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Lack of speaking practice? | ||
Tags: Speaking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4913 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 6 12 March 2013 at 1:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello all!
I have been working on my French as of this year, and I am happy to say that I am currently happy with where I am at. I go to school in Ohio, which for those of you not familiar with the area, does not (at least to my knowledge!) contain a large number of French speakers. Thus, I took it upon myself to try to find a speaking partner. This was the first time so far in my "polyglot career" that I have ever really had to cope with a scarcity of natives; even with Quechua I had all the speaking practice I could ever want! (and more :P) I e-mailed the French department at my university asking for a "spoken tutor" and they said they didn't do that, but there was a "French club" and they assigned me this American girl who's a French major as a tutor, for 10$ an hour. We arranged to meet weekly, and I said that all I wanted was to converse in French and for her to correct me and ask me challenging questions that I had to respond to etc. etc. I met for an hour last week, and it went well, except that her spoken French is around the same level, if not worse, than my own. I would tentatively guess that my speaking is around B1-ish. I can converse fairly easily and comfortably, but I of course sometimes have to rephrase things and talk around a lack of vocabulary etc. She would probably be around the same level, but it's hard to gauge as her accent is very American. I feel I am benefiting from this, and if nothing else it is an excuse for me to study more and improve, but I really wonder how far I can advance given that I at times felt like I was her tutor. What should I do to try and benefit as much as possible? if anything it's kind of like expensive self-talking, and it's getting me used to using my mouth to speak French. If nothing else, what should I have her plan for a lesson? Should I have her try to ask me questions about some sort of news or other thing in French? She thinks it's very unorthodox, but she's cool with it, and I know that in order to improve my French, I need to actually speak; I don't want to go down the same road she did and spend 10+ years studying, and not be able to communicate how I'd like to! Thank you! ~Danny EDIT: My skills in French would be... Reading: B1-(almost)B2 Writing: B1 Speaking: weak B1 Listening: A2 (my weakest skill!) (the reason my skills are so scattered is precisely due to inadequate speaking practice, I had to read and write wayyy more often than I normally would like to!) Edited by drp9341 on 12 March 2013 at 1:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4312 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 2 of 6 12 March 2013 at 1:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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When I wanted to practice Spanish quick and easy I used verbling.com, it is like chat roulette, where you are pared with a partner in the language of your choice. Italki.com is another solid option. Once you find a person you can converse with easily on either site, then you can keep practicing with them and make a French (or Belgian etc) friend!
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4913 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 6 12 March 2013 at 2:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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@Leroc
I've used both before, but face to face conversations, to me at least, feel very different than skype correspondence. But this could be due to the fact that I have a mild stutter that turns to a not-so-mild stutter over phones/videochat haha :P 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 4 of 6 12 March 2013 at 2:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Try italki.com/french for free online skype practice and/or a paid tutor for about the same price. Much better to practice with a native speaker, be they French, Qebecois, or African.
Also try glovico.org fairtrade French for a French tutor for about €8/hour. I agree with the verbling recommendation. Language exchanges can be a great way to practice, but for correction and analysis, a paid native-speaker tutor is usually better. A paid, native-speaker, skype tutor can make a big difference in your learning, even at only one hour a week. It really helps tie things together for me. For some convenient listening practice (since you live in Ohio), I don't know if you are aware that you can listen to French over your car/home radio via 50,000 watt CJBC AM 860, Radio-Canada, out of Toronto. It's especially clear at night and should be listenable, depending upon how far north you are in the Buckeye State, even in the daytime. Edited by iguanamon on 12 March 2013 at 2:32am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4848 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 5 of 6 12 March 2013 at 3:40am | IP Logged | |||||
This brought back memories of my childhood in Atlanta, when I used to turn on my little plastic radio and go to sleep to the sounds of AM radio from as far away as Canada! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5101 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 6 12 March 2013 at 3:54am | IP Logged | |||||
In Atlanta? That's further south than I am. I'm going to have to look into this. Do you happen to remember the station, by any chance? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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