The Berlitz SelfTeacher FRENCH Author:The Staff of the Berlitz Schools of Languages A French teacher recently told me when buying French study books to avoid the new ones, because they have lots of text in the margins, charts, splashy colors, etc. but not as much substance as the older ones. I replied that she must have had this book in mind. It was originally published in 1949, yet it cuts to the chase and will have you up and... more » running with conversational, everyday French quite quickly. I also think the phoenetic pronunciation system is much more accessible to the English-speaking tongue than any of the more recent ones. I highly recommend this, esp. given the price!« less