What do you think?
Imaginez, 2nd Edition, Student Edition with Supersite Code
Imaginez, 2nd Edition, Student Edition w/ Supersite Code
503 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2007
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 20, 2019
TLDR at bottom
I paid $400 for this textbook so keep that in mind. This text is not worth $400 so if your Institution requires that, look elsewhere. I will be reviewing this as a resource for language learning, whether a student or not, but I want to disclose what this book cost to me as that will inevitably bias my ultimate conclusion. No singular resource will contain everything you need to learn another language, that's why so many different options exist, so I'll review it for its component parts: Vocabulary, Grammar, Online Access, and Practice.
Vocabulary:
Every chapter begins and ends with Vocabulary pages, consisting of related terms to the chapter's theme, such as travel or leisure. It is handy to have these lists but they are smaller than what you will find in Collins Easy Learning or Schaum's Vocabulary Practice. If you want quantity, look to the latter. If you want focus and depth, Imaginez can fit the bill but I would recommend a French Visual Dictionary instead. These are almost always organized by subject matter: clothing, finances, animals, etc. Additionally, having the images can better help associate meaning with thing.
Grammar:
Every chapter contains several pages, sometimes 2-3, dedicated to grammar concepts. The explanations are concise and include exceptions and examples. You can find Indexes and Reference tables in the back of the book as well to complement these grammar pages. Accompanying practice questions are decent. Overall, the grammar is done well.
Nothing, however, in this textbook regarding grammar explanations and lessons cannot be found elsewhere. It's the reality of textbooks in an internet age: all this information can be found, sometimes more concisely or better explained, online for free. I personally found Collins and Schaum's (frequently updated texts) to be far more useful to me than Imaginez when used in conjunction with (free) online resources.
Online Code:
This was the only reason I bought this book instead of using Collins or Schaums, as it wasn't available on its own at that time.
Never have I been more frustrated with an online component in my life. I was using the built-in tools and this was a waste. No explanations, you're just marked wrong for questions far exceeding the difficulty in the book. No instructional content. Short period of use for each purchase. It made me seriously doubt my ability and damaged my confidence in French, which in turn harmed my performance. I then stopped using it (sacrificing a small portion of my grade) and performed better, getting a better mark without it than I would have with it. Make of that what you will.
Practice Readings + Questions:
These are useful for classwork but I personally find reading journals, playing video games, and writing short stories and essays in French to be more effective. But if you want all your tools in one place, Imaginez might suit you. But...
If you're looking for a single text with themed vocab lists, detailed specific grammar explanations, and included applicable practice, Imaginez isn't your best option unless you can find it at a reasonable price. However, I will also recommend any out of the following, depending upon your individual needs as a language student: Schaums, Collins Easy Learning, Living Language, Rosetta Stone, or Bonne Continuation.
TLDR: Unless you have to buy this for a class and can find it at a reasonable price, you are better off getting three different but specialized texts instead. I would suggest a visual dictionary, a hobby you can do in French such as reading or gaming, and any of the the following: Schaums, Collins Easy Learning, Living Language, Rosetta Stone, or Bonne Continuation.
I paid $400 for this textbook so keep that in mind. This text is not worth $400 so if your Institution requires that, look elsewhere. I will be reviewing this as a resource for language learning, whether a student or not, but I want to disclose what this book cost to me as that will inevitably bias my ultimate conclusion. No singular resource will contain everything you need to learn another language, that's why so many different options exist, so I'll review it for its component parts: Vocabulary, Grammar, Online Access, and Practice.
Vocabulary:
Every chapter begins and ends with Vocabulary pages, consisting of related terms to the chapter's theme, such as travel or leisure. It is handy to have these lists but they are smaller than what you will find in Collins Easy Learning or Schaum's Vocabulary Practice. If you want quantity, look to the latter. If you want focus and depth, Imaginez can fit the bill but I would recommend a French Visual Dictionary instead. These are almost always organized by subject matter: clothing, finances, animals, etc. Additionally, having the images can better help associate meaning with thing.
Grammar:
Every chapter contains several pages, sometimes 2-3, dedicated to grammar concepts. The explanations are concise and include exceptions and examples. You can find Indexes and Reference tables in the back of the book as well to complement these grammar pages. Accompanying practice questions are decent. Overall, the grammar is done well.
Nothing, however, in this textbook regarding grammar explanations and lessons cannot be found elsewhere. It's the reality of textbooks in an internet age: all this information can be found, sometimes more concisely or better explained, online for free. I personally found Collins and Schaum's (frequently updated texts) to be far more useful to me than Imaginez when used in conjunction with (free) online resources.
Online Code:
This was the only reason I bought this book instead of using Collins or Schaums, as it wasn't available on its own at that time.
Never have I been more frustrated with an online component in my life. I was using the built-in tools and this was a waste. No explanations, you're just marked wrong for questions far exceeding the difficulty in the book. No instructional content. Short period of use for each purchase. It made me seriously doubt my ability and damaged my confidence in French, which in turn harmed my performance. I then stopped using it (sacrificing a small portion of my grade) and performed better, getting a better mark without it than I would have with it. Make of that what you will.
Practice Readings + Questions:
These are useful for classwork but I personally find reading journals, playing video games, and writing short stories and essays in French to be more effective. But if you want all your tools in one place, Imaginez might suit you. But...
If you're looking for a single text with themed vocab lists, detailed specific grammar explanations, and included applicable practice, Imaginez isn't your best option unless you can find it at a reasonable price. However, I will also recommend any out of the following, depending upon your individual needs as a language student: Schaums, Collins Easy Learning, Living Language, Rosetta Stone, or Bonne Continuation.
TLDR: Unless you have to buy this for a class and can find it at a reasonable price, you are better off getting three different but specialized texts instead. I would suggest a visual dictionary, a hobby you can do in French such as reading or gaming, and any of the the following: Schaums, Collins Easy Learning, Living Language, Rosetta Stone, or Bonne Continuation.
May 8, 2019
It’s a decent textbook. There’s a lot of vocabulary, and it does a good job explaining things like pronouns. I don’t know why they had si clauses two chapters after the conditional tense, if you’re trying to learn that just skip ahead
May 31, 2023
Nous avons utiliser cette texte pour notre classe de la française; à mon avis, c'était un bon livre pour les étudiants de la française mais tu peux probablement trouver que mes phrases sont pleins d'erreurs.
July 2, 2015
This book will get the job done, but being published in Canada, it is not always "true" french. My native Parisian professor rolled his eyes at this book on more than one occasion.
Chapters seem to jump around a bit and it lacks a concise layout that is beneficial to students for the purposes of learning French.
That said, it got the job done, but we used this book far less than we'd used our previous textbook for other levels of French.
Chapters seem to jump around a bit and it lacks a concise layout that is beneficial to students for the purposes of learning French.
That said, it got the job done, but we used this book far less than we'd used our previous textbook for other levels of French.
October 18, 2012
textbook
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews