5 comments about Lyric Language I (French/English).

1. This entertaining bilingual video is recommended for children who really want to learn French if they've heard of French. Even kindergarteners will tolerate this video. Throughout the video, children sing 11 songs in English and French and the lyrics are subtitled at the bottom of the screen. This and all other Lyric Language videos contain the songs:

   * At the Zoo * At the Beach * At the Supermarket * Happy Birthday to You * The Rain * The Seasons * The Days of the Week * The Night

   * The Alphabet * I Wish I Could Fly * Jump Rope




2. My 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 year old girls really enjoy this video series. We do not speak French but would like to expose them to the language as much as possible. I am not a video advocate, but when trying to expose my children to a second language it's the best I can do. The video is not cartoonish or puppets, rather video clips of real children playing, dancing, jump roping, and doing various other activities. They do activities to music sung by children too, which is a plus to keep a child's attention. I liked the ABC's and 1-2-3's done in both English and French. The entire video is done in alternating echo format, meaning, one line is sung in English (with an English subtitle) then sung in French (with a French subtitle). It's really worth the money. Since it has subtitles in both French and English, reading opportunities are present for the older children. I expect my children will watch this video up to age 11, if it does not break before then.



3. I purchased this for my 5 year old in the hopes that she might enjoy the songs and become familiar with some of the sounds of the French language. This is the first movie that she has refused to watch! (and she has watched a number of movies in French) It is very poorly made. The songs are terrible and the children singing them are tone deaf.

   The MUZZY tapes have worked much better.




4. I am the mom of a nineteen month old to whom I speak my mother tongue - French - everyday. He is learning so fast that I just can't keep up with him. I have been looking for so long for more French videos. I am just so happy I came accross this one at the library, now I have to have it! The songs are great and in tune. The pronunciation is perfect, and the topics are varied. We learn the vocabulary of animals at the zoo, the beach, the alphabet, the weather, the seasons, the days of the week... etc. In addition, it couples French and English which also makes daddy happy!!! Love it!!!



5. This is the only decent French video I have found for my daughter. We bought it when she was about 1 but it's only since she was two that she really started watching it regularly and loving it. Now, at 3, she knows all the songs, sings them and requests the video over and over again. Last week we were visiting the Santa Monica Pier and my daughter pointed to the beach and said "J'aime la Plage" (one of the songs) and then started singing the entire song in French. The others we have bought were awful (see my other reviews) but this one has really taught my daughter some French. Adults, however, will find it cheesy and somewhat annoying but no worse than putting up with Barney and Caillou : ) I highly recommend this video.

5 comments about The Standard Deviants - French, Parts 1 & 2.

1. This is the best language tape I've ever used! It cuts a language down to the basics and uses an approach much like Sesame Street. It makes any language fun to learn.



2. It was a gift so I didn't see the video myself but she sent me an email thanking me for it 3 days after she got it and said she had already learned her ABC's in French.



3. I purchased the "Basics" video thinking I was going to get a silly, fun explanation of the basics. It is true that the video focuses on the basics and actually covers the same material our French 1 book does in the first 2 chapters. HOWEVER, I would send this video back if I could for 2 really important reasons:
   1. My students fell asleep watching it for about 15 minutes.
   2. Even more important - and the most disappointing part of all - the people speaking french had very strong American accents. Even my french 1 students could hear the bad pronunciation. If you are using this to supplement your French program at the High School level, don't waste your money.



4. Overall it's decent and interesting to watch. I was actually hoping for more basic vocabulary and common phrases than all the grammar rules they are trying to teach. I just need more "travel/tourist" knowledge. So this seems better suited for someone actually trying to learn the French language for the long haul, not if you're traveling for a week. It's still interesting and slightly corny, but it makes it somewhat fun to watch.



5. This DVD provides both parts I and II of the Standard Deviants' French series. I teach high school French, and my students find the videos engaging, entertaining, and informative. By its nature, this DVD cannot offer the depth necessary to supplant any real teaching (which isn't their purpose anyway); however, it does help remind students of some grammatical and lexical basics they learn in French I. The college-age actors (non-native speakers with some questionable pronunciations here and there but clear enough for their goal) are accessible to my teen students, but their acting is meant to be over-the-top (perhaps to counter boring professors' lectures at some universities). Note that this DVD is not for learning phrases for travel.

