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Can say anything, Can hear nothing! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| starst Triglot Senior Member China Joined 5514 days ago 113 posts - 133 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: FrenchC1, German, Norwegian | Message 17 of 22 09 April 2010 at 4:09am | IP Logged |
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I think this is quite common. When you talk, you know the topic of the conversation (at least of what you want to say). However, when you listen, you must first "find out" the topic. Moreover, as vb mentioned, radio is quite difficult. You don't have the visible scene to help you to understand.
By the way, though you said that you could say anything, I doubt if they are the same "anything" you can hear from radio programs or native speakers' conversations. You are not yet able to talk like the native speakers in the radio, are you? Anyway, bon courage! Listening to Podcast etc can somewhat help, though personally I prefer subtitled TV programs. Podcast is still relatively easy comparing to real life materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5923 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 18 of 22 09 April 2010 at 5:48am | IP Logged |
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You need some comprehension i.e. listening and reading. So far you've just focused on production. You need both to interact in a language.
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| crackpot Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6301 days ago 144 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 19 of 22 09 April 2010 at 6:42am | IP Logged |
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* Not to discourage you, but are you sure you are pronoumcing French correctly? Ask a
French colleague to give you their HONEST opinion even if it is bad. When I started my friends said I was painful to listen to. * Listen to the same material, I used Linguaphone, over and over and over. You will get more out of listening to a 5 minute recording 5 times than a 25 minute recording once. * Do a language exchange face-to-face if you can, otherwise use Skype or Messenger. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 20 of 22 09 April 2010 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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I believe it may also be a matter of growing accustomed to the language, 10 months aren't such a long period of exposure after all.
My own experience with French was mostly at school. And after three years 'styding it' from 7th to 9th grade I was disappointed to see that, while watching a French channel at a friend's house, I could only understand a word here and another one there, without properly following what was being sad. Pour couronner le tout, that same Summer a Frenchman came to me asking for directions and I was only able to embarassedly babble "Je ne parle pas Français.". However, after three more years of having French classes at school - in which we followed the usual drill of reading texts and answering the corresponding questions, learning grammar rules and then applying them in exercises, hardly ever doing any speaking or even listening -, I was pleased to turn on the tv on a French channel that was added to our cable package and realise that I could now understand well over 90% of what was being said. And after watching French tv on a regular basis for a year or two, not only have I managed to hone those listening skills but have also majorly expanded my vocabulary. My point is: you'll eventually be able to comprehend oral French once you get a deeper familiarisation with vocabulary and structures. If you want to invest in listening practice, I'd definitely suggest watching tv and starting with French dubbed shows, for some reason those are easier to understand than actual French shows. At least I've personally always found that accents were not as thick in dubbed shows and that the cadence of the speech was somewhat slower as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6124 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 21 of 22 11 April 2010 at 6:53am | IP Logged |
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I've found Assimil to be a useful tool for listening comprehension. It starts with slower conversations and builds up to native speed. And it's all in your target language so you don't waste time listening to explanations and translations, but the transcript is on hand, if you get stuck.
Anything I don't understand easily, I put into Anki (as whole sentences or phrases) and practice speaking and understanding the sentence. I don't try very hard to memorise the words so as to produce them in the target language, just to understand them when they come up again. It's definitely improved my listening ability and I find myself easily understanding phrases, whereas before, all I could recognise were individual words here and there. Good luck! ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5409 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 22 of 22 11 April 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged |
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It may sounds paradoxicaly, but from my experice, I can say that to try to understand things you hear prevents you from understanding. You are better to try to memorise French phrases, as natives pronouced them ... how people say things in oral French. I think you would think you have to understand things because you learned French, but this beliefe will makes an barrier to French. Memorise how people say, memorise, memorise, and you will become able to understand things. It takes not so long time.
edit: I means, you have better to try to memorise everything you hear while listening to radio or podcast. Of course, to memorise everything is impossible, but try it. Everything you heared will remain in subconscious, therefore just trying to memorise and your understanding will become much better. Edited by nescafe on 11 April 2010 at 10:30am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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