|
 |
As for ryuukohito, French, learns. | ||
Tags: French | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BGreco Senior Member Joined 6385 days ago 211 posts - 222 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 9 of 43 21 January 2008 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Definitely download the French in Action videos.
Once you get the accent down (or you can save that for later), I would definitely suggest Michel Thomas French and Advanced French. It'll save you from having to study grammar (or at least, most of it). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6228 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 10 of 43 22 January 2008 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
For the past few days I have been dabbling with French pronunciation, and only that. Using Audacity I have shadowed extensively Le Petit Prince, and have tried my best to imitate the speaker's pronunciation (which I would consider to be a very attractive accent, that I would one day like to possess).
I am lucky, because of three things: 1 - I can already read and write Arabic fluently, because I have been trained to read in that language since I was small, although I admit that I understand very few of the words. (To compare, it is the way one can read Latin, because the alphabets are entirely familiar to him, but he could not know what he is reading at all because the words carry different meanings.) The good thing about this is that the alphabet, "kha" in the Arabic language, I've noticed, is pronounced the same way as the French 'r'. Thus, I've had no difficulties in pronouncing that sound. Although, in a really fast sentence I am still unable to pronounce the entire sentence very well. 2 - Audacity is an amazing tool -- After having split the audiobook into many pieces, I can practice and practice and practice extensively with, and select small portions of the audio, and shadow them over and over and over again, at normal and slowed speeds, however I so wish to. I now could never imagine practicing and improving accent and pronunciation without Audacity. (Because having a native speaker repeat the same word for you repeatedly, just so you could imitate the accent, could turn out in the end to be a frustrating and irksome event for him, but never to a software, haha!) 3 - I remembered that a university mate of mine, my ex-roommate actually, who is from the island of Komoros, is a native speaker of French. So I've enlisted his help, and he has promised to do his best to help me, and I've actually done some sessions with him already. I feel satisfied, because now, not only do I have a guide to help me with my pronunciation (besides the Audacity shadowing), but I also have someone who I may practice my French with. (On another note, I may be moving to another room next semester to live with two fellows, one from Russia and another from Saudi -- the latter has promised to help me with my Arabic too (recommending 'emir' instead of 'fushah'), so perhaps my dream of mastering at least 5 languages by the time I'm 30 may be accomplished. I've still 9 years to go until then :) ) Edited by ryuukohito on 22 January 2008 at 11:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6228 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 11 of 43 06 February 2008 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I had discovered in my father's bookshelves a 'French Course Handbook', of the Linguaphone Institute, dating back to the 1980s. I've been using it for quite some time. It's very useful.
1. I love how it offers different possible conjugations to a verb immediately to help you contrast and grasp the grammar. 2. A gradual approach with easy sentences. Makes it easy for me to practice the sentences and/or repeat them with my SRS program. 3. The paper used for the handbook seems to be quite thick. But I find that quite desirable, because I find much pleasure in being able to highlight the key points (using three colours, orange for the original text, yellow for grammar points, and red for pronunciation points) without having traces of colours of the highlighted portions appearing on the next page. Note: Still shadowing Le Petit Prince whenever I can! That's the only tool I use to practice pronunciation these days, besides some of FSI. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6453 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 12 of 43 08 February 2008 at 9:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Just for clarification, Le petit prince isn't written in any archaic tenses at all. Saint-Exeupéry wrote beautiful french, and Le petit prince is no exception. Most of the past tense in the book is written in what is called passé simple. It isn't archaic at all and is still used in literature to this day. It is only a written tense though, not a spoken tense, but it has been this way for at least 200 years, I'd guess. Passé simple replaces the passé composé of spoken French in literature. I just wanted to let you know Le petit prince isn't archaic, and if you ever want to read french novels you'll have to learn the passé simple tense. Hope this helps. Bonne Chance Edit: I agree with Sprach beneath me though that Le petit price is more of an intermediate book. Most novels will be a least intermediate. But you should recognize passé simple, so you wouldn't run into a problem of speaking it and still be able ot read it. Edited by vanityx3 on 08 February 2008 at 3:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6462 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 13 of 43 08 February 2008 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
I major in French studies, I know the passé simple ;-) The passé simple is very alive in literature, but it sounds archaic and weird when spoken, which means that the "Petit Prince" is not the best text if you're learning French by imitation and constant exposure to one book. It's a better book for intermediate students who already know the common tenses and just use it to acquire a better vocabulary or a better feel for the passé simple. Edited by Sprachprofi on 08 February 2008 at 10:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atamagaii Senior Member Anguilla Joined 6198 days ago 181 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Apache* | Message 14 of 43 08 February 2008 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
There are some books written without le passé simple.
L’étranger by Albert Camus, Le petit Nicolas books by Sempé et Goscinny or the French translation of Tell no one by HARLAN COBEN (Ne le dis à personne... in French). I have them recorded in French, made parallel texts, too. Of course, le passé simple is not archaic. You should know it and be able to use it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6228 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 15 of 43 09 February 2008 at 9:17am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have some questions, and I would humbly ask for answers, if possible, on what le passé simple really is.
1. Is it that which they refer to also as 'past historic'? 2. From what I understand, it's a past tense form of a verb, and its function is found in preserving an 'archaic' tenor, and for use in literary works? Is that all? 3. If I may ask, what would the effect be if used in normal conversations? 4. And what about highly formal conversations? e.g. Political debates, is le passé simple used? I am using the Le Petit Prince found on Project Gutenberg. (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300771h.html) I was wondering if someone could have a look and tell me if there are any of the aforementioned past tense forms there? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atamagaii Senior Member Anguilla Joined 6198 days ago 181 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Apache* | Message 16 of 43 09 February 2008 at 9:44am | IP Logged | |||||
|
There are some tenses used only in writing (not spoken): passé simple, passé antérieur, subjonctif imparfait, subjonctif plus-que-parfait.
Here are some examples from Le petit prince. Et il me répéta alors, tout doucement, comme une chose très sérieuse: je répétai, tu répétas, elle/il répéta, nous répétâmes, vous répétâtes, ils/elles répétèrent Aussi absurde que cela me semblât à mille milles de tous les endroits habités et en danger de mort, je sortis de ma poche une feuille de papier et un stylographe. semblât subjonctif imparfait sembler je sortis passé simple sortir Another example, the auxiliary verb: passé simple être je fus /fy/ tu fus, elle/il/on fut nous fûmes, vous fûtes, ils furent It is always a good idea to simply read a grammar of the language you're going to study, just to know what to expect. And your blind shadowing.... without understanding... it's just a waste of time and effort. Edited by atamagaii on 09 February 2008 at 9:54am 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