No comments about Les Parisiens (French).

2 comments about Standard Deviants: Enormous English Pack.

1. I don't really know how many stars to give here because I couldn't view three of the DVDs. I had a replacement set sent from AMAZON and the same discs had the exact same errors in the replacement set. I called the customer service number for Standard Deviants (800) 238-9669, and they said they had had compatibility problems but didn't indicate that my player--the Sharp DV-740--ought to have them.
   Therefore I think it likely that a good number of you will have the frustrations I had. Maybe it is best to go for the VHS--I have a VHS set on the way; both DVD sets will soon be on the way back to AMAZON. If you order these DVDs, good luck to you; you may need it--but AMAZON's customer service is excellent...



2. Like the reviewer whose comments I just read, I also don't know how to rate this item because it will not play on my or anybody else's DVD player. I bought the thing new & planned on using it in class tomorrow. Opened the shrink wrap and factory seal & all I get on my machines and my neighbors' is the main menu and then an error message no matter what I select from the menu. Scary. How do these people stay in business?

No comments about Mary Poppins (French).

5 comments about The Little Thief (In French Language, subtitled in English).

1. Charlotte Gainsbourg is excellent as the "little thief". However, I found the movie a little boring. Till the end I waited for something to happen... and nothing did... It's somewhat interesting as a character study though, and the film has its moments. Francois Truffaut wrote the screenplay (original).



2. More so than most directors, Francois Truffaut drew on his personal experiences (e.g., "400 Blows") in crafting cinematic tales of the pain and pleasure of growing up. "The Little Thief" began as a script idea of Truffaut's in the 1950s, but had never been realized at the time of his untimely death, in 1984. Janine (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a 15-year-old girl, growing up poor in postwar France. Janine is in a hurry to grow up. But to Janine, who survived as a street urchin during the Nazi occupation, growing up means stealing and getting away with other such petty crimes and losing her virginity ASAP. After being run out of town by the local gendarmes, Janine goes to work as a maid in a rich couple's house and eventually falls in love with an older, married choirmaster (Didier Bezace), who tries to steer Janine away from crime and towards a productive life. Although she finds sex with him exciting, he is much older and their difference in maturity eventually drives the couple apart. Janine then falls in love with a young man, Raoul (Simon de la Brosse), who is from the lower classes, and influences her to drop out of school in order to pull off a heist during a dinner party held by her employers. After getting arrested and landing in reform school, Janine comes to realize that growing up is not all it is cut out to be. She begins turning her life around when she meets a fellow inmate, who teaches her about photography and darkroom printing. After escaping from the reform school, Janine finds that she is pregnant with Raoul's baby. Again, she wants to run away from her problems, and returns to her hometown to visit a back-alley abortionist. But Janine has no money, so the abortionist demands Janine's twin-reflex camera as payment. Assessing the situation, Janine realizes that she's been handed a sucker's deal; She will only end up without a camera and without her baby. So, Janine commits one last crime: She steals back her camera, decides to have her baby and straightens out her life, accepting responsibility for her actions.

   The feel of the movie is dead-on for capturing postwar France in 1950: The costumes, the sets, the automobiles, the Pathé newsreels and the period music all conjure a bygone era with style. Alain Jomy's impressionistic soundtrack recalls the best scores of Georges Delarue.

   "The Little Thief" is a poetic, beautiful, moral tale, but never moralizing. It's easy to relate to Janine's predicament, the urge of the adolescent to break the chains of society. Director Claude Miller uses this fable to teach the important lesson that one can only learn from life by having lived it.




3. I really liked this story, maybe because it was filmed in my home country and it reminded me of a lot of places and memories.
   
