Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A great intro for the scared July 26, 2008
HannaLucy
I couldn't do languages at school, wasn't bad at other things, but with languages I always had a kind of block in the brain. But having a partner and his family who spoke French made me try to learn as an adult, and this has truly helped me. I'm not going to tell you that I'm suddenly fluent, but listening to this CD made me realise that I could do it. I learnt the whole CD after several listenings and felt a real achivement, and it spurred me on to learn more (I went onto Michel Thomas who is great). I'm actually enjoying language learning now which I didn't before, and it was because this CD made French accessible to me, if not providing a huge range of vocab. You could go straight to Michel Thomas from nothing, but this did a great job of giving me a little and boosting my confidence first. I listen in my car on the way to work and that requires no effort at all re reading or computer work. Get the second CD too, it's very good, though again quite scary at first!
 The easy & enjoyable way to learn a language for holiday use July 13, 2008
J (Hampshire, UK)
As someone who has studied languages to degree level and also taught foreign languages in secondary school, it would be fair to say that I am generally sceptical of DIY langauage teaching CDs - and often with good cause. However, Earworms CDs are an absolutely invaluable learning resource. They will equip you, with minimal effort on your part, with a basic understanding of the language building blocks - which coupled with vocab covering the usual holiday scenarios, such as ordering drinks, food, buying things, counting, etc, will enable you to begin to start to extrapolate from what you have heard on the CD and, with the help of a dictionary, build your own sentences to meet your specific needs. Some grammar is explained - just enough to help with exactly what I've just said above - but not too much to be overwhelming.
I would thoroughly recommend these CDs to anyone who wants just 'holiday' language, or to anyone who is wishing to study the language in greater depth but would like a gentle introduction first.
The learning process is stress-free and fun. These CDs are so easy to listen to, as the background tracks are non-intrusive, rhythmical, and really do help to nudge the words and phrases into your memory. Everything is repeated several times, with one presenter speaking English and the other saying the same things in the target language. Everything is delivered in time to the music, which aids recollection later, there is good use of humour now and then, and all phrases are broken down so that you can see exactly how they have been made up. The emphasis is on repetition, so there is no feeling that things are moving too quickly. The idea is that you just relax, rather than straining to follow a fast-moving coaching CD. It really does work - once you have listed to the CD a few times, you will find you are remembering whole phrases.
Fun, flirtatious and easy to learn! May 27, 2008
L. Santer (Farnham)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have listened to Volume 2 (on my iPod whilst cycling into work) 3 times now and am already finding myself coming out with the phrases either in my head or when talking to the rest of my family.
The couple are very flirtatious, which also works as it helps to take your mind off trying too hard and the lady's accent and voice is beautiful, add into that the soft rymthical tunes behind the voices and you have an excellent product I would highly recommend.
Moving to France to live is a challenge to say the least. As a family we have bought almost every type of course available however this one is by far our favourite.
Good Rapid French- better with an iPod! February 13, 2007
Michael Sibble (London, UK)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Bought Rapid French Vol.1 a year ago and had listenend to the product sitting at home in front of the CD player. Gave up with it after two weeks as the effort of taking an hour off from my schedule wasn't worth it for me.
Gave the product another try after buying an iPod and since then I have found it worked much better- the background music and the rhythmic repititions of English phrases and the French translation immediately whilst set to 'techno' music seemed to burn into my head well- perhaps too well as I developed sinusitis for the first ten days. Was worth it in the end!
Rapid French Vol.1 (and an iPod!) has been the easiest and most effective way of listening and learning basic French- its effortless and I can now listen to French radio podcasts and pick out some words and get the general gist of what they're saying.
Only complaint is that 200 words are a bit basic, but will remedy that when I get Vol. 2!
It works, it really does! August 26, 2006
Volker Berchner
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Congratulations on such a great product. I have been very impressed with the results.
I am German native speaker and I actually learned a lot of my English through listening to songs, so I can really identify with the idea.
Keep up the excellent work. Looking forward to vol. 2...
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