French by Association (NTC FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

This is a really enjoyable way to learn French. It is great for acquiring a basic vocabulary which is one of the main problems faced by a beginner such as myself. There are helpful suggestions for learning some of the basic grammar as well. The author Michael Gruneberg is justifiably excited about his method and it made me wonder why this is not used in schools. I believe it would significantly improve foreign language learning and teaching outcomes. How it works is by inviting the learner to form a picture in the mind. For example the French for hen is poule, so you picture a hen sitting in a pool. You are also taught the gender of the words by associating with a masculine image, a boxer, or a feminine image, a bottle of perfume. Poule is 'la poule' so you are asked to imagine a hen pecking a bottle of perfume. The actual words are taught first and then the gender is taught afterwards. I am sure the author has thought all this out carefully but I would prefer it if he had taught the gender along with the word at the same time rather than going back to it later. My reason for suggesting this is that the human mind is restless and tends to fill in the gaps for itself. What I mean is that when I am introduced to a word I automatically start to think about its gender and in French this is often little better than 50% chance of being the correct gender! To summarise however, this is a way of learning French that is fun and most importantly, it actually works for a change!

This is an excellent way to learn French in a hurry. I am still following the course, and hope to be a lot more proficient in a very short time. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to speak French quickly. Much faster than going to lessons.

Really helpful structure which allows you to test your learning after each exercise. Great book for beginners

Brilliant

Very good

Whatever you do don't buy this book and don't take any notice of the other glowing reviews. Its absolute rubbish - you won't learn French this way, its completely against all the principles of learning a language. You'll spend more time learning all the 'link words' than you do actually learning any meaningful French. I can't believe the author was serious about promoting this as an innovative way to learn French

We took this book on a road trip through France with a couple of children. It proved to be highly entertaining, engaging, and everyone learned to speak French! It's an interactive learning course, so there are lessons, challenges and tests on every page, which makes it the perfect way to learn as a family. And one of the most perfect ways to engage kids on a car trip!Highly recommended, undoubtedly the BEST way to learn a foreign language, bar none!I have also learnt to speak Spanish and German through the Linkword books. Having now been multilingual for many years, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr Gruneberg and Paul Daniels, who were the original authors and creators of the series.

French by Association is ideal for beginners and false beginners - those who did some French ages ago and are now picking up the threads again. On first meeting the book, it seems full of words you already know like cheval, restaurant, and so on but if you study the book from start to finish you will find that you quickly have a wider vocabulary and a much better idea of how sentences are built in French. And it makes it very easy to remember new words and whether they are masculine or feminine. There are loads of exercises that are easy to understand and complete. It all speedily reinforces what you have learned in a very natural way so that you are amazed at how proficient you have become. I suppose the technique is limited to basic words and grammar - I can't imagine that it is useful to anyone with a reasonable level of French but French by Association is ideal for a weekend study as a refresher just before visitng a French-speaking country or beginning a course in French. It would be good for children too. I recommend it for anyone who, like me, knows a few words but has difficulty remembering the in-between bits.