   It is the story of a country girl who was orphaned by war. She becomes a depraved adolescent who is forced to survive on her own. She takes a job as a maid, but she is not a really good one! One can easily understand why : she is a "thief"! She simply has never learned other values than the ones she created for herself. This certainly explains in part why she likes so much to steal, make lies, and occasionally use her charms to get what she wants: after all, these are the only means of surviving that she knows. But despite her innocent appearance (something like a "Snow White"), she is stronger and wiser than she seems. Not so innocent after all?
   
   It was perhaps the first and the best part Charlotte Gainsbourg ever played, to my opinion at least. Although I don't think Charlotte is the greatest French actress of all times, she was young and perfect for the role. Because of her timid and bizarre personality, she was credible as Janine. Unlike Janine, the actress didn't grow up in poverty, neither was she raised in a remote "bourgade" (village) somewhere in a corner of the French "Province"! She was also from a generation who never witnessed the occupation of France during WWII.
   
   People then lived harsh lives in almost constant fear and in constant need. This sort of situation wasn't poetic in France, and can never be anywhere in the world either. The movie depicts, through the story of Janine and her fellow companions, postwar France and the sad repercussions of a conflict on people. BUT, fortunately, there is hope and some love at the end.
   



4. 
   Truffaut's interesting look at a girl coming of age in the year 1950. She is 16, from a poor family (her mother has run off to Italy leaving her with an aunt and uncle to raise her), and she involves herself in petty thievery to get the things she dreams about from seeing them in the movies. She is in a big hurry to grow up, especially sexually. She becomes a maid and starts an affair with a much older married man; she also meets a boy closer to her own age and starts a relationship with him, too. Both men end up deserting her, the boy after she quits her job, steals for him, gets arrested for it and sent to juvenile prison, AND finds out she's pregnant by him! She arranges for an abortion, but changes her mind and decides to have the baby and start her life anew.
   
   Truffaut's love of the cinema and its "magic" - the music, quick pacing, and loving use of the camera (spiral "highlight" shots, for example) - is very much in evidence here. The tone of the movie, which has every reason to be depressing, never becomes that and is more like the tone a loving relative might assume when revealing the exploits of a favorite misbegotten family member. And in that situation we are usually expected not to ask too many questions or require any moralizing: indeed, a happy ending (of sorts) is plucked from what probably should be ashes. Truffaut goes for a warm, fuzzy feeling and achieves it. Some may argue that he's sacrificed honesty in the process, but truth can come in many different packages. A very pleasant movie-watching experience delivered by a master filmmaker.



5. Pitifully the death came for him, leaving so this project, unfinished. Claude Miller decided to assume the challenge to materialize the script and filmed this poignant story.
   
   Maybe the film has notorious lows; its poetic inspiration does not reach a continuous development and demerits the final result.
   
   It is absolutely necessary to watch previously 400 blows, because the approach is strongly enriched and supported by this vision.
   
   I guess Truffaut intended to return the departure point and so to draw the complete circle. Only under this perspective this film will be appreciated in its total dimension.

No comments about French & Colonial Quebec.

No comments about Lyric Language More French Double Play Series 2.

5 comments about Lyric Language French/English Double Play Series 1.

1. This entertaining bilingual video is recommended for children who really want to learn French if they've heard of French. Even kindergarteners will tolerate this video. Throughout the video, children sing 11 songs in English and French and the lyrics are subtitled at the bottom of the screen. This and all other Lyric Language videos contain the songs:

   * At the Zoo * At the Beach * At the Supermarket * Happy Birthday to You * The Rain * The Seasons * The Days of the Week * The Night

   * The Alphabet * I Wish I Could Fly * Jump Rope




2. My 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 year old girls really enjoy this video series. We do not speak French but would like to expose them to the language as much as possible. I am not a video advocate, but when trying to expose my children to a second language it's the best I can do. The video is not cartoonish or puppets, rather video clips of real children playing, dancing, jump roping, and doing various other activities. They do activities to music sung by children too, which is a plus to keep a child's attention. I liked the ABC's and 1-2-3's done in both English and French. The entire video is done in alternating echo format, meaning, one line is sung in English (with an English subtitle) then sung in French (with a French subtitle). It's really worth the money. Since it has subtitles in both French and English, reading opportunities are present for the older children. I expect my children will watch this video up to age 11, if it does not break before then.



