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FSI French or Assimil French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 9 of 21 14 April 2013 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Actually I've had English people speaking like this trip me up. I was in France once on my own in some beautiful Bretagne seaside town, and there were like two buses a day out of there (of course I misread the schedule and had to detour). There was a man who wanted to know when the bus went, but he didn't speak any French, so he asked me in what is the thickest English accent I've ever heard in my life: "Parlay-vous anglay?" It took me four times to repeat that before I got what he was trying to say, and I speak both English and French. It is a lot better to focus on getting that 'r' right. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6664 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 10 of 21 14 April 2013 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thanks for the detailed response emk. The pronunciation is the biggest factor that is making me hesitant to really start French, but it sounds like that initial difficulty doesn't last too long. Edited by Talib on 14 April 2013 at 3:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 11 of 21 14 April 2013 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I agree reading and pronouncing French is one of the trickier parts of starting French.
I can read Ancient Greek, the Devanagari script (for Hindi), and can manage pointed Hebrew text. German was easy because, though different from English, at least it is regular. But since French uses the same script as English, but is quite different and has a lot of inconsistencies, it is really difficult for an English speaker to get around. I can't believe nobody mentioned it (including myself), but there is an FSI Phonology course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 21 14 April 2013 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yeah, don't let French pronunciation scare you. Once you get though the first month of a course like Assimil, it gets a lot easier, and you'll be able to guess the pronunciation of a word more than 95% of the time (the other 5%, you can still get really close). You can find the major pronunciation rules on Wikipedia, but really, if you spend much time working with French recordings and the corresponding text, your brain will work most of these rules out on its own. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6664 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 13 of 21 15 April 2013 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I guess I just need to be consistent with the study and give the pronunciation some time to sink in. I'll give Assimil another try and see how it goes.
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| mike245 Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6975 days ago 303 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Cantonese Studies: French, German, Mandarin, Khmer | Message 14 of 21 15 April 2013 at 9:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I agree with this, and would also add that based on my experience, difficulties pronouncing the French r" is one indication of a native English speaker, which may cause some French speakers to switch to English if they know this is your native tongue. I noticed this a lot when I was in Paris and saw other Americans attempting to interact with the locals. I don't think my accent is anything close to fluent or native sounding, but since I use the French "r" rather than English "r," people didn't automatically assume I was American and switch to English.
I completed two levels of Pimsleur before I started on Assimil, and felt like that was enough time to start "hearing" French and mimicking its sounds. Like you, I had a tough time when I first started Assimil, especially when I saw the spelling of words like "maintenant" or "eau" for the first time. But since I was still in the passive wave, I didn't focus too much attention to spelling and just kept listening to the recordings and reading along. Just like emk mentioned, it took about a month or two for me after starting Assimil to get the hang of pronunciation based on the written words, which coincided well with the start of the active wave. Good luck with your French studies! EDIT: Changed to reflect tarvos' correction that I was referring to uvular and retroflex "R" sounds, rather than a tapped "R." Edited by mike245 on 15 April 2013 at 11:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 15 of 21 15 April 2013 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Tapping your r would at least mean you could speak with some ancient rural accent, most
Americans stick with their retroflex one. The French r is uvular and takes some getting used to for people who do not have it in their native language (I do have it). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mike245 Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6975 days ago 303 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Cantonese Studies: French, German, Mandarin, Khmer | Message 16 of 21 15 April 2013 at 10:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I meant to write that most Americans stick to the
English "r" sound, I guess retroflex, which is a pretty clear giveaway of a native English speaker. I am still getting used to all these linguistics terms! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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