Thinking about learning french

[Mon Maquis]

You might want to also check out Yabla.com its a website where you can watch videos and learn the French language by immersion through online videos.

Here is a sample of how it works:
http://french.yabla.com/player_s3.ph...87&tlang_id=en

There is even games you can play with the video where you have to type in what they are saying and try to figure out the correct words.

You might like it.

[travisv10]

I would recommend learning French but to not approach it through grammar and vocab.

Try learning through programs like Assimil and French in Action. Those will help you internalize what you learn and help you from forgetting it.

[mzracing76]

for me, it is just fun to learn french just to sing to Lilly's songs and her voice. to better understand her songs, the lyrics, and language. I do not speak fluent french, but I have come to know what she is saying during the songs.

I also am trying to learn the lyrics and words to her Rival 'Priscilla Prissou' who is another of my favorite french pop stars.

if it werent for Lilly and Prissie, I would have no use for french. But I think French is a very beautiful language, and wish i took it back in school.

[Jake04]

Originally Posted by IceOcean

and what you need esle

Alizee's the only reason why I'm trying to learn French. I want to be able to understand what she's saying in those interviews! I think French is a very beautiful language especially when it comes from the most beautiful woman in the world!

BTW, welcome to AAM, IceOcean!

[WhiteFeather]

Originally Posted by Jake04

BTW, welcome to AAM, IceOcean!

*coughhesabotcough*

[Jake04]

Originally Posted by WhiteFeather

*coughhesabotcough*

Is he? Oh, I didn't know that! Too bad. I thought we have another Lilly fan here!

[mzracing76]

French is fun to learn and say. Before I heard of Lilly, I didnt even know french, but now it is like it comes natural, and I dont even speak fluent french. But wierd how I can sing right along with her. I love singing with during ACC, MOI LOLITA! L ALIZE, AMELIE, YOUPIDOU, HEY AMIGO, and a few others.

She is the best.

[Chuck]

Hey, I like that Yabla thing MonMaquis was recommending! (But warning - it ain`t super easy)...

Actually, there are so many way to learn other languages these days - and you don't even have to get out of your easy chair, or spend any money or anything! It's all sooooo easy these days! Just a few years ago, everything was still the old-fashioned way. You'd have to find and go to a class, buy books, spend six months, and then wind up saying "Bonjour, je m'appelle Rick" very poorly. Just try to imagine!

But nowadays there's the internet. And MOVIES, too! And multilingual packaging! It's hard not to pick up at least a few words in some other language these days. Here's a few tips from someone who'd learned French the old-fashioned way, back in grade school. Then forgot.


MOVIES - ANY movie you might watch at home may also be able to help you with your French. If it's an English-speaking film, often you can switch the language track to French. Or, if not, you can at least put on French subtitles and try to follow along. Or watch French movies! There are quite a few, and so easily available here in the XXIme siècle.

MUSIC - (Obviously.) Lately, I've been yootubing all different French singers and musicians from the past decades, and noticed that nearly everybody has a few "subtitled" vids posted. Check out Jacques Brel! Amel Bent! Avoid Axelle Red!

ONLINE - Language courses abound! Some people swear by Rosetta, but to just pick up a few phrases, try some freebies, first. This has been discussed here before, so I'm not going to start listing them all.

ALSO ONLINE - French newspapers, magazines, stories, games... It's like they've got everything over there, but in French! When I was learning French in the seventies, we didn't have access to stuff like this. At all. To really get some world news, don't just listen to American sources - try lemonde.fr or liberation.fr (or at least the BBC!)

AND GOOGLE TRANSLATOR - Can be very helpful. It's gotten a lot better in the last few years, although it still makes a LOT of mistakes. So when you use it to translate something, try comparing the 'output' with your 'input' and see if you can spot any!

FRENCH WIKIPEDIA - The recent blackout had me discovering this: all the different-language wikipedias really are completely different! Each base is built individually, by its own contributors, there is no "mechanism" automatically translating anything added to the other wikis. So if you want ten completely different reports on a subject, you could go to Wikipedia and select English, French, German, Russian, Italian, etc... That also means that the ENFOIRÉS entry in French wikipedia is ten times as long as the English entry! Huge charts and everything! Exhaustive! Check it out!


But remember - it still isn't instantaneous. You can learn any language so much faster and easier these days, it's just beautiful. Just perfect. But it will still take some time, so don't get frustrated!

[Merci Alizée]

If you enjoy reading then you can try this also

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../63/French.pdf

Print version http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/French/Print_version

[ptjmwa]

I've always wanted to learn french. I know a lot. But, it's just random stuff. I can't really carry a conversation. So, this year i took french at my university. I think that speaking spanish has helped me with my french.