french language

[isabella]

do you learn french? on school? or by yourself(when you do this, why?).
or do you want to do something with the french language (studying,teach it to other people or something else)?

[Deepwaters]

I've only been studying French for about four months, and my original incentive was, of course, Alizée -- I wanted to understand her lyrics because it would let me get more from her music. Although I've found other reasons since then.

I'm taking an on-line correspondence course, I also went through the Pimmsleur CDs, and aside from that I just read and listen to just about everything in French I can. I have several on-line French newspapers on my favorites tab, go to blogs and discussion boards in French, and try to write and talk in French as much as possible. I sometimes use an online translator just as a learning tool -- I'll write something short in English that I'm not sure how to say in French and translate it, then look up some of the words in a dictionary to make sure it's not doing anything weird, check a grammar reference I have on my computer, etc.

I've reached a point now where I can usually understand the essence of just about anything I read. It's still harder to catch spoken French, mainly because so many words sound like so many other words and you have to identify it from the context. :( I'm much less facile at composing or speaking, though.

When I read a site, I try not only to understand it, but also to read it back aloud, to help learn to pronounce words correctly. Pronunciation is the only really hard thing in French for a native English speaker, because the languages are quite similar in vocabulary, but pronunciation patterns are very different.

Anyway, I hope to get good enough to take a trip to France some time between now and a year from now, and not have to rely on anyone understanding English.

[Toc De Mac]

I've reached a point now where I can usually understand the essence of just about anything I read. It's still harder to catch spoken French, mainly because so many words sound like so many other words and you have to identify it from the context.

Exactly. That is a very hard obstacle to overcome. For example...

mai - May
On est le premier mai - It's the first of May
la maie - bread box
mais - but
Mais je ne suis pas prêt ! - But I'm not ready!
mes - my (possessive adjective)
Où sont mes clés ? - Where are my keys?
m'es - contraction of me + second person singular être (to be)
Tu m'es très cher - You are very dear to me
m'est - contraction of me + third person singular être
met - third person singular conjugation of mettre (to put)
Il met le pain sur la table - He's putting the bread on the table
mets - first and second person singular mettre
un mets - dish
Tout le monde doit amener un mets à partager - Everyone needs to bring a dish to share


I originally decided to learn French at school, in seventh grade, due to its melifluous nature. I then decided to take lessons with a private tutor once a week once I completely fell in love with the language. I've been taking French for around three years and I love the language as much as ever.

I have no clue as to whether or not I will use the language in a career, though it is a possibility.

[espire]

French is generally mandatory in Canada till grade 9. I took it in 10 out of a small interest this year, and in the middle of the year I discovered Lili. Now, because of her, I plan to take French until at least first year university :D .

[Cooney]

I studied French from grade 6 through my first year of university (ages 12-19). It was the sort of thing that was interesting to me, but I never really was dedicated to learning it, and didn't pay as much attention as I could have. I was generally a B student in it.

Having stopped my studies after the requisite 200-level classes in college, I used French only intermittently for the next 4 years, mostly just for fun, and never had to rely on it. It atrophied away pretty badly.

When I discovered Alizée late 2005 / early 2006, I started using it a bit more again. I recovered, at the least, most of my sense of structure - that is, I regained my sense of how to put together phrases, and how to express complex ideas. Most importantly, I had, for the first time, an actual motivating force driving me to study it.

It was in mid-2006, after finding more of her music, and becoming involved on the forums here, that I really decided that I wanted to study French in earnest. I now "teach myself" so to speak, and use Rosetta Stone training software to assist. This has created the interesting situation where there are some relatively advanced ideas that I can easily express (having recently taught myself the necessary vocab for one reason or another), and some relatively simple ones I can't (having forgotten how after years of disuse). I'm learning pretty rapidly at the moment, or at the least, am retaining things better than in years past. I decide I want to know how to say something, look it up, and still remember it later when I need it.

I'm confidant now that I could get by in France without too much trouble, though I may use unconventional or excessively formal phraseology at times. I'm also working on certain silly things, like misreading reflexives, and alternating between singular "vous" and "tu" when talking.

