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Trying to decide what to do with French? | ||
Tags: French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3903 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 26 16 August 2014 at 7:20am | IP Logged | ||
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I know enough french to say converse with a local, or to anyone really in a good many subjects. However, I've noticed that I seem to have annoying gaps of knowledge that don't allow me to use the words I normally use. How do I proceed about filling in the holes of my knowledge? What's important and whats not? My first reason for starting french was so I could understand the Montreal Canadiens french broadcast, then after awhile I realized I could actually speak it quite well, I began to broaden my horizons. I know most of the common words and phrases, though there are quite a few more that I do not know. I've also got a very good grasp of french grammar as well. So I guess I'll ask again, how do I decide what is important?
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| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4089 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 26 16 August 2014 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
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You seem to have already decided what is important: using "the words [you] normally use" (although I am not quite sure what you mean by that given that it's a different language). If that wasn't what was important to you, you wouldn't call it annoying, wonder how to fix it, and come here and post about it.
As for how to fix it: you make a list of the things you consider annoying gaps, you find sources for learning those things whether it's a grammar book, a book of irregular verbs, a dictionary, a conversation guide, a SRS or a notebook, and you study. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4434 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 3 of 26 16 August 2014 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spend a lot of times watching videos. Documentaries on history, technology, music etc. I am constantly
coming across Chinese words & phrases I don't know while watching videos and I'd look them up phonetically. You basically find topics online you don't have much knowledge on and read about it or watch videos on the subject to pick up words & phases on these topics. The way you describe yourself it seemed like you already mastered the basics including verb usage, days of the week, telling time, etc. The Italian polyglot Luca Lampariello used to find topics he was interested in on Wikipedia and read about it in various languages. Seemed like you have already passed the stage of the basic greetings: "Bonjour, je m'appelle..." kind of thing. You just need to add more words and phrases into your vocabulary. A few weeks ago I started watching a TV series from Beijing: 北京新发现 (Beijing New Discoveries). The whole show is about the latest in technology so you pick up a lot of words & phrases that are specific to electronic gadgets such as "online blogs", "apps", "upload", "download", etc. in Chinese. If you like history, you can watch a few videos on the French Revolution in French for instance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 26 16 August 2014 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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That is an excellent question. And something many learners have been struggling with at some point, including myself. What I've found helpful:
1.Much more input of various kinds. Tons of it. -things with natural language that you can hear in everyday situations. Lighter genres are going to be your friend. Good quality policier, sci-fi or even romance can be very useful. Much more than high literature classics in this case. -things related to the "advanced" topics or your job/studies: books, websites, lecture audios, documentaries etc. 2.get a paper or any digital device and write something regularily. A diary, your thoughts etc. And write down anything you are missing at the moment, underline constructions you are unsure about and so on. You will know exactly what to look up when you get the spare moment. Talk to yourself and make such notes as well. Not just mental notes, get it down on a piece of paper so that you don't forget to look it up and make the same mistake/miss the same word over and over again. Point 2 leads to point 3: After you leave the beginner sandbox and intermediate playground, it is only you who decides what is important/usefull. At that point, you are competent enough to know what you need to learn next (see point 2.) and to recognize other useful things to learn in your input (see point 1). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3903 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 5 of 26 17 August 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you, I often feel as though I'd rather not have a conversation, or use the language unless I could fully form all of my ideas, in a reasonable manner. Is this a wrong attitude to take? Am I being too much of a perfectionist with this?
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| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5226 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 6 of 26 17 August 2014 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
“If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.” - Win Borden “Don’t wait till you are perfect . . . You will never be perfect” ~Sue Bryce "He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything." ~anon “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” ~ Napoleon Hill And finally... "Practice makes Perfect." :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 7 of 26 17 August 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes. Perfectionism has stopped many a language-learner from progressing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4089 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 8 of 26 17 August 2014 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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A scholar went for a dip and nearly drowned. He swore that he would never go near water again until he had learned to swim.
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