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List of tools I own for French. [Help] | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| FinnegansWake Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4246 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: French | Message 1 of 9 01 November 2012 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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French language tools I own.
1. Assimil Beginners and Advanced (Audio & Text) 2. Michel Thomas Beginners, Advanced, Builder 3. Pimsleur 1,2,3 4. RS 1,2,3,4,5 (I managed to get these from my professor.) I also own. 1. L'etranger by Albert Camus 2. A collection of giftcards. (2000 French Words) 3. French Songs and Radio My current level: I had to study French for 10 years in school but I never managed to pick up any of the language and kept failing the class consistently mainly due to lack of interest in foreign language learning. Now I want to get back. I would place myself somewhere between A1 to A2 in the fluency scale. I forgot the meaning of most of the words and a brief revision should hopefully bring back the memories. :) Languages I can speak pretty fluently: English (Fluency: Native 9/10), Latin (Fluency: 7/10), Italian (Fluency: 7/10) Can I reach native fluency if I ever manage to complete all of these? Edited by FinnegansWake on 01 November 2012 at 6:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mauritz Octoglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 4879 days ago 223 posts - 325 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Esperanto, French Studies: Old English, Yiddish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean, Portuguese, Welsh, Icelandic, Afrikaans | Message 2 of 9 01 November 2012 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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First of all, I will do you and the forum a favor and tell you that "fluency" is sort of taboo here.
Secondly, my experience is that proficiency in a language comes from exposure from many different areas. You should surely go through your material and do as much as you can, but remember that it's not necessarily the method that teaches you French but the mere exposure to it. The more you study the better. However, you should be aware that it's difficult to become very comfortable with speaking. So in a way, my answer is "no"; you won't feel like French is as a second native language to you by using your resources, but what you have is a good start before you actually move over to "real" French (e.g. books, TV, radio, conversation etc). Edited by Mauritz on 01 November 2012 at 2:56pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 01 November 2012 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Most good language courses will get you to CEFR levels A2 or B1, give or take a bit. Here's a brief summary of the CEFR levels, just to make sure we're on the same page:
A1: Has some basic knowledge of the language. A2: Can deal with some of the necessities of life. B1: Can function as tourist, only resorting to native language in unusual circumstances. B2: Can function as an independent adult, though awkwardly at times. Can get into a few colleges. C1: Can take college courses or work in an office job. C2: Has an excellent command of the language, at least by non-native standards. Here are some French courses that I'm vaguely familiar with, and what levels they appear to cover: Assimil New French With Ease. Beginner to either A2 or B1. Assimil Using French. Starts at B1, but won't get you to B2 on its own. Assimil Business French. Starts around B1, might allow you to pass DELF B2 Pro exam. Single subject. FSI French Basic. Intensive grammar from beginner to around B2. Weaker in other areas. To get from B1 to B2, most people need a wide range of activities: Courses, conversations, writing, lots of books and lots of listening. If you're generous, you could call B2 "semi-fluent". Beyond that, you're going to need tons of exposure and practice. Courses for C1 and up are scarce unless you live in a French-speaking country. And if you want to achieve near-native levels, then that's just the beginning. But don't let any of that get you down: B1 and B2 are already terrifically useful levels, and they're well within reach of anybody who puts in the hours. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| FinnegansWake Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4246 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 01 November 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Mauritz
WOW! You speak so many languages! I wish I could speak Russian. How many years did it take you to learn the language? You should add German, Latin & Greek to your resume as a finishing touch. You seem to have the aptitude for it. ;) emk I plan to use the radio, newspapers and youtube extensively in my pursuit to perfect french. All I want to do is learn French without any of those dreadful conjugation tables. I have all the courses you mentioned and I'll start working on each one of them soon.I am operating on A1. I really have to push it. Thanks! Edited by FinnegansWake on 01 November 2012 at 5:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5376 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 9 01 November 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you want a short reply, the answer is a simple No. But if you follow the courses (I
would suggest MT - Pimsleur - Assimil whilst doing RS along with them from the start as 'relief') with your other languages you should be set up well to be able to think about developing fluency with native materials. In all cases, don't rush it! Edited by Elexi on 01 November 2012 at 7:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5202 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 6 of 9 01 November 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yeah, native fluency is still even far from my grasp and I've been studying since high
school and spent two years in France. The courses will get you up to intermediate stage. Once you hit intermediate the utility of courses and learning materials drops. They can certainly still help, even at advanced stages, but they will no longer carry you through your learning - you're going to have to depend on exposure to native materials, writing, and talking with native speakers from that point to get up to advanced. To get anywhere close to "native" will require a much more extreme effort (and there have been threads about whether it's really possible). You would need to get your learning environment as close to 100% immersion as possible and even try to go abroad. But even if you end up somewhere below native level, it's still completely worth it to be able to get to a functional level in a foreign language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 9 02 November 2012 at 2:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Even more importantly, the way to save time in this position is actually to use fewer courses! Dump Rosetta Stone, it's too slow. Use resources that are more addictive, more natural, more fun, more comprehensive. Some examples are: French In Action http://lyricstraining.com/ http://gloss.dliflc.edu/Default.aspx Memrise or Anki I'm not learning French (you'll probably think I need it to complete my CV;)) but I've used the above (only an equivalent of FIA, obviously) in other languages and it's been great. Also, seen these articles on techniques yet? http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Techniques What you do is far more important than the courses you use. And the fact that there's only one book in your list made me want to try to complete a Super Challenge by reading the same page 10000 times :) For now, one book is fine, but for native (or even advanced) fluency you'll need many more:) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| FinnegansWake Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4246 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: French | Message 8 of 9 05 November 2012 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks!.... I think you have a great point. Do you happen to have any idea where I can get an Assimil French with Ease Italian- based course? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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