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French Listening Comprehension!? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4728 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes  Speaks: Czech* | Message 9 of 18 04 February 2012 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Please read my post again, that's not what I said. I said that Sandman is wrong about spoken and written French being the same and I'm sure I'm not wrong about that.
Maybe you can find some materials that teach spoken French but I don't know any. Some of them simply lie. They may claim to teach "modern colloquial French" but contain phrases like "je ne sais pas". In general it's very frustrating. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6114 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 10 of 18 04 February 2012 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@drp9341
One way to help is to slow the language down by finding the right materials for your level. I've searched around and I think Écoute is slow for spoken French (at least compared to the way it's normally spoken). Nicolas Dambre has a rather nice voice and the topics are interesting. It's possible to invest in the scripts too but I never did. I just listen to each podcast at least twice and each time I'm able to pick out another word or two. In addition to that, stay with Assimil and study/repeat the lessons. I don't know which Assimil it is but if it's the first one it will take you to B1. It's a bit early to expect to understand French TV (your French animation series for example).. Listen to slow-spoken French until your ears get used to deciphering the sounds. The more short intervals (15-20 minutes) per day the better. If you listen hours at a time then you might run the risk of losing your active concentration and at that point listening becomes less effective, IMO. edit: I see you have Italian and Spanish listed in your profile. Just out of curiosity how did you learn to understand those? Edited by Sunja on 04 February 2012 at 11:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5327 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 11 of 18 05 February 2012 at 1:30am | IP Logged | |||||
A very good book imho is Colloquial French Grammar by Rodney Ball. It does not frustrate me at all ... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5038 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 12 of 18 05 February 2012 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think we got in a little misunderstanding of which "spoken French" comprehension are we talking about. There is correct French spoken out loud and there is colloquial French. You can have trouble with either of them at various points of learning. The OP gives an exemple of a show Albert le 5e musquetaire which he doesn't understand as much as he had expected. I have just watched first episode and I'd say most characters speak correct French, they just speak it fast (faster than audiobooks, news or even than normal conversation at some parts, which is understandable considering the circumstances :-)). So, the trouble does not lie in colloquial French, as you suppose, but just in listening comprehension as Sandman seemed to speak of. Therefore in this particular case, there is no reason for using rare resources on colloquial French or for giving up with the argument "French from courses is useless". I think watching the episodes several times should help. And by the way, I'd like to thank the original poster for a tip on a nice show. Even though it is meant for children, it is quite fun :-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4941 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 18 07 February 2012 at 5:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you so much for all the responses!
@Sunja I learned Italian listening comprehension from being thrown in Italy every summer, And Spanish because I watched Telemundo all day long for about 4 months. The thing is I know I could bang away at french for enough time and then learn to understand it! But I was/am looking for a shortcut/better strategy than just a bombardment of TV shows! I will keep up at Assimil, as I feel like it is helping a lot as far as comprehension is concerned. I am also paying more attention to the rythm of the sentence, the stress on the words, and the vowels, and trying to be able to distinguish the vowels from one another. And I think it's working well so far. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6626 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 18 07 February 2012 at 8:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Can it be part of the problem that you're translating things in your head? Try to learn it via Spanish and/or Italian to get away from the native language link. Chances are the L2-L3 link won't be quite as strong.
Seconding the rec for audiobook+written text. Not so sure about LR as you need to form the link between the written and spoken French.
Great point, yes. I often agree with LaughingChimp but that's indeed an important distinction that should get more attention in discussions on this topic. (only, rather than correct I'd say standard) Edited by Serpent on 07 February 2012 at 9:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5038 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 15 of 18 07 February 2012 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks Serpent, standard is definitely a better word.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6114 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 16 of 18 07 February 2012 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm envious! :)
My problem area is listening. When I learned German I watched x-number of hours of TV per day but I can't do that anymore. One reason is I don't have the time and the other reason is that I don't think TV shows offer me very much at the listening level I'm currently at. I'm too busy watching the actors "act" and I forget to focus on what they're saying. My time is also really limited so I stick with podcasts or Assimil. Assimil gets boring so if I'm at home I'll tune in to France24.com. Another thing I like to watch are celeb interviews, but that's only if I know what they're being interviewed for ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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