DaveC Newbie Canada Joined 5375 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 1 of 16 14 May 2011 at 8:07am | IP Logged |
Hi, I'm in my early 30s and was going to attempt to try and learn a new language. Being Canadian I decided to choose French, however I'm not totally sure where to start. I briefly (a couple days) tried out Rosetta Stone some years ago however didn't really feel it was for me. Any suggestions to programs or software would be highly appreciated. I did try and search around a bit (mind you, only using the search term 'learn french') with little to no success on the forum.
I've seen 'French in Action' come up a few times, is that a good place for a beginner? I was looking at French learning at about.com, however it wasn't structured enough for my liking. Any and all suggestions appreciated. Thanks!
Dave
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Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5335 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona
| Message 2 of 16 14 May 2011 at 8:17am | IP Logged |
Assimil/Colloquial/Teach Yourself/Pimsleur
All have different methods (more or less) and all are decent programs. Try some of them
out! (If you get pimsleur I suggest working it into another course because pimsleur is
all audio so it's good for listening/speaking)
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DaveC Newbie Canada Joined 5375 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 3 of 16 14 May 2011 at 8:22am | IP Logged |
I tried Pimsleur for Japanese about 10 years ago, I hated it, it was expensive and far too simple. I'll have a go at Teach Yourself, thank-you for the suggestion, Akao.
Is the course by itself enough to develop fluency?
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DaveC Newbie Canada Joined 5375 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 4 of 16 14 May 2011 at 8:25am | IP Logged |
Just looked it over, it appears that no, it isn't. Is this the Colloquial program you were referring to? (I hope links are allowed, if not my appologies)
http://www.orbislingua.com/colloquial-french.htm
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DaveC Newbie Canada Joined 5375 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 5 of 16 14 May 2011 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
Found a bit of 'French in Action' streaming online, seems like an interesting idea, unfortunately audio quality is a bit poor. Seems like an expensive set of videos ($450), don't think I'm really to put down that kind of money yet.
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 6 of 16 14 May 2011 at 12:11pm | IP Logged |
Akao wrote:
Assimil/Colloquial/Teach Yourself/Pimsleur |
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Linguaphone/Cortina/Berlitz/FSI/Michel Thomas/Living Language/Hugo…
For French, German and Spanish the list of resources is endless (if you know English).
Edited by tractor on 14 May 2011 at 12:11pm
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DaveC Newbie Canada Joined 5375 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 7 of 16 14 May 2011 at 12:28pm | IP Logged |
Right, any single program better than the other, or any recommendations I guess is what I'm really looking for. I grabbed a 'learn french for dummies' book that I've been flipping through, I'd like to get something with an audio aspect to it as well.
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5452 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 8 of 16 14 May 2011 at 12:59pm | IP Logged |
DaveC wrote:
Right, any single program better than the other, or any recommendations I guess is what I'm really
looking for. |
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I personally like Assimil and Linguaphone (their courses from the 70s). But there are many programs I have never
tried…
Alexander Arguelles (a member of this forum) has made a series of reviews of the different methods on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=alexander+arguelles+Foreign+Language+Learning+S eries+Reviews&aq=f
Edited by tractor on 14 May 2011 at 1:02pm
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