[lefty12357]

I've started French only recently and have some moderate success at reading it. I read on-line French newspapers to practice. I also have used Rosetta Stone, but that damned CD-ROM runs so much I think I wore one of my drives out. I can't follow spoken French hardly at all yet, and I'm not very good at speaking or writing. My goal is to at least be able to comprehend the written language well.

When I hear French spoken, I tend to only pick up a few words here and there, and by the time I've sorted it out in my head, 5 more words have flown by that I missed. I'm trying to get to the point where I am thinking in French, not just trying to translate it on the fly.

[Joey_adore_Jung]

honestly i have been learning French for the last few years and since i discovered Alizee it only greatly increased my interest in it, plus the only thing i really can do at the moment is speak a small conversation in French, but i shall improve over time!

[Sir Wood]

I'I also went through the Pimmsleur CDs

I'm curious, how did you like these. Pro's and con's si ce n'est pas un probleme. :D


I sometimes use an online translator just as a learning tool

At home, I rely on one of my sidebar gadgets by Systran (http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=cbfde133-c141-4a99-9a7e-6137908f3742&l=1) for this. :o

[Deepwaters]

I'm curious, how did you like these. Pro's and con's si ce n'est pas un probleme. :D

The pros and cons are basically the same. They're repetitious and kind of boring. But -- they're repetitious, and that helped drum some basic stuff into my head that I might not otherwise have learned. I wouldn't rely on CDs by themselves, but in conjunction with the other stuff I was doing they helped.

[fsquared]

The pros and cons are basically the same. They're repetitious and kind of boring. But -- they're repetitious, and that helped drum some basic stuff into my head that I might not otherwise have learned. I wouldn't rely on CDs by themselves, but in conjunction with the other stuff I was doing they helped.

I like Pimsleur too, though I have tended to peter out after about lesson 8. :)

[espire]

Watch French TV. Even if you don't understand a word they're saying, it's the best way to learn.

[Shinmei]

As well as with subtitles too. If you don't/can't get French TV, just watch a movie of yours and change the language to French and have English subtitles.

[isabella]

i'm learning french at school. now for the second year. first year i hate it and have also bad marks for it. this year i like it very much and i have good marks too. i think i will learn more in the next years.

but the grammar is sometimes hard, or the passé composé...

[atra201]

do you learn french? on school? or by yourself(when you do this, why?).
or do you want to do something with the french language (studying,teach it to other people or something else)?
i've always loved learning other languages i think that i i know someones lang. he cannot curse me and or that i was torn what would be my second choice after English would it be French or Spanish but Alizee told me to go with French.;)

[Ebbot]

When I start going to university this autumn, I will sign up for french courses!

I have done some research about french courses during the summer, but it seems that Im too late to sign up for that. :(

[Twitch]

I grew up in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially bilingual Province so I took French from grade one all the way to 12. And I took the French Immersion program which meant that before Junior High all my classes where French. And no I am not French and was going to an English school, but the government felt that by immersing you totally in a different language you would learn it better, but by grade 12 although those who took the Immersion program did know French so did those who didn't but took all, what was for them optional, French classes through school.

And in Canada, especially in this part of the country not knowing French can be a huge hurdle in finding a job, more so where I live now as we are just across the border from Québec and the area is 50% French. So if the interviewer is French your going to have to be able to conduct the interview in French or go home, and even if your French is bad you won't get the job. They use the excuse you need to be bilingual but most people hiring are French themselves and some have little to no English and hire people with the same, the need to be bilingual story is usually just that a story. The English did the same though before the province became officially bilingual and if you were French you had it harder that someone who only speaks English does now. Why it is best to be fluent in both languages around here, although the French used in most of New Brunswick is its own subdialect and is not what you are taught in school, but you can usually still communicate (It is like if English was your second language and you had to talk to someone with a really strong accent for the first time, at first it would be very confusing). Thankfully I am in the North where the French spoken is similar to that used in Québec and what is taught in schools.

