Rosetta Stone to help learn Alizee's music?

[SaintÀlizee]

Originally Posted by Jalen

Do you have a netflix account? One of the things I do religiously is watch one or two French movies a week, subtitles off, so I can listen for words, recognize them, and identify how they were said. What I did when I first started was rent every Audrey Tautou movie I could (not a crush, it was just really easy to go down the Audrey Tautou list and click ADD, ADD, ADD, and for some reason I understand her better than other French actresses).

And assuming you have access to youtube, look up interviews of people besides Alizée. It's important to hear the language spoken in a wide variety of voices. I knew a guy who thought he was cool because his chola-ass girlfriend taught him how to speak Spanish very well, but if you close your eyes he sounds like a chola-ass girl speaking Spanish. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to sound like Alizée when I speak.

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And as for Rosetta Stone, it works... and it doesn't.

It works well for visual concepts, for example it'll show say four pictures of a dog; one clean, one dirty, one running, and one sitting. Then, depending on the activity, you'll be given a caption "Le chien court" followed by the rest of the captions, where the idea of the activity is to allow you to associate the two common factors together: the image of a dog, and the word "chien"

I find there are some concepts that are just too difficult for Rosetta Stone's system to teach. They can only do it through images, and just imagine trying to make someone fluent in English by doing nothing but charades and narrating what you're doing.

Rosetta Stone is a supplementary tool that I believe should be used in conjunction with everything else I mentioned.

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Before I forget, here's one astronomically helpful hint that will set you one step higher than the French 3 students at my school.

Having a hard time pronouncing the French "u"?

Purse your lips, and say "E", like "cheese"

I don't remember where I heard it but my lordy that's exactly how the French U is supposed to sound.

So when you try to say the letter "Q" in French, don't say "kyoo", say "key" with pursed lips.

Yup, I do have Netflix on my Wii. Thanks, man. You've been alot of help. I don't think I'm going to even get Rosetta Stone. I've read reviews about it, and it wasn't exactly positive. That, and along side it's price is ridiculous. I know it can help, but as for learning a fluent language, I don't thik it will help. Thanks. But would it be difficult to learn a language without subtitles? I mean, I have no clue what they're saying. haha.

[Naft]

Originally Posted by SaintÀlizee

Yup, I do have Netflix on my Wii. Thanks, man. You've been alot of help. I don't think I'm going to even get Rosetta Stone. I've read reviews about it, and it wasn't exactly positive. That, and along side it's price is ridiculous. I know it can help, but as for learning a fluent language, I don't thik it will help. Thanks. But would it be difficult to learn a language without subtitles? I mean, I have no clue what they're saying. haha.

You could always... "acquire it through unethical/immoral means"... I don't think you can go directly into watching it without subtitles without the slightest knowledge of the language, I would even go as far as to call it a waste of time. I won't say too much since I am not much of a linguist, but I think if you started watching with subtitles and paid attention to what was being said and things of the like you would make more progress than by just listening to them blab while you don't understand but few words.

[SaintÀlizee]

Originally Posted by Naft

You could always... "acquire it through unethical/immoral means"... I don't think you can go directly into watching it without subtitles without the slightest knowledge of the language, I would even go as far as to call it a waste of time. I won't say too much since I am not much of a linguist, but I think if you started watching with subtitles and paid attention to what was being said and things of the like you would make more progress than by just listening to them blab while you don't understand but few words.

But this brings me back to something. As infants, how exactly do we pick up on a new language? Are we biologically wired to know English? Doubt it. Seems rather odd. I think many years and years of listening to the French language, you've got to pick up on it eventually. But who has the time for that? lol

[Naft]

Originally Posted by SaintÀlizee

But this brings me back to something. As infants, how exactly do we pick up on a new language? Are we biologically wired to know English? Doubt it. Seems rather odd. I think many years and years of listening to the French language, you've got to pick up on it eventually. But who has the time for that? lol

