agantik Triglot Senior Member France Joined 4633 days ago 217 posts - 335 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German, Norwegian
| Message 417 of 568 14 December 2013 at 7:37am | IP Logged |
Congratulations on your achievements! Just dropping by to say hello and good luck with your studies in
French! If you need my help I'm here, your humble servant and Godmother to the French team :)
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renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 418 of 568 14 December 2013 at 9:27am | IP Logged |
Hi, we are team mates on the french team.
I noticed you as well want to revive french, and you chose assimil. I am at the exact place as you, and I was considering the assimil from 1940s. Which one are you studying from?
Bonne chance et au revoir!
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sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5389 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish
| Message 419 of 568 14 December 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
Hekje wrote:
I'm also working on my French r when I repeat after the Assimil. We were
never really taught that there was a
French r in school - what a horrible oversight, right? - so I have to build it in now
from scratch.
Right now my r is like a thinner version of the Dutch g that happens further forward in
my mouth and I know
it sounds horribly exaggerated. But I think with time things will smooth out. Je suis
excité en tout cas d'avoir la
chance de corriger l'erreur. |
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I too wasn't really taught the French r in high school. She kind of introduced it in
the first days (when we were picking French names and one wanted to be Marc) but being
teenagers we all kind of laughed at the notion of pronouncing things the proper way so
she dropped it.
It's not perfect now but at least it's not an English retroflex r. One thing that
really helps is to remember to keep your tongue down behind your lower teeth. Once I
was getting that, what I found most difficult was pronouncing the r as part of
consonant clusters (pr, tr, br, vr, etc). Someone gave me the tip of just practicing
saying "ta ra" over and over again until I was eventually able to merge them. It helped
a lot!
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Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4701 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 420 of 568 16 December 2013 at 6:31pm | IP Logged |
agantik wrote:
Congratulations on your achievements! Just dropping by to say hello and good luck with your
studies in French! If you need my help I'm here, your humble servant and Godmother to the French team :)
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Merci beaucoup! C'est très gentil, ça. :-)
renaissancemedi wrote:
Hi, we are team mates on the french team.
I noticed you as well want to revive french, and you chose assimil. I am at the exact place as you, and I was
considering the assimil from 1940s. Which one are you studying from?
Bonne chance et au revoir! |
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Hi renaissancemedi, nice to meet you! I believe I'm using New French With Ease, the version from 2008. (Not at
home right now, I'll double-check later.)
I'm very curious to see how our French will develop this year! Bonne chance!
sctroyenne wrote:
I too wasn't really taught the French r in high school. She kind of introduced it in the first
days (when we were picking French names and one wanted to be Marc) but being teenagers we all kind of
laughed at the notion of pronouncing things the proper way so she dropped it.
It's not perfect now but at least it's not an English retroflex r. One thing that really helps is to remember to keep
your tongue down behind your lower teeth. Once I was getting that, what I found most difficult was pronouncing
the r as part of consonant clusters (pr, tr, br, vr, etc). Someone gave me the tip of just practicing saying "ta ra"
over and over again until I was eventually able to merge them. It helped a lot! |
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Thanks for your extremely helpful post, sctroyenne. I've practiced a bit based on your advice (holding my tongue
behind my teeth) and I think it really does sound better.
I feel like when I "ta ra" really fast it turns into more of a tap than a... what it should be, but possibly I'm doing it
wrong? Anyway, I have a year to work it out ( :-P ). Good luck with your French studies! Go French Team!
1 person has voted this message useful
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sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5389 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish
| Message 421 of 568 16 December 2013 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
Hekje wrote:
I feel like when I "ta ra" really fast it turns into more of a tap than a... what it
should be, but possibly I'm doing it
wrong? Anyway, I have a year to work it out ( :-P ). Good luck with your French studies!
Go French Team! |
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This was especially to help a problem I had with pronouncing a consonant in front of my
mouth with my tongue up followed quickly by putting my tongue back down and pronouncing
from back in my throat, which I had trouble doing quickly.Separating the consonants
helped me build up to being able to do it quickly.
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Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4701 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 422 of 568 16 December 2013 at 9:24pm | IP Logged |
sctroyenne wrote:
This was especially to help a problem I had with pronouncing a consonant in front of my
mouth with my tongue up followed quickly by putting my tongue back down and pronouncing from back in my
throat, which I had trouble doing quickly.Separating the consonants helped me build up to being able to do it
quickly. |
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Ah, I see what you mean! Aand I'm pretty sure the intern just gave me a weird look for trying to silently practice this
at work. :-P
Edited by Hekje on 16 December 2013 at 9:25pm
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tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian
| Message 423 of 568 16 December 2013 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
What sound do you use for the R in your Dutch?
Just curious, since I know that a uvular R is used in some parts of the Netherlands.
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Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4701 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 424 of 568 16 December 2013 at 9:44pm | IP Logged |
tastyonions wrote:
What sound do you use for the R in your Dutch?
Just curious, since I know that a uvular R is used in some parts of the Netherlands. |
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I trill/tap it.
Thanks for organizing the French Team, by the way.
1 person has voted this message useful
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