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Why would you learn French? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5523 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes  Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 9 of 52 04 April 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tintin
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JasonE Groupie Canada Joined 5070 days ago 54 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 10 of 52 04 April 2011 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Gregorg beat me to Tintin. I watched it in English growing up, and I'm looking forward to being able to comfortably
watch it in french. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5066 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 11 of 52 04 April 2011 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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French used to be the language of elite culture a century ago and there is a lot of literature, architecture, food,
history, warfare (Napoleon for example) associated with France. On top of that, there are mountains to climb, beaches for you to tan at, cathedrals to marvel at, and books to read. There's also the TGV which is a really fast train in France if you're into that. Opera I hear is big in France and I'm sure it'd be nice to visit just the opera house if you're not into seeing the actual opera. You can read Les Miserables and marvel at Versailles or wander through the countryside that inspired Van Gogh's greatest works. Also, according to National Geographic, there's a giant system of limestone catacombs under Paris that has been used to mine stone for Parisian buildings and to bury bodies after the Parisian cemeteries filled up. Unfortunately, I think it's illegal to go down there but it adds an aura of mystery nonetheless! If you could pick any language in order to gain access to a vast amount of culture, there really isn't a language that can do that better than French. If I had more time, French is definitely the first language I would learn. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Belsk Newbie United States Joined 5072 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 52 04 April 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't speak french so I've never read any of these in the original, but if your into psychology check out jacque lecan. He really isn't main stream, his work is more of a reinterpretation of Freud, but fascinating and very influential in the humanities. Also The Little Prince is one of my favorite books from childhood. It is very well (originally in French of course) and it simple enough that you could possibly reading after a few months of study. I personally am a big fan of Michel Foucault, who was a French philosopher and historian. I hope some of this might help.
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 13 of 52 05 April 2011 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
If you knew LanguageSponge then you would realize that that is exactly what he is trying to do and trying to find tools for. (= Music: I love Freedom for King Kong, Manau and Cœur de Pirate. The mix makes sense to me. No other bands I've fallen for yet. Comics: There is a world of Franco-Belgian comics out there, comics that I used to read in German when I was younger. Old memories, old worlds I used to escape to, but with new words ands new revelations. Books: Jules Verne. There surely are many other, great writers out there, but Jules Verne is special. He's one of the authors whose stories re-appear in adapted form in many subplots or references in modern fiction. And now I can read them myself. History: I used to dislike history because I felt overwhelmed by it. Somehow, with the aid of English, Spanish and now French, I am able to learn about European history bit by bit. Not so much the who won which battle parts, but the parts about people's culture, their beliefs. The reasons why they battled rather than who won in the end. Also, the words that travelled with people and with stories. If find that utterly fascinating, and learning Spanish words that were clearly connected to German words via French words I didn't know made me feel like I actually wanted to learn French! Korean: No matter how difficult French is for me at the moment, it is much easier than Korean. Somehow, that motivates me a lot. Cute girls speaking Québécois. So cute, on par with cute Chinese girls for me! I just want to hug them. =3 I mean "there usually does exist an accent or a dialect that one finds enjoyable to listen to" 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Irish_Goon Senior Member United States Joined 6415 days ago 117 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 52 05 April 2011 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
It's 10 PM do you know where your children are? Joke. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| koba Heptaglot Senior Member AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 118 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French | Message 15 of 52 05 April 2011 at 1:51am | IP Logged | ||
I agree completely with hrhenry. It wasn't until recently, when I accepted that Spanish is an interesting language with a fascinating history and new things to offer for me, that I started making progress. Before that I was just studying it on and off and thinking "Hm, okay, an extra language, which in my case shouldn't be much difficult, but why would I need Spanish?". But I was wrong, the similarity just makes it easier for you to mix up with Portuguese and if you don't really feel a connection to the language you will never really get into it. If you really want to learn French, I'd recommend you to explore the language yourself, on websites like Wikipedia you can read about a variety of things about Belgian/French culture, or even blogs about, say, a foreigner spending some time in the country, showing his own view on it, I think that could help. If I can also add something, I would say French movies, which are of great quality and a great tool to practice and learn. Also, if you like war, history and just reading in general, there are many great French authors out there, so I'm sure you will find something that interests you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Raye Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5154 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: DutchB1 | Message 16 of 52 05 April 2011 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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To improve word attack skills (or whatever they call it nowadays) so that it doesn't always sound like Spanish when I try to read a bit of French out loud. I often think that a very little Rosetta Stone would be worth it if it would get me to that point. Edited by Raye on 05 April 2011 at 3:05am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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