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French Comprehension | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| HyeLezûn Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6471 days ago 33 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English*, Armenian* Studies: French | Message 1 of 23 07 October 2006 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
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Why is french comprehension so difficult when compared to other languages? I've been studying french for about 5 months now, and I feel I'm making great progress; but comprehension is very difficult.
What's the best way to work on this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Coovertown Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6517 days ago 57 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Korean, English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 23 07 October 2006 at 5:49am | IP Logged |
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I'd say it's because of various factors.
For one thing, it's not a phoenetic language. Secondly, pronunciation is different from that of English. The last reason I can think of is because speakers of another language will forever find something different and new in the language of study, thus making the language "hard" to understand. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6472 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 3 of 23 07 October 2006 at 9:55am | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't necessarily call it difficult to understand - at least not any more than the average Romance or Germanic language. It's all about practice, and exposure. How much time do you spend listening to French every day? I'm talking Spoken live French, as in what you hear on the radio, or in person. If you're fully immersed in the language, it might still take a while, but you've just got to keep at it. As always, figure out if it's an issue of structure, vocabulary, or accent, and focus on the skill you need to improve the most.
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| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6506 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 4 of 23 08 October 2006 at 1:33am | IP Logged |
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Spoken French IS really difficult to understand, I agree. I think it's because there are too many mute letters. Also, the nasal sounds and throaty r's make the discourse blurred - especially when they talk fast - and they always talk fast. French is very difficult to pronounce as well. You have to strain your facial muscles and keep making impossible changes from one sound to another that is in a completely different phonetic domain. Try pronouncing 'chirurgien' at the normal speed...
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| aaapple Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6239 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 5 of 23 30 March 2007 at 4:45pm | IP Logged |
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French is not difficult. Exposure is probably the key. Go to Paris, avoid
your native language altogether, take some of the courses offered by the Alliance francais. Some people think it's cool to low, street French. The French are not impressed; aim a little higher. Barring that, the FSI French course is great, and though somewhat antiquated, will take you a long way. The FSI also produced a French phonology course that covers all of the sound system very well (Parisian French). The "bad" of these courses is that they will no doubt be really tedious. Brrrrrr... I wouldn't want to do them. I met a man from Hong Kong once who completed them - all the way. His French was faultless. Bonne chance! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aaapple Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6239 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 6 of 23 30 March 2007 at 4:48pm | IP Logged |
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I meant Alliance francaise. I have no French font on my machine.
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| Evanstar Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6240 days ago 24 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Catalan, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Latin, Swahili, Italian | Message 7 of 23 30 March 2007 at 5:12pm | IP Logged |
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I don't think it's hard, but I think most people when learning vocabulary try to correlate the sound with the orthography. I think French is waaay overrated for difficulty...I think listening comprehension isn't hard, but you can't expect to passively learn it either.
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6370 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 8 of 23 31 March 2007 at 1:57am | IP Logged |
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I can only speak for myself, but I found French comprehension to be extremely difficult. Mandarin is a breeze in comparison (though already knowing three instead of four languages might account for a bit of the difference). It probably has to do with:
1) the sheer speed of it. French people talk like machine guns. I once formed a theory that it's because they use so many sounds to say things, that they need to speak a lot faster to get to a normal "meaning per second" ratio. This would account for Mandarin being easier (as it's very condensed. Every syllable carries a lot of meaning and a lot is understood from context rather than spoken aloud), despite the tones. 2) the skipping of sounds. I heard some French spoken at the bus a week ago. A guy said to his wife: "C'est pas le bon. C'est le suivant." Problem is, this isn't really how he said it. It sounded like: "Spalbon. Sel suivant." I would never have caught this six months ago. To improve my comprehension, I took to watching tons of movies. Hours a day. It's a pretty painless way of studying, except it's annoying in the beginning when you can't understand a thing. I started with cartoons, then went on to dubbed movies, and finally watched a lot of native films. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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