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French from scratch | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6291 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes  Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 1 of 24 29 October 2009 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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Hi there!!!
It's now about 3 weeks since I've started learning French. I had no previous experience at all with this language in past. So, I started from a complete 0 level. I don't want to go to any language courses (as I hate learning in large groups) and don't want to hire a personal teacher (it's rather pricey). And I also want to prove to myself that I am able to learn a foreign language from scratch on my own. I found an Assimil course. But most of the time I use a classical russian textbook on French by Popova and Kazakova. I've only passed a couple of first lessons. My purpose for the nearest future is to learn reading rules and pronounciation. After that I am likely to use as many books and other sources for getting studying materials as possible. But right now I want to learn how to read and pronounce correctly. During my studies I will certainly complete different exercises, make translations, etc. And here is where I will really need some help and feedback from you, particularly from native speakers. I will use this log mostly as a place to take down some notes during my exercises. And I will certainly need some corrections, some feedback from you, as I don't want to learn mistakes without knowing where I make them. And with your help I'm planning to achieve gradually my goals. I'll try to post regularly, but not sure how regularly. Being a practicing lawyer is quite difficult to find time for language studies. But I promise to go on and not to quit :)) So, wish me good luck!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6771 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 24 29 October 2009 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
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Bonne chance!
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 24 29 October 2009 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
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Emperor Tiberius, I wish you all the best, with the Latin you spoke on Capri, French will feel like a breeze!
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| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5700 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 24 29 October 2009 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
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With Assimil you can avoid learning the wrong pronunciation. Good Luck. Bonne chance!
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| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6291 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 5 of 24 31 January 2010 at 12:47pm | IP Logged |
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I've finally managed to find some time to write something here.
Well, after 3 months of studying french from srcatch I can't say that I've been very successful. I hardly ploding along. Most of the difficulties at the moment is with reading and pronunciation. Dunno who invented all these french reading rules when there can be 4-5 letters and only 1-2 sounds pronounced. Then the dropping "e" and the rules of liaisons. And of course, pronouncing all those weird vowels... That all really makes me crazy. I've heard once that the French have some jokes about Brits, or rather about English (meaning that in English the rules of reading are very conventional because of a great number of exceptions). Well, maybe in French reading rules are THE rules indeed. But WHAT KIND of rules!!! Jeez!!! I am used to a more traditional way of learning with a lot of grammer, learning new rules, working through texts, dialogues and so on (maybe it's not the best method, but since I'm used to it from the school times it works for me). As I said at the beginning I took a fundamental french course (of Russian authors). It contains a lot of reading and grammar tips, texts, mp3 files for listening, vocabulary and (what is important for me) a lot of exercises. And it takes usually 2 weeks for 1 lesson!!! So, in three months I only went through 10 lessons. Yeah, only the first 10. But I feel like I managed to grasp well all the materials in these lessons. The major problem is time, or the lack of it. Being a practising lawyer and finding time for foreign languages (as I continue working on my English and Romanian as well) is rather difficult. And usually I can only afford 0.5 - 1.5 hours 2-4 times a week. At the same time this was a right decision to study on my own, as I wouldn't be able to attend any language courses (with fixed weekly timetable). I've found an appendix to my textbook with the keys to the exercises. So I can check myself what makes the learning process much easier. I also look into my Assimil course from time to time. But I still find it a bit confusing as it's seems sometimes that there's no particular system in it (probably I'm wrong, but very few explanantions of various issues makes it difficult...). Call me a traditionalist, but it's easier for me to follow a fundamental and traditional course (as the main basis for my studies) using other materials (like Assimil, or BBC's course for beginners that I have subscribed to) as only a supplement. At least at this stage... In my next post I'll try to wright here some basic phrases in French that I learn to compose. And in a month or two I'll try to find someone who would help me via Skype with my pronunciation (or at least see how good or bad it is). Well, that's it for now... PS. Oh, yes. It's so funny to look at some of my friends when I tell them that I'm trying to learn French on my own. Generally, there are 2 types of reactions: 1- French? What the f*** do you learn it for? 2- On your own? Are you nuts? Go for a language cource at the Alliance Francais... But after 5-10 minutes of conversation most of them admit it all sounds rather cool (though noone of them agreed to join me in my studies:) ). And I do think it's great, particularly when with every lesson you feel that you're doing better and better :)) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6291 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 24 06 February 2010 at 10:24am | IP Logged |
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Yesterday, I downloaded "Le Petit Prince". I found a bilingual text of it in
French and my native Russian. And I also found an audio version of the book. So that in the nearest future (when I finally complete ALL the reading and pronounciation rules) I'm going to start working on that book additionally to my main course textbook: shadowing, reading, gaining vocabulary in context and actually working with the real unadapted French. Why later and not right now? Well, it's probably my personal problem, but I really feel a lot of difficulties working with other materials until I grasp all the rules of how to read and pronounce correctly. And French is really crazy when it comes to reading. At least I compare two Romance languages - French and Romanian (that I'm pretty good at). Well, after Romanian which is VERY fonetic (meaning that reading is SO simple, it is read the way it's written) French looks like a complex puzzle. But I know I'll cope with it :))) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorsque Groupie Canada Joined 5442 days ago 64 posts - 67 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 24 06 February 2010 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
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Look at English.
Whoa Knight Who All these words have rules. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6291 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 8 of 24 07 February 2010 at 9:32pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, I think I understand what you mean. And still, I learned English reading rules long
time ago, when I was at school. And I still need a good dictionary sometimes as there are lot of exceptions. Nevertheless, I'm quite used to it. And French is new for me. And I'm sure that in a couple of months all my actual difficulties will not cause any trouble at all. But, by now I still have to wade through them :))) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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