French for Reading

This book is a lifesaver! It is geared toward graduate students who need to rapidly acquire a reading knowledge of French to pass a language exam. For this purpose, French for Reading helped me out immensely. In high school and as an undergraduate, I had taken French to meet the bare graduation requirements. Jump ahead five years, when I was confronted with the need to pass French translation exam to complete a doctoral degree. Needless to say, after five years of barely thinking about the language, my basic knowledge of French was not up to the task. With the help of this book and studying it for an hour or two daily over a two month period, I am now reading mature French texts far above the level of that which is typically given to a graduate student on a language exam. I was able to pass my translation exam with almost no difficulty. I feel this book is appropriate for all levels of skill, from a beginner to a more advanced student who needs to review an already in-depth knowledge of French. French for Reading starts with the basics. Vocabulary is gradually introduced and repetetively reviewed as the lessons become more and more complicated. A student could easily start from the beginning (like myself) or just as easily flip to the section of the book where he or she needs review. Furthermore, the book is appropriate to all fields of study. The texts in the book vary from science, to history, to religion and philosophy. The authors of the texts include names such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo. As some reviewers of this book have correctly pointed out, the book's scientific texts are a quite dated. However, does this really matter when one is using them to learn how to translate French? My greatest critique of the book centers on its cost. At nearly sixty dollars new, this paperback is a blow to anyone's pocketbook, especially that of a poor graduate student. However, for quality and peace of mind, French for Reading is worth every penny.

This is a brilliant book for anyone who needs to quickly learn enough French to reliably translate from written French to written English. After one month of working through 15 to 20 pages a day, I passed the translation exam I need for my degree in art history--with NO prior background in French. In fear and desperation I bought about 15 books: grammars, workbooks, etc. In the end this, and a dictionary, were all I needed. Forget reading a straight grammar; it's useless without exercises. And forget introductory style workbooks. They won't get you far enough fast enough. If you are like me and can't stand the thought of wrote memorization, this book is particularly good. The exercises are perfectly calculated to repeat the right vocabularly enough times in the right order and contexts so that you learn it through use rather than memorization--as you would in an immersion program for speaking--only much more quickly. I only wish comparable texts existed for German and Italian.

Regarding using this book to help with speaking: This book has nothing about pronunciation, so if you care about speaking I recommend learning general spelling and pronunciation rules beforehand, so you have an idea of how to read this stuff aloud properly in case you find yourself inadvertently doing so. I had had some French in school, but I also listened to all three levels of Pimsleur French, which I found helpful for pronunciation practice. I would also recommend Pronounce It Perfectly in French for good spelling/pronunciation instruction.But that's a different matter from how great this book is. I found it particularly wonderful because of the little guarantee on the back--that it covers all aspects of French grammar as required for overseas French schools. I got the feeling that after I had mastered this book, I wouldn't have to worry about running across some huge and surprising gap in my body of French knowledge. So far, that has held true.This book is pretty hardcore, and I found it hard to be motivated to study it without having some concrete goal--mine was a trip to France. I had always eschewed reading, claiming I only cared about speaking--but I have realized that as an adult, it's much easier to pick up grammar quickly by reading, and since reading is easier than speaking/understanding, it gives you an early basis for general confidence in the language.So, with a goal in mind, I painstakingly went through this book in (I think it was) about two months, making sure I knew all covered vocabulary and grammar before moving on, and then reviewing earlier chapters as suggested in the book. I also used it in conjunction with Mastering French Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach, another book which I have greatly appreciated. I made (electronic) flashcards with vocabulary from both books, which I found to be exceedingly helpful. (I used the program SuperMemo with a PDA--I highly recommend it.) I think I probably spent about 10-12 hours per week on it.After you're done with this book, you can check out other grammar books to review and clarify points that you need extra help with. The book is organized in an order that I guess was best for learning, but there is no good summary of verb endings, for example, so I especially liked the Schaum's Easy Outline for this type of thing.I'm not a graduate student and I don't need to pass any exams, so I can't vouch for the book's capabilities in that area, but I can say it gave me confidence in reading, and in conjunction with the vocabulary book I was using, gave me confidence in understanding the spoken word, which is a first step toward confidence in speaking. There are lots of other things to do to improve one's speaking skills, but I think a big component is confidence, and this book was really helpful. Not to mention it's nice to be able to read things in French and not feel like it's "foreign" and that there are more things in each sentence that I don't know than that I do.One final th

...I can't imagine being in a class to learn French for reading -- you can do it all by yourself with this book -- save yourself tuition money and go for it.I just passed my department's reading exam in French -- like other people mention, the book prepares you for multiple fields of readings (mine was in Japanese Literature) -- I used this book entirely to get me through it.Forget Jean-Pierre and Marie -- this book has real documents and stories in French -- no generic contexts. Students of Literature will probably enjoy this book not only for the skills, but also the reading selection (you're reading Hugo, Baudelaire, Bergson, Rousseau in the original!). Students of history and science, have no fear -- there's good stuff for you too. How I prepared for my exam: I read the book, but halfway through I went back and did daily review of previous chapters as I progressed -- things like the French subjunctive, imperfect tenses, etc are hard to grasp, but a little review and you'll comfortable with it. Vocabulary cards and a thorough review of theFalse Cognates at the back of the book are a must. After about 2 months of daily work (about 2-4 hours a day), I was able to read articles in my field with little difficulty. Bon chance!

This book contextualizes the grammar and made learning to read French a very easy task. The authentic reading passages are much outdated, but the fact that I could read and understand them with no difficulty gave me a considerable amount of confidence going into the doctoral language exam. This book should be used to complement coursework done with a professional tutor or French professor, or as the text for a French translation course; but, for the language enthusiast, it is explicit enough to use to prepare for the lanaguage exams without the assistance of someone who is quite familiar with French grammar. I highly recommend it!