For a "beginning course," the scope is ambitious.

In the vast landscape of language learning resources, few materials achieve the status of a legendary classic. Most textbooks are functional, dry necessities—conjugation tables and vocabulary lists bound together. But every few decades, a program emerges that fundamentally changes how we approach acquiring a second language.

The creator, of Yale University, designed the course based on the principles of the Direct Method and Situational Learning . Capretz argues that you cannot learn a language by translating from English; you must think in French from day one.