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Preparing to start learning French | ||
Tags: French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6052 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 4 23 May 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
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My stretch goal is to learn all of the UN languages eventually (English, Spanish, French,
Arabic, Mandrain, and Russian), but I'm not in a huge hurry. I got on ebay a couple times a week for the last couple months, bidding $25 on every Pimsleur Level 1 that I saw until I won a bid. French, it is. So,I'm not starting French for another few months (I'm living in Costa Rica, volunteering at a school until September, and I don't want to waste Spanish immersion opportunities trying to learn French alone in my appartment), but I'd like to put together a few low cost materials for when I am ready to begin. My main resources for learning Spanish (before this trip to Costa Rica) have just been Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, and flashcards. They have worked pretty well. Would this be a good approach for French as well, or do you have other must-use resources that you could recommend? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4683 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 4 24 May 2014 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
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I think Michel Thomas and Pimsleur are an excellent start. You will absolutely want to
follow them up, though! Assimil would be an excellent follow-up; it will bring you close to a level where you can start reading independently. It's not a budget program per se - $53 on Amazon - but when you figure that you'll be using it for four to six months it balances out. I go back and forth on my opinion on DuoLingo, but it's also free & definitely worth having if you have a smart phone. FSI is massive and free. It's also a bit dry. I really like it, but only in small doses. I'm almost finished with the course ... 2 1/2 years after starting it. I would absolutely recommend it if you are looking for a deep understanding of French. I've been impressed with the new Living Language courses for Japan and Italian, and my guess would be that French would be the same quality. Ignore the fact that three volumes are labeled "beginner" "intermediate" and "advanced." It is completely a beginner's course. ________________________________ I think you're doing the right thing by waiting until your immersion is over to start French. Although I don't think I would have the willpower to hold out once my books start arriving! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4238 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 3 of 4 24 May 2014 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
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If you have access to the Internet there are a few sample lessons on YouTube under Victor Learn French.
I like their approach because the videos are situational like at the restaurant, taking a taxi, at the train station, etc. The other video learning series I like is from Yabla French. You can go online to their site and watch a few videos with captions. Each video has a slow button so that you can listen to the dialog at a slower speed and return to the normal speed when ready. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 4 of 4 24 May 2014 at 6:14am | IP Logged |
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Pimsleur and Michel Thomas are great to start with. You may want to check out French in Action as well. I'd say the best thing to do is focus heavily on audio-based resources to begin with. You'll get a huge leg up coming from Spanish but the main battle will be the orthography. It's easier to apply the written word to what you've already heard rather than trying to "unhear" silent letters. There's an FSI phonology course as well as other phonetics for French resources if this turns out to be challenging. Otherwise you'll find other aspects easier - fewer verb conjugations - especially less subjunctive, only one "to be" verb, and you always use pronouns so your conjugation doesn't need to be perfect.
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