Learn French with OUINO: New Improved Edition v4 | Lifetime Access (for PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Chromebook)

3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars | 124 ratings

Price:

Last update: 12-17-2024


Top reviews from the United States

  • LCB
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good for review, could be expanded a bit for beginners
    Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2012
    I studied French in high school and and have a passable reading knowledge. I occasionally have to read French articles in my field, biological anthropology (with the help of Google Translate). But my spoken French is a bit rusty and biological terms are not likely to pop up in daily conversation. As I will be traveling to France in Spring I thought some brush-up would help.

    I have been using OUINO French daily for the past two weeks. It has excellent drills for vocabulary, grammar, etc., and its quizzes are good for practice and review. The setup is pretty straightforward and the examples that they use make sense for a variety of purposes. One plus is that they provide alternate usages for Francophone areas outside of France such as Canada. Another plus, for folks who have trouble keeping track of gender, is that masculine nouns are highlighted in blue with a male speaker and feminine in red with a female speaker. So gender differences are picked up almost subliminally. You can select specific items to work on (essential words, grammar etc.) and work at your own pace. As you work through it it provides examples of more complex statements and concepts. The structure allows you to set up your own drill within a section. For example, in the vocabulary section for--let's say--shopping, you can go though the vocabulary in sequence to familiarize yourself the terms and pronunciation, and then click among the terms that are most difficult. You can then test your knowledge in the user-friendly speed drill quiz that follows, then repeat the lesson or quiz.

    So from my perspective, it is an excellent system for reviewing French vocabulary, grammar and conversation.

    I have used a number of other systems for learning Italian. Ouino French is much less labor intensive than RosettaStone (and a lot more economical), and is easier to follow than the Pimsleur systems, although it does not go into the same depth.

    However: I do not think it is optimized for a beginner or at least for someone who has not studied a foreign language before. Rather than walking one through the process, it lets you pick and choose what to work on (good for review, but not so good for the beginner). On the other hand, OUINO would be an excellent supplement to another beginner system.

    Hint: I enjoy studying languages and always keep Google Translate ([...]) open. When I encounter a new word in Ouino, I look for alternate terms and usages in Google Translate. I also like to create new sentences with the new vocabulary and check them in Google Translate.

    So, overall this is an excellent system for review or to supplement a separate course in French.
  • Blake A Taylor
    4.0 out of 5 stars Works as a great supplement.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014
    I got my start with French with this program several months ago.

    First, my gripe: While the program is very visually pleasing and is organized well, it is severely lacking in exercises to drive home the lessons. If you don't mind doing a lot of your work on paper to memorize the words, and fashioning variations in the sentences offered as examples, I suppose it won't be a problem for you, but I desire a lot of variation with little work on my end to hammer home what I'm learning. There are quick quizzes and tests after the lessons, but that is about it. They do not change from one time to the next.

    What I like about it: It does very well with explanations of the varying pronunciations and rules of conjugations. It is organized in a non-linear fashion, so if on one day, you feel like you just want to learn pronunciation, you can look at the numerous examples of how certain letters sound in words. If you want to learn body parts, weather or verb conjugations, you can jump straight to them. There is also a section which is designed for learning conversations you would come across as a tourist. Because of this, I found that it's a great supplement to other free programs that I've come across where rules are not explained very well. With Ouino by my side, I can use it as a quick, easy, centralized reference to understand the essentials that are not addressed when doing the exercises elsewhere.
  • Cindy
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good luck trying to get this program Activated!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2017
    Two hours trying to install this program. Yes, two full hours! They are so worried that you are going to steal their program. I could have downloaded this for free online. I paid $99 because it is the right thing to do, but all it did was waste my time. It turns out that you are not buying the program you are just buying the right to use it. You only get TWO downloads. At first I was happy because it comes with a flash drive. I thought, great I just plug it in and the program will work as long as the drive is in I am good. Wrong. You have to open an account, download programs, sync your computer and then verify your account. Then enter the activation KEY. Well it goes on and on. To bad it was so easy to use on youtube! Now my Apple Computer is jammed up.

    Update: Imagine that you are driving in your car and you hear a great song, so you decide to buy it. It would be great to listen to it again in your car, at home or work. Now there many ways to purchase music. Let's just say, you go on amazon.com and order a CD. A few days later you open the mail to find your order. You open your box and there is no CD just a flash drive. If you wanted a song on a flash drive you could have just downloaded it yourself for less. But let us go on, you try to load it on your computer and find that you have to sign or let us say accept a long contract. In the contract it states that you can only use it on two devices and only one at a time. How do you think this would make you feel? Anyway, it turns out that you have to do a bunch of steps and have internet access if you want to install the program. I finally installed ouino and I think I going to like it. I am even thinking of getting the Spanish version. To be fair to ouino I am changing my rating from 1 to 3. I just hope that nothing happens to my computer, because I don't know if I can ever install it again.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    Paper Activities: Paper Airplane [Download]

    2 2 out of 5 stars 2
    9.99
     
     

    IBM SPSS Statistics Grad Pack Base V25.0 12 month License for 2 Computers Windows or Mac

    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 3
    99.99
     
     

    Pajama Sam in No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside

    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 31
     
     

    ChessBase 18 - 2025 Mega Package - Chess Database Management Software Program incluses: Mega Database 2025, ChessBase Magazin

    0 0 out of 5 stars 0
     
     

    Encyclopedia Britannica Family Encyclopedia (Jewel Case)

    3 3 out of 5 stars 3
     
     

    Ultimate Tycoon Mega Pak (Mall Tycoon, School Tycoon, Wildfire, Starship Tycoon, Ski Resort Extreme, Railroad Tycoon II Plati

    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 3
     
     

    Quicken WillMaker & Trust 2025 - Windows - Estate Planning Software Includes Will, Living Trust, Health Care Directive, Finan

    0 0 out of 5 stars 0
    120
     
     

    MacKiev World Book 2010 Multimedia Encyclopedia - PC and Mac

    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 16