Streetwise French (Book + 1 CD): Speak and Understand Everyday French (STREETWISE (MCGRAW HILL)) 1st Edition

I found this book and CD rather difficult to start as the spoken language was so fast that it was difficult to follow, however this is true of listening to normal conversations some-times so when you can switch on to the rapid speech you will know you are making progress with the language.

ok

One of the best ways to learn without being there! Will need an upgrade soon as publication date is 2007 and the language continues to change. Looking forward to it!

The blurb hardly inspires confidence when it cites as an example: "faire du gaffe". "Gaffe" is a feminine word, so the expression "faire du gaffe" is impossible. The translations of other slang expressions are also fairly dubious.Caveat emptor!

This book is OK. I am just learning French, and this book is only for you if you know godd French. I like how it teaches you French you would learn when talking to someone. You don't always want to sound formal, and this book can make you a master of slang and casual talk. I gave this 3 stars because I don't know too much French, and it was hard to comprehend. If you know a good amount of French, then this is an excellent book! But if you're not . . . there are other books for you.

This is a great book for learning the actual spoken language of Quebec and France. It serves as a good introduction to "slang" and informal language. It takes some of the mystery out of the spoken French language.It teaches you things you won't find in a "formal" course or College textbook. But in order to use this book, you need to be familiar with the French language. It is certainly not meant for the beginner, but it can be used with any conventional course or textbook.

Good book shopping experience in Amazon

Being able to slowly read news articles etc on French websites and listen to French news, where the words tend to be pronounced fairly clearly, I thought I'd try to up my game a bit by listening to and understanding what real French people say and sound like in casual situations, hence buying this book.I listened to maybe the first 20 short tracks on the cd in the car before reading the book and can honestly say that I barely understood a word. It was like another language, one that just sounded French, but spoken extremely quickly. When I then read the book, it was much easier to get the gist, but the vast majority of what was written was new words, phrases and expressions to me, so you're thrown in right at the deep end.I'm on my second reading now, and am remembering some of the new stuff, but I'm still really struggling to follow the speed of what's said on the cd. This is definitely a book that requires revisiting.Although the book is 10 years old now, my French tutor told me that the expressions were mostly still current and usable, so hopefully you won't sound too old-fashioned if you drop in some of these words.I'd only recommend this book to those who feel they have a fairly good grounding in proper French and who want to move up a notch, as it's simply too confusing and fast for beginners.

The book is very good with clear explanations of colloquial phrases and interesting sections about language and culture. I have only just received it but I think it will be very useful. On the other hand, the audio CD is rather annoying. The conversations are good, just what I wanted, but there are introductions to each track in English which I find intrusive. The book is obviously aimed at someone with a reasonable level of French who wants to pick up some authentic expressions so why not record the introductions in French? I bought the book with the cd so that I could listen to it in the car but I think I might stick to listening to French radio and podcasts.

Sympa pour apprendre l'argot mais on dirait que ça n'a jamais été relu par une personne dont la langue maternelle est le français : pas mal de fautes et même quelques contresens...