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French in Action - My Review | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6285 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes  Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 9 of 72 25 November 2007 at 6:18am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Terry,
I can't say how much, because I have had previous French exposure in the past. But I can say for sure, that even in Lesson 1, I was able to learn new things.
I think you could start using FIA right away, if you have the texts. If you don't, then it may be harder to get real value out of FIA early, it may be wise to do other programs before FIA, and use FIA as a 'comprehension meter.' I really you're doing yourself an injustice if you don't use the texts/audio with FIA, because FIA really packs in alot of stuff in it's course. FIA is the type of program, that can be your main study/input source, and it will keep you really busy if you work with texts/audio in addition to the videos. Personally, using FIA after Pimsleur might be a good idea. Doing FIA with FSI concurrently may be worthwhile, as FIA can help with a bit of boredom/burn-out you get from FSI, since they are both very large comprehensive programs and align quite nicely.
The difference here is that FIA uses Videos. Therefore, translation is not like. L2 word/phrase --> L1 word/phrase but more like L2 word/phrase --> Image/Action/Emotion etc. So what happens is that you essentially connect words/phrases to images, pictures, ideas instead of your L1. This is good because, the scalability and speed of understanding through pictures can often be faster than words. In real-life, full-speed conversation, it is virtually impossible to translate. "A picture is worth a thousand words" is really the way to sum up FIA. If anything, I think FIA would be great for beginners, since it may prevent them at early stages falling into the trap of translation and learn the language at an aural level. Edited by xtremelingo on 25 November 2007 at 6:21am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| HTale Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6376 days ago 164 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French | Message 10 of 72 25 November 2007 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Not at all. I think it's quite ahead of its time in that respect. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7090 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 72 25 November 2007 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
xtremelingo, Thanks for this topic. I've used French in Action from cover to cover a couple of times and loved every minute of it. After using the course its a mystery to me why people would waste time with a 10,000 phrase method or the listening reading method for learning French when Dr. Capretz has already done much of the hard up front. There are a couple of points I'd like to add. The audio portion of the course includes a heavy does of the audio-lingual method. The difference between FIA and FSI is that the Capretz method uses question & answer and "you play the role" style drills rather than pattern drills. Dr. Capretz also makes heavy use of charts and fonts to illustrate grammar points in the workbooks. That's a big extra if you are a visual learner. You mentioned that Pimsleur would be a good icebreaker. I don't know if you tried it but Michel Thomas make a good icebreaker too. Also xtremelingo, you made an excellent case for using French in Action as it was designed. I've made some recommendations in the past to watch the videos up front to get the meaning and then take on the audio and the workbooks. Either approach will work; you make a good case for using the "method". John 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mcjon77 Senior Member United States Joined 6609 days ago 193 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Egyptian), French | Message 12 of 72 26 November 2007 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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FIA was the text my university used for teaching the first 2 years of French. A great program that was ruined for me by poor instruction on the part of the teachers. I can't watch those FIA videos without them triggering the negative feelings I had in French class. A shame, because it is a really nice course.
A little FIA triva. The girl who is the star of the FIA videos (Mireille, the older sister) wound up doing more videos of the "adult" variety after FIA. Edited by mcjon77 on 26 November 2007 at 3:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7142 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 13 of 72 26 November 2007 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Re FIA trivia, if I'm not mistaken, the actress who played "Mireille" in the series, Velarie Allain, had the same name as another French actress who appeared widely in porn films. The latter supposedly was killed in a motorcycle accident a few years ago, while "Mireille" still works as an actress. Her [presumably mostly male] admirers from the FIA series built up a sort of cult around her and tried to track her down. The confustion with the porn actress helped to keep interest up, evidently.
The Wikipedia article on her (which doesn't mention her namesake the porn actress) has links to a Yahoo group, a recent photo, related blogs, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val%C3%A9rie_Allain Edited by daristani on 26 November 2007 at 3:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mcjon77 Senior Member United States Joined 6609 days ago 193 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Egyptian), French | Message 14 of 72 26 November 2007 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you, daristani, for destroying a fantasy I've had since my youth. :)
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| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6355 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 15 of 72 27 November 2007 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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(( (Mireille, the older sister) wound up doing more videos of the "adult" variety after FIA. )) Wouldn't that be more like "Mireille In Action" then? (g) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sulis Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6449 days ago 60 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 16 of 72 27 November 2007 at 7:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Actually, it is true. I myself have seen video clips of her in her more "adult" movies. And it was most definitely "Mireille" no mistake about it. There are various videos floating around the internet.
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