Has anyone here learned to speak French?
 

Well... Now I'm crazy, probably, but I have come to a situation in which I would like to learn French and only because of Alizée! It would be great if you ever met her and could speak to her in French.

However, I understand that I don’t usually have an interest in learning languages, and sometimes in some cases I strive for perfection, so I’m probably not even daring to talk to anyone if I only had a weak French.

In other words, language learning should perhaps have broader motives, although, of course, it would always be useful regardless of the motive.

Clearly, many others have already considered the same here.

The question, then, is whether anyone has really learned French from the beginning and preferably on the principle of "hobby".

If ... So how do you learn what you did, how long did you try, etc! If anyone is, it would be nice to have tips!

Hei! So for me it was the other way around: my French led me to discovering Alizée instead of Alizée inspiring me to learn French. I’ve been learning on and off for a long while, though my French is nowhere near as good as your English. I agree with all you said, language learning is cool whatever the motive.

In terms of tips, there are loads of (free and paid) courses online to start with. Duolingo is popular for beginners. Once you start it is important to stay on the path and that learning remains enjoyable. So consume French media - for example listen to the news in French and watch YouTube in French. Do everything you would normally do but in French. Eat croissants and coffee for breakfast. Use the 24-hour clock. I’m on this journey myself and it’s pretty rewarding to be able to understand more and more. Just imagine understanding what Alizée says in her interviews!

Hope that helps a tiny bit. If I think of something helpful I will add it.

Good tips! :) Thanks! :thumb: And great when you are studying French - and you have learned French! Which I am also a little jealous of! ;) :cool: LOL. :)(:

It would be great :D if you could know in advance that you will meet Alizée someday, :13: :p it would bring motivation to study even more!:w: :lurk:

learn Corsican.

Corsicans are small but proud nation and they are proud of their language.

Good idea! :thumb:

I didn’t even think or understand the whole thing that it could be better! :)(:

Plus is that it’s a bit like Italian.

Although I like to listen to French, I like Italian even more!:p (Corsican can therefore be a real jackpot!?)

Ha, it's nothing to be jealous of, anyone can do it! I still consider myself monolingual for now, as my French is still improving. And I thought of another tip then: I recommend "Study with Alizée". You listen to a new Alizée song - I like to start with just an audio version, in order to concentrate on listening to the words. Then you look up the lyrics and learn them to practise next time you play the song. Eventually you can sing it yourself and pretend you are Alizée singing to a crowd.

I hadn't thought of that but yes, why not. Although I thought there would not be as many resources out there for the regional languages such as Corsican. And I'm not sure how widely it's spoken, often these minority languages are only spoken by the older generation. I will do some research on that.

A few years ago when we at AAm wanted to send a gift to Alizee and Greg for the birth of Maggie, we got in contact (by email) with the owner of a store in Ajaccio that sold baby clothes. Luckily, she spoke English. And even more lucky, she was good friends with Alizee. We had a message we wanted on the card, and they designed a card for us. We wrote the message in regular French, but the owner gave us the option to translate it to Corsican French, which we agreed to do. They did the translation and sent us a picture of the card. There are some subtle differences and a few not so subtle differences. It's a local dialect and you are probably right that it will eventually die off, but for now, Alizee does speak it and being that she has spent most of her life in Corsica, probably prefers it over the French that the people on the mainland use.

If I ever had the choice, I would choose to learn regular French instead. Alizee understands it and knowing the language would be useful traveling around France or any other French speaking country.

I had taken a couple of years in French in high school, but that just teaches you the basics and not really enough to learn conversational French and the thing I felt I needed to learn it well that I never had was someone you could speak to on a regular basis who knew the language well. Today I imagine some of the programs that are available today are better equipped to do a better job of teaching it than was available back in my day.

Okay. Good tip again.

It could work, even if it seemed difficult at first. :D The French language is somehow so special when you compare what you hear and what the words are. :)(:

But gradually I could try that, calmly...

By the way, how long did it take to learn, ie, that you began to understand more? :13:

Oh, perhaps we are talking about different things here. I took the first comment that advised learning Corsican to mean the Corsican language, which is a separate language in itself. It is not mutually intelligible with French and is much closer to Italian (native Italian speakers would understand it). As for the version of French spoken in Corsica, I thought it is just an accent. Like if you think about differences between the English spoken by a Londoner or a Scot, the words are the same but pronounced with different accents. So if words are different in Corsican French that is news to me.

The topic of minority languages in general is quite interesting to me. Languages die out every year. There are often debates about how to preserve them as most people agree it is important heritage. Maybe this is too off-topic now, I just think it's cool.

