|
 |
Starting off in French | ||
Tags: French | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5161 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 9 of 22 11 April 2015 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
FSI is a great recommendation to help you reach your goals... especially with how many hours you are willing to put in. The "Mastering French" books by Barrons are the text of FSI printed out. Sometimes they are $0.50 on amazon and sometimes they are $30. It is hit or miss.
I also commend you for a very well thought out and reasoned post. I've been long contemplating French and here is my basic strategy (but I only intend to spend half an hour a day on French): Pimsleur 1&2 and/or Paul Noble Michel Thomas Assimil Michel Thomas advanced twice Assimil Active wave FSI 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5022 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 10 of 22 11 April 2015 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
It is public domain, so you can take it to any printer and ask them to make a book for you. It will cost you a fair bit of money since you only want a single copy, but they'll do it for you. I don't think anyone is commercially printing them. Personally I just printed them out chapter by chapter as I needed them and put them in a binder. Edited by rdearman on 11 April 2015 at 12:56pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5048 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 11 of 22 11 April 2015 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Further elaborating on rdearman's advice, in the US you can email the pdf's to officemax or the UPS store to be printed and bound.I checked out officemax online and found that 100 pages double-sided spiral bound with cover(200 pages in pdf) costs $13.83. No cover included the cost is $12.
Or, you can put them on a tablet for free. That's what I did with my DLI courses a few years ago. A tablet is portable and it doesn't have to be an expensive iPad. It can be any tablet capable of handling pdf's and mp3's. 7 inch screen android tablets can be had for as little as $45 on ebay. 10 inch tablets can be bought for around $100. That's what I did with my DLI Portuguese Basic Course and DLI Haitian Creole Course. I would study in bed when I awoke in the morning, or relaxing on the sofa. I highly recommend it. One tablet, with enough memory, can hold a lot of pdf's and more than justifies the cost vs having a course printed out- something to think about. Edited by iguanamon on 11 April 2015 at 2:34pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5022 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 12 of 22 11 April 2015 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
Additionally the tablet music player can play the MP3's as well, so you can listen/repeat and read the drills. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4695 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 13 of 22 12 April 2015 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Another point about FSI is that you are likely to spend more time using the audio alone than using the textbook. It's certainly better to at least have a first pass through each section of the lesson with audio alone, and I only use the text for occasional verification of what I'm hearing. If you do an audio exercise with the text in hand, you will need to cover up the right column, or when using a tablet, zoom in enough that the right column is off the edge (then you can slide it over to check you've responded correctly).
Now about your original post: What is the deal with Assimil? It is built around a load of short, increasingly difficult texts. New French With Ease has the equivalent of about 100 pages of French text, and the audio is about 3 hours of French only. Compare this to any other introductory course and it probably has 10x more textual material to work with. Have you tried a Living Language or Teach Yourself course? They usually have two CDs, and half of the content is in English. There is a LL series that has 5 CDs, but the audio is just a reading of all of the target language content in the textbook as it appears, so you get things like lists of words, etc. Some people complain that there's not enough grammar, and I will agree that the grammar in Assimil courses feels a bit haphazard. However, if you just add up all of the grammar notes in the review chapters (every 7th lesson), the total amount of notes is probably more than in your average Teach Yourself book. My overall judgement is that no other textbook/course will do more to make you ready to take on native materials. If you enjoy it, you might want to try the sequel, Using French. I haven't used it yet, but from a few flips through the book it looks good. French for Reading seems like a good book, and I've considered getting it myself. Please let us know what you think of it once you get into it. I certainly think that alongside Assimil you are likely to get enough of the basic grammar with it. If you add in FSI, you'll be set. If you like studying grammar, there are other texts we could recommend (e.g. French Grammar in Context), but since you don't want to spend your life in textbooks, I'd stick with the trio of Assimil, FSI & French for Reading. Instead of the RFI audio or News in Slow French, give L'avis de Marie a try. It's free, it covers a wide range of topics, and the transcript is highlighted sentence by sentence as you listen (although I usually download the mp3s and listen to it while walking). Have you looked at any online courses like Duolingo or Lingvist? Lingvist might be better for you in that it is built around a frequency list, so you will cover something like the most frequent 3500 words in a few months. Duolingo, on the other hand, is more fun and is more focused on grammar topics ("adjectives", "possession", "pronouns", etc). I know you don't want to spend too much time on courses, but 10-15 minute a day on one of these courses will probably make a big difference. So here's how I'd modify your plan:
Finally, it's never too soon to start listening to music and watching TV/films in French. Edited by Jeffers on 12 April 2015 at 7:36pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6991 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 14 of 22 15 April 2015 at 2:35am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Another idea is Le Petit Nicholas. These are well written, funny short stories. I've heard audio for the first couple of books. The first one is better, in my opinion. Also, youtube.com has a bunch of Petit Nicholas cartoons in French.
