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Learning languages in your own country | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5190 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 9 of 10 17 December 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I meant that you might have to cross over to Québec to get any practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gatsby Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5971 days ago 57 posts - 129 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch | Message 10 of 10 17 December 2010 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am only "fluent" (between C1 and C2) in one other language, French. For me, the road has been very long. Besides short (two weeks) vacations in France, I have only done one immersion stay of one month specifically aimed at studying French.
I began my studies over thirty years ago at university and was very fortunate to have only native speaker professors who believed in total immersion in the classroom. Thus, from the beginning, I learned to think in the language. I then had a twenty year break where I occasionally read in French but had no opportunity to speak. The great 'mid-life' crisis at age 40 convinced me to go back to my first love, French. I began diligent self-study with French in Action and then took a year of weekly private lessons. I then went for my immersion stay of one month at l'Institut de français in Villefranche-sur-mer. (Best school in the world for French immersion in my opinion for anyone looking for one). Based on the oral and written exam at the beginning, I was placed in the highest of the advanced classes (probably around B2 level). I really felt like I made a breakthrough during this immersion. When I returned home, my personal life changed drastically (got married), and I did not have a lot of time to continue my studies. So, another break of around seven years where I only read and didn't speak. Then came retirement (yeah!!). I began taking weekly private lessons on-line via Skype, subscribed to TV5 Monde, found language exchange partners, and two years later, am between C1 and C2. I recommend my methods (self-study, immersion, private lessons, language exchanges), just not my timeline of 30+ years. :-) Good luck to all of you trying to become "fluent" the hard way (without living in the country). It can be done, just "keep on keeping on" as we say in the States. Edited by Gatsby on 17 December 2010 at 10:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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