Learning French

[agsiul]

I want to learn French. When I was in school it was a bit of a disaster. I have good pronuciation but no content. I can learn vocab with pictures but find it really hard to learn the structures like the grammar, what's masculine & feminine, phrases, etc. Any suggestions on how best to learn?

[Grackle]

I've always struggled with learning languages. What didn't work for me was classes where you memorize verb endings and vocabulary. After many failed attempts, I finally took a beginner's class that was all spoken. We didn't conjugate anything or write anything. I followed up with a 6 week immersion program. You couldn't speak any English so I really developed my ability to understand spoken French and to speak it. If you think about it, you didn't learn your first language by studying grammar or learning to read first - you just spoke the language and were corrected and then learned reading, writing and grammar. Also, if you can watch French children's television shows, that might help develop vocabulary.
Good Luck

[agsiul]

Thanks for the suggestions. Similar problems here. I did try joining a class and sure she was hopeless and kept saying things like "you're a teacher....you should be able to learn it" Felt like saying "you're a teacher you should be able to teach"! I tried watching ANTZ in French....maybe I was aiming a bit high Will try to get something that is for kindergaten level the next time. That should be a lot easier to follow. Would like to do what you were saying with imersion. Will see if I can find a class like that.

[Evasura]

also, practice as much as you can. www.bbc.co.uk has a fantatic area on languages, with videos and games well, very simple games and a basic level, but you can practice a bit and it'll give you a good basis. Also, once you've started going to lessons, you can practice with www.languagesonline.org.uk. Get music in French, download the lyrics from the internet, sing a long and if you can, learn them by heart (if you listen to an ipod, get them in your ipod). If you have trouble with verbs, try downloading a podcast called relaxation with French Verbs. It sounds weird, but it might help. Though you have to listen to it while doing nothing else. Once your level is more advanced, you can read magazines/books and watch TV5 (online. French site for learning Fremnch. It has activities). To get fluent, you need to join a conversation group and/or spend time in a French speaking country. Grackle, children learn langhuages by listening to them the whole day and it takes them abiuyt two years to start speaking it, without much grammar and one or two more years to manage the grammar correctly. Do you really have that time?

[littlemissbump14]

children learn langhuages by listening to them the whole day and it takes them abiuyt two years to start speaking it, without much grammar and one or two more years to manage the grammar correctly. Do you really have that time?

Children take that long partly because their brains are still developing. An intelligent adult would be able to speak to a high enough level to communicate (if if they are not grammatically perfect) in a month or so of total immersion. I.e. living in france with no english speakers around.

I have always found that using the language helps me (I have learnt about 6 now I think to varying levels). I cannot look at vocab lists and verb tables and learn it. However, if i repeatedly speak phrases I do learn them. So, maybe join a class with a friend so you can both also practise trying to converse. It doesn't matter if you use franglais a bit, if you haven't been taught a certain word yet, use the english then continue in french.

As others have suggested french TV, radio (althought this IS cchallenging due to fast speech) and films are brilliant too.

If people want to listen to french music i found raphael good, his music is fairly slow and he speaks clearly!

x

[agsiul]

thanks very much for those tips. Some one I know recommeded the Rossette stone software to start off with cause there is plenty of repeitition and I'm a very visual learner so hopefully with all of thoese tips I'll be fluent in no time

[Evasura]

who's raphael? I don't know him. Have you listen to M? I learn French wtih him (well, not only). WHat type of music is that raphael? there is a rapahel in spain, but awful. I agree about everything. Al so, we do have the advantage in front of kids, that we can acually read, so we can keeop on practising voccabulkary by reading. But yeah, talking much more effective (I keep on telling my Head of Department who keeps on insisting pretty much just reading and writing!ah, school!)

[littlemissbump14]

Here is a link to a video of Rahael; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mBKZnhGgY
It has helpful subtitles in french and spanish, so hopefully will help you learn. He was quite big in France a few years back, so there will be plenty more songs by him on youtube if you look!
I hope that helps.
x

[Evasura]

Merci, littlemissbump. Je chercherai les letres sur internet. Tien ici Matheu Chedid (M) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC5USe-QXbI Je l'adore!

[Evasura]

agsiul. I personally don't like those type of methods, cos I find them a extremely boring (though I did use one when I first started learning German to give me some good pronunciation and fluency, though it was just reading, listening and repeating). Also Rosetta Stone is very expensive. The good thing is that it makes you pronounce words in an accurate accent to go to the next step, though I don't think it does anything that you cannot do on your own with will power and regular work. And at the end of the day, you have to dedicate the same amount of time to Rosetta Stone. I guess it all depend on your learning style? Don't get stressed if you don't get fluent as fast as you seem to be expecting. With languages is a matter of pacience, making mistakes and correcting them and loooooooads of practice.
Enjoy your French

[ashleyn]

The aim of Speak French is to provide a high quality language resource for those who wish to learn how to speak French. It is part of the Speak Languages! Network of websites.