Learning French.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Two of my current goals are to get fit and to learn a new language. For the language, I have chosen French, because its a beautiful language and because I've been watching a lot of French New Wave cinema which has also inspired the decision. What are some tips for doing this? I cannot afford a teacher right now, although I would like to get lessons when I can afford it - has anyone here learned a new language without one, and if so, what were some good techniques?

I did some in school but its mostly forgotten, although I was good and can pronounce French pretty well. My biggest problem with languages is memorizing vocabulary, does anybody have some tips in this regard? My brother is keen to learn too, so we can speak in the language which I guess will help us both learn.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am also aware of the French forum on here which may be useful - perhaps some French members or French-speaking members would be kind enough to take part in some kind of pen-pal system over PM.

[SacRedMan]

I can speak French, but don't know what tips I can give you.

[Rakhmetov]

Check for some free online services. I don't know ...

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+french+&aq=f

[danyboy27]

i am french canadian, i could help you out now and then if you got Question.

A good start would be to find out how to pronounce the alphabet, then you could move on with sentence structures, and vocabulary.

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

Repitition, and read childrens stories. They help

[Red_Devotchka]

I can speak French, but don't know what tips I can give you.
helpful :/

[Triple A]

See movies in french (with english subtitles) and as the movie roles learn some thing.
i worked my english that way.



And a really good advice is dont learn french, i had too and it sucks.

[Octavian]

Right now I'm attempting to learn German(Tips would be appreciated) I'm using Rosetta Stone which is a computer program. The going price is around 400 dollars but I said fuck that and pirated it. So far I'm finding that I actually pick up the language much better than I did in school with learning french. This is mostly because the program kind of throws you in the water at the beginning it says a basic sentence or word and then you match it to a picture. At first it's kind of trial and error and going off what little you know of the language/what sounds similar to ones you know but I'm starting to memorize words and sentence structure.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Considering you are in England, France or Belgium are not too far. Immersion in a native speaking environment is no doubt the most effective method of learning a language.

[Luisrah]

Change many settings in your computer to French, for example. Watch movies in French with English subtitles.

That way you'll be reading AND hearing French. Helps your vocabulary, accent, etc just enough for you to be able to communicate with French speaking people.

[Ose]

To help with comprehension, I think it would be better to watch French films with French subtitles rather than English. As long as you can understand the subtitles that is. In everyday speech, in any language, people don't leave gaps between words, so being able to read the words as you hear them will help. I find comprehension one of the hardest aspects of learning a language, because when you're talking, you have all the thinking time you need, but you don't when you're listening.

But yeah, there's really no substitute for going over there and throwing yourself in at the deep end.

[manic expression]

If you want to learn vocab, you can make your own vocab lists manually. One way I do this is by reading a text in my target language (any will do...I like to use marxists.org just because), writing down 30 or so new words, then carrying the words and their translations around with me and drilling myself a few times a day. Rinse and repeat a few times (while reviewing old vocab lists) and you'll notice the improvement.

Also, if you have any friends who speak French, even at intermediate level, FORCE them to speak with you every once in awhile (at least every time you meet with them). They might not want to, but you need to insist on it. It'll help you a great deal.

Random tip I heard: one tough thing about French is the high irregularity of some of the most common verbs. Get those down and life will be much easier.

Here are some resources you might want to check out:

FSI (http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French) (which includes tapes, which personally I don't love but others find useful, texts and other types of resources)

Here's a textbook (http://www.lightandmatter.com/french/) you can download.

RFI (http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/pages/001/accueil_exercice_ecoute.asp) has some free listening exercises. Try "Journal en francais facil" (on the menu to the left) for more beginner-friendly stuff.

[Die Rote Fahne]

I've tried my whole life to learn french. mandated in school for me until grade 9. I quit, tried again in college.

If I ever go back to university for poli-sci, I'll be doing french again.

Try taking a single french course at a college? Might cost 400 dollars, but yeah.

