SF member @NigelMiddlemiss has sent me a copy of his book Memorize French and asked me to share my thoughts with you good people on here.
Given that I am now living full time with a Frenchman who not only uses slang and patois (that sometimes even his kids haven’t heard of) and also has a tendency to construct his phrases in the manner of a 18th century philosopher and change subjects at random, I need all the help I can get…
And as he’s on a mission to improve his English too it is a useful tool to work through together.
I haven’t had it long enough to give it a really thorough review and tell you “yes, this definitely works” but so far so good.
I like the layout and format. It’s well printed and feels nice (I know that sounds silly but it is important!) and I like the eclectic selection of vocabulary. The explanations are great too.
If I had one criticism (take note Nigel for the second edition!), it would be that I’d like a selection of everyday phrases to be included along with an explanation of where / when to use them and ‘equivalent’ translations in English.
It’s well worth the purchase price. I know we all want everything for free these days but someone has worked hard on this, all proceeds are going to their grandchildren and if you’re looking for a pressie for someone who needs to improve their French, this is ideal.
It’s also an ideal long winter evening in front of the fire activity for families / couples to do together. My daughter used it over the weekend as a party game ice breaker with her 20 plus English / French guests who were staying for the weekend and it worked a treat!
@NigelMiddlemiss - feel free to add a ‘Where to buy’ link onto this post
Thank you, Cat! A lovely and generous review! And how delightful that your daughter used it as a party game ice breaker with her friends!
Just to mention: you suggested very thoughtfully for the next edition ‘a selection of everyday phrases’. In the meantime, in this edition on pages 189-90, there is ‘Everyday Chat’, covering saying thank you, sorry, hello, goodbye and so on, which readers’ll maybe find handy for now*.*
Wishing you lots of success at a personal level in building ‘language bridges’, and professionally in taking ‘Survive France’ from strength to strength.
PS Thanks so much too for inviting the addition of a ‘Where to buy’ link. Voici! Amazon.co.uk
Yup - here you go.
It’s easy to find if a product is available in another Amazon territory by copying the ASIN reference in, say, co.uk & the using that in .fr as the search criteria.
I bought the Kindle edition because I need all the help I can get to improve my French. I find learning a language illogical. To me, the rules of language seem to be a sub-set of Mornington Crescent where rules are just made up on the spot. I make good progress by pretending I can speak French and mostly repeat what I hear other people say.
Nigel’s approach is interesting and I am keen to see if it will help me.
I particularly like his own version of phonetics he uses. Instead of using the international version (which I find incomprehensible)
Bonjour = [bɔ̃ʒuʁ].
He uses his own version (which I suspect only works if we have similar accents – in my case Estuary English)
Bonjour = BONG ZHOOR
Using a live index to get to the section of interest in the book, which is an advantage of eBooks, is very useful. What would also be useful is a link at the end of that section to return back to the index. I know I can use the built in Kindle “go to” function but I’m lazy.
I have poor eyesight and find the little pictures used to describe male and female look very similar. It is a nice idea but I think a simple blue or red disk would be more practical.
A lot of work has gone into this book with some good ideas of how to present words. I look forward to making progress.
