"Upgrade Your French" by Margaret Jubb

[JohnPaul]

Two weeks ago I picked up my copy of Margaret Jubb's Upgrade Your French 2nd edition. I have owned the book for several years and have tried to used it before but have never gotten past the first lesson the last several tries. This is not a reflection of the book but rather my inability to focus. Well these days I seem to have more focus (funny what a potential dream job on the line can do to help). So I wanted to share my experience working through the book.

The book offers a 30 day revision of your French. One lesson per day and by the end of a month your French should be a lot better, or so the introduction claims (just finished day/lesson 12). The book is intended for university students that are getting bad grades. I originally purchased the text because it was noted as the required book for a French class I was taking several years ago. On the first day of class the teacher told us she was required to provide the department chair with a textbook title, so she picked the least expensive one knowing many students would order ahead of the first meeting. We never used the book, she always xeroxed things for class but I kept it because it looked decent and possibly useful. Now that I have finally gotten well into the book I have a few notes to make about it, however, I will update you with one or two more postings toward the end or when I have finished it. I am interested to know if my opinion changes.

First of all I am not using the book as designed. Instead of doing one lesson a day I am studying for about 2 hours a day, 3 times a week. So what this means is that I am doing about one lesson an hour. I usually accomplish 2 lessons per sitting. By the end of the week though I am roughly on the same track as if one were doing things once a day, everyday. My minor modification of the program doesn't seem to change things greatly from my point of view. One thing has become clear through use, the book is specifically designed for daily or near-daily use.

The book has answers to all the exercises, and it is definitely heavy on the exercises. This is a strength. The book has nice explanations of what it is trying to cover in each lesson or subsection, occasionally they leave something to be desired but for the most part things seem solid.

The book asks you to repeat a lesson that you have not scored at least 25 of 30 questions correct. I am not doing this. I will go back and correct my work but I always move on the the next lesson. The lessons build on each other but I don't feel I am losing much by not taking the slow route here. It would get boring.

So far about half of the lessons I have completed I have noted as needing to return to when I finish the entire book. I intend to return to these lessons but really only so that I may note what was covered. At this point I am not terribly certain the book really helps improve your French by its use alone, but perhaps it will be better used as a month long evaluation of my weak spots. It seems the book has done a good job at identifying what I need to work on next.

How I work on these weaknesses is a question I am not quite settled on yet. The Schaum's Outline of French Grammar or the The Ultimate French Review and Practice might be my next stop.

Happy to take any questions.

Best regards,
JohnPaul