How I learnt to speak French in 3 months from audio books

Of course, I was taught French during my school days but never took it seriously. As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t important to me and never would be.

After all, English was more popular and I could get along anywhere in the world with my knowledge of English language, right?

How dead wrong I was.

I realized my mistake when I was sent to France for an assignment. I was like a real fish out of water.

Everywhere I went, everyone was speaking French. Finding someone who could speak English was like finding someone in England who could speak Japanese.

Whew, I really felt lost.

Nonetheless, I made a silent resolve not to learn the language, since I wasn’t going to be coming back to France.

But on getting back home, my boss told me I would be going back in 3 months. This time I would stay longer.

I protested, but she didn’t budge.

There and then I made a commitment to myself to learn French before the 3 months was up.

Being a lover of audio books, I went right ahead and bought “Teach Yourself French” audio books, which I played while preparing for work in the morning, while exercising, during my commute to and fro work and any other time when my hands were busy but my mind was free.

At first I didn’t pay too much attention to what was being said in the “Teach Yourself French” audio books because it was a strange language.

But as time went on, it all started to make sense. What really helped was the translations to English for any word spoken in French.

This really confirmed what I had read sometime ago about the power of listening. No wonder God gave us 2 ears and just one mouth. This means just listening is powerful enough to learn virtually any language.

You wouldn’t believe it but gradually I picked up and was able to speak a significant amount of French just 6 weeks after.

You can imagine the surprise on the face of my boss when, 10 weeks later, I spoke French to her without mixing it with a single word of English!

She couldn’t believe it and asked me how I was able to do it. I told her – audio books!

Not only was she very impressed, she made me the head of the delegation she was sending to represent our company in France.

She made sure every other member of my team got their audio books and did exactly what I had done.

When I eventually went back to France 3 months later, I was no longer “a fish out of water”.

It was incredible, but I was able to achieve this without taking any classes, without hiring any private French tutor, without reading any “French tutorial” books.

All of this was possible within 3 months from just listening to French audio book lessons.

Do you know what was most intriguing about this? I did this all in my “free” time. I didn’t commit any special time to this, but the same time I had wasted in the past.

If I could do this within 3 months, I am certain anyone else can do it too.

If there is any language you would love to learn, follow my footsteps and you will be pleasantly surprised what can happen in just 3 months, with the power of audio books.

There are several audio book versions of many leading foreign language study courses that you can get on the Internet.

You can start your search from audiobook4u.com directly or via the search engines. Simply type in the phrase or particular title you are interested in and you will be presented with the best results… within seconds.

Do you know the answers to these audio book FAQs?

In as much as the audio book phenomenon isn’t too new, there are still lots of people that don’t know certain things about it.

I must confess that I was also ignorant about certain aspects of audio books myself.

During my early days of audio books, I had to ask certain questions and today I hear a lot of people asking the same such questions.

Who knows, you might also have such questions and you really want to find the answers to them.

If yes, then below are some of these questions and their answers:

What is an audio book? An audio book is simply a book in audio format. Instead of receiving a physical hardcover or paperback book that you have to read, you will receive a CD, cassette or MP3 version of the book.

What formats do audio books come in? Audio books come in normal cassette formats, CD formats and MP3 formats which can be played on cassette players, cd players or MP3 players respectively.

What is an MP3 audio book? MP3 is simply a compression technique that makes it possible for reduction to be made to audio books so that they use less space (sometimes as little as 80%) compared to that of cassettes or CDs.

How can MP3 audio books be played? MP3 audio books can be played on any new version of CD players that support the MP3 technology – mostly those that can accept a 4.75 diameter disk.

They an also be played on any PC that has Microsoft’s Windows Media Player or other related software.

What is an unabridged audio book? An unabridged audiook is one that was narrated word for word. In such an audio book, nothing was removed from the printed book. It has the exact content with that of the printed book, albeit in audio format.

What is an abridged audio book? An abridged audio book is one that is shortened and doesn’t contain the exact word for word narration as the printed book.

What is a dramatized audio book? A dramatized audio book, as the name implies, is a dramatized “play-life” version of the printed book, with usual full cast, music and sound effects.

Where can audio books be bought online? There are many audio book stores on the Internet.

How can I find the audio book I would like online? You can visit any of the major audio book stores and search for the particular title you need.

If you are unable to find what you need you can then use the any of the major search engines

Have you listened to the greatest audio book of all time?

This was the question I was asked by a group of friends I met while shopping for an audio book collection in an audio book forum. They were all raving about the greatest audio book of all times, talking about how wonderful it felt being entertained by the creativity of the entire series, when I joined them. Thinking they were going to say the greatest book of all time was Harry Potter, I said yes I had read the greatest audio book of all times. Then when they asked me how much I loved the role played by Arthur Dent, I knew I was dead wrong to think Harry Potter was the greatest audio book of all time. To this group and almost everyone in that particular forum, the greatest audio book of all time was none other than “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“. Person after person, members of the forum said so many good things about the brand new third series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which now comes to audio on CD, cassette and download with 25 minutes of unbroadcast footage. I had been a great fan of the original BBC Radio 4 series so knew they had to be right. What really impressed me was when they said the author himself – Douglas Adams – played the role of Agrajag. I immediately went to audiobook4u.com and ordered for the complete six part dramatization – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Tertiary Phase. The plot picked up from the exact spot that the second radio series left off. Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect had escaped from prehistoric Earth using a time-travelling sofa. At the time some homicidal robots had blown up Lords Cricket Ground. Arthur, with only a rabbit bone as his weapon and an Italian bistro like spaceship, embarks on an intergalactic journey to save the universe. To say I was blown away after listening to it would be the greatest understatement there is. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy have somehow been reunited for a superb sequel. There were about 20 minutes of material obviously not contained in the broadcast version. The entire running time was around 3 hours and 10 minutes. I never imagined I could enjoy listening to an audio book for that long, but I not only enjoyed it, I was thoroughly entertained. If you haven’t listened to this new six-part dramatization of Douglas Adam’s book “Life, the Universe and Everything” you are missing a lot. The cast in this classic audio book include Arthur Dent, played by Simon Jones. Also Ford Perfect, played by Geoffrey McGivern; Trillian, played by Susan Sheridan; Zaphod Beeblebrox, played by Mark Wing-Davey; Marvin the Paranoid Android, played by Stephen Moore. Other popular names in this classic audio book include Chris Langham, Richard Griffiths, and Joanna Lumley. Famous cricket commentators, Fred Trueman and Henry Blofed were also part of those that made this audio book possible. Apart from the powerful creativity involved in the voices used, the entire sound quality and production values were very high indeed. Winner of both the Gold Award for Drama, TV and Film and the Silver Award for Production; Spoken Word Awards 2005, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy audio book has continued to be a bestseller on audio CD, cassette and download, as it has been on radio. If you haven’t listened to this audio book, do yourself a favor and order your copy right away. You can get it from audiobook4u.com .