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Learning French

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16 messages over 2 pages: 1
DaveC
Newbie
Canada
Joined 5375 days ago

7 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 9 of 16
14 May 2011 at 1:04pm | IP Logged 
Hey great, can't wait to check it out. Thanks Tractor!
1 person has voted this message useful



Loler
Diglot
Newbie
Canada
Joined 4957 days ago

6 posts - 9 votes
Speaks: English*, French

 
 Message 10 of 16
14 May 2011 at 1:27pm | IP Logged 
For French in Action, since you're in Canada, you should be able to watch pretty much the whole course for free online at http://learner.org/resources/series83.html#. The books might be a little pricey (I'm note sure... I think I managed to get the two textsbooks and 2 workbooks for around $100 total), they're worth it to, if it ends up being your main method.

And may I say, good choice to learn French! Once you get over the pain that comes with learning any new language (and I'm not saying I'm totally past it either), it's a lot of fun. French humour is cruel, and totally hilarious. Plus as a Canadian, there's always the pride of being able to speak the official languages, and understand the country's diversity and richness just a little better.

What I'm saying is stick with it! Et bon courage !

*edit* One more thing. I'm a British Columbian. You can't get further away from the French language than that in Canada, so if I could do it, so can you!

Edited by Loler on 14 May 2011 at 1:28pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



DaveC
Newbie
Canada
Joined 5375 days ago

7 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 11 of 16
14 May 2011 at 2:40pm | IP Logged 
Right on! I'm a BCer as well, in the interior, I've visited Montreal a few times in the last couple of years and really liked it. I appreciate the motivation, and I'll check out the url that you've got there.

*edit* These Alexander Arguelles video reviews are exceptional, thank-you.

Edited by DaveC on 15 May 2011 at 6:09am

1 person has voted this message useful



amethyst32
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5648 days ago

118 posts - 198 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, French

 
 Message 12 of 16
15 May 2011 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
DaveC wrote:


I've seen 'French in Action' come up a few times, is that a good place for a beginner?


Hi,

Be careful with FIA - it's quite addictive! I think it's excellent for beginners who want to really dive straight in to French right from the start.    

Good luck! :-)



Edited by amethyst32 on 15 May 2011 at 4:14pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



Luai_lashire
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
luai-lashire.deviant
Joined 5827 days ago

384 posts - 560 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto
Studies: Japanese, French

 
 Message 13 of 16
16 May 2011 at 1:40am | IP Logged 
I've been studying French intensively for the six week challenge and I'm using Assimil, FIA, and Michel Thomas. I
think it's best to use more than one method at once; that one, they compensate for each other's weaknesses. Don't
expect any one course to get you to fluency, some of them will take you quite far but if you want to be able to do
more than basic conversation you are going to have to do other types of studying too, like extensive reading,
vocabulary study, and so on. But start with the courses, see where they take you, and decide afterwards how you
want to continue.

By the way, FIA's audio is terrible but it's still quite worth it. It's a really excellent method and there's a LOT of
material packed into those videos. I recommend it even if you decide not to use the workbooks- I don't use them, I
just use the videos, and those alone are quite good.
1 person has voted this message useful



MarkS
Newbie
United States
Joined 5685 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 14 of 16
16 May 2011 at 2:48am | IP Logged 
DaveC wrote:
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.


Hi DaveC, if you look around on the web/ebay you can find the videos significantly less expensive. Or, watch
them free at www.learner.org.

I actually just began the series myself (on lesson 5), and I did purchase the audio portion and study books.
There seems to be a lot of material per lesson, and it covers listening, speaking, reading and writing. It does get
some very good reviews, but I'd need to complete a lot more before I can really give my opinion.
1 person has voted this message useful



Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6010 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 15 of 16
16 May 2011 at 9:42am | IP Logged 
Have a quick check of the first hour of Michel Thomas French from the official website. Don't be put off by the odd accent or the "old man" sounds that Thomas himself makes -- there's a whole pile of language even in that first hour where you'd normally only learn to say "hello, my name is John, how are you?".
1 person has voted this message useful



schoenewaelder
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5559 days ago

759 posts - 1197 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch

 
 Message 16 of 16
16 May 2011 at 1:22pm | IP Logged 
I've just been trying out MT French on my 84 year old mother. It was amazing, We got as far as "Ce n'est pas formidable pour moi" or something (about 18 mins in) before she decided she had enough. Hopefully I will be able to try some more in the next few weeks. What was really interesting was that her performance almost exactly mirrored the two students, in terms of where she remembered, and where she forgot.

Unfortunately she can't do it by herself (yet), as she can't work out how to use the "pause" button, so I have to sit with her.

Edited by schoenewaelder on 16 May 2011 at 1:24pm



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