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Study Plan for German and French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5336 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 10 27 February 2011 at 11:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm almost half way with Assimil German and barely with French because I'm just
completely struggling with it's pronunciation. I was wondering for French and German learners. What do you use as a plan for these languages in order? I have Assimil New French with Ease btw. I enjoy it, except the audio is completely too fast for me in it, that I feel overwhelmed in it. Edited by zekecoma on 27 February 2011 at 11:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RogerK Triglot Groupie Austria Joined 5067 days ago 92 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian Studies: Portuguese | Message 2 of 10 27 February 2011 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi zekecoma, I'm doing French With Ease at the moment and yes, I found the French pronunciation difficult to begin with. I am up to lesson 58 and even now some words are quite difficult to get my tongue and lips around initially. I have the lessons on my iPod and if I find a particular sentence or even a single word difficult I will listen to it a few times, repeating out loud of course immediately until I think I pronouncing it correctly. Usually after my first correct pronunciation I will repeat it a few times immediately to give my mouth the practice. With the iPod it is very easy to rewind a couple of seconds to re-hear a particular word. For MY tough words I write my own pronunciation tip/guide which I refer to when revising lessons. No one else would be able to understand what I have written but as long as it helps me it works.
Just in case I lost you there, break up the dialogs into groups of a few words which are managable for you. Keep on repeating and have patience. You'll get it. My passive phase is quite different to that of most other's and now I'm finding the early lessons quite easy. I'm not sure what you mean with: "What do you use as a plan for these languages in order?" So I hope I have helped you a little. Good luck and I agree with you, German pronunciation is much easier than French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6349 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 10 27 February 2011 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Have you considered using this?: FSI: Introduction to French Phonology These 10 hours of audio can't hurt, or even if you only get part way until you are too bored to continue, it can only help some. The major complaints on this forum about the FSI courses are that they are too tedious and boring, but I like them a lot because I find that the improvement I see in "conquering" each section is very motivational. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6941 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 10 28 February 2011 at 2:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm also working my way through German with Ease. According to the booklet, upon
finishing the course you should be able to enjoy native materials, albeit with a dictionary and a bit slowly at first. So I'm thinking that I'm just going to dive into native materials (children's novels, song lyrics, TV shows) after finishing the course. The only other course I might consider using as a supplement is the FSI course available online, but I'm a bit weary of how intense it is and how outdated the language might be. For French pronunciation, maybe Pimsleur would help as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5336 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 10 28 February 2011 at 3:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Main problems with me so far in the pronunciation is the Est-ce que stuff and when it
goes into a contraction due to the double vowel like que elle. etc. Also, the negate of something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LtM Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5852 days ago 130 posts - 223 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 10 28 February 2011 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Zekecoma, it may help if you put the French book aside for a bit and just listen to the audio, since written French is
so different from what a native English speaker might expect. Listen to a small section (the "Exercices" part of each Assimil lesson is a good place to start) over and over and over again. Without the "interference" from the written page, it should become easier to understand and pronounce. Also, one technique for difficult phrases (or those long German words) is to pick one phrase (or even one word) and repeat only the last syllable several times. Next, add the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable and repeat them together several times. Then add the syllable prior to that (the antepenultimate syllable). Repeat these three syllables over and over. Keep adding one syllable at a time, repeating several times after each addition. With patience and perseverance, it will get easier and more rewarding over time. You can do it. Edited by LtM on 28 February 2011 at 4:17am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5685 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 7 of 10 28 February 2011 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||
I'm no native French speaker, but... To say "est-ce que" correctly, you can basically just say "esk." "Que" + "elle" = "qu'elle," which is pronounced "kell" with an emphasized "L", as if you were about to say "Kelly" but stopped yourself just before the "eee" sound. Like the above poster said, don't worry about trying to make your pronunciation follow what's written. Just listen first, try to say it the right way, and THEN look at the writing to see how the French would write that sound you just made. If you do it this way, it's constant entertainment and unending surprises. (If you hear the wry tone in that sentence, it's because I've spent the last few months struggling with French pronunciation myself, so I feel your pain.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| crafedog Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5810 days ago 166 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Tok Pisin, French | Message 8 of 10 28 February 2011 at 6:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Do some of the Professor's shadowing. That should help you a bit. Look for some
dialogue transcripts on French 101 or a similar website if you don't want to use Assimil. If you can, try to watch some French tv (Simpsons, whatever interests you) or movies. More exposure/different voices might help. The FSI Phonology should be useful. There are other French phonology guides around from different companies so keep an eye out for them. I'd second Pimsleur. It tends to be good for lower levels (sometimes a drag at higher levels) and very good for pronunciation. My friend used it for Korean and his pronunciation improved dramatically. A strange bit of advice but you could start listening to French hip-hop/French music. The Assimil audio won't sound so quick in comparison to the music. Also don't worry about it too much. French pronunciation/speaking will seem tricky at first but that's true for many languages. It's good that you've noticed the difficulties now so you can get an early start at tackling it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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