My French Coach :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

very limited, mostly focused on vocabulary

2008-02-12
this is a decent game/edutainment title in terms of production and content, but it's severely limited. there are relatively few mini-games, and the focus is almost solely on vocabulary and short phrases. several verbs are introduced, but there's very little reinforcement and conjugation is never fully explained. after you get to lesson 35 or so the rest of the "1000" lessons consist of completely unrelated groupings of often useless vocabulary (e.g. "quarry"). there are tons of cognates (e.g. "cookie", which is the same in french) which could've been spaced out a little more, and there are numerous notable mistakes (e.g. one lesson skips over presenting half of the word list and still tests you on them, and there are places where a word is presented as the translation, but then a different word is used when quizzing). all in all this is a good, but def. not great, package. clearly a quick money-maker that with a bit more time and effort could've been truly indispensable.

a fun learning tool

2008-01-30
i bought this game because i wanted to brush up on my french i had learned in high school. i thought it would be cool to learn another language. this game makes learning the language fun.it takes things in baby steps; they give you maybe a dozen words to learn in a lesson. you don't move on to the next lesson until you have that lesson down. it even has a feature where the teacher says the word, then you record yourself saying it and play it back.

You formal, You informal

2008-01-24
The game teaches Tu is the formal form of You. I'm rusty on my French but not the basics. Tu is the informal form of You, and Vous is the formal form of You. I'm sure others fluent in French verify that. I can't see how they messed up on that, as it is very basic.

Simply google: french you tu vous. You will see other sources state that Tu is informal. The game teaches Tu as (fml.) when it should be (infml.)

Probably not ideal to be learning to use the incorrect form of You when you visit France and talk to strangers but oh well. Vous will apply to most everyone: strangers, older people, waiters, store clerk, doctor, and anyone you don't wish to offend.

Overall, I'd say it's ok as a supplemental activity to learning, but not as a main source. Best to look out for errors as you go along with the game, and check against another source. Otherwise it's fun as an activity involving French language.

Great!

2008-01-12
My 9 year old son wasn't keen on learning a new language but I knew that he loved using his Nintendo ds. I purchased "My French Coach" for Christmas and he loves it! Learning should be fun and this is a great way to introduce children to another language.

Grammar Errors and More! Beginners need only to apply.

2008-01-07
I had this game for 2 days and played it for a few hours...only to realize that it's a horribly made game.

The grammar is never really touched upon, and the use of articles (critical in French) is overlooked almost completely. You are taught words like pastéque (watermelon) but are never taught that it's really "un pastéque", a masculine word.

If you ever have a vocab word longer than 14 letters, then it won't show up in most minigames and you'll have to play other games to pick it up, and you have to if you want to go to the next lesson. I reached lesson 24 before I gave up on this silly game.

Excellent 1 on 1 coaching

2008-06-13
The games are great, lot of repetition, drilling and hearing the pronunciations are helpful. One of the recommendations that the game makes is that you also practice your new vocabulary outside of the game itself. It is not the easiest, but is worth the effort, especially when you start to understand the language.

My French Refresher

2008-05-29
I purchased the game to help me review 4 years of high school French. I'm not sure if it would help a person just starting out but it does help review. Some of the games are useless and give too much credit towards mastering words but for the most part the oral and flash card challenges are good.

Learning really can be fun

2008-05-17
Interested in learning a new language? Don't have the self motivation for tedious, long hours of study with audio tapes or books? You're in the right place :).

Not only will you learn new things constantly but you won't even realize you're studying. Not only is this game very fun but very rewarding.

I love this game and it's awoken a love of the French language in me.

Learning made fun

2008-05-06
This game is helping me learn French with easy/fun games in just minutes a day. My only gripe would be that the voice compare function does not tell you if you are saying it correctly. So far, it's been great for word memorization.

Review & Learn

2008-03-25
The classes are very simple but you do learn new words and each new word is spoken in French so you can hear it. Then there are games to help you remember the new words you have used. Classes are only "unlocked" when you have mastered the words in the previous lessons. You can also play the games to master words which unlocks more lessons. Certainly great for reviewing French too if you had taken it in school.