This article is a review of FrenchPod101.com, an online resource for learning French through audio podcasts.
In this review, I'll take you inside the premium members area and show you the main features of the website then give you my honest assessment of the quality of the product, so you can decide whether it's right for you.
FrenchPod101 Review: Summary
The Good
- Very substantial – tonnes of lessons for all levels
- Easy to use lesson format – audio lessons and handy mobile app
The Bad
- Dialogues are too short
- Too much “lesson” content, not enough French!
- Lots of advertising, up-selling, and cross-promoting related products once you sign up
The Cost
A premium FrenchPod101 subscription costs $180 USD per year.
The Verdict
FrenchPod101 is a thorough, engaging resource – especially for beginner and intermediate levels.
Their bite-sized approach to study materials makes them a great match for busy people and those who struggle to stay motivated, but it’s certainly no kind of shortcut – you’ll still have to do the hard work yourself.
(My top recommendation for French learners is French Uncovered, which teaches you through StoryLearning®. Click here to read more about French Uncovered and get your free 7-day trial.)
What Is FrenchPod101?
FrenchPod101 is an online subscription programme for French learners of all levels.
Subscribers get access to an extensive library of French audio and video lessons, as well as a number of other learning tools, such as French word lists, flashcards and an English-French dictionary.
All of the content included in the premium subscription is available to access through a web browser, as well as a tablet-friendly mobile app.
A Look Inside FrenchPod101
Lessons in FrenchPod101 are arranged into five proficiency levels. Each level has a number of different ‘seasons', or sets of lessons, with an average of 25 lessons per set (although some have fewer or a lot more).
This adds up to a rather vast library of French podcast lessons – meaning FrenchPod101 is quite a substantial resource.
However, the seasons don’t follow a structured, linear course and you’re free to choose what you want to learn every day. So, with all that content, it’s really difficult to know where to start!
One feature that helps is called ‘Learning Paths'. A path is a sequence of lessons based on a topic or area of learning.
For example, beginners can choose from learning paths like ‘Connecting with French-Speaking Family', ‘Shopping in France’, or ‘Ultimate French Pronunciation Guide'. Each of these will open up a list of short podcast lessons.
I like this idea, because it makes it easier for you to decide where to start. It also gives you a clear picture of what you'll have learnt once you complete the learning path.
What's Included In Each Lesson?
Each lesson contains 3 audio tracks:
- Full Lesson Audio
- Review Track
- Dialogue Only Track
Most of the lessons follow this format:
- Dialogue in French
- Repetition of the dialogue with a translation
- Discussion of the story and cultural insight
- Explanation of key vocabulary and phrases
- Explanation of new grammar
Once you've completed the main lesson, you can use the review and dialogue-only tracks to practice what you've learned.
In the review track, you can hear all of the new vocabulary in isolation, with English translations.
In the dialogue track, you can hear the French dialogue again, but without a translation. This is the track I recommend you work with the most.
The FrenchPod101 lesson notes and grammar explanations can also be very good compared to those in most other LanguagePod courses.
Next, let's take a look at a few of the more advanced features of FrenchPod101 that you'll find in premium subscriptions…
Interactive Dialogues
Without a doubt, the most valuable part of FrenchPod101 is the powerful extra features that complement the lessons. You can tell that a good effort has been put in to make these features worth having.
The best of these is the interactive dialogues: each line is clickable, so you can click and hear the audio at different speeds, line-by-line, and you can switch the text between French and English. You can also record yourself saying the lines.
This works really well and is ideal for breaking down the dialogues into smaller parts, while listening and reading at the same time. It's also great for improving your vocabulary and practicing your pronunciation.
There's another section that gives you a list of vocabulary from the dialogue. Again, you can click on these words to hear the audio (at natural speed and slowed down) and see them in writing.
Personalised Flashcards
Another cool feature of FrenchPod101 is the personalised flashcard system.
You can choose any vocabulary from your lessons (as long as it’s in the vocab list) and send it to the built-in flashcard system, which is easy to use.
Here, you can create custom flashcard decks and go back to them at any time to review your new French words. The flashcards use a spaced-repetition system, which is a good study tool for remembering words.
