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Is it how I learned it, or what? | ||
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 6 28 August 2014 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I learned french with the idea more of using it passively than actually using it in any form of communication, like online or person to person. I've noticed that I'm very good at listening to, and occasionally reading (this still needs some work). However even among words I know, when I come across them on radio, and in movies, like if I wanted to use Savoir in a sentence it'd take me an hour to remember how the grammar worked. Is it simply a case of being overly nervous about it? Or like I asked is it how I approached learning? Like I said before, I wanted to be able to listen to and read more than speak when I first started.
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5589 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 2 of 6 28 August 2014 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, passive skills in languages do not produce automatically active skills. If you only read and hear, you cannot produce instantaneous utterances and spontaneous writing is painful
If you want to speak French, there is no way around that stadium of stuttering and stumbling in the language, even if you can read fluenty Voltaire, Balzac and Zola. No free meal, sorry (but if will come faster). 5 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 3 of 6 28 August 2014 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you don't practice doing something (whether that's dancing or composing sentences) you don't get good at it. As a result, if you try doing it you will find that you are not very good at it.
It's not how you learned it. It's how you haven't learned it, yet. Being nervous might slow you down, but it's much less of a hindrance than lack of practice. You don't get good at something purely by watching others do something well. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5522 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 6 28 August 2014 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Some people, including the researcher Stephen Krashen and Khatzumoto of AJATT fame, believe that if you listen enough, you'll eventually learn to speak automatically. And there are some famous cases studies of this happening. The funniest explanation of this viewpoint is probably Khatzumoto's Language is peeing article, which basically says, "If you drink enough, the output will take carte of itself." But as far as I can tell, it doesn't work like this for everybody. I live in an area with a lot of heritage learners, who hear one language at home from their parents and who use another language in the outside world. (One local high-school class of 20 students counted and found that they spoke 12 languages.) I know various families who speak French and Spanish and Hebrew and Hungarian at home. And in a lot of cases, the kids are just like you: they understand the language pretty well, but they don't really ever speak it. The ones who are old enough to talk about their experiences often say much the same things you do—they're not sure how to conjugate verbs, etc., or how to assemble everything into a sentence. Fortunately, it's possible to turn receptive skills into speaking skills. Here are two things I would suggest: 1. Speak! Speak lots and lots. When I first started speaking French at home, it was crazy difficult, and it felt like my brain was going to melt. But after two weeks, things got a lot easier. After six weeks, it felt almost natural to speak French. (Really high-level skills take longer. But basic speaking can come quickly if you're willing to overload your poor brain for a bit.) 2. Write regularly and get your writing corrected by native speakers. Focus on short, conversational pieces (50 to 100 words), preferably about the kinds of subjects you'd like to talk about. This will help you slow down and pay attention to parts of French that you've been glossing over. When you get corrected, try to notice corresponding examples in your input. See my post about lang-8 for further suggestions. Edited by emk on 28 August 2014 at 8:19pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 6 29 August 2014 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I tend to believe that those who can't convert listening and reading to speaking don't do (at least) one of these enough. Of course it can also be a matter of priorities. The mindset also matters, though. If you prefer that, I think slowing down and reading attentively is a good idea. Try GLOSS, lyricstraining and simply scriptorium. Edited by Serpent on 29 August 2014 at 8:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 6 30 August 2014 at 3:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Try to tell yourself what you did yesterday or what is going on around you in French.
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