[RedTrackWorker]

There's a lot of awesome French hip hop. Download it and listen to it constantly.

[nik_lo]

Je parle un petite peut de francais. What advice I can give you is devoting an hour a day to French media, films, anything that's in french with an english translation subtitles or transcript. It goes a long way to use videos in both languages and pause the video when you don't understand and look up what they're talking about. The hour also helps you keep up with your french, I used to know a lot of Ukrainian but it slipped as I stopped speaking and attending my night classes.

hope this helped!

btw, I myself am focusing on improving my existing Spanish and improving my written Spanish.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

Two of my current goals are to get fit and to learn a new language. For the language, I have chosen French, because its a beautiful language and because I've been watching a lot of French New Wave cinema which has also inspired the decision. What are some tips for doing this? I cannot afford a teacher right now, although I would like to get lessons when I can afford it - has anyone here learned a new language without one, and if so, what were some good techniques?

I did some in school but its mostly forgotten, although I was good and can pronounce French pretty well. My biggest problem with languages is memorizing vocabulary, does anybody have some tips in this regard? My brother is keen to learn too, so we can speak in the language which I guess will help us both learn.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am also aware of the French forum on here which may be useful - perhaps some French members or French-speaking members would be kind enough to take part in some kind of pen-pal system over PM.

Torrent the Rosetta Stone. I did, and it included every language imaginable and an activation crack. I have yet to use it but everyone swears by it.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Thanks for the tips, all very useful. Might look into this Rosseta Stone malarky - I saw it on a stall when I was at a shopping centre once and couldn't believe how expensive it was!

[Forward Union]

As something of a linguist, I can tell you that French is a relatively easy language for native English speakers. You can expect to be able to speak it in two or three years if you commit to a proper learning schedule.

[agnixie]

I used to tutor students in it - one of the easy mistakes to make is focusing obsessively on rare exceptions - yes they're complicated, but they're also rare. It makes the language seem far more daunting than it really is to have basic proficiency in (as opposed to speaking like an Immortal :p ).

[Rooster]

Get the BBC's French Grammar book. I think it's a part of a series called "talk". Anyway, get that and a dictionary and just work your way through the grammar book. I have this mnemonic learning thing for French nouns which is really rather good if a bit stupid in places. If I can find it then I'll put up some links. It's better to learn how the language is constructed than just to memorise sentences.

[Forward Union]

I used to tutor students in it - one of the easy mistakes to make is focusing obsessively on rare exceptions - yes they're complicated, but they're also rare. It makes the language seem far more daunting than it really is to have basic proficiency in (as opposed to speaking like an Immortal :p ).

Try German then, with more exceptions than rules. 16 ways of saying "the", 32 adjective endings (In English there are none) and four cases.


Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me. For instance, my book inquires after a certain bird -- (it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of consequence to anybody): "Where is the bird?" Now the answer to this question -- according to the book -- is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain. Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book.

Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, "Regen (rain) is masculine -- or maybe it is feminine -- or possibly neuter -- it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either der (the) Regen, or die (the) Regen, or das (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look. In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine. Very well -- then the rain is der Regen, if it is simply in the quiescent state of being mentioned, without enlargement or discussion -- Nominative case; but if this rain is lying around, in a kind of a general way on the ground, it is then definitely located, it is doing something -- that is, resting (which is one of the German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into the Dative case, and makes it dem Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something actively, -- it is falling -- to interfere with the bird, likely -- and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing dem Regen into den Regen." Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop "wegen (on account of) den Regen." Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word "wegen" drops into a sentence, it always throws that subject into the Genitive case, regardless of consequences -- and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop "wegen des Regens."

N. B. -- I was informed, later, by a higher authority, that there was an "exception" which permits one to say "wegen den Regen" in certain peculiar and complex circumstances, but that this exception is not extended to anything but rain.

- Marx Twain "The awful German language"