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Why can’t I understand French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| heavydust Newbie Canada Joined 6086 days ago 18 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 32 11 March 2009 at 10:30pm | IP Logged |
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I'm in a second level course in french in university, I can understand everything on paper when I see it. However, when I hear them speaking and have test on listening I have lots of trouble understanding what they are saying. I need some pointers, especially from anyone french or who is learning the language but is good at it.
I can SPEAK french, and can understand it when it is said slow by a person, but at normal conversation speed (or on the tapes recordings we listen to in test) its like I just pick up a few words here and there and miss lots of the inbetween words. Like I will hear the verb and longer nouns and miss out those connectors like en, y, and so on. Its like I hear --a non na-- and in french its written --on en a-- so come test time and I hear a non na it just sounds like jumble to me. Its a real problem because the more levels I go up the more spoken french is worth for marks as opposed to written and dropping french isn't an option for me really unless I want to drop out (part of my dumb program). I also have trouble because even though I am in Toronto,Canada there are very few French speakers with whom to communicate. It makes it hard for me to understand spoken french. I know more Spanish speakers than french speakers and Spanish people are like a very very small minority in Toronto its not like the US. Some please explain to me how to understand this language orally, i have test tomorrow I went to france and everyone assumed I was american so they only spoke English to me even when I tried to speak french. Edited by heavydust on 12 March 2009 at 12:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5996 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 32 11 March 2009 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Well first of all, you're screwed for tomorrow. There's no secret that is going to make you flick a switch in the next 12 hours and go; "Holy Heatwaves Batman I understand spoken French."
The only way I got better at understanding what I was listening to, was by spending more time listening. Exposure is the key, and understanding comes with time. Variety helps. I have trouble understanding a mid to heavy quebecois accent, due to lack of exposure. But the majority of French accents are now comprehensible; because I've been exposed to them. How much time it takes, I can't say, I don't know and it all depends on you. I remember my first trip to Paris where I didn't understand a thing beyond 'Bonjour'. I remember a year ago going to parties and being pleased if I thought I understood what the topic of the conversation was about. My how things have changed. Turn the radio on, download music, watch dvds, talk to people. People are the key; they mumble, they slur, they mutter, they vary their pitch, cadence, tone, rythm. You just need to get used to the language as it lives, and not how it's read or written. Thom. Edited by ExtraLean on 11 March 2009 at 10:43pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Olekander Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5885 days ago 122 posts - 136 votes Speaks: English*, French, Russian | Message 3 of 32 11 March 2009 at 10:51pm | IP Logged |
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I'm 18 and can understand the words more or less perfectly, the only problem I have normally is simply not knowing the word. The key was getting to France, and getting a huge headache and sticking it out.
Spend a decent amount of time emersed in French, and all shall be revealed to you. Edited by Olekander on 11 March 2009 at 10:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7013 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 4 of 32 11 March 2009 at 11:51pm | IP Logged |
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The best thing to do is work with dialogs or other recordings you have transcripts for. Follow along in the text to make sure what you think you're hearing is what's actually being said.
Second, LOTS of input. Podcasts are great for this. I've been listening to a lot of the Radio Canada podcasts. Other good intermediate-level French podcasts are Learn French By Podcast, One Thing in a French Day, Cultivate your French, and FrenchPod. Edited by dmg on 11 March 2009 at 11:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ortho Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6352 days ago 58 posts - 60 votes | Message 5 of 32 11 March 2009 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
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also sonsenfrancais.org is a good site by a member here, rfi.fr journal in easy french is good and if you haven't watched french in action, do so immediately over the next 26 hours.
edit: oh, and i like arteradio.com as well, though it's not an instructional site. It has lots of interesting stuff in french. It's just practice. Initially you get isolated words, then you get chunks together then you get everything, try harder stuff, and understand none of it. :-O Edited by Ortho on 12 March 2009 at 12:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Akipenda Lugha Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5740 days ago 78 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swahili, Sign Language, Spanish | Message 6 of 32 12 March 2009 at 1:42am | IP Logged |
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I often feel in the same boat, heavydust. 4 university credits, and I still have a real tough time understanding the radio, aural exams, many francophones, movies, etc...
I don't have any tricks, I just know I've got to keep on working on aural methods. I live 2 hrs south of you in London, for the last 3 years I had a hard time finding francophones to talk to and then just recently i broke into the french community centre (not literally) and met a whole bunch of people, and now i'm getting invited to lots of french programming and social meetings. There is certainly a french presence in toronto, just be persistent and do some digging to find them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| heavydust Newbie Canada Joined 6086 days ago 18 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 32 12 March 2009 at 3:00am | IP Logged |
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Perhaps your right but I actually live outside of a suburb of Toronto that is 50% Chinese(they all speak Cantonese which is basically considered slang by the Chinese so its not taught in schools), maybe ill try to join one of those french clubs on campus. I only ever knew 1 french person in high school who actually spoke french who I just remmeber but she goes to university somewhere far away
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zorrillo Pentaglot Groupie United States Joined 6386 days ago 41 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, French, Sign Language, Spanish, Polish Studies: Greek, Georgian, Indonesian | Message 8 of 32 12 March 2009 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
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I felt the same way about a year ago, but now I can understand rapid French. Eventually you will begin to notice that it is happening for you too. As the others have said, listen to things on the internet. There is no shortage of French audio out there. My strategy is a bit unorthodox perhaps, because I never use transcripts when learning a new language. I find that I use the transcript as a crutch and that it impedes my progress. When trying to improve my listening comprehension, I just jump right in and listen, listen, listen with no script. This puts all the pressure on my ears and brain. As long as you know a lot of words, you should eventually be able to comprehend. If your vocab is not so extensive, you may have problems, however. I'm not saying the transcript method is bad, but everyone is different. I'm doing the no transcript method for Polish now and I'm beginning to see some progress. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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