Repetition my friend. When we are kids we are imitating our parents, they are going through the simplest of phrases with us, "mamma/pappa" and say it several times a day, you don't really occupy yourself with anything of major importance when you are a kid so you take part of this and start repeating after them eventually. Them hearing it over and over again works the same way as it works right now at your current age, I for an example know very little French but I can still imitate most parts of Lili's songs. The reason to why I can't (or at least why I think I can't) associate every word, build up my own vocabulary of her songs and such are because it turns harder learning a language at a certain age, of which I can't remember. That is why mothers/fathers are often talking to the toddler in different languages from time to time, to give them the grammatical rules and vocabulary needed for basic skills that will further develop the language to its full extent. We're not born to learn English, it has nothing to do with anything in our genetics, I can prove that since I am after-all Swedish and very few I know actually manages to handle all the English pronouncing things that are separate, such as the name 'Jack', it's a common name in both countries (maybe not as much in Sweden, but it still goes around), the J in English is pronounced sort of "Djack" whereas the Swedish is just straight out "Jack" and they don't adapt this to the English; then they assume that is the way it is to go with all things of the like (janitor/John/Jolene and any word that starts with a J). It is not accustom to their standard to ever pronounce a J it is pronounced in English, because they were not taught it that way. There are of course many things and some people are getting the concept, but I am merely illustrating a point.

I do agree with you though, if you were to totally engulf yourself in the French language, listen to French conversations, interviews, music, videos, movies, and everything you can think of eventually you would have grasped some parts of it, but I doubt it would be a fast, beneficial or efficient learning technique.

[SaintÀlizee]

Originally Posted by Naft

Repetition my friend. When we are kids we are imitating our parents, they are going through the simplest of phrases with us, "mamma/pappa" and say it several times a day, you don't really occupy yourself with anything of major importance when you are a kid so you take part of this and start repeating after them eventually. Them hearing it over and over again works the same way as it works right now at your current age, I for an example know very little French but I can still imitate most parts of Lili's songs. The reason to why I can't (or at least why I think I can't) associate every word, build up my own vocabulary of her songs and such are because it turns harder learning a language at a certain age, of which I can't remember. That is why mothers/fathers are often talking to the toddler in different languages from time to time, to give them the grammatical rules and vocabulary needed for basic skills that will further develop the language to its full extent. We're not born to learn English, it has nothing to do with anything in our genetics, I can prove that since I am after-all Swedish and very few I know actually manages to handle all the English pronouncing things that are separate, such as the name 'Jack', it's a common name in both countries (maybe not as much in Sweden, but it still goes around), the J in English is pronounced sort of "Djack" whereas the Swedish is just straight out "Jack" and they don't adapt this to the English; then they assume that is the way it is to go with all things of the like (janitor/John/Jolene and any word that starts with a J). It is not accustom to their standard to ever pronounce a J it is pronounced in English, because they were not taught it that way. There are of course many things and some people are getting the concept, but I am merely illustrating a point.

I do agree with you though, if you were to totally engulf yourself in the French language, listen to French conversations, interviews, music, videos, movies, and everything you can think of eventually you would have grasped some parts of it, but I doubt it would be a fast, beneficial or efficient learning technique.

Very good point. Another point, is that as an infant, our brains our in drastic developing phases where it sets the groundwork for whats to come as we speak. As an adult, we know so much, it's hard to learn anything else in those terms. When we're young, we're able to grasp so much of the world. A good example for me, is that when I was really young, I loved video games and television. Just because it was fascinating watching it and learning new things about the world. Nowadays, I don't find video games nor television to be nearly as exciting. I'm fortunate music for me has not lost it's luster. Thank you for the response.

Also, that biological part was more or less sarcasm. Haha

[user472884]

Originally Posted by SaintÀlizee

But this brings me back to something. As infants, how exactly do we pick up on a new language? Are we biologically wired to know English? Doubt it. Seems rather odd. I think many years and years of listening to the French language, you've got to pick up on it eventually. But who has the time for that? lol

Nope. We're not wired for anything. We just observe the world around us and apply to it the words we constantly hear repeated whenever we observe something.

I'm sure you can imagine a scene of a mother huddled in front of her baby, and repeating "momma! momma! say momma!".

That's what Rosetta Stone tries to accomplish, except they don't seem to realize that their target audience cannot even come close to being as readily receptive to a new language and it's different concepts as an infant.

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I'm willing to bet tree fiddy that nearly all of those negative reviews are written by people who buy it, use it twice, and expect to be fluent.

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I wouldn't exactly call those means unethical and immoral. I live with a fervent belief that every person on earth has the universal right to attempt and acquire as much knowledge and information they possibly can in their short lifespan. The thought of putting a price tag on it makes me gag.

