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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 1 of 8 26 May 2007 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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About six weeks ago, I got all excited about the Six Week Challenge, and decided I was going to learn Danish. I knew nothing - NOTHING - about it, and I wanted to work on a Germanic language. I started with Pimsleur, to learn the pronunciation and get a feel for it. But after a week of going through lessons 2 and 3, and still feeling quite lost about it all, I decided to do something else.
I decided maybe I should focus on my Spanish instead. I've been stuck at high-intermediate for too long, and I know that vocabulary is my biggest weakness. Gung-ho attitude got me no-where. I went through VocabuLearn I, but I already knew most of the words. And I started getting bored. I wanted something relatively easy. (That means, as a native English speaker, probably a Romance or Germanic language.) I wanted something that would NOT interfere with my Spanish. (That was why I dropped - no, POSTPONED - Italian about six months ago.) Something easy. German, or French. I took a year of German back in high school, about 15 years ago. I remember vague things about it, and I know alot will come back when/if I decide to get back to it. Or French. Oh my goodness, I was scared to death of French. Hearing the horror stories of how the French despise anyone who butchers their language, I was not even sure I wanted to attempt it. But oh, to be able to speak French. Wouldn't that be cool? I took a college course in French about 10 years ago - it was a 3 week intensive course, with about 100 students in a huge lecture hall. All I remember about that course was listening to our French teacher demonstrating how NOT to pronounce French. Imagine French with a Southern (USA) drawl. Ugh. It's no wonder I'm terrified of learning French and butchering the language! But I needed a change of pace. French is different enough from Spanish that I won't mix them up. But they're close enough that French should come easily to me. So I decided to dive into it. I'm the kind of person who likes to jump into a new language with both feet, and then once I get my feet wet, I turn around and get back out of the water. I love to play with new languages. I've "started" studying Russian, Czech, Lithuanian, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Danish, Swahili and Estonian. And I never get past "Hello, do you speak language X?" Maybe with French, it will be easy enough that I don't run away. At least not right away! So at the end of April (about 4 weeks ago), I decided I was going to learn French. But I was not going to open a book, look on the web, or do anything visual. I wanted to learn the proper pronunciation. It took me about 3 weeks to get through the 30 lessons of Pimsleur French I. I did not do anything other than Pimsleur, and when I did, I was completely focused on pronunciation. Most of the stuff I already "knew" or at least had known before. I am more comfortable with the sound of the language now, and have gotten a few books from the library to supplement the Pimsleur. (to be continued) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 2 of 8 26 May 2007 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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(That last post was getting long, so I decided to start a new post.)
At present, my plan is to continue through Pimsleur French II and III, then work through a course to solidify the grammar and spelling. I have been playing around with Living Language's Ultimate French, the FSI French online, and Colloquial French. I like LL's Ultimate French and FSI, both for different reasons. Ultimate French moves very quickly through the grammar, using dialogs much like the Teach Yourself and Colloquial series. There are not very many drills, although the book does have exercises at the end of each lesson. The FSI program, on the other hand, is completely and totally drills, drills, drills. I like the way the course is set up, and although I have not looked at how much material they cover, I'm sure they do as good a job, or (more likely) better than any other single course. The biggest perk of FSI is the audio. There has to be 100 hours or more of audio, and the best way to get a feel for the spoken language is to listen to it. I am leaning towards using the FSI French course when I'm finished with the Pimsleur. The other option I've thought of is simply to get a grammar book, flip through it, then get some reading books from the library. Our library has a decent collection of French books, including alot of kids books. I could supplement those with VocabuLearn for vocabulary. How do you go about learning vocabulary with a language very similar to one you already know? I can already pick up a kids book from the library and get an idea of what its about. Do you go through a textbook and drill the grammar points that come along while working on that vocabulary? Get a vocabulary book, like Living Language's 6000 Essential Words, 2000 Essential Verbs, or Barron's French vocabulary? Part of my worry is that I'll end up learning alot of French passively, but have difficulty speaking and writing. I want to learn to speak and write as much as to listen and read. Any advice is welcome! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 3 of 8 26 May 2007 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was amused this afternoon when I went to the http://www.esl-languages.com website to "test" my Spanish and French. I've studied Spanish off and on for about 12-15 years. (Mostly off, and recently came back to it.) I scored 27/40, and was considered high-intermediate. Fairly accurate assessment. Then, on a whim, I tried the French test. Just to see what it would say. I've only studied French (seriously) for about a month. And 90% of that was audio. I ended up with 28/40, and considered intermediate there as well. Wow. Fairly accurate assessment on that one? Not even close! I suppose that shows how transparent French and Spanish are. I'm curious to take the Italian and Portuguese tests when I've got the time. I studied Italian for a month or two, got through Pimsleur I and played around with a course book or two. That was about six months ago. When I have a chance to try that, we'll see how it goes. And I have NO experience whatsoever with Portuguese, but it'd be interesting to see how much I can transfer from my Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6389 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes  Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 8 26 May 2007 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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By using just a grammar and vocab method, you will learn the language, but you will not speak it well. Reading doesn't help your speaking much. Instead follow something like FSI, where you can interact.