Yes, it is hard when you don't have someone to speak with but there are more resources than ever thanks to internet!

Music lyrics are the harder things for listening practice and even in English music I remember never being able to work out which words they were saying...

It's difficult to say exactly how long this took and I'm still learning. I started in my young childhood and picked it up again a couple of years ago in a more enthusiastic and proactive way, trying to absorb words and watch street interviews. How much I understand of something really depends on how slow/fast they speak.

You are absolutely correct and my mistake and I should have known better. Corsu goes way back long before the French took Corsica as a territory. In fact, if I was visiting Corsica and implied to the native that their language was Corsican French, I probably would have to run for my life. :p

Just FYI - I remember reading an article on trip planning to Corsica as a foreigner some time ago. They did not recommend trying to communicate with them in Corsican... unless you are Corsican. French is the best choice, but Italian and Spanish are passable.

The French have had a reputation of being kind of difficult I'd guess you'd call it with foreigners at places like restaurants which I've found true not only in France, but also Quebec, but on my last trip to Ajaccio, I had dinner at the Chez Paulo restaurant. I met Blanche again. She doesn't know that much English, but they had a young man working there named Max who spoke English very well and he said on Corsica, they are making an attempt to be very cordial with tourists and that is what I found there. I can't remember having a bad experience there (except the guy on the train). Which is important when a visitor tries to speak the language and their pronunciation isn't quite right, they have the patience to figure out what you are trying to say.

Yeah.... Yes, especially in language learning, there often has to be interest and enthusiasm. :13:

And it is always good if you start studying at a young age,:) because the older you are, the harder it can be to study...:):D

I need to try different methods :bow: and maybe get even more reasons to study... :w:

The Tuscan dialect.

Corsican is used at all levels of education in Corsica. In most cases it is taught as a subject, but a few schools use it as a medium of instruction, along side French. Corsican courses for adults are widely available throughout Corsica, as well as in some cities on the French mainland.

More and more books are published in Corsican annually. There are also some Corsican language magazines, often sponsored or produced by political parties or cultural associations, and an increasing number of theatre productions.

It is good to protect small languages! :bow:

As I researched this matter further, I was surprised that the Corsican language is so small. :13:

Alizée thus belongs to a rather small language population, although she may also speak a lot of French today.

I need to explore more when I have time! :13::thumb:

Glad we resolved the misunderstanding! I think we are over-complicating the language question. I assume that if you meet a Corsican, they would speak French as a native just as much as someone from any other region of France. There are other regional languages in France but everyone knows French, it’s the language of France. Many countries have minority languages but still the national language would be spoken by all.

I like everything related to France (I’m a Francophile) so I have all the reasons to learn. I did start young and I know what you mean, it can be a challenge to make the time to practise every day.

This is really interesting, thank you for the information. Corsican is in a better shape than I assumed.

It's a small island! Again I would say, even if they have a regional language, the national language is French so they're still native speakers.

I could be wrong on all this, just my reading and guesswork. Alex Rien, have I got it right? How do you know about this, do you know people from Corsica or something? I’m interested in minority languages and I don’t know much about this case.

Yeah... It's a small area, and it doesn't seem to spread much elsewhere, even though one Napoleon tried once... :w:

In other words, if Napoleon's "journey" had gone a little differently, the Corsican language could have been much better known, for he apparently respected the language considerably more than the French language.

Came to mind :yay: - it would be great if Alizée sang something in this language too! :p

Most of the corsican speakers live in Corsica, though there are some in Paris and Marseilles and also in Bolivia, Canada, Cuba, Italy, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, the USA and Venezuela.

Would you like more corsican songs from her?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuebq...l=SkeLeton2983

Wow, gorgeous, (I Also mean music) definitely more of this music! :)) That's an order!:D

I did try by using Duolingo and it worked well.

Many people told me that this app is bad, but for Me it worked just fine and I can recommend it.

I learned French like for 1,5 month, I dedicated myself well to it and learned a lot but then I decided to drop it for German because it is easier, less frustrating and more useful for me.

I will return to French sometime in the future.

I would also like to note that Alizée was not the only reason for me to learn French.

Year ago I saw my maternal genealogical tree and I discovered that one of my ancestors was a Frenchman. He was a soldier of Napoleon who after the Napoelonic Wars ended settled down in my village and assimilated. I am proud of having French blood, although it is only 1/64 of my ethnicity.

And for a short time I was thinking about joining the French Foreign Legion.