I'm a believer in FSI Basic French too. I just look at the PDFs. Almost all of my FSI study time is just with the audio, but the PDFs are helpful because they have grammar explanations and transcripts of the entire set of recordings. Edited by luke on 15 April 2015 at 2:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3328 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 15 of 22 15 April 2015 at 11:52am | IP Logged | |||||
|
As a fellow French beginner learner I used the FSI French Headstart for Belgium series along with the standard textbook recommended to us for the French course I was taking. I feel like the FSI course is better suited for me because it emphasizes conversations and drills, all with audio. Some of the audio technical quality is not so good, but when I listen to it it sounds like authentic people talking. The audio from the more modern book we used in class, on the other hand, sounds way over-acted and kind of inauthentic. It's hard to listen to more than once (and listening to it more than once is critical for my style of learning).
Some French courses I've seen (including the one we used in clas) seem like they get mired into many fairly pointless details like the various verb conjugation patterns and trying to explain some grammatical details like word contractions, liason, singular/plural agreement, "les vs des", etc. etc. in excrutiating detail. Apparently there's even something called "subjunctive mood" or something which teachers and learners seem to fret about for some reason but honestly the fact that you need to introduce such linguistic terminology just to teach a basic speaking pattern is very problematic in my opinion. As a point of comparison, the term "liason" is used early on in French and is perhaps useful to describe a pronunciation artifact that occurs in French (and in English too BTW). But notice you can readily use your ears to hear "what liason is" in the language without ever having heard of the term "liason" or studying some kind of rule for using it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| diplomaticus Newbie United States Joined 3751 days ago 23 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 16 of 22 24 April 2015 at 3:21am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Hello everyone. I think good form is to check back in with those offering advice, no?
chobbs, I think your advice to wait on the Pronounce it Perfectly in French book is wise. Jeffers, L'avis de Marie looks fantastic. However, with how lengthy they are and all, I decided to put that on the "check it out in a few months" list. It seems like something for closer to A2 or so. iguanamon, nice suggestion on using a tablet for FSI. I had been given a cheapo one for Christmas that was just collecting dust, and it seems well-suited for the task. Which leads me to the first thing I have branched out to not referenced in my initial post: When clicking around to read about FSI on here, I came across praise for the Margarita Madrigal's Magic Key to French book. Specifically, I was intrigued by a post describing it as a longer version of the Michel Thomas method since it would seem to be all of the positives of that course without the biggest negative (the accent and other students being wrong). I was disheartened to see the high price since it is out of print, but was not shy about utilizing the guidance in this review: [http://www.amazon.com/review/R3R0JM03L4FGO6/ref=cm_cr_dp_ti tle? ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0007DUDG6&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=283155& store=books]Magic Key to French - Amazon Review[/URL] This is the main thing I have been using on my tablet. I've just completed the 9th lesson (of 48) and completed the first review test. What a method! It is crazy how sentences just roll off the tongue using it. My pronunciation may not be perfect, but the ease with which I can construct sentences is...well, magical. If the remaining 39 lessons continue to be this helpful, I'd have to say that ROI for time spent with it will be fantastic. The only thing is you almost don't realize how much you are learning. I am taking a couple of days off from doing new lessons just to let what I've covered sink in a bit before moving on. The course comes with handy review cards at the end of each section to write out. So just flipping through the 9 cards (which takes about a minute), I can quickly go over everything I've learned already. So far, this is a truly fantastic course. As for Assimil. Well, I am off to an inauspicious start. First off, the seller sent me a copy of the older French Without Toil course rather than New French With Ease. I understand they are both Assimil titles for French, but the titles aren't even the same! Anyway, I figured I may as well make due with what I have since it was cheap enough and I don't want to wait for return and exchange. A bit of exploring later, I was able to find the audio online. I ask you withhold moral judgments as there appears to be no place to buy this older course audio from Assimil on their site. Anyway, I digress.... How does one know if it is working? Today