Michelle Williams Books

I purchase this book 3 days ago in North Sydney, & I realise that page 247 is blank, unlike other blank pages, this page has no indecation that it is purposely blank with a page number.
I went to Dymocks Bookstores at North Ryde to verify if the copy I had purchased was a fault, not so, in fact they had 2 copies to prove that it was a fault during print.
I would like to know if this fault is found in other cities and countries.

Another issue is the audio CD icon on page 279, either the dialogue roleplay is not on the CD, or the track was missing on the CD.

I have not yet gone over the material as yet, but in less then 3 days, I was able to notice these general errors, and I have some troubles going to dummies.com to look for the missing - page 247.

No book can make you fluent in a language. But this is a great resource for those who only want to learn enough to get by while traveling or who want a good back-up for other instructional methods.
You'll get a solid working vocabulary, easy-to-understand pronuciation tips and a foundation in basic grammar.

It can be a good book for beginners...it is for sure. I did not expect anything as i knew already it would be presented like that.
In general, you can find really necessary material there, so , good luck to the learners of French!!!;)))

I have come to the conclusion that one can NOT learn french without attending the old-fashion French class-room based seminars! I tried books, audio-cassettes, and interactive PC softwares yet I made no progress! But once I started attending the classes, all the books and cassettes I had helped me to advance at a rate faster than all my class-peers!

Having that in mind, this book is a good book to read once you start a French course. It's comprehensive on the basic concepts and it's fun to read as well. It will give you some tips that your French instructor might miss or overlook. It will also enhance your vocabulary.

The CD however is quite disappointing! It pronounces the alphabet, which is good. But only few of the conversations are available on the CD. I think that if they had the pronounciations of various words available as well then it would've been much more helpful.

If you're expecting to learn French by reading a funny book or by listening to cassettes while driving, then get real! Learning a new language is a difficult task. Don't expect that a book or a cassette will make it any easier.

The written portion was pretty good and concise. Though I wish it had some sort of abridged French to English dictionary. The CD, on the other hand, is quite possibly the dumbest CD I've ever listened to. First they do a long conversation in French b/t two people (various topics: i.e., flying on a plane, making a reservation at a restaurant, etc), then they go through each line one by one, and give you time to pronounce it yourself. Sounds good, right? Well, they neglect to tell you just what the heck you're saying. They NEVER translate it to English. A couple of the conversations can be found in the book (though you have to search for them, the audio CD doesn't tell you where) but most are not in the book, in English, to follow along. My wife and I were AMAZED they didn't give you the English translation. So, if you use this CD, you'll end up with great French pronunciation, you just won't know what the heck you're saying. This dummies book must have been written by a bunch of dummies.

I had to deal with these same authors for my previous World History Class, which was on campus. If it were not for attending lecture, I would have been ill-prepared for understanding History. This semester, with Vol.2, which is online, I am really struggling. The flip-flop sequencing of the history, with no connections to other civilizations or their time-frame. It is piecemealed together and is one of the worst history books I have been a part of.

Some of its better qualities are the snipets from historical data, most of which is tied to a small but important insight into a specific letter or event.

If you must purchase the text for a class, be prepared to take detailed notes from your lecture, as an instructor is needed to tie together all the loose ends.