Online French crash course

[skylee]

Decades ago I spent like a year or two studying French on weekends at l’Alliance Francaise in Hong Kong. I’ve never really managed to speak the language or attained a meaningful level. But I can count the numbers and I know the words of the most basic things like water, bread, pencil, je ne sai pas, je ne parle pas francais, l’addition svp, etc.

I am going to take a two-week vacation in France in April and I think wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could speak a bit of the language there. (Though last time I was in France (2008) it seemed that most people there could speak at least a little bit of English.)

So I wonder if anyone could point me to an online crash course on French or something similar. I’ve just found this but not sure if it is any good -> http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

I am quite lazy and have not studied any languages for a long time so I am not sure if this little wish would materialise. The last language I studied was Korean. I read a self-study booklet for a few months before travelling there on my own and the knowledge on the language was helpful.

[Guest realmayo]

Have you considered the Pimsleur course? Expensive but might be able to borrow it from a library. All audio and the focus on speaking might help some of the vocab you already know "click" into position. I haven't ever use the French Pimsleur, but I've used their Vietnamese and Korean ones.

[roddy]

There's also Frenchpod.com, from the same people that bought you (well, not you really) Chinesepod.com.

[skylee]

Thanks for the suggestions. Indeed our libraries have the Pimsleur French courses. But they are on cassettes. Quelle horreur! I don't have a machine to play cassette tapes. (It is dated 1998 ... I wonder if they are not in fact CDs.)

[Meng Lelan]

Don't do the Frenchpod if it came from Chinesepod, one time I signed up for that and I did not like it at all. And whoever did Frenchpodcasts quit, so I ended up asking for a refund. The only French course I ever liked was the textbook and DVD series French in Action, it used to be broadcast on public television here, but it can be too intense for some.

[roddy]

Actually, if you're going to France anyway, and already have some knowledge, I'd consider getting a decent phrasebook with a tape and working through that before you go. That'll bring back a lot of forgotten knowledge, teach you useful new stuff, and be handy on your trip. Win-win-win (仨赢?)

[skylee]

Problem is still that I don't hava a cassette player ... good suggestion though.

Brother has just told me that cassette players are still quite common in the world.

[roddy]

Yeuch, showing my age. There'll be ones with a CD. E.g..

[Meng Lelan]

Yech, cassettes, those magnetic tape strips would never stay inside the casing and unravel everywhere.

[simplet]

http://gloss.dliflc.edu/Default.aspx

http://fsi-language-...org/Content.php

[skylee]

When I started this thread I thought about online resources only. Thank you all for suggesting other resources. When I returned home I found that right on a shelf in my sitting room there was an almost brand new set of "French All The Way"(a book with 8 cassette tapes (!)). And I have found in a bag of garbage below my desk a Sony Walkman (!) that plays cassettes. If both the machine and the tapes work I think I have a French course right at home.

Thank you simplet for the links.