And as for French grammar, it makes more sense to me because of the immersion program, by the time I had my first English class in grade5 the teacher was like if you don't know what pronouns and adverbs are by now it's not my job to teach it. But if you never actually took an English grammar course how would you know by grade 5 what they where, you would be using them correctly but wouldn't know how to define those terms properly on a grammar test as by that time it was never taught to you. I think other teacher's weren't so lazy and understood that the Immersion students get dumped into English classes without any preparation, Math was the most annoying for me because I was always excellent at it and numbers are the same in both languages but the terminology isn't. So I would be sitting there knowing the answer in French but not in English so had to wait until someone in the class got it right or the teacher said what it was. And using commas instead of decimal points was another issue when doing Math in English for the first time.

And on the topic of subtitles, sometimes putting on French subtitles to English movies is good because you can see the French words and find them in the dictionary. I at times put on the French subtitles to French movies as well so that if a word I don't know is used I know how to spell it to find it in the dictionary.

Edit: Wow I rambled on a lot, didn't seem that long when I was typing it in the the quick reply box, lol :)

[Toc De Mac]

For anyone who has a desire to learn French, this website is extremely helpful. You can ask questions on the forums too. There are lessons on nearly every subject!

http://french.about.com/

[Deepwaters]

Yeah, About.com is where I found my email course. The site is a gold mine.

[Tye]

I am trying out Rosetta Stone right now, and am watching all my films with the french audio turned on when I can. I got to take six months of it in middle school, but I transfered mid year and my new school only offered spanish. So I was forced to take two years of spanish. No offense to anyone who speaks spanish, but the language for me is not as enjoyable or as easy to learn as french. Maybe it is because 40% of English words have french etymology, that I love the french language so much. I plan to take college courses next year.

[dano2769]

I am trying out Rosetta Stone right now

Same. How do you like it?

[espire]

The real question... How many people actually paid for Rosetta Stone! :D

[Tye]

The real question... How many people actually paid for Rosetta Stone! :D

I know. They are very proud of their product.:D

Same. How do you like it?

It is fun so far, but a bit repetitive at times. What do you think of it?

[fsquared]

The real question... How many people actually paid for Rosetta Stone! :D

I bought a Mandarin Chinese intro set with like the first few lessons for about $20. Haven't made it through yet though...

[Ebbot]

Yeah, About.com is where I found my email course. The site is a gold mine.

I signed up for the email course now :)

[Sir Wood]

For anyone who has a desire to learn French, this website is extremely helpful. You can ask questions on the forums too. There are lessons on nearly every subject!

http://french.about.com/

Yup, this is where I looked first, which directed me to the Michel Thomas CDs (which I just recently started). That's why I was curious about the Pimsleur CDs. :)

[Fusoya]

In the 8th grade I chose German over French when we could choose between those for a second foreign lanuage at school......boy I do regret a bit now :S

[espire]

In the 8th grade I chose German over French when we could choose between those for a second foreign lanuage at school......boy I do regret a bit now :S

On the plus side, yelling at people in German is more fun than in French :p

[Deepwaters]

On the plus side, yelling at people in German is more fun than in French :p

Ja, richtig, tu unglaublicher Idiot mit einem Gesicht wie einem Abfallstapel!

(Just kidding.) :)

[fsquared]

Hungarian has a reputation for a rich curse word vocabulary. I think it was in Barry Farber's "How To Learn Any Language" where he relates some story of meeting some Hungarians and comparing curse words, and for every 2 or 3 in the language he was comparing with, Hungarian had at least 50. :D

[dano2769]

It is fun so far, but a bit repetitive at times. What do you think of it?

I've been working full time, so I haven't gotten as far into it as I would like. But I like it, and it works better than it seems. I was able to form my own sentences pretty early on.

[Fusoya]

On the plus side, yelling at people in German is more fun than in French :p

haha , maybe :D
At least I understand some German now....even though I did very bad when studying it :p
I actually do like the German lanuage, but French is.....I dont have words...I really love it.

[isabella]

I actually do like the German lanuage, but French is.....I dont have words...I really love it.

i hate german..i always have bad marks. when i have to choose, i really will do french.:)

[Fusoya]

i hate german..i always have bad marks. when i have to choose, i really will do french.:)

Is that so, hehe
I do prefer french, but I think german is 'okay' ;)

[garçoncanadien]

several French people and myself are here to help with all things French ;)