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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Norvasc Newbie Canada Joined 6495 days ago 30 posts - 31 votes Studies: French | Message 1 of 11 29 October 2008 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all
I have been learning french for over two years now and have completed a fair number of the audio courses including Assimil,MT Advanced and FSI level one. I am at present doing Assimil for the third time and I have memorised most of the short stories. I now have a considerable vocubalary and am able to speak in present and past tenses on most simple and straight forward phrases. My problem is that when I listen to people speak or to the Radio I only can understand about 20% of what is been said. I recognise words here and there and am able to get the gist of the conversation but it takes me almost 30 seconds to comprehend what is been said. I continue to listen about 20 mintues of french radio per day but it is very frustating. Has anyone been in this situation and can someone comment on how long it may take for me to reach the point where I am going to be happy with my french. What can I do?, I am getting fed up. Norvasc 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6856 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 2 of 11 29 October 2008 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Listen to more of your target language. That's all there is to it. 20 minutes per day is nowhere near enough. Have it playing in the background whenever feasible. Play movies in your target language (without subtitles) while you're doing stuff around the house. Listen to music in your target language (and not in your native language). If you get enough exposure, your comprehension will increase.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6709 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 11 30 October 2008 at 4:55am | IP Logged | ||
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If you only hear an unorganized stream of sounds then you should try not to listen in order to get the meaning, but just to get the sounds divided up in nice chunks corresponding to the French words and phrases. Of course you want to understand what is said, but it seems that your problem isn't lack of vocabulary or grammar, but simply your listening skill.
The point is: when you try to figure out the meaning you will be blocked for a short time every time you encounter an unknown word and then you are lost. When that happens again and again you get frustrated and then you don't understand anything. Therefore it is a valuable technique to train the parsing of the sound stream separately - when that process runs automatically like a well-oiled machine then the unknown elements won't cause nearly as much harm. Edited by Iversen on 30 October 2008 at 4:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7152 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 4 of 11 30 October 2008 at 5:26am | IP Logged | ||
The idea of using Assimil is to understand both the written and spoken lesson and then move on to the next. That is using the first wave. You should be able to understand all of the Assimil recordings of the French program. That is a good starting point. I would recommend by listening to audio books or audio in French where you have access to the text to check on what you haven't understood. Understanding spoken French (more than most languages by my experience) simply takes practice. Listen to as much simple text as you can and keep playing the Assimil recordings in the background to "tune your brain" to the language. I recommend Assimil because it is entirely in the target language. MT and FSI are in the target language and English. Your brain doesn't tune in the same way. There are a number of texts you can read and listen to you can download from the Internet. When I drove to the French border I would speak to myself in French to get my mind in the mode to think in French rather than to translate. Keep at it, don't give up, and you will improve. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6244 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 5 of 11 30 October 2008 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
I didn't know Australia shared a border with France. :) just kidding. I have the same problem. I know enough Spanish to put together good sentences. But when I try to listen to Spanish...it sounds like dogs barking. Even when I listen to the dialogues in Pimsleur, and I know all of the words they are using. Normal speech is just a lot faster than my brain can translate. Perhaps that's the problem...you have to get to the point where you're no longer translating everything into your native language, but instead just simply understanding the words as they are heard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bruce Groupie United States Joined 6229 days ago 65 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, German | Message 6 of 11 30 October 2008 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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This might help you get some practice:
http://www.amazon.com/Immersionplus-French-Complete-Final-Fl uency/dp/1591252261/ I don't have this one yet, but I have the one for Spanish and it's pretty good for the price. It has full speed dialogs that are longer than Assimil dialogs. It also comes with the transcripts and translation. I found it useful for Spanish and I'll probably get this one when I get further along with my French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tryna36 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6075 days ago 56 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 11 30 October 2008 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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As have already been suggested, you need to listen to more than 20 minutes of French each day. I listen to it while I am reading, surfing the net, or any other activities like I would normally do in English. Also, I would spend 1 or 2 hours each day listening with the intention of understanding what is being said. However, I do not try to understand each and every word but to get a general idea of the discussion. At one time, I felt that I would never be able to keep pace with the speed of spoken French. Then one day, French became normal speed to me just like English, and that is a amazing feeling that is well worth the time.
One of my favourite listening media is France Culture for its variety. Also, le journal en français facile is great. I usually listen to this three times, once without the transcript, a second time with the transcript, and a third time with the transcript. Also, if possible and if you are not already doing so, it may be a good idea for you to find a language partner to practice speaking. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dltwlf18 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5875 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written), Polish | Message 8 of 11 30 October 2008 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had the same problem once so maybe I can help you.
When I have a conversation in Arabic or German I'm generally thinking in that language as well (or at least partly in it). If I am thinking in English while trying to hold a conversation in another language I find it is impossible for me to keep up because my mind will always try to translate it into English. Often times if someone comes out of nowhere and tries speaking to me in German I don't understand them at all even if what they said was very simple. But, during the give and take of a conversation my mind slips into either totally or at least partially thinking in that language as well and I always surprise myself with just how much I can understand. I think of it as switching between diffrent modes. I hope that helps you. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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