I was gonna send ya a pm but fuck it.

Go on thepiratebay.org, find a torrent of Rosetta Stone (that includes French) and has a decent amount of seeders, download it, free learnings.

The only problem is you can't ever update it. But that shouldn't be a problem, since you aren't solely using Rosetta Stone to learn, right? *holds up caddle prod in anticipation of the incorrect answer*

[SaintÀlizee]

Originally Posted by Jalen

Nope. We're not wired for anything. We just observe the world around us and apply to it the words we constantly hear repeated whenever we observe something.

I'm sure you can imagine a scene of a mother huddled in front of her baby, and repeating "momma! momma! say momma!".

That's what Rosetta Stone tries to accomplish, except they don't seem to realize that their target audience cannot even come close to being as readily receptive to a new language and it's different concepts as an infant.

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I'm willing to bet tree fiddy that nearly all of those negative reviews are written by people who buy it, use it twice, and expect to be fluent.

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I wouldn't exactly call those means unethical and immoral. I live with a fervent belief that every person on earth has the universal right to attempt and acquire as much knowledge and information they possibly can in their short lifespan. The thought of putting a price tag on it makes me gag.

I was gonna send ya a pm but fuck it.

Go on thepiratebay.org, find a torrent of Rosetta Stone (that includes French) and has a decent amount of seeders, download it, free learnings.

The only problem is you can't ever update it. But that shouldn't be a problem, since you aren't solely using Rosetta Stone to learn, right? *holds up caddle prod in anticipation of the incorrect answer*

Yup. I'm taking your advice and am going to watch French movies. That, coupled with the few teachings of that program, should help quite a bit. Thank you!

Edit:

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Being 19, you probably don't have a big budget to work with. I would suggest taking lessons at the French cultural society in New Orleans. I believe it costs around $235 for 7 weeks if I'm not mistaken, plus you have to buy some books.
But if your budget is limited, it's probably more of a pipe dream.

But being with others who know it or are trying to learn it is the best way to learn conversational French.

If you're going to buy any movies, I'd suggest starting with Amelie. It won several awards and of course it's about a waitress living in Paris who had something happen to her that made her want to devote her life to helping others in little ways and of course the best part it's the character that Alizee's song Amelie m'a dit was written about.

OH WOW! I wasn't even aware of the existence of that place. I live in Baton Rouge right now. So it's a good 45 minutes to an hour from New Orleans. So I doubt I can do it right now, unless I move back with my parents. Which doesn't seem likely. I will for sure check out that movie. Thanks, Scruff.

[Naft]

Originally Posted by Jalen

I wouldn't exactly call those means unethical and immoral. I live with a fervent belief that every person on earth has the universal right to attempt and acquire as much knowledge and information they possibly can in their short lifespan. The thought of putting a price tag on it makes me gag.

Only reason to be doing so is because I've been on several forums where "illegal activities" have been heavily frowned upon even mentioning so I thought I'd add a twist to it. I'm not a saint enough to say that I have never downloaded, or that I don't do it on a weekly/daily basis, but some people find it unethical that we "steal" their work. I don't find it to be any of these to be "stealing" software, I don't even find 'steal' to be a proper descriptive term for it, therefor the quotation marks, but I would never go so far to say that downloading something illegally is the equivalent of theft.

[HelixSix]

Originally Posted by Naft

Only reason to be doing so is because I've been on several forums where "illegal activities" have been heavily frowned upon even mentioning so I thought I'd add a twist to it. I'm not a saint enough to say that I have never downloaded, or that I don't do it on a weekly/daily basis, but some people find it unethical that we "steal" their work. I don't find it to be any of these to be "stealing" software, I don't even find 'steal' to be a proper descriptive term for it, therefor the quotation marks, but I would never go so far to say that downloading something illegally is the equivalent of theft.

I don't think twice about pirating expensive programs like photoshop or other media programs because once you get a new version it's not long before it's out of date. The little guys, me included, just cannot afford it. I really feel sorry for the people who put all their money in on a small business and end up screwed because they spent thousands on software and hardware to handle it all.

A couple years ago I downloaded Rosetta Stone French and barely used it so I'm glad I didn't pay for it. French is my favorite language but if I am going to put in the work I'll probably learn Chinese.

[Bigdan]

