Tips on books for learning French

[russkyhusky]

Bonjour à tous! I am finally pursuing my long-held goal of learning French - I can't afford to take classes though so am looking for materials I can use to teach myself. Are there any books/multimedia learning packs that other people have used that they can recommend? I will most likely use this in combination with an app like Duolingo, but I have a background in language learning (a bachelors degree in German and Russian) and know from this that I value resources that also teach grammar rules. An audio element so that I can check my pronunciation is also important. Any tips anyone can offer would be much appreciated! 

(PS - I live in the UK, so I guess I'm on the lookout for books that will be available to me here!)

[Orphaios]

On 2/18/2020 at 6:50 AM, russkyhusky said:

Bonjour à tous! I am finally pursuing my long-held goal of learning French - I can't afford to take classes though so am looking for materials I can use to teach myself. Are there any books/multimedia learning packs that other people have used that they can recommend? I will most likely use this in combination with an app like Duolingo, but I have a background in language learning (a bachelors degree in German and Russian) and know from this that I value resources that also teach grammar rules. An audio element so that I can check my pronunciation is also important. Any tips anyone can offer would be much appreciated! 

(PS - I live in the UK, so I guess I'm on the lookout for books that will be available to me here!)

I recommend the series of books at www.FrenchToday.com. These are digital books (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android) which contain both audio and text and teach both formal and informal social registers of French with very natural speech and intonation by native speakers.  I also recommend the books by Assimil, a French language teaching company.  These are textbooks with grammatical notes with audio: https://www.assimil.com/recherche?original_lang=35&lesson_lang=64&level_lang=1497&controller=search&orderby=price&orderway=desc.  Finally, once you have worked through either or both of those, I highly recommend any of the materials on Français Authentique: https://www.francaisauthentique.com.  All of these should be available to you in the UK. I hope this helps! 

[pallavi]

Top 5 Easy-to-read French Books for French Learners

1. Best Children's Book: “Le Petit Nicolas” by René Goscinny. Start off slow with a children's book.
2. Best Modern Classic: “L'Étranger” by Albert Camus. 
3. Best Poetry: “Calligrammes” by Apollinaire.
4. Best Classic Novel: “Le Père Goriot” by Honoré de Balzac. 
5. Best Short Stories: “Contes de la Bécasse” by Guy de Maupassant.

Regards : french language training in pune

 

 

 

 

[UrsaMarron]

Very good, though I am not sure where to buy them.

Do you know any good sites with French short stories?

[Casel]

Thank you, I also started learning French and am looking for good books. I've also heard that reading fiction books is a good idea when learning a foreign language. I found such a service https://freebooksummary.com/category/a-class-divided to select books that I would like to read. I was very interested in the book A Class Divided. Have you read it? And in general, how do you like the idea of reading books to learn a language?