My French Coach (DS)

My French Coach
Sensory Sweep/Ubisoft

Review by Lauren

I've always been a language nerd. So when I heard about the "My Language Coach" series, I thought it'd be nice to brush up on the French I already knew, while hopefully learning a few new things. What happened was something along those lines, but it definitely could have been better. A lot better.

My French Coach needs to be viewed as a revision tool, not as a way to become fluent. I wish I could give it more credit, but it just doesn't provide sufficient information to be more than a supplemental resource for someone interested in learning the language.

You begin MFC by taking a placement test - if you do well, you get to skip many of the introductory lessons. If you don't, you just start at the beginning. There are about 40 actual lessons, which usually start with a bit of text explaining some element of the language, or some vocabulary words, and then you play a few games to reinforce the new information. You'll have to perform well in a few games in order to get enough points to proceed to the next lesson.

There are a variety of mini-games to help with this process. Flash cards, a word search, a multiple choice test, a memory (card) game, bridge builder (a tougher one that focuses on proper sentence structure), Fill-in-the-blank, Spelltastic, and a whack-a-mole game that I personally preferred to avoid. There is also a "Reference" option on the main menu screen which contains a handy dictionary and phrasebook.

As far as sound goes, the music is little more than a cheerful accordion tune and simple mini-game music. The French teacher, thankfully, does a very good job with her pronunciation. Additionally, the microphone is put to good use - you can record yourself saying a new word and then listen to it while hearing your teacher say the same word.

There are several problems with MFC, unfortunately. First of all, the "1000" lessons actually amount to 40 or so. Beyond that, it's nothing more than 10 vocabulary words at a time, and many of them are obscure to the point of being almost completely useless. After you "learn" them, you're given a random game that you must repeat until you get enough points to advance to the next 10 arbitrary words. The lack of effort here was pretty disappointing. Anyone who has ever learned a second language can attest to the fact that the process involves so much more than mass-memorizing nouns. And considering how My French Coach started out teaching verbs and other elements alongside nouns, it was surprising to see it suddenly become so one-dimensional.

As the lesson number approached 50, I was shocked that My French Coach hadn't delved into more verb conjugations and grammar rules. It only explained a handful of basic verb conjugations and the future tense - never even touching the past tense, which is a pretty basic element of any language.

Even still, this wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that there are multiple errors in My French Coach. For example, it mixes up the meanings of the "tu" and "vous" pronouns. And then there are several instances in which vocabulary words are excluded from the lessons, but then included in the tests!

I know that this is a lot of complaining, but bear in mind that I'm very familiar with the language. I consider it a lot more important to learn how to speak in the multiple tenses than to know the French word for "quarry" or "manifold". For a complete beginner, it will certainly help more than hurt, but it's best used alongside an actual class or a good textbook.