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My French Coach Level 2(Nintendo DS) | 
 enlarge | From: Ubisoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £14.23
You Save: £5.76 (29%)
New (3) Used (1) from £14.23
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 1185
Platform: Nintendo Ds
Genre: edutainment-games
Media: Video Game
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.2 x 4.9 x 0.8
EAN: 3307210327949
ASIN: B000UVNKWO
Release Date: November 23, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Vocabulaire May 9, 2008
PVC Mermaid (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Perhaps the title of the game is a little misleading: this is a simple vocabulary builder and does lack any aspect of grammar. Another reviewer complained that there is no pronunciation guide and while this is true, I would expect that at Intermediate level, most learners would be able to work out pronunciation for themselves. This game isn't aimed at complete beginners and that's made perfectly clear on the front of the box.
The games start off pretty simple on Easy mode and as you progress, Medium is unlocked. The games are challenging on Medium but by no means impossible within the time limits given. Surely the whole point of a game like this is to challenge, though?
Overall, I like it. It's not perfect- there are many areas which could be improved but I am aware that my French vocabulary has improved in the short time I've been using it. Therefore, for me, it's a definite success.
 Wish I hadn't bothered February 6, 2008
Mickey Fan (Cumbria, England)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Thinking this game might improve my French I unfortunately bought this. It seems to be a creudely translated version of Word Training. I really wish I had saved my money.
useful entertainment January 19, 2008
lizzy (wiltshire)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
pity there was no pronunciation, I expect like word coach there will be a spelling 'game' using sound when you have graduated that far but apart from that it is lacking in most of the french principles ie gender and sound. It is useful to see how many words are similar to the english for word recognition but not to learn the language.
 A missed opportunity January 14, 2008
Englishwoman abroad (France)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
I bought this game hoping it would help to improve my spoken french, anticipating the creative use of the multi-media DS platform. I was sadly disappointed.
Firstly, the things I thought were good:
The games were easy to grasp and I appreciated the range of methods used to reinforce the vocabulary (anagrams; selecting a word based on its definition; selecting a definition for a specified word; correcting spelling mistakes etc). I liked the fact that there was a daily goal of the number of words to learn and that progress was rewarded with new tasks and increased levels of difficulty. I also thought the glossary review at the end of each task was valuable to reinforce the correct spelling and definition.
However, as the previous reviewer reports, the fact that there is absolutely no grammar (no gender for nouns, no tenses for verbs - even in the glossary) seriously limits its value, as you cannot confidently use the new words without checking them out first in a conventional dictionary. I was also concerned to find that there were some either highly dubious definitions for a small proportion of the words (eg "pension = boards that have been fastened to each other" instead of board/lodging)or obscure definitions for words that have much more common meanings.
Those were the serious concerns, but I also found it very disappointing that the makers had not made more use of the capabilities of the platform, particularly the use of sound for pronunciation (bizarrely, the only use to which the microphone is put is for you to blow on it to raise letters that have sunk in the pasta soup game!). This is a real shame as it would have made it so much more useful and engaging. I would really love someone to do this again properly.
It's still a lot more fun than reading through a dictionary, but not as much use.
Quelle déception! December 19, 2007
A. B. Mcmullon (Carterton, UK)
63 out of 65 found this review helpful
If you are thinking of buying this to improve your French then you need to be aware of a few shortcomings:
First of all this is Level 2 - make certain this is what you want! This is a French version of My Word Coach which is a vocabulary builder NOT something to teach you the basic mechanics (grammar) of French. If you want to learn French on your DS then you will need to at least start with Level 1 which teaches you how to put French together and build phrases and sentences.
Second, even for what it is, this doesn't work as well as it should. Sure it will build your basic vocabulary with its rather large glossary of words but it has some FATAL flaws. One of the hardest things about French for beginners is that nouns have gender. This is completely left out of this glossary so having learned a word using My French Coach you'll still have to have recourse to an ordinary dictionary to pick up its gender. This could have easily been acheived by using le/la or l' before nouns in glossary or by using colours, eg blue for masculine and red for feminine.
The next major let down here is that My French Coach doesn't help at all with pronounciation - perfectly possible on the DS and, in my opinion absolutely vital for extending vocab in French.
Finally the games themselves won't hold your interest for very long. On the easy modes you'll quickly find yourself getting good marks but move up to the medium level and they are almost impossible to do within the allocated time.
So all in all a major disappointment - could and should have been so much better!
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