|
 |
Learning French on my own | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| elsmandino Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4061 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 5 26 September 2014 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hi there,
I would be really grateful for some advice on how best to go any way towards learning French as fluently as possible. Being English, I had the opportunity to learn French at school but I (to my absolute detriment) did all I could to avoid it and it is now one of the biggest regrets of my life. At 34, I would love to be able to speak another language but just don't know how. I have tried various courses over the years and bought dozens of phrase books but for some reason I ended up thinking that I was one of the few people that perhaps just was not able to learn a second language. I have decided to start from scratch and would be really grateful for some advice on how to make sure that I don't get demotivated this time. I am starting with memrise.com to learn as much "Essential French" as I can but is this a good idea? I know that visiting France would be the best way to learn but my family life means that it just wouldn't be possible (at least not for the immediate future). Any help would be so gratefully appreciated. Thanks. Edited by Fasulye on 04 October 2014 at 1:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 5 26 September 2014 at 3:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Staying motivated is the most important aspect of language learning, and it's a skill you can learn. Here are some suggestions: 1. You might try doing something simple every day for 30 days. This can help you build a study habit. 2. You can make learning interesting. Seriously, once I got out the beginner stages, French became my favorite means of procrastination. See iguanamon's post on the "multitrack" method, which mixes courses with native materials very early on. You can read comics online or look into graded readers, or puzzle out a couple of VDM posts every day, or study the lyrics of songs that you like. 3. You can let go of any perfectionist tendencies. Seriously, just do something in French ever day, or almost every day, even if it's tiny. And don't worry about "doing it the right way." Mostly, you just need a lot of time in contact with French, and some way to at least partly understand it. If you meet these conditions, sheer volume will eventually turn "deciphering" into automatic knowledge. Basically, you need to practice creating habits, while also making the task a lot more fun and interesting. And you need to avoid stressing yourself out from perfectionism. As for picking a good course, we have a good overview on the Wiki that will point you towards several tried-and-true options. Personally, I'm quite fond of Assimil, and it works well for many people. But don't hesitate to read about the other good courses, and to ask us some more questions! Edited by emk on 26 September 2014 at 3:47pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5235 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 5 26 September 2014 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I don't know where you are in the UK, but there are a LOT of french people here. If you look around you will find them. THere are more French people in London than Nantes which is the regional capital of the Pays de la Loire region of France, has a population of just over 280,000 (many of whom will not be French, as it is a big University City and also popular with the British) and ranks as the 6th largest French city by population.
Try searching for meetups or language exchanges in your town. For example on my little cul-de-sac in the UK there are 5 French speakers. 2 French people and their son, 1 Italian who lived in Belguim and an English person who speaks C1/C2 level French. I would recommend you start with some free stuff to begin with. Download FSI French which is a public domain course done by the US Government. You might also like to get ANKI a free flashcard program (they have shared decks of French cards too) for PC, Mac, phones, etc. Finally get yourself a book to read. Lots of people like Harry Potter, but I think you might like to start with a children’s book called Le Petit Nicolas. You can use online dictionaries and google translate to help you work through the book. The more you read the more you'll learn. You can find French radio stations on the AM dial to listen to, or podcasts in French. Try to find a subject you're interested in, then find a French podcast that covers that topic. There are a ton of wonderful French movies you can watch. Basically try not to think of "learning French" as that horrible stuff they made you do in school, but rather a puzzle that you want to figure out. You will figure it out, you just have to spend a little time each day on it. Do fun stuff you like, for example I like watching films, and the choice in French for films is amazing. Do a search on here for people asking about French, you'll find lots of good resources. Especially if you look through the Super Challenge threads and logs. If you have any questions or need more resources just ask. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5261 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 5 26 September 2014 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | ||
Welcome to the forum elsmandino. In addition to emk's excellent advice, I would just add that the two most important factors in language learning (in my experience) are being consistent and persistent.
That's it. Be consistent and persistent and you will be successful. I find it best to combine two courses coming from slightly different approaches. This helps to give synergy to your learning. A course that would be a good one to add with the Assimil recommendations is DLI French Basic Course. DLI French Basic Course Books Vol 1-8 and DLI French Basic Course Audio. DLI stands for the US Defense Language Institute. The courses are public domain and free to download. I did the DLI Portuguese Basic Course and found it to be the most thorough, comprehensive course I have ever used. The French course is similarly constructed. Caveats- it's old, going back to the 60's and 70's. Don't let that stop you. In combination with another more modern course and native material such as songs and short audios you could be on to a winner. Whatever you choose to use, as long as it is acceptable in the community here, will work but you must be consistent and persistent- doing something every day. All of us have very different opinions on what is most efficient. Language-learning on one's own is a highly individual undertaking and different opinions about how to go about it come with the territory. Eventually, you will find what works best for you. Good luck. We'll be here to help. Edited by iguanamon on 26 September 2014 at 4:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4046 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 5 of 5 26 September 2014 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hi @Elsmandino. Welcome.
@emk and @iguanamon gave you golden advices already so there is not more that I can add... Since everyone learns differently, you need to find your way. Now, if you ask around, you will find people who says: - use assimil - I can't stand assimil, I prefer teach yourself - i use pimsleur and michel thomas and they are fantastic - pimsleur and michel thomas are useless - use FSI - I want to kill myself when I use FSI - do the flashcards - flashcards are waste of time - ... Even between the most successful polyglots they use different techniques! Two that are both impressive and completely the opposite are Emanuele Marini and Benny Lewis. Marini starts studying the grammar in great depth and then adds the vocabulary. After all of this he travels in the target country and starts to speak there, bringing a vocabulary with him for the emergency :) Benny 'The Irish Polyglot Lewis' starts by learning useful phrases and speaks with the people from the day 1 and then studies the rest. Both can achieve amazing results in very few time. Or, for example, Luca Lampariello says that he studies normally only one language at a time, because he's not in a hurry and he enjoys to dedicate himself completely for the language is studying. Moses McCormick studies several language at a time. The only pattern I see here is that they are motivated and they study every single day. That makes me think that as long as you're motivated and you put effort on it there is no possibility of failure. It would be also useful to understand what you want to do exactly with French. If you want to read classics is a thing, if you want to talk with people is another, if you want to see French movies still another. But then it is a matter of time to be able to do all of this. In any case, if you are more interested in speaking, it would be great to speak after two months, not two years. And if you only want to read it's not that important to spend hours in improving your pronunciation or in listening podcasts. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
