Perfect Your French: Teach Yourself [Paperback]

The book starts at just the right level for me, reinforcing some points I was already familiar with and also introducing or reintroducing many others. Useful readings that provide information about French economy, geography, culture and more, the book helps the reader learn more than just the language. A really well written book, which you can easily dip in and out of and work through at your own pace.

I have been very impressed with this package. Although Teaching You do not specialise in French - they seem to cover everything from art to zen - they have produced a very useful tool for the intermediate learner.

I think it is important to appreciate what this book is not about (and on this point, I agree with the previous poster). If you are at an intermediate level, it is unlikely to widen your vocabulary or your understanding of grammar to a great extent. It will, however, help you to refine and apply your existing skills, thereby improving the quality of your oral French.

You learn how to use the language simply but effectively, by reformulating difficult constructions such as "ce sont des gens desquels je ne parle jamais" to the more manageable "c'est des gens dont je parle jamais". I think this addresses a common problem: whilst intermediate students might have a lot of technical knowledge in their heads, they are unable to apply it during the heat of a conversation.

All in all, I recommend this package to students who have already have an intermediate knowledge of French vocabulary and grammar. It will help you to get the most out of what you know, and so is great value at £20.

Re: the original review by Mr Treslove, I would advise people that this is good advice in principle, but disagree on one point about what level the course covers. I would advise that this course covers B2 level, it does NOT cover A1 up to A2 and touching on B1. Complete beginners will struggle if they are not already at B1 level, and should try something like 'Complete French' instead - the preceding course by the same Teach Yourself (TY) publisher. It will probably not be helpful to people looking for C1 or C2, which I believe to be very subjective levels in trying to assess competency, and are beyond the realms of standard language courses such as these. The Perfect your French course will contain, however, good advice for anyone who has completed this course and wants to know ideas of how to take it further (i.e. progress into C1 or above) - such advice is contained in all TY 'Perfect your ...." courses.

The one point I disagree with is the review's statement "Im not saying that this is not a decent course (A1 to A2 maybe just touching B1)".
In my experience (and it's just my own opinion) I believe this book covers a level of B2, with a little initial revision of B1 level knowledge to gently ease one into the course. I would suggest this book/ CD is not suitable for anyone whose current knowledge is below B1 level or equivalent (i.e. below around GCSE level), otherwise you will struggle. It is definately not covering A1 or A2, although if you have studied up to B1 level in the past but your knowledge is a bit rusty I imagine you will probably be ok.

I think it is a very helpful point the review makes regarding aspirations of what level of competency can be learnt from such courses (i.e. one could not realistically expect to be at a competency of C1 from using a course such as this, other than in the area of grammar). It is good that somebody is highlighting potential customers of how obtaining a C1 or above is not realistic, without first totally immersing yourself in the language - my sister has lived in Spain for several years and speaks excellent Spanish, but even she is still coming across new idioms or grammar all the time. In fact, as all the reviewers state, becoming competent at any level, be it from A1 to B2 and beyond, all depends on continual discipline and practice. The TY CDs and material do make this very easy to do, as the CD dialogues of TY courses ususally tend to work well with repeated playing for revision whilst you are doing other things (such as getting dressed or sitting in the car), so that you can always be reinforcing your vocabulary. This is definately true of, for example, the TY German courses' CDs, which also speak at a pace that normal native speakers use.

I admit I have not yet actually used this Perfect your French book, so I accept anybody's opinion that my comments are not a valid review of this specific book. However, the teach yourself courses all follow the same pattern and structure; I have used other teach yourself language books (e.g. the course now called 'Complete German' and am also now working through 'Perfect your German', as well as having tried some of their other good courses such as for Italian). In my opinion the Complete German, Or Complete French courses etc. produced by TY cover total beginner up to decent GCSE level (I believe this is from around A1 up to B1). I base this opinion by comparing the level of vocab and grammar I learnt in that German course to a French GCSE I was fortunate enough to obtain at a high grade, and the level of grammar/ vocab I learnt to sucessfully pass that GCSE. In fact the TY Complete German might have been slightly better than the equivalent of what I learnt in my GCSE French, in some ways.

I have tried other companies' language courses, and TY usually (although not always, according to the reviews of some of their other courses) stand up well in comparison with other companies out there. If you are looking instead for an 'all-round' text-book from that covers thorough knowledge of french grammar (including all the advanced grammar) along with reasonable basic vocab of verbs, adjectives, and idioms, then French Demystified is also an excellent book - great for beginners but intermediates will also find it great for advanced grammar or revision. If you are looking for a fast-track course for basic french (i.e. for getting around on holiday or you need to pick up french urgently) then the Speak French! course would suit you.

Hope this review helps people in makling their choice.