Rapid French: Volume 1

By: Earworms Learning

Narrated by: Marlon Lodge

Length: 1 hr and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Earworms mbt© is a revolutionary accelerated learning technique that takes the hard work out of learning.  

By listening to these specially composed melodies with their rhythmic repetitions of French and English a few times, you pick up over 200 essential words and phrases that will not just be on the tip of your tongue, but will be burned deeply into your long-term memory in next to no time.

If you like music, and want to make rapid progress without any formal knowledge of language learning, earworms mbt© Rapid French is the course for you.

Volume 1 is your survival kit of essential words and phrases to get you by on your trip abroad.

You will feel you are learning within minutes and might just be amazed by how easy acquiring a language can be!

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.

©2005 earworms mbt (P)2005 earworms mbt

A pleasant kickstart and review

I recently tried Rapid German: Volume 1 and was so pleased I immediately picked up Rapid French: Volume 1 and Rapid Spanish: Volume 1. I'm starting to deal with many new countries in my job, and this series promises to make coping with the language transitions much more pleasant.

This program covers your basic "Tourist French" - no serious grammer or massive vocabulary lists. What's unique about the program is that the lessons are set to background music and feature speakers with very pleasant voices. Even though you are still basically listening and repeating simple phrases, the music and the pace really relieve the tedium.

I've been working on my French for a few years, and often need (and dread) a quick refresher. This program helped my brain switch back into french mode in a little over an hour. Some people may not like the music or the format, so I recommend that you listen to the audio preview before you buy to see if this is the program you're looking for.

Also Good Fun...

I think the other reviewers are right on with their reviews. However, I am so excited about this listen that I couldn't help but add my 2 cents. While I speak 2 other languages besides English, I never find learning a new language painless -- or more importantly fun. But as I visit Paris quite frequently, and have yet never mangaged to pick up a word of French, I decided to download this (based mostly on the recommendations of the other reviewers) and give it a try before my next visit. I wholeheartedly agree that this is a painless and fun way to learn basic conversational French. The phrases are spoken over a music track (which really helps keep your attention and the phrases in your mind) in a dialouge format (between an English speaker learning basic French and a French speaker) and the chemistry between the speakers is engaging. What I also found useful was that the English speaker sometimes makes mistakes in pronounciation which are corrected by the French speaker and this made me feel both less worried about making mistakes and better able to hear that I was making similar mistakes in pronounciation. This is truly a fun and useful listen and I give it 5 stars up.

An innovative approach to learning a new language

With my holiday to Paris fast approaching and absolutely no knowledge of the French language, I went searching for a technique that would enable me, in a very short time, to understand and speak basic French.

Thankfully, I found Earworms Learning and at the rate I am learning Rapid French (Vol 1), am already confident I will be ready to move onto Rapid French (Vol 2) before I travel to Paris.

This innovative technique takes the listener through a number of ‘songs’ – background music to a series of phrases spoken in a repetitive, rhythmic fashion. The combination of music and words seems to embed the phrases into the listener’s memory thereby accelerating the learning process. Supporting the spoken word is a booklet which outlines each of the phrases in English and French as well as phonetically to help with pronunciation. For me, this booklet has also greatly assisted my learning by providing a visual connection to each of the phrases.

Not only am I excited about travelling to Paris for the very first time, but am now also very keen to try out my new language skills with the locals.

Totally Painless

I have tried many language audio programs, and I have been disappointed in almost all cases. This one, however, I cannot get enough of. I actually enjoy listening to it over and over, and it really does burn the words and phrases into your memory. The speakers not only have very pleasant voices, they have a chemistry together that is very appealling, and along with the background music the first word that comes to mind is sexy - not something ordinarily associated with language programs! This is well worth your money and more importantly, your time. I'm so impressed I can't wait for volume 2.

Love it!!

Learning to music- what a great concept! In two days I've already learned some very valuable sayings that I'll be able to use in Europe. I ordered French 1&2, and Italian 1&2 and am excited to learn. The voices are nice and easy to listen to and the soft music makes learning so much easier. The book that comes along with is an incredible help! Thank-you for making learning so much fun! I play it while walking my dog and find myself dancing down the street!

Rapid French, Volume 1

I ordered this audiobook before our upcoming trip to France, and I am happy that I did. It is effective and enjoyable learning. The music integration is quite innovative. The accompaning booklet is a must, and the instructions are helpful. Overall, I do recommend this audiobook.
This is the only book I have reviewed from Audible.com,and I am already impressed by their work. I just wished I had more time to review more.
Thank you.

