Ouino French Learning System Review: How Does it Compare to Other Learning Software?

by

colin strong

I remember a few years back I bought a book with follow-along audio CDs. I thought it made learning easier because I had an audio companion. Boy, are those days over! The learning possibilities are sooo much better in 2010.

Nowadays, there are several learning tools on the market, from free websites to learning software worth several hundred dollars. When comparing learning solutions, I believe audio-only lessons are out of the picture. They require too much attention and lets admit it, theyre boring! But then again, Im a visual kind of guy.

Let take a look at different alternatives:

Free resources

There is a lot of information on the internet; a lot of it is free! French.about.com has an unbelievable amount of information, it is quite remarkable actually. However, a lot of the free French stuff online is limited to written information and a few sound clips, and a lot of the material you find is unorganized; you end up spending more time searching than actually learning, but again it is free!

Software for beginners/travelers

There are many inexpensive programs that will teach you basic phrases to get you ready for a trip to France or other French-speaking areas. These are good if you want to learn very basic French and are not interested in learning much more. But then again, you can probably learn it for free online anyway.

Expensive learning software

Then, there are software out there such as Rosetta Stone and TellMeMore. These programs are the cream of the crop according to the media. Both program received many awards.

The problem, however, is that language-learning software is very expensive. People paying 500+ dollars for a series of software is very common.

Is there an alternative?

I had the chance of trying a beta version of the new Ouino French Learning System, and it was a breath of fresh air! The software covers a huge amount of the French language; the value of this program is simply amazing.

The three sections of Ouino French

Building blocks: French sentence structure and grammar

The building blocks section teaches you the structure of the French sentence. (Why they didnt call it grammar section is beyond me).

These lessons are done in a very nice way; the narrator quickly explains the rule, then you are presented with a bunch of examples to support it. You can click on the presentation to repeat any section you want.

However, for the most part these lessons are not the kind of lessons you take once and know everything; they are quite condensed, they require some effort on the part of the user.

It is, however, the most painless way I have found to learn French sentence structure.

The quizzes are quite challenging, but significantly reinforce what is thought in the lessons.

Vocabulary: A lots of it!

This section covers an enormous amount of vocabulary.

Ouino French also teaches you pretty much every topic you can think of! I was amused to see they even have a lesson about fantasy characters; ever wondered how you say werewolf in French?

Vocabulary is an understatement for these lessons; there are many full phrases and expressions. Learn how to tell time, directions, the weather, the most important adverbs and adjectives. Ouino is a bank of knowledge! All vocabulary lessons have a quiz you can take once you complete a lesson.

Every word is associated with a unique picture and surrounded by a blue or pink shadow. This lets the user know whether a word is masculine or feminine.

A downside to this section is that it can get repetitive, and the length of the lessons varies greatly, from only 5 words of the seasons lesson to the numbers lesson, where you learn to count up to a million.

Individual verb lessons, are they effective?

131 individual verb lessons is quite a bit of verbs, but do they teach anything?

At first, I was sceptical. The lessons seemed to go very fast without actually teaching much. There is no explanation, (except in a select few) just sentences in 6 different tenses.

Boy was I wrong! After taking several lessons, I was starting to understand how French conjugation works without any effort at all! Its actually quite surprising how much you can learn just by association. Whats great too is that you can choose the verb you want to learn, either in French or English alphabetical order.

A drawback to individual verbs section, however, is that there are no quizzes associated with these lessons, and they are very short. There are verb quizzes in the building blocks section, however.

Final verdict

Ouino French is great for anymore serious about learning French.

The complete system is packed with everything one needs to become proficient in French. While having a few drawbacks, Ouino offers a huge amount of material to learn, it is fully interactive, beautiful, interesting and without a doubt the best bang for your buck!

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