Producer: C.D.S.
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Grop: Various

This is a French learning package with considerable versatility although it only teaches some basics, phrases and words which may be helpful to beginners and tourists. The program is menu prompted offering; The House, The Countryside, The Beach, The Cafe, The Street, The School, Numbers and Time. Whichever topic is selected you are then presented with four options; 1) Pictures only - which provides graphics, slowly building up, each new item annotated at the top in English and French: 2) Pictures with test - the graphics are repeated and you may opt to type in the French when the computer prompts with the English, or vice versa: 3) Phrases only - no graphics here, but a range of useful phrases in English like, 'Is it possible to go riding?' which may be translated into French by pressing key C: 4) Pictures and phrases - which runs through the pictures again and then into the phrases with your memory refreshed.

Under Numbers, the screen displays imperial and metric equivalents whilst large figures at the top count up from 1, giving the French spelling beside them. Under Time, the display gives the days of the week and the months in English and French, displays a clock face and invites you to ask the time. You can key in a time, say 12.30, and this is then drawn on the clock face, and the French spelling for the time given.

The program contains a lot of quite attractive graphics, some with simple animation, and it will obviously be valuable for young French beginners as well as adult starters. It won't, however, do much for your pronunciation!

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95

The cassette insert for French is Fun claims that the program is designed for the student and the traveller, which reveals a basic flaw, since a less convenient and portable form of phrasebook could hardly be devised. Nevertheless, it is clear that a fair amount of thought and care have gone into the program. Attractive graphics accompany each of the various themes you can study, such as countryside, beach, cafe or street, and you can choose the method you want to use. In the picture-only mode, the French name for each element is given as it unfolds; there is also a picture and phrases mode, or pictures with a French-English or English-French test.

The test consists of filling in the word required, with the computer accepting only the letters it is expecting. Unfortunately, the computer's spelling of French is not entirely reliable and some of the words in its vocabulary are unusual, to say the least. These are faults in what might otherwise have been an entertaining and instructive program.

French is Fun is produced by CDS Micro Systems, 10 Westfield Close, Tickhill, Doncaster DN11 9LA.