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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6230 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes  Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 5 15 October 2007 at 8:56pm | IP Logged |
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This is my personal journal/notes for French. I will be starting from the beginning for my own review, as well as for the benefits of beginners or advanced learners alike.
My focus on this thread will be mostly grammar and speech with language-exchange. Grammar and speech will progress synchronously. We will get into ideas about "thinking in the target" language. We will learn how to read/write with correct grammar utilizing high-frequency words for maximum benefit. I will be using a variety of french resources, notes and books. Every now and then, I will talk about theories/methods of efficient learning, time management, organization etc, because these are critical elements in self-study. Generally I will introduce a few grammar concepts before language-exchange excercises. We will build our grammar and speech together. Most of the excercises that will be introduced in the journal are designed to be used in conjunction with language-exchange. So find a patient partner that you are comfortable with, but you do not need them until the lesson says you do. Not all lessons will require your partner. More than one partner is ideal. In this journal, I am teaching myself publicly. I will use technology as I learn and will present them on an ongoing basis. If you are starting French for the first time, I hope this may serve as a useful reference. The focus is on speaking early and utilizing what we have learned to express ourselves creatively to our target native speaker. I will try to avoid referring to technology that is not freely available. TOOLS NEEDED: Flashcard Program (Mnemosyne or any other) (Required) Paper Flash Cards (Recommended) Word Frequency Counter (Recommended) Dictionary (Required) Grammar Reference (Recommended) Skype/PalTalk/MSN (Required) DVD TV Shows/Movies w/Transcripts (Highly Recommended) Target Language Native Speaker(s) (Required) FSI - French Student Text #1, #2. (Highly recommended and it's free) Edited by xtremelingo on 17 October 2007 at 1:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6230 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 5 15 October 2007 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
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Keep each lesson organized under it's own folder LESSON_X etc. This way you can refer to old work more easily -- and you will in subsequent lessons. Don't forget to save all work relating to that lesson in that lesson folder.
GRAMMAR LESSON #1 - NOUNS -------------------------- Level : I , II, III - A namimg word for a living being, thing or idea. - woman, man, bottle, Jill. All nouns are masculine or feminine. You need to memorize their gender. The gender will affect: - the Adjectives that describe it. - the Articles that go before it. Ex: le, une - the Pronouns that replace it. Ex: il or elle GENDER: When memorizing nouns from the dictionary, always remember : le or un - Masculine la or une - Feminine. So pulling out my french/english dictionary. I decide I want to look up the French word for Dog. Dog - chien (m) I would not memorize chien (m), but instead I would memorize: un chien le chien So do NOT memorize the word itself. It must be critical as you learn new words or vocabulary, you learn their part in speech. So when you see those little things like (f), (m), (adj), (verb), etc. Remember them. It may help assigning a colour to these words as you remember them. Feminine - Pink Masculine - Blue Adjective - Orange Verb - Green etc. Imagine that word being written in that colour. All feminine nouns written in pink, all masculine in blue, adjectives in orange, verbs in green. Think of them this way. une fille : a girl : Visualize une fille written in pink. un homme: a man : Visualize un homme written in blue. Other ways to identify Masculine and Feminine Nouns --------------------------------------------------- Look at their endings! ---------------------- MASCULINE (IN BLUE) ------------------- -age un village : a village -ment un vêtement: a garment -oir le soir: the evening -sme le racisme : racism -eau un chapeau : a hat -jeu un jeu : a game -ou le genou : the knee -ier un escalier : a staircase -in le vin : the wine -on un ballon : a ball FEMININE (IN PINK) ------------------ -ance la chance : luck -anse une danse : a dance -ence la patience : patience -ense la défense : defense -ion une réunion : a meeting -té une spécialité : a speciality -tié la moitié - half There are always exceptions to these cases. SUMMARY -------- - Most nouns referring to : men, boys, male animals are masculine (blue). - Most nouns referring to : women, girls and female animals are feminine (pink). - The ending of a noun will change depending on whether it refers to male or female. - Words ending in -e are feminine and words ending in a consonant are masculine. - Endings on masculine nouns: -age, -ment, -oir, -sme, -eau, -eu, -ou, -ier, -in, -on. - Endings on feminine nouns: -ance, -anse, -ence, -ense, -ion, -té, -tié. - Days of the week, months and seasons of the year are masculine. Edited by xtremelingo on 16 October 2007 at 2:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6230 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 5 17 October 2007 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
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GRAMMAR LESSON #2 - Masculine & Feminine Forms of Words.
-------------------------------------------------------- In french, it is clear there is gender for some words. You may have noticed when reading some french, that you will come across many familiar words, yet often they have different endings, that don't seem clear initially as to why that is. There are set rules as to how these endings change based on how the word is found in context. un homme : a man une femme : a woman Many MASCULINE French nouns can be made FEMININE (Masc N --> Feminine N) by changing the ending. This is by adding an -e to the m.Noun to make to make it f.Noun. un ami : a male friend une amie : a female friend un français : a french man une française : a french woman Notice the ARTICLE, un and une. These articles must AGREE with the ending. So a common mistake would be. un amie une français etc. If the masculine noun already ends in an -e, then NO further e is added. un élève : a male student une élève : a female student Other Endings ------------- There are some other ways to convert masculine nouns to feminine nouns depending on their ending. -f > -ve : un veuf, une veuve : a widower, a widow -x > -se : un époux, une épouse : a husband, a wife -eur > -euse : un danseur, une danseuse : a male dancer, a female dancer -teur > -teuse : un chanteur, une chanteuse : a male singer, a female singer -teur > -trice : un actueur, une actrice : an actor, an actress -an > -anne : un paysan, une paysanne : a male farmer, a female farmer -ien > -ienne : un Parisien, une Parisienne : a male Parisian, a female Parisian -on > -onne : un lion, une lionne : a male lion, a female lioness -er > -ère : un étranger, une étrangère : a male foreigner, a female foreigner -et > -ette : le cadet, la cadette : the youngest male child, the youngest female child -el > -elle : un professionnel, une professionnelle : a male pro, a female pro SUMMARY ------- - Many m.nouns can be made to refer to females by adding an -e. If an e already exists at the end of the m.noun, you do not need to add an e. - The pronunciation of f.nouns is sometimes different than m.nouns. - Other Patterns include the ones listed above. Edited by xtremelingo on 17 October 2007 at 11:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6230 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 5 17 October 2007 at 12:43pm | IP Logged |
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GRAMMAR LESSON #3 - Forming Plurals
------------------------------------ In English, when we say "The Dog is barking" when we are referring to one dog that is barking. However, if we heard a group of dogs barking. We would say "The Dogs are barking". Notice the few changes that occur to this english sentence that are highlighted in bold. We can see that the form of the sentence changes whether we are referring to one dog or many dogs. We would not say. "The Dogs is barking" <-- Weird "The Dog are barking" <-- Weird So observe that like how this sentence will change depending on whether we are talking about one dog or many dogs, in French the same occurs -- but in a different way. You can make the French word plural by adding an -s to the end of it. un jardin : a garden des jardins : gardens une voiture : a car des voitures : cars Notice that we have now introduced a new article in the process. i.e. "des". This is also known as the indefinite article (discussed later). As we use un and une to refer to as ONE or A, we use des to refer to ideas that are many (plural). However, you do not add an -s if the singular noun ends in the following -s, -x, -z. un fils : a son des fils : sons un nez : a nose des nez : noses If the noun ends in a -eau or -eu, then you would add an -x instead of an -s. un chapeau : a hat des chapeux : hats un jeu : a game des jeux : games Note: Adding an -s or -x at the end of a noun usually does NOT change the pronunciation. So don't try to pronounce the x. It is essentially silent. If the noun ends in -al or -ail, the plural form becomes -aux. un journal : a newspaper des journaux : newspapers un animal : an animal des animaux : animals There are some exceptions to these cases. All (few) exceptions will be discussed in advanced lessons. The goal is learn the most important things. SUMMARY ------- - Most nouns are made plural by adding an -s to their singular form. If the singular noun already ends in -s, -x, -z no -s is added. - Nouns ending in -eau, -eu, you add an -x to make it plural. - Nouns ending in -ou, add an -s to make it plural. There are some exceptions here. - Nouns ending in -al, -ail, make it plural by adding an -aux. - Adding an -s or -x usually does not change pronunciation. Edited by xtremelingo on 17 October 2007 at 12:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6230 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 5 18 October 2007 at 3:59pm | IP Logged |
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Theory of Language Learning #1
------------------------------ It is important as we learn language, we learn how to think in the language. The importance lies directly in the face that language is essentially the gateway/manual to learn how specific cultures think. To understand this, we need to think out of the box, consider your own language for a moment. Your ability to interact and communicate in this world depends on the language that you speak. If you only speak one-language, this is more true, your understanding of this world is limited to how this world is understood within the framework of that language. If you are an English speaker. When referring to a group of people, in your life, you may always say "They are", however you may have no idea how other people refer to the same thing in a different way. For the French Speaker, he will say "Ils sont", without ever knowing to refer to the same thing in English is "They Are", he will live his entire life referring to this group of people as "Ils sont." So to think of it in a quantitative sense. Consider, the number of languages that exist in this world today, are the minimum number of ways how people think in general. So Language is essentially a guide to know how people think from a particular culture. Even when you think to yourself, often you will communicate to yourself internally/mentally in your language. If you are a native English speaker, you will think to yourself in English. A French native speaker, will think to themselves in French. Therefore, they essentially think differently. To learn French, we need to think in the way a French person thinks, if we expect to communicate the way a French person does. The French language (or any language) is the syntax the french person uses to convey the way he thinks. The language itself is not the thought process or result, it is how the language is used that demonstrates expression of that person's thought. This is why it is important to understand that we are not learning a language first, we are learning how french people form thoughts, how they take those thoughts and develop expression given a limited set of vocabulary and grammar. The language is a tool for expression. Without it, our thoughts would be confined to our heads. THOUGHTS (L1) --> LANGUAGE (L1) --> OUTPUT (SPEECH) L1 ^ | THOUGHTS (L1) <-- LANGUAGE (L1) <-- INPUT (LISTENING) L1 If one tries to study a language by only studying it's grammar, vocabulary and syntax. They will have full fluency of the architecture (how it is structured) of the language, but not fluency in how it is being used for expression. They will not have developed the ability to think, form thoughts in such a way the target language was meant for. Because they have not formed the ability to think and form thoughts as the target language (L2) was meant for, they will need to fall upon some form of reference. The natural reference would be their native language L1. So the problem then becomes. THOUGHTS (L1) ----> LANGUAGE (L2) ---> OUTPUT (L2 + L1) ^ | THOUGHTS(L1) <---- LANGUAGE (L2) <--- INPUT (L2) The problem then becomes we have the inability to think fluidly in L2 without referring and confusing it with our L1. In order to speak/understand fluently, the thoughts 'language' must match the rest in the cycle. How often do you hear or read a new language, and you have the temptation to translate as you read? Well that is your Thoughts (L1) interfering. The interference is not a bad thing because, as we learn what essentially happens is. THOUGHTS (L1) ----> LANGUAGE (L2) ---> OUTPUT (L2 + L1) ^ |<-------->(MEMORY L2) | THOUGHTS(L1) <---- LANGUAGE (L2) <--- INPUT (L2) Memory L2 is the development of THOUGHT (L2). As we learn a new language, we are developing this Memory L2. When I refer to memory, I don't mean memorization, but the ability to understand language as we study/comprehensible input. As an individual as Memory L2 develops it will start looking like this. <-----> (Memory L2) , <-------> THOUGHT (L2), then eventually, it will break off connections with Thought (L1) and reform it's connection with Thought (L2) with advanced and native fluency, until they become two independent streams or thought processes that are not connected to each other. I.e. The ability now to think in a new lanugage. Thoughts (L1)-----> Language L1 ----> Output L1 ^ | Thoughts (L2) ---> Language L2 --> Output L2 | ^ | | | Thoughts (L2) <--- Language L2 <-- Input L2 | Thoughts (L1) <----Language L1 <----- Input L1 To make an analogy, Think of French as a left-handed hockey stick, and English as a right-handed hockey stick. Although we are right handed, we could grab the left-handed stick and try to use it, but we may have a hard time holding or shooting with it, if we are so used to our right hand. But if we learn to use our left-hand in general, and not just the left-handed hockey stick, we will learn how to use this left-handed stick, and all other things that we wish to do with our left hand. Our fluency will develop as we learn to manoeuvre, skate and shoot all at the same time with this stick. To the point that using our left-hand is just as good as using our right-hand. This is the true sign of fluency. When it's hard to tell which language is easier for you to communicate in. If you find yourself still at ease and preference in communicating in your native language, this is probably the best sign that indicates you still have learning to do. What does it mean to think? To think in a language means you understand the language without really needing to go to your native language for reference. This means, the whole cycle of L2 is independent of L1. It is an important abstraction. As we continue to learn and study language, we are developing THOUGHTS (L2). The best way to develop thought is to hear/see thought. More continued later. I have to run. Edited by xtremelingo on 18 October 2007 at 4:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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