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Why would you learn French? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 1 of 52 04 April 2011 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I seem to remember the administrator wrote a thread a little similar to this for German some time ago. Forgive me if something like this has been done for French before. I'm a bit frustrated with myself about this. I learnt French in school for seven years and gave it up for effectively three years right after I left school. I didn't intend on picking it up again. As fate would have it though, my girlfriend of nearly half a year now is Belgian, from Brussels. Cutting a long and painful story short (imagine daily arguments, blood (purely theoretical), sweat and very literal tears), I need to learn it - and I'm sorry if I offend any Franco/Gallophiles or native French speakers here, but I really can't find much motivation for it. While I've never really been able to put my finger on why I don't get on with it, I imagine it's to do with bad experiences in school. Ordinarily I'd forget the language and get on with everything else but partly due to stubbornness, partly due to language nerdity (I will not be beaten by a language however much I presently find it difficult to get on with) and also because it's very important to my other half, I need to tame it once and for all.
So, putting the story aside perhaps, if my rant didn't tell you very much, why would anyone in their right mind learn French? I don't care how seemingly insignificant the reason might be, throw it out there - a period of history, a comic, a novel (I hate translated novels), a TV show (I don't care if it's Belgian, French, Quebecois or what age-group it's aimed at, it could be for five year olds, I don't care), songs, singers, groups, fields in which the different Francophone cultures are specialised - my girlfriend always rabbits on about how Belgian chocolate, waffles, beer and oddly enough, chips, are the best, while her friend's dad works in wine around Bordeaux in some way or other, which is obviously something France is good at. If you can think of it, write it down here, however small or seemingly insignificant a reason. If it would help, my main interests are of course languages, linguistics, psychology, war studies (any branch, it all fascinates me), history, scuba diving, rugby, archery and horse riding, if anyone knows of anything in French or anything which somehow connects France, Belgium, Québec, to these things... But of course, anything not mentioned above could possibly just be something I've overlooked. Thank you very much to anyone who contributes in any constructive way, Jack PS - This may be in the wrong room, I'd be grateful, if it is, if it were moved to the right one. Edit - spelling, bits and pieces of embarrassingly wrong English grammar, etc. Edit 2 - Chopped it around a bit to make it sound more neutral. Edited by LanguageSponge on 07 April 2011 at 12:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 52 04 April 2011 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the suggestion - I'll look into that one. My French isn't bad, particularly my passive French, I will get the gist of most things, complicated or not. I should probably have mentioned that to begin with. So if anyone doesn't write down an idea because they think my French won't be good enough to understand it, assume that it will be, because even though I don't like it that much, it's not bad.
Thanks for any further suggestions, Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 52 04 April 2011 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've lived in England. I love the UK, but, your girlfriend is spot-on right mate. I'll take Belgian chocolate any day over Cadbury's or Galaxy, ditto for Belgian beer. Their chips and waffles are, indeed, out of this world!
French will be next on my list after I progress far enough with Portuguese. For me, the opportunity to watch French films without subtitles (have you seen "Micmacs" yet!) and read great classic and modern French writers, like Amelie Nothomb, Andre Malraux, Diderot and Balzac are more than enough motivation for me. Vive le monde francophone! As far as scuba diving goes, ever hear of Jacques Cousteau? France has island territories right here in the Caribbean with fantastic diving off of French St Martin, Guadeloupe and Martinique. France has Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Marquesas and New Caledonia in the Pacific. Why not start planning your next holiday with your girlfriend on a tropical French island and get scuba certified or refreshed en français! Obviously, your language interests lie elsewhere right now, judging from your post and your list. Sometimes life throws you curveballs (baseball metaphor). The best hitters know how to swing at what is thrown to them and still get a hit. Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something. You are in the fortunate position to be able to advance your French quite rapidly and personally in a most fun and enjoyable way. I'd rather learn French from my girlfriend than Assimil! Edited by iguanamon on 04 April 2011 at 5:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 5 of 52 04 April 2011 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find the question a bit strange, frankly. There are two main reasons for learning a foreign language: necessity and/or interest. And I put romantic love under those headings. So, if you have no interest in things French-speaking, that takes care of that part of the equation. And, of course, if there is no obligation, then there is no point of learning French. Admittedly, there's nothing like romance to awaken linguistic curiosity. All of a sudden, lots of things become interesting. If you're still searching for reasons to learn French, I'd say you'd better wait until something pops up.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 6 of 52 04 April 2011 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok, here's one reason: French animated cinema is the 3rd most significant in the world, after that of the USA and Japan.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 52 04 April 2011 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have some bad news for you: You will NOT learn French.
Not with your current attitude, anyway. You apparently loathe it. And before you'll ever find anything positive about the language, you're going to have to drop the pure negativity you've got towards the language. The above suggestions may help, but until you find a way to really get rid of the negativity, you will probably fail at learning French. Sorry if that sounds fatalistic. R. == 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 8 of 52 04 April 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
Good point! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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