Rapid French: Volume 1

This was a very helpful CD. I was going to France in one week.... I learned enough key phrases to get me through the basics. I liked the music with the words, in the sense that they help with the flow and the cadence of the phrases. I highly recommend it. I did not learn all of the CD in a week, but a lot more that some other tapes I had tried to listened to. If you have a month you really will be satisfied.

Cannot get enough!

Excellent approach to learning a foreign language. Since taking health class in high school and using the same learning technique, I have been waiting to apply that to a language learning program. And guess what? This is the one!

Enjoyable language re-learning

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes! I was looking to brush up my tourist French and this was wonderful to listen to. Relaxing but helped refresh my accent and vocabulary.

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure whether it would as work as well for someone with no French background. For me, looking to renew my high school French, it was great.

Great for travel

This lively and interesting delivery of a few key words and phrases is set to enjoyable music so more of it soaks in to your language. Very usable. I sleep to it.

complimented on my French!

I've played this audiobook many times now, for obvious reasons, and never found it irritating or the need to shout 'Get on with it'. No.. I admit to getting in the rhythm and singing back the responses. The results have been effective, tried and tested with confidence in France.

Interesting format

Very good idea. Works very well in its execution with one problem. I am not sure whether I have picked that much french up.

One minute I am convinced I have and then I can't think of anything french to say.

I think that it is a problem with learning a language. I have tried to listen to some french after this and its very hard to follow.

It does work as a good introduction and I would recommend some free podcasts after this.

All in all get it - but dont imagine that you will be fluent in french at the end of it. ;)

Great

I am one of those people who know the lyrics to music, not because I particularly like the song, but just because they are set to music, so this way of learning French really worked for me.

Nice concept, with repetitions

But. It's spoilt by the present totally silly inclusion of "music" constantly battling with the speech content.
Why? Fashion. What other reason could there be?
The content is decent enough, and the vocal elements building phrases into sentences and questions and answers with added vocabulary are all well enough done.
But. Again. Why are we pestered with disco "music" half drowning the spoken content? It is sometimes very distracting and it's totally counter intuitive in what purports to be a tutorial title.
Offer it up again with no music, I'll buy every volume in French that you record. But as it is, its inbuilt stupidity is so irritating that I can't get past a few minutes of it.
I have decent Higher and 6th year Studies certificates in French from my ancient schooldays so French is not new to me. Just deeply buried. Even so, the distraction - it detracts, and reduces the real value of what seems a decently structured set of language introductions.
I'd like to have had idioms explained more deeply. For example, "Enjoy your meal" translates into different words that do the same job but aren't a straight translation. Bon Appetit means literally Good Appetite, hardly difficult to guess but it's helpful for learners to know exactly what they're saying and to understand the differences in equivalent phrases between the two languages.
But - to reiterate - I never EVER attended any language class that had a background of disco -or any other - music!

Useful introduction but spoilt by the music.

Many of the words and phrases used are excellent in helping to build your vocabulary. Being unhindered by grammar or gender aids learning basic vocabulary and useful phrases for tourists to survive in French speaking countries. For those actually learning french, the book helps to drum in common vocabulary.
Unfortunately the audio book has a music track backing which sometimes obscures the spoken words. This could well do with being 50% quieter.
An added benefit would be to have, instead of a picture of the book, essentially the subtitles displayed. This would go along way in helping both beginners and intermediate students of the language.

teaches a few useful phrases

Pleasant to listen to, and I wound up knowing a few useful phrases. But it does not teach you how to speak French. It started slowly, but some of the sections were too rapid and I could not catch what was being said.

Fine for what it is.

Earworms learning

Really good I love the accompanying pdf and it consolidates my learning on Duolingo french

Torture

I understand the principle, repeating words and phrases over a background music track to help them really sink in, unfortunately the music, or more accurately muzak, is so awful it is all but impossible to refrain from throwing my phone accross the room. If played in lifts it would compel people to throw themselves down the lift shaft to escape. After only a few minutes the only words I could think of were "make it stop, please, make it stop"!

Hooked!

I am hooked. I downloaded volume 1 and 2 of Italian, French & Spanish in order to brush up languages I had previously learned to varying degrees. I am already wondering what language to attack next! I travel a lot with work and have the audiobooks on as I'm driving around and am already memorising words and phrases that I'd either forgotten or never knew. I don't feel that I need a book, although I have downloaded the accompanying pdf files for reference. Almost everything I can pick up straight from the recording - just as language is acquired naturally by children - listening and repeating.

Easy way to improve your French

Really enjoyed this audio book and have listened to it multiple times. Whilst working from home I would play this in the background and I found myself picking up and understanding the phrases without really trying.