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Fluency in French - unrealistic for me? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 9 of 27 06 October 2011 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's unfortunate that my reply followed yours directly, but I was merely addressing the OP's concern, not criticizing your comment.....:) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 10 of 27 08 October 2011 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Some time ago, while listening to the radio I heard an English-speaking man declare that he was too old to learn French despite living in Quebec and being married to a French-speaking Québécoise. The interviewer then asked him his age. I nearly fell off my chair when I heard the answer: 38. I could hardly believe that someone who was probably in an ideal situation to learn French had decided that he was too old to bother trying.
When people ask me how much French can I learn at a certain age, I say: as much as you want. I don't want to get into a debate over fluency, a term I detest. Let's just say that with the right methods, strategies and circumstances, anyone, and I mean anyone at any age, can make great progress in six months, more in 12 months and even more in 18 months, etc. But people are obsessed with this idea of being "fluent" after X months or years. Forget about that. If you want to measure your progress, then check out the various tests available. Otherwise, just enjoy the ride knowing that tomorrow your French will probably be better than what it is today. Edited by s_allard on 08 October 2011 at 10:24pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 11 of 27 08 October 2011 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry, I was unsure which post did you refer to. I know I must look a bit too susceptible... :-D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Remster Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4806 days ago 120 posts - 134 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, French | Message 12 of 27 11 October 2011 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it's possible, but it needs work.
I myself am learning French, but I'm not sure where to start. I can't go abroad to a French speaking country (and yes, I've taken in to account my proximity to France) nor any other country right now. Are there any tips on where to start? Preferably without having to spend a lot of money beforehand. I'd like to first get an idea that I'm atleast heading somewhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 13 of 27 11 October 2011 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
The most important thing to do is to start. Choose a method (any method) and do it. Start now with what you have. Dedicate yourself to learning and persevere. I'm in a similar situation learning Portuguese living on an island in the Caribbean with only 50,000 people. How do you think I do it? There is no Portuguese speaking community here. Our languages are English and Spanish. Brazil is over a thousand miles away and "you can't get there from here", at least not easily or inexpensively. Still, I have met two people on the island who speak Portuguese. It can be done but you're going to have to make some effort. First, start studying the language and get the basics. There are a million courses/programs out there for learning French and many are for free. Do a "g-search" here on the forum. Your question has been answered many times. This is where I agree with Benny, the Irish Polyglot. As soon as possible, find some people with whom you can speak French and start speaking. Check out his post How to learn a language pretty well starting from scratch. I like his idea of setting "mini-goals". You live in the Netherlands. There are a lot more people there than here on my tiny island- a lot more French speakers. You also have easy access to French media there. If you want to "speak" the language then you must speak. You can meet French speakers in your country on-line through couchsurfing.org, meetup.com, through forums, in bars, restaurants, cafes. You could even post a free ad. There are many French speakers in your country who want to learn Dutch. You could do a language exchange. If you can't find someone to speak with in person, go on-line. That's one of the things that I do to help me learn Portuguese. I speak it every day that I can, on-line or in person, even to myself. It's not as easy to do as immersion, but it can be done. So, yes, you can learn French for little money. Learning a language takes effort and motivation. You have to have that motivation and you're going to have to make the effort. Never give up until you reach your goal. Without motivation, without effort you will get nowhere, even if you have Assimil, French in Action, FSI/DLI French or whatever. With motivation, with effort, with perseverance you can move mountains or reclaim land from the sea in a country like Holland. FSI French Free Course DLI French Free Courses Carnegie Mellon University Free French Course RFI Le Talisman Brisé Free French Course RFI Langue Française Liberté- Creative Commons French Textbook (free) Check out the "French in Action" links on this site "g-search" (freely available via streaming in North America, more creatively so in the rest of the world). Ask your librarian about free resources available to EU citizens- Belgium must have a ton of stuff available for Flemish speakers who want to learn French Bon chance! Edited by iguanamon on 11 October 2011 at 5:33pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 14 of 27 11 October 2011 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
Instead of using terms like fluency, or scales, why not list exactly what you want to accomplish in the language, and based on an hour a day for 2-3 years, we can tell you if it's realistic.
Unless you mean understanding every little nuance of everything that's said, I disagree. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Remster Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4806 days ago 120 posts - 134 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, French | Message 15 of 27 12 October 2011 at 9:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for your answer, I agree. I do have motivation, but it's I kick my but.
The thing is however, I can't just go and meet people. I'm not talking out of self pity, certainly not, but from experience. I need to get to know someone who'll accept me for who I am. I am somewhat different, I've tried your method and agree with everything, but I'm just not sure what to do about the ''talk to a native'' part. But you are right, I'll start with immersing myself in more French. I'll just see where I'll head after that. (As long as it is in the good direction. Thanks for giving me a ''wake up slap''. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5729 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 16 of 27 13 October 2011 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Footnoted, I agree with what was said already. 2-3 years to be able to understand and participate in conversations of native speakers is a good estimation I think. It wouldn't also hurt if you added more input to your one hour a day learning schedule. Put some music or podcasts in French on your ipod and listen to it any spare time you have. It really helps.
I am too learning French and I think that worrying about not knowing any native speakers of French is pointless. What would you talk to them about anyway? Afer a month or two of studies you could barely understand anything let alone have a good conversation. Just focus on what you can do on your own with the help on internet access (and there is a lot one can do) and keep going. You really needn't hurry with the speaking part. Read and listen and you'll get there eventually. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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