Because Spanish has similar vocab as french, you can use your knowledge to help you memorize the french vocab more quickly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 5 of 8 02 June 2007 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | ||
236Factorial - I have noticed that a LOT of the vocabulary is very simple because of that. I studied Italian (the first 25 lessons of Pimsleur) a few months ago, and I see correlations there also. I have been continuing with Pimsleur French II, and I'm also doing flash cards with VocabuLearn. I am going to try to finish Pimsleur II and III, and VocabuLearn I & II within the next month. I want to work through the FSI course, and I think that will be my plan once I'm finished with Pimsleur. My "problem" is that I want a book to look at when I'm away from the computer and cannot use my mp3 player. (Breaks at work, sitting outside while the kids play, etc.) So I've been flipping through the Living Language Ultimate French book, and getting grammar from that. I'm not using that as a textbook per se, or even working through everything in it, but I think it would be a good textbook if it had more drills in it. I never considered myself an auditory learner before French. With Spanish, I'd rather sit down with something to read or look at. I think it's because the pronunciation is so different (to me). I have focused solely on audio for the past month with French, and I'm becoming much more comfortable with the language. This is something new to me, but I am pleasantly surprised how much grammar I'm picking up from listening to Pimsleur. It encourages me to re-evaluate my learning style - which can certainly be a good thing! Has anyone else found that their learning methods differ radically between languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 6 of 8 12 June 2007 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have been continuing with Pimsleur II, and am doing about a lesson a day. I'm also working with VocabuLearn to increase my vocabulary.
I find it interesting how everyone seems to think Pimsleur doesn't teach grammar. Perhaps it is because I am listening for it, and I have an ear for language (plus I have a basic idea of Romance languages), but I am learning alot of grammar from Pimsleur. Not as much as if I sat down with a grammar book, of course, but certainly the basics. Halfway through French II, it has already covered 4-5 verb tenses. (Granted, the spellings are not learned here, but that will come easily enough when I focus on that.) It seems to me most of the people who hang out here have some experience with languange learning, and would also pick up these things, so I'm a bit confused when I hear lots of people say that Pimsleur doesnt really teach grammar. I am watching the occasional French in Action video, and I have the textbook. I am seriously leaning towards FSI French once I've finished with Pimsleur. I sometimes get extremely frustrated that I don't have time or energy to study. It's not a matter of "making excuses" - I am a single (recently widowed) mom of two little angels (okay - most of the time they are, anyways!), working two jobs, and trying . . . There are just not enough hours in the day. BUT.. I can usually listen to Pimsleur on the way to and from work, and can fit in 20-30 minutes of flash cards for vocabulary once the girls are in bed. I'd love to put more time into it, but I also don't want it to become a chore and turn into something I don't enjoy anymore. So, I am lucky if I can find 45 minutes or an hour per day. I made the mistake of watching Stargate (my all-time favorite TV show) in French the other day - just to see how much I could understand. After studying about 5 weeks (figure 30-40 hours). I was extremely discouraged - I wanted to be able to understand everything right away. (Doh, I know it doesn't work that way.) With the English subtitles on though, I was surprised at how many words I recognized, or could figure out. I will go back to watching Stargate in Spanish, where I can understand most of it. And I will keep plugging away with French every day. It's fun for me to sit down and decipher a new language. Even though it is still new to me, and still feels foreign (unlike my Spanish), it is great fun to learn bits and pieces and start putting the puzzle together. =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6287 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 7 of 8 21 June 2007 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I seem to have stalled while working through Pimsleur. I haven't actually made it through a lesson in a week or more, and I'm just plain bored with it. I understand all of what's been covered, and can produce it on my own (although only about 75% of the time in the time they pause). Anyways, I think it is on to French in Action for now. I'm planning to watch one episode per night, and use the textbook as a complement to help me learn vocabulary and review. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| markh Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6146 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 8 of 8 08 September 2007 at 11:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello MissMyChris,
How are your French studies going? Did you decide to continue with French in Action? I'm curious about your experiences, as I am also starting to study French, am currently working through Pimsleur, and am wondering what to use next. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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