Th Mes: French for the Global Community

I am using this text in a Community College FRE102 class, and find it very effective, especially in reinforcing the concepts presented in the base material. Having taken FRE101 from a different book, I find this one is much better. My wife, who is a French teacher, looked it over, and is quite impressed with it. Many times she has said "I wish our book had that!" The practice sessions are quite good, but in my opinion there are too many "votre partenaire" exercises. Some of them could be rewritten to more advantage as personal exercises. I bought the book/tape/cd/workbook set through the school bookstore. They are quite good, but as with other French tapes I have used, the speakers are too fast for beginners. (I.E. Me!) Also, the tapes go with the book, and the CD's go with the workbook. It's nice to have them separate, but one must be able to play both.