Les Trois Petits Cochons

 by Anonymous (fairy tale, oral traditions)

Narrator: Olivier Lecerf

Libby audiobook 5 minutes

Published (this version) 2011

Genre: Children's fiction, French

Again, I had to listen multiple times to get more than a few isolated words. I also had to slow it down a LOT.

I finally got to the point where I understood the wolf's threat to "huff and puff and blow your house down" and also when he "mangez le cochon" (eat the pig). 

I like listening to the French and trying to understand words and phrases better, but I'm surprised at how hard this is!

Le Petit Monde de Pierre Lapin

by Beatrix Potter

Translated by Erik Bjork

Read by Erik Bjork

Libby audiobook 49 minutes

Published: 1901 . . . 2016 this version

Genre: Children's fiction, French

I only listened to the first story (The Tale of Peter Rabbit). There are seven of Beatrix Potter's books on this! It was only 5:42 of the full 49 minutes.

The first time I listened, I only caught isolated words - "jardin" (garden), "lui dit" (he said), etc.

The second time I listened, I slowed it down to about 85% and could understand a bit more.

The third time, I followed along with the print version (in English) and I could more clearly understand some of the French. My language skills have really gotten weak!

L'histoire de Pierre Lapin was delightful!

Learn French: Level 1: Introduction to French

by Innovative Language

Libby audiobook 3.5 hours

Published: 2012

Genre: non-fiction, language

I got this audiobook because I love the French language. I was so close to being bilingual as a teenager, but I gave up when it got too hard with verb tenses. 

Listening to this was fun, especially when they used pauses for the listener to practice. Other parts were just plain interesting. If I were truly a beginner, I may have been discouraged. There is a LOT of content in this audio. It's nicely broken up into short lessons. If I were truly trying to learn the language this way, I would probably just buy the resource to practice over and over. 

It's also interesting to primarily listen and speak without seeing the text. They often spelled out what they were saying, but I could mostly picture the words because of my past experience with studying French (in the late 1970s and early 1980s!).

I also checked out a copy of Nelson Mandela in French. It's the one that's part of the Little People, Big Dreams series. That was an eBook and hard to read because I had to keep enlarging the page to be able to see the text, then zooming back out to see the entire page. It was tedious. I like reading children's books in French because they're less demanding than novels for adults. But I think I'll have to check out print books for this so I can take my time, see the text, and look up words I don't know. (I'll have to pull out my old French / English dictionary.)

I highly recommend this audio for anyone trying to become more familiar with French. The co-hosts (Virginie & ??? I forgot the guy's name) were cute and playful but not obnoxious.