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Restarting/ activating a language | ||
Tags: Activating a Language | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4059 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 1 of 17 10 March 2015 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
I just started to activate/ relearn French and gathering information and resources. At school I started French, which is now about 8 years ago. I had French lessons for about 3.5 years and then stopped as the lessons stopped. I might have been level A2/B1 back then. Now I want to start again. However, I have still a passive understanding of a lot of things (at least while reading). Has anyone already restarted on a language and has any tips? Or is it just like starting all over again and just be a bit faster in the beginning? (tips in general on restarting and maybe tips for (re)starting french..) As for material. I thought about getting Assimil. I have the opportunity to get a version fromm 2008 or so (which had 113 lessons). Is there any difference to a newer version? I read that there are different versions of some other assimil courses which were renewed recently? Or ist there just a difference between VERY old ones and the newer ones? What I also heard often was Pimsleur. I have an audible abo and would like to test it. I'm not sure whether that's a method for me. There is only the very basic lesson as a test lesson. I'm not sure how representative that is. Here I have the question where I should start? From the beginning? Or skip a few Pimsleur lessons (on audible one purchases always 5 lessons at once.. so 1-5, 6-10 etc.)? I mean I still have a bit of basic French knowledge and I'm afraid I'd be bored and don't want to waste money. Thanks in advance for a few tips :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 17 10 March 2015 at 6:03pm | IP Logged |
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If you have the patience for it, starting from scratch with those methods would ensure you have a thorough knowledge of the basics.
Otherwise, starting at some estimated level would require a certain discipline in making sure that you take a step sideways, whenever necessary, to go and study everything that causes you any degree of doubt or uncertainty before continuing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4052 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 17 10 March 2015 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Komma,
Over the years, I have started, stopped, and returned to, the study of numerous languages. I agree with Arekkusu that revisiting the materials with which you are already familiar might make the rebooting process a little easier. As to PIMSLEUR, you should be aware that it is a true "all audio" programme for beginners. Given your latent knowledge of French, you might find the initial lessons, or even the initial 30 lessons, somewhat boring. Nonetheless, if you can locate a "low cost" version of the programme, it might be of some help. I have become very fond of the ASSIMIL method, as I find that the short dialogues and exercises, when taken in the aggregate, act like pattern drills. The only weakness of the Assimil method is the somewhat confusing explanation of grammar. If you can handle mind-crushing DRILLS, you might wish to review the FSI BASIC FRENCH course that is available on the FSI-Languages website. Yes, the material is somewhat dated. Yes, the audio quality is not the best. Yes, the explanations of grammar are a little too succinct. Yes, the initial lessons are tedious. However, there is a "review unit" every six lessons and the DRILLS will definitely get you back up to speed (to my mind, Assimil is a "mini" FSI-style course). Bonne chance! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 17 10 March 2015 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
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I was in a similar situation with French, having studied it for several years at school followed by nothing for a few years. I took advice on HTLAL to restart from scratch, but the result was I wasted money on beginner courses like Assimil that I didn't really need.
I would suggest you start by exposing yourself to more French (reading and listening) to start reactivating what you already know. If it's too daunting to do this straight away, maybe spend a few days flicking through some learning materials instead, but again just with the goal of seeing how much you can still remember. Having done this, you will have a better idea of where the gaps are in your knowledge and can start tackling them. Human memory is an amazing thing. Having locked away your French for many years, with a bit of prompting you may be able to remember a lot more than you could imagine right now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4059 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 5 of 17 10 March 2015 at 10:37pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you everyone. I think I will start nearly from scratch by flipping through the courses I
have found in our library and FSI. That way I revise (I can test myself whether I still remember and if not I cheat) and see quite quickly where I am. I also sort the programs I don't like from the library (they are not that good, but I need a bit of guidance otherwise I'd feel lost. with the guidance I can still use other material and skip or repeat..) I might leave out Pimsleur or just try out some intermediate lessons (as I said, audible or itunes have them in packages of 5 lessons which is rather inexpensive for testing... and therefore better than spending 100 € or so) In addition I will do exposure. That was planned anyway, but I think I might still review. Only using native material is not very suited for me. @g-bod: do you have any suggestions for books/movies/audio that is understandable for a A2/B1 level? As that would be the highest level I got last time... Fast spoken French still ist very difficult. I might try some podcast made by French people but for learning french, so they speak slowly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4444 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 17 10 March 2015 at 10:38pm | IP Logged |
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There is a set of videos on YouTube I find helpful:
Learn French with Dialogues (Apprenez le Français avec des Dialogues) Link In the beginning I went to class for 6 years doing subject-verb conjugations every week and got nowhere. This set of videos has subtitles in French & English so it is easy to follow. Unlike reading a newspaper or magazine it is in a dialogue format, you can listen to the spoken words without reading the text if you wish. You are not going through the days of the week or the numbers from 1 to 100 and you don't have to start from lesson 1 if you feel it is too easy. Edited by shk00design on 10 March 2015 at 10:39pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 7 of 17 10 March 2015 at 11:06pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not sure I can suggest anything in particular in terms of audio material. To be honest, through my own process of becoming reacquainted with French I discovered that I needed to do a lot of targeted work on listening, and that there was a lot of important stuff I needed to know about French pronunciation that I had never learned at school!
For reading, I think I started with some news articles about issues I was already familiar with from the British press. I did need to do a little bit of work to familiarise myself with the past historic tense (recognition only) in order to make the jump into fiction, but that was well worth it. I guess that sums up why I felt like I outgrew beginner courses too quickly. It didn't take long to discover that most common verbs in the present tense, passé composé etc were already burned into my brain, but beginner courses spend a lot more time on these because they assume (rightly for a beginners course) that you are learning it all from scratch. Which means you may have several hours of material to get through before you reach stuff you really need to tackle. I think your idea of starting out with some FSI and what you can find in the library is a good one, as it provides an economic way of rediscovering your level. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4059 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 8 of 17 10 March 2015 at 11:30pm | IP Logged |
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@shk00design: thank you very much for the resource. It looks very simple but with a clear
audio and there were other videos linked from that one. @g-bod: I think after you mentioned past tenses I think it's a very good thing to take a course as a guide. i'm always lost without it. And I almost forgot most of grammar (at least for active use) and especially the tenses. *sigh* I wish I hadn't stopped learning/maintaining French... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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