Learning French - best study plan? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Learning French - best study plan?
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

27 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4 Next >>

rufusadams
Newbie
United States
Joined 5324 days ago
6 posts - 6 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 17 of 27

15 May 2010 at 1:18am | IP Logged

s_allard wrote:

The various suggestions so far seem very useful to me. I would like
to add however that at some point you have to consider a visit to a country where the
language is spoken. In North America the place to go is Quebec. This does not have to
wait until you are fluent. Quite the contrary, I believe a visit when one is still in a
relatively early stage is very exciting because the language comes alive. You'll see it
on road signs, store windows; you'll hear it spoken around you; you'll have to deal
with menus in restaurants every day. This can be really exciting and very stimulating.
And you'll find that your knowledge takes a large jump.

This does not have to be a long visit. Just a little weekend jaunt could be very useful
and exciting. Bring a dictionary and some study materials. In a sense you could set up
your own little immersion program.

I actually started learning french because of my first visit to Quebec ( I went to
Montreal in March )... A few weekends ago I went to Sherbrooke and had some of my first
chances to practice my french. I'll be going back to Quebec (this time to Quebec City)
for St Jean Baptiste at the end of June and hope to practice some more.
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Desacrator48
Groupie
United States
Joined 5309 days ago
93 posts - 127 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, French

Message 18 of 27

15 May 2010 at 7:11am | IP Logged

Andy E wrote:

Desacrator48 wrote:

My only question right now for you guys is at what level of French do you think I might be at after completing Pimsleur I-III and really familiarizing myself with French in Action? And what could I do next on a self-study basis after Pimsleur and FIC to continue improving my French?

Assuming by "really familiarising" you mean complete the course :-), then Assimil would be an option but I would only bother with the advanced Using French course.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night of FIA. I really liked the orientation video, and then I REALLY enjoyed the actual first episode of French in Action. Since I have already been studying French for about a month, I understood a lot of what was said in the first video. I really liked what I have seen from only this first episode, and I will definitely be finishing this series and watching each episode at least twice. Thanks for letting me know how good FIA really is.

Also, I sent you a PM, if you get a chance to read it. :)
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TerryW
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6358 days ago
370 posts - 783 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 19 of 27

17 May 2010 at 12:23am | IP Logged

polywannabe wrote:

@Terry - you know, I never thought of combining the programs together. Don't you find it confusing? My original thought that after completing one approach I'll be ready to advance to the next one.

Well, don't all school kids have classes in math, science, history, English, etc. every day for 1/2 to 1 hour each, and then pick up where they left off on all of them every day?

For something like the Michel T.s, since the Foundation and Advanced courses are only what, 8 hours and 5 hours each, you should probsbly just do them unaccompanied with other courses (although maybe stick something else in between them).

But if you think it would be more interesting, Pimsleur and Assimil should work doing them simultaneously. Pimsleur is more for really getting you to form and speak sentences in your target language than Assimil (although some may disagree), since it just constantly asks you "How do you say this?" and "How would you answer this lady on the bus?"

And Assimil is good for reading, writing, more vocabulary, and more varied phrases and sentences than Pimsleur (which I think all would agree.)

I really can't imagine that there would be any "interference" studying both at once.
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maaku
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5575 days ago
359 posts - 562 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 20 of 27

17 May 2010 at 6:46am | IP Logged

polywannabe wrote:

My main idea for this study plan is that one program will help prime me for the next one. However, at the same time, I don't want to be too obsessive about it and if there are no major benefits for using Pimselur (for example, make assimil easier), then maybe I should skip it.

I would do theme in parallel. There's no reason to wait until you are done with one to start another. And realistically, jumping between allows you to switch when one course is giving you trouble and still make progress. Otherwise (if you're like me), you'd probably just quit, fall of the wagon, and move on to the next thing if you insisted on doing them in series and ran into trouble.

Also, I would get the old Assimil "Without Toil", not the new, watered down "With Ease." There's a world of a difference between the two.

Edited by maaku on 17 May 2010 at 6:49am
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s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5431 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes

Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

Message 21 of 27

17 May 2010 at 2:21pm | IP Logged

After you've got a handle on the basics of French, maybe about three months down the road, you may want to look at a very interesting product that comes from Montreal. It's in the form of a large wall calendar with 12 themes and lots of useful daily examples. I use the Spanish edition, and I find it really efficient because I look at the examples every day. But it would be overwhelming for beginners. For the French edition all the examples are recorded on the website that you can visit for free. I'm still waiting for the Spanish recordings. I bought my calendar at a bookstore in Montreal, but I it can be ordered on the web from www.langcal.com.

While I'm at it and since you are coming to Quebec, here's a quick grammatical tip. Québec is the name of the province and also the name of the provincial capital. In English one says "I'm going to Quebec" and "I'm going to Quebec City". In French, one does use "la ville de Québec" in certain cases, but the most common way to distinguish the two meanings is with the preposition: "Je vais au Québec" means "I'm going to the province of Québec" and "Je vais à Québec" is "I'm going to Quebec city". Similarly "à Québec" could mean "in Quebec City" and "au Québec" means "in the province". Actually, the general rule is to use the "à" form when referring to cities and localities, as in "à Paris, à Rome, à New York, à Ottawa, à Toronto, etc."

Similarly on says "du Québec" for the province and "de Québec" for the city. But I'll let you figure out the rest with any good guide to French grammar.

Edited by s_allard on 17 May 2010 at 4:54pm
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polywannabe
Newbie
United States
Joined 5316 days ago
35 posts - 43 votes
Speaks: English*

Message 22 of 27

17 May 2010 at 7:23pm | IP Logged

Quote:

Also, I would get the old Assimil "Without Toil", not the new, watered down "With Ease." There's a world of a difference between the two.

I thought it was the other way around...isn't the new Assimil (with ease) better then the older version (without toil)??

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tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5454 days ago
1349 posts - 2292 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

Message 23 of 27

17 May 2010 at 7:33pm | IP Logged

polywannabe wrote:

Quote:

Also, I would get the old Assimil "Without Toil", not the new, watered down "With
Ease." There's a world of a difference between the two.

I thought it was the other way around...isn't the new Assimil (with ease) better then the older version (without toil)?
?

I don't know about French, but at least German without Toil is better than German with Ease IMHO.
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maaku
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5575 days ago
359 posts - 562 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 24 of 27

18 May 2010 at 4:56am | IP Logged

polywannabe wrote:

Quote:

Also, I would get the old Assimil "Without Toil", not the new, watered down "With Ease." There's a world of a difference between the two.

I thought it was the other way around...isn't the new Assimil (with ease) better then the older version (without toil)??

No. But I think I know what you're thinking of. There are generally three editions of Assimil--the old 1950's, the 1980's revision, and the new sets of revisions that are just now coming out in various languages. The newest revision is better than the 80's version which was dreadful. But still, nothing beats the original Assimil courses.

Too bad they weren't available for many non-European languages.

EDIT: Though, it's all a matter of opinion of course.

Edited by maaku on 18 May 2010 at 4:58am

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