Has anyone here learned to speak French?

[okaberintarou]

Originally Posted by Marshal Davout

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 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.

[Paulina]

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.

[Marshal Davout]

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

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!

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:

Originally Posted by okaberintarou

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.

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 !

[Mr Coucou]

Originally Posted by Marshal Davout

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.

[Merci Alizée]

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