are scanty, and have no answer keys. In the first lesson (or maybe the 2nd), dd was to classify words as feminine or masculine. Some weren't obvious, and I have no clue.

 

We are also using Rosetta Stone Spanish with 12yo dd. She's all the way to unit 6, and really starting to dislike it. She doesn't like the lack of grammar, so we've added in CAP's new Spanish for Children. The French program would be pretty much exactly like the Spanish. I think you'd need to mix it up with something else. I don't think The Easy French would be the type of thing I'd use with Rosetta Stone, though.

 

I'll come back later if I think of something else -- I've gotta go take care of some other things.

[LanaTron]

They are doing fine with it. My 12 yo ds loves Learnables. My 10 yo dd was a little bored with the first book, the part where you just look at the pictures and listen. I think she found it difficult to focus through the whole lesson sometimes. She is happier with the Basic Structures book, where she has print to read and questions to answer. I keep telling them that if they want me to find something else at any point, I can.

 

I think my dc's ability to understand French is quite good. They are, however, not speaking any French. I don't know any French, so I can't really talk with them or anything, so I haven't encouraged it at all. If you can jar your memory on the French you learned, you would be able to handle this better than I, and it may work well for you.

 

I should add that French is secondary to Latin in our house, so I'm okay with them just hearing it and understanding it on a regular basis (twice a week). I am considering adding in something else to maybe get them speaking a bit more, but haven't really given it much thought...Galore Park's French Prep has crossed my mind, as we are enjoying Latin Prep so much.

 

We definitely will be more serious about it in high school, and the work they are doing now will help, because they will already understand so much and be familiar with the grammar constructs.