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Help me to learn to like French again | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6922 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 17 10 December 2007 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm forgetting a lot of the French that I learnt and I'm having real difficulty getting the motivation to study it.
The problem is ... I don't really like French all that much. It's nothing really to do with the language itself, I've just had a lot of bad experiences with French speaking people. I think the problem is really escalating as I've been having a lot of nightmares and flashbacks to these events. French has been tainted by all these experiences and everytime I try to study it my mood drops. I know how important French is though, and how many people speak it, and I want to keep my studies up. I think I just need to be reintroduced to some good experiences to do with French. Does anyone want to tell my some nice things about French? Or some things I can do to help me like French again? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6465 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 2 of 17 10 December 2007 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why don't you try getting french DVDS and watching a lot of comedies? Or go through all the old Disney cartoons in french? Do not force yourself to do serious study for a while, try getting over the dislike thing first.
You could also try reading more about french culture or history, try to get interested in, i don't know, french poetry or something, kind of a thing that would make you wish you could read french. Or find a really cute french actor/actress, and try getting all the films he/she is in. Get a book you liked as a child, but get in in french and in audio, and try listening to a chapter a day while you're taking a nap, that is, use those few minutes before you actually fall asleep on the sofa and are calm, cozy and comfortable, for french (that works for me, nap=positive in my tired brain) You'll be fine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6447 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 17 10 December 2007 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps read some French literature, either in French, English, or both. I'd recommend "The Little Prince".
Another idea is to find some French music that you like, and listen to it. A third would be to make some French-speaking friends; even if you only spoke English together, perhaps it would raise your opinion of French-speaking people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Guy Smiley Newbie United States Joined 6266 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 4 of 17 10 December 2007 at 10:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok! I was in Paris a couple years ago in Montmartre with a girl from the my hostel. It was about 9am, and we were standing around, trying to figure out where we could get croissants. We were certainly speaking English to each other, but I guess we must have mentioned "boulangerie" or something, because this friendly little old French lady happened by and said "cherchez-vous une boulangerie?"
We both had pretty mediocre French skills, but could manage a "oui, oui", and then catch something about "deux" blocks this way and then "a la droite" :). Anyway, I always thought it was a pretty heartwarming story since she went out of her way for a couple of doofus American tourists... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6252 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 5 of 17 11 December 2007 at 5:56am | IP Logged | ||
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if you're not motivated yourself there is really no point in forcing yourself.
you have to have fun learning it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sue Newbie United States Joined 6264 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 6 of 17 11 December 2007 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you joined a discussion group for French you would be practicing with other learners who might also be a bit uncomfortable with their speaking abilities. Livemocha has a group like this and everyone is very kind and has a lot of fun!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6280 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 7 of 17 11 December 2007 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Juliette Binoche is a cure for any incipient Francophobia. As indeed is Charlotte Gainsbourg. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7023 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 17 11 December 2007 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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...or Melissa Theuriau.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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