is day 11. I have been basically doing every combo of listening to the audio while reading the French and English silently to reading aloud along with the French. Do I just....keep going? It is a curious little course. I am not sure at what point there is supposed to be an epiphany moment if I follow the directions to just read, listen, repeat, and move on. Or shall I not expect anything to click until later in the "active" wave? The biggest change to my original plan, other than the so-far enjoyable usage of Margarita Madrigal's lovely course, will likely be my usage of French in Action more centrally. My birthday occurred within the past week, and my older brother bought me the new 3rd edition of FIA's textbook and workbook along with the study guide for the first 26 lessons and gave me his audio cd that goes with it. I razzed him a bit that a proper gift is the complete course. He said if I manage to finish the first 26, he is happy to buy me the rest, haha. Quite frankly, this looks much more enjoyable than FSI. I have not dug much into FSI yet since I was drawn mostly to Magic Keys to French anytime I pulled out my tablet. I am honestly a bit overwhelmed at all the material that is in French in Action. Maybe it is just because French Without Toil is one book and Magic Keys to French seems to be moving along at such a quick pace, but FIA seems as if it just absolutely dwarves them both overall, and this is only half the course! Anyway, this is getting quite long. I definitely need to do a better job of working in native audio listening and reading. I want to give this Lingvist app a go as well since even reviews off the site praise it as being pretty great. Slightly tweaked goal: 1. Keep working through Magic Keys to French, doing all exercises and reading all words aloud (time-consuming but seems to bring about an ability to spit out the words almost automatically). 2. Keep doing a lesson of French Without Toil per day. I am not sold on the method yet, but it doesn't take long, so why not? 3. Listen to the RFI news piece with transcript daily. I've only done this a few times since the journey began. I think maybe my subconscious is defaulting to other options which are easier/more fun, which tells me this is a thing I need to start working on! The only reason I thought to stop Assimil was to replace that time with this step. But I feel I should give Assimil at least a few more weeks to see how I feel. 4. Start playing around with Lingvist and see how I like it. 5. I haven't touched French for Reading yet. I am not sure if/when I will get to it. Basically, I want to get to using French in Action centrally. It seems to have just about every piece of these other courses baked into it. Though, starting it from nothing might be a bit much. Once I finish the Madrigal book, I will probably be back to ask for advice on how best to use the French in Action book (assuming the Study Guide doesn't give good guidance. I am unsure if it is geared towards self-study or classroom use since I haven't really looked at it that closely). Anyway, it seems I am going back a bit on what I said about not wanting to focus too much on courses. C'est la vie. The important thing, from what I gather on reading of other peoples' successes and failures, is to keep chugging along and do something every day. I decided I will allow myself until June 1st to just get going in these courses. On that day, I plan to join a penpal or chat site and find some friends to start talking to. I figure a bit over a month and a half is enough time to learn basics and have something to say! TL;DR updated version: 1. Keep reviewing the Magic Keys to French book, and work through it until the end unless the quality greatly diminishes. Having a stack of ~50 notecards to help jog my memory on tricks to speaking and remembering vocab will be a nice review tool to carry forward. 2. Keep doing one French Without Toil lesson per day. Maybe try to do a bit more reviewing of older lessons to make sure I am not just glossing over things. 3. Listen to the RFI news cast and read along with it at least 3 times a week. Alternate days with playing with the Lingvist app so I am doing vocabulary building and hopefully don't get burned out on either. 4. Start watching the French in Action videos this weekend. The user Farley seems to be the FIA guru in the same way emk is the New French With Ease guru. He has an old post about how watching all the videos through a first time is how he'd start if he did it all over again. I figure by the time I watch through episode 26 (~13 hours of watching), I will have completed Magic Keys to French. So then I will start over at lesson 1 and do the workbook/textbook stuff. 5. Make a French online friend to practice speaking with no later than June 1st. Thanks for reading, everyone. I figured a big update every few weeks beats a lot of short posts. Less time on here and more time trying to use French! Plus, I want other learners to be able to benefit from my experiences as well. Anyway, off to do Lesson 11 of French Without Toil. I must keep the streak alive! 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