Good tip! :thumb::bye::)

I didn’t even remember that Elise had already mentioned that Duolingo.:)):)(:

Now I thought it was probably a paid service, but so great when it’s really free! :agree::dance:

:)And great that it’s an empirical fact now - that you can learn with it! :bow:

I just need to get "time" to start studying properly! :13: I mean, you have to focus and be serious if you want to learn languages! The reason for learning when there is no problem now - Alizée !!!! :yay:

A fun way to learn French with these two French guys or as they introduce themselves "We're just two guys from Paris, lost in the US..."

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClojdHKJABN/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Clg-erVJjTT/
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClUGW03P01P/

[edit] Removed because I was asked to give less personal information online by my work. Sorry!

Alizee 4K ! I like the British and the French, too ! I used to work for the British Navy in NATO; so I started spelling Defence the British way; instead of the American Defense ( with sort of a lisp ! ) I even put it that way on my Resumes ! So that one interviewer asked me if I was British ? But I told him no; I've simply decided that is the correct way to spell it ! I try to pick up some French from Alizee's singing. For instance I looked up OTE ! which she says in her stage performance of the j'en ai Marre ! [ And here I take writer's license; despite the words of the song She is dancing because she is upset with her boyfriend ! And when Le French girl is chewing you out and is waving her arms and wrists at you in the Air; She is Breaking Up with you ! and when she crosses her arms over her chest and says "OTE !" it is over ! OTE, from what I looked up Means the Dinner is over; or the Dinner has to be cleared ! Or the situation is Over !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8KPZAC4rAc
If you post to a YT video it comes over as https:// ; but you have to cut it down to http:// because the s will disable it ! Scruffydog777 showed me this as he is an expert !

[edit] Removed because I was asked to give less personal information online by my work. Sorry!

Hi Alizee 4K
I am sorry I try to reply to you ; but the system is giving me fits and logging me off for some reason ? I think you are really intelligent with your comments ! So maybe I can get in a longer reply later ? It is very nice you are living in Paris and can go to the Louvre Museum ! I would want to do that whenever I get there !
I am semi-retired now and writing some books. Hopefully to get one done this year and it may be good enough for a movie, also ! I need like a Game of Thrones or a Lord of the Rings ! Ha !

[edit] Removed because I was asked to give less personal information online by my work. Sorry!

Le French Language
 

Strangely; if I see the written French I can sometimes Parse out the meaning of the entries. However I cannot speak or write French !
This is like a Science Project; where I had to use a Scientific American Magazine to make it work. I read the article ; but I could make no sense of it ! So I had to re-read each word and then each sentence by itself to parse out the meaning ! Since the scientific words were based on greek or latin roots; I was able to parse out the meaning of words, then sentences and than paragraphs; so that I finally managed to get through the whole article and then re-read it for the complete meaning to get my project going.
So this is the way I get through a written French article; although not understanding it always completely ! So in a strange way; sometimes I can read the French ! I got an email from the Elysee ; when I was trying to email them to get the Legion d'Honneur for Alizee; however they just send me emails on French updates. So I improve my French reading ! I had to look up what Cocorico meant which turns out it is the French Rooster, I think, which is on their emails ! Ha !

Its the same with me! With written French, I can maybe understand 40-60% of it. But listening to French, my comprehension drops to 5%-10%. It just comes at me too fast!

This is the difference between active and passive vocabulary, this is perfectly normal even in your native language, you can probably read fancy literature and poetry, and yet, you wouldn't be able to write it or at least not to the same degree of sophistication.
Reading is always easier, at least for languages using the Latin alphabet, because you can take the time you need to decipher sentences, when you listen however, you have to keep up with the speed at which sentences are said.
Letters are objectives, you can't mistake a "t" for a "d" while reading, but when listening, things gore messier (like "this", "that", "the", "but"... "t" in English is tricky)
That's particularly true for French, which is known for being pronounced quite differently from the way it's written.

Took French my senior year of high school because of Alizée and another French singer’s music. I am definitely not fluent but I did use some French when I went to Paris France with my ex back in 2015. Sometimes at work I meet up with foreigners who come from French speaking countries and then I can speak a little French with them.

Oh ! I was thinking you were French; as sometimes you tell us what Alizee was really saying when we misinterpret it on her videos ! Ha ! And my crazy close-captioning never works right n my videos or else it gives me the wrong language ( as last time I tried to set it, it gave me Afrikaner, even though I tried for English; and then it wouldn't let me change it again ! )

Edit:

Some of the French emcees talk awfully fast ! ( although they may be pressed for time ) as in the Doron26 video for ALIZEE-J'en ai marre so it is impossible for me to tell what they are saying ! Ha !

I heard someone say that the most difficult thing to understand is French talk radio. For instance, 3 or 4 French guys speaking super-fast French, talking over one-another, cracking jokes, etc.

I learnt to read bit of French using duolingo last year.