3. I purchased this for my 5 year old in the hopes that she might enjoy the songs and become familiar with some of the sounds of the French language. This is the first movie that she has refused to watch! (and she has watched a number of movies in French) It is very poorly made. The songs are terrible and the children singing them are tone deaf.

   The MUZZY tapes have worked much better.




4. I am the mom of a nineteen month old to whom I speak my mother tongue - French - everyday. He is learning so fast that I just can't keep up with him. I have been looking for so long for more French videos. I am just so happy I came accross this one at the library, now I have to have it! The songs are great and in tune. The pronunciation is perfect, and the topics are varied. We learn the vocabulary of animals at the zoo, the beach, the alphabet, the weather, the seasons, the days of the week... etc. In addition, it couples French and English which also makes daddy happy!!! Love it!!!



5. This is the only decent French video I have found for my daughter. We bought it when she was about 1 but it's only since she was two that she really started watching it regularly and loving it. Now, at 3, she knows all the songs, sings them and requests the video over and over again. Last week we were visiting the Santa Monica Pier and my daughter pointed to the beach and said "J'aime la Plage" (one of the songs) and then started singing the entire song in French. The others we have bought were awful (see my other reviews) but this one has really taught my daughter some French. Adults, however, will find it cheesy and somewhat annoying but no worse than putting up with Barney and Caillou : ) I highly recommend this video.

4 comments about Bilingual Baby, FRENCH, Vol 1.

1. Done all in French (with only very small English subtitles to help parents and only shown briefly) - only way for French immersion. Colorful images, children's faces, parents' faces. Learn good basics in French - colors, things, numbers, Maman, Papa, etc. Pronounced slowly the word first, then used in a small sentence. I recommend it highly. An introduction to French songs (music only) used at the end of the tape. On the tape box, it is recommended for ages 1 to 5. But I have used it already for a 3 month old to get the gears started for French.



2. I purchased baby bilingual French and Spanish about a month ago. The Baby Bilingual series is a great idea, but don't expect baby to be engrossed in the images on the screen as he or she might be with other baby videos.

   The music in the background is nice, classical music. The visual component is nice, as well, and shows real life people and toys. My one year old enjoys watching the videos, but they don't hold her attention as well as other classical music based baby videos have done. I would have liked to see more movement and variety on the screen to hold my babie's attention better.

   The videos don't hold my attention too well either, as both the French and Spanish versions are very similiar (actually, almost identical) as they show almost identical visuals and teach baby exactly the same words. Again, more variety would have been nice.




3. I began showing this video to my daughter when she was 6 mos. old (once a day) and two years later she still loves it. She will stop whatever she is doing and sit down and listen from beginning to end. On the other hand, my 1 year old daughter has never been interested in it-- even though I introduced the video in the same way as I had with my older daughter. As for me-- I like the music, the format, and the fact that they do not introduce too much information.



4. First of all, the above is true. I made the poor mistake of buying both --mostly because this one was so terrible and I thought the other one would be better. It was terrible for the following reasons: 1. The narrator is NOT a native French speaker as the video advertises and thus she mispronounces many of the words 2. I also really hate the fact that the words are not introduced with their articles, as they are supposed to be in French. You never just say "ball" in French as we do in English, you would say either "un ballon" or "le ballon" ("the ball", "a ball"). Moreover, without the articles, you don't learn the gender of the nouns, something we don't have in English and one of the most difficult things for us to learn in foreign languages. I am STILL struggling with genders after 20 years of speaking french (because I am not a native speaker but have lived in France for many years). More aggregiously, instead of including one of the many charming French childrens songs, they include a translation of "Mary had a Little Lamb (it doesn't even rhyme). This is all quite disappointing bc the whole point of teaching your child a foreign language at this age is that they don't need to learn it in translation (or in an English language context) they can learn it within the French language and cultural context. Please, don't waste your money. I can only imagine that the Spanish language version contains all of these same problems, by the way...