There is a limitation, though: these flashcards only show you words in isolation. It’s far more effective to learn words in context, with real sentences people use every day. Without this ability, FrenchPod101’s potentially useful flashcard tool is not going to be of much use to you at all.
Downloadable Worksheets
All of the lesson material is also available in downloadable worksheets, in case you want a hard copy of everything. These are basically just PDF versions of the information on the website – they don’t have any special features. Nevertheless, this option might work for you if you’re someone who likes going back to lessons later for some offline reading.
Bonus PDFs For Beginners
If you’re an absolute beginner at French, you could benefit from the extra resources that FrenchPod101 offers. There’s so much fundamental info you need to know at this early stage: grammar, French phonology, that tricky French spelling…
To save you a lot of time and effort trying to source it yourself, FrenchPod101 gives you these foundational things all in one place:
- Overviews of French as a world language
- Learn the French Alphabet
- A Guide to French Pronunciation
- Introduction to French Grammar
- French Verb Conjugation Chart
- 2000 Most Common Words
Other Notable Features
Some other cool features include a quiz function, which gives you easy vocabulary and writing tests based on language from the lessons, and an online French-English / English-French dictionary.
Some other cool features include a quiz function, which gives you easy vocabulary and writing tests based on language from the lessons, and an online French-English / English-French dictionary.
This dictionary is on your Dashboard and has a handy search bar. It contains all of the language from the lessons, as well as an audio function so you can hear the pronunciation of the word you looked up.
FrenchPod101 Review: What I Like
There are some really great aspects to FrenchPod101…
- It's a very substantial resource. There are lots of lessons for all levels – especially for beginners – and the library is updated regularly with new material. Some of the bonus features make nice visual aids – such as the printable, colourful cheatsheets.
- The course is well-designed. It's not easy to select and produce graded material for an entire language course. But the content is impressive. Grammar points and language vocabulary get repeated over the course of each level, which helps reinforce what you've learnt.
- The podcast lessons are short and entertaining, so they're perfect for anyone who lacks motivation, or is looking for an easy way to start.
- The difficulty levels are just right. Once you figure out what your current level is and get going, you'll find that the progression from level to level is logical.
- Vocabulary is well-selected and the dialogues are based on life-like situations. This means the lessons teach useful language (the kind of French that's actually spoken by people in French-speaking countries).
- The line-by-line clickable dialogues with audio, transcription and translation are AWESOME. For me, this is the main benefit of the product.
- The handy mobile app allows you to easily listen to podcast episodes on the go. Lessons can be synced across all of your devices, and you can even use the line-by-line audio feature on your phone.
- The FrenchPod101 pronunciation guide is one of LanguagePod’s finest.
FrenchPod101 Review: What I Don't Like
In spite of the positives, there are also quite a few significant downsides to FrenchPod101:
- The French dialogues in each lesson are too short. This might help absolute beginners, but it’s frustrating as you become more advanced. The better your understanding of French becomes, the less English you want to be hearing. After all, it’s those intriguing higher level texts that really make French come alive. At the advanced level there are some decent listening audios, but they’re all no more than one or two minutes long.
- The promotional banners, emails and constant calls to upgrade, even after you’ve bought the course,get incredibly annoying. Seeing this advertising display on your personal learning pages definitely detracts from the user experience.
- The resources are, at times, not very cared for, which is a bit disappointing for something you pay good money for. The podcast editing is sometimes poor, the voice recorder function doesn't always work, and the information across the different study tools is not always consistent. None of this is a deal-breaker, but it does leave you feeling a bit neglected.
- The vocabulary lists and flashcards work with single words out of context, which is a big missed opportunity. Context is vital! If you're a regular reader, you'll know how strongly I feel about this. Words are recalled far better with memorable associations, than from lists of vocabulary. Sure, you can see the words in context within the dialogues, and the flashcards often have sample phrases, but this isn’t enough. French people speak fast, and you’ll battle to master the tricky pronunciation if you don’t get used to hearing new words in full sentences.
- Lots of teaching, not much immersion in French. FrenchPod is by far one of the better LanguagePod courses, but there’s still a lack of listening and speaking opportunities. Don’t get me wrong – the teaching of French grammar and vocabulary here is good quality! But if you extract the dialogue from a lesson, it usually amounts to no more than 20 seconds of sustained listening in French. With so much “lesson” material, it’s hard to switch off your English and start thinking in French. I would love to see more options for extensive listening, so that you can just absorb the sounds of French without always having to learn something new. You can only really get a taste of this in the advanced audio blogs, which are around 2 minutes long.
- Vocabulary lists from the lessons don't always contain all the useful words from the dialogues. Instead, they're words that are related to the topic. While there's no harm in seeing related vocabulary, the fact that you haven't heard it in the dialogue makes it a bit random. It would be much more useful to provide the vocab that you've just heard. Often, you hear a word in a lesson and want to know what it means, but it's not in the vocab list! You can look it up in the searchable dictionary (and from there, export it to a flashcard deck), but it's an unnecessary detour that interrupts the user experience.
- Very few pathways for upper intermediate. It’s disappointing to reach this level and find only six pathways. Beginners get far more learning material, and it would be great to see a balance between the levels.
How Much Does FrenchPod101 Cost & Is It Worth It?
FrenchPod101 works on a freemium model. This means that it's free to create a basic account, which allows you to sample the first three lessons of each pathway. If you want the rest of the lessons, though, you'll need to pay. Most of the cool features are only available to paid subscribers.
There are various different subscriber options and, as you might as expect, the longer you subscribe for, the cheaper the deal. The prices are quite reasonable, in my opinion.
If you take a one-year premium subscription as our baseline – this costs $180. That's a lot more than the cost of a book, but substantially less than other commercial products like Rosetta Stone ($399) or Pimsleur ($345 for 30 lessons).
Overall, I think FrenchPod101.com is a substantial and well-made resource for learning French that's easy to consume. And, despite my issues with the teaching format, I think you'll find it useful if you decide to sign up.
However, if you're looking for a comprehensive beginner programme that will take you all the way to the intermediate level in French and that uses a much more fun, engaging and effective method, then I've got something that might suit you better…
French Uncovered: A Better Alternative To FrenchPod101
While FrenchPod101 is reasonably well-structured and has lots of lesson content, it's not the most fun French programme.
That's where French Uncovered is different.
French Uncovered is a comprehensive online beginner course that takes you from a complete beginner in French up to an intermediate level. And it's fuelled by a fun and unique method called StoryLearning®.
StoryLearning is a process that was invented to teach you languages naturally. It’s so natural, in fact, that it’s based on how human beings learn their native language.
In the course, you'll learn through an exciting original story in French, written especially for beginner learners.
Even though you learn through story, you have a teacher and experienced language learner by your side all the way through the course, giving explanations in English and tips to learn the material fast.
Uncovered teaches all of the key aspects of the language – reading, listening, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and speaking. So by the time you've finished, you'll be a confident intermediate level French speaker, ready to go out and actually use your French in the real world!
What You Get With French Uncovered
- Complete 20-module course to learn to speak French with confidence through StoryLearning™. This is a method that relies on your brain's natural way of learning.
- 80+ video lessons with your experienced French teacher. You'll learn with the same method that's attracted worldwide attention, from the BBC, Independent, Open University, European Commission, El País, and more!
- Learn the secrets I used to learn 8 languages and how to use them yourself to learn to speak with confidence & take part fully in conversations with native speakers.
- Fully downloadable programme so you can learn faster – anywhere, any time, and on any device… even without an internet connection!
- Complete learning material, including audiobook, translations, printable worksheets… everything you need to get started and find success with your language learning!
- Expert pronunciation training videos, so you can perfect your pronunciation and speak like a native from the start.
- An additional Canadian French version of the story, with audio narration, so you can speak confidently no matter where you travel to!
- Money-back guarantee, so you can buy without risk today, and get a full refund if you don't love it.
If you're determined to learn French and looking for the most fun and effective French course around, I'm confident you'll love Uncovered!
Ready to start? Click here to find out more about French Uncovered and start your language learning journey.
Olly Richards
Creator of the StoryLearning® Method
Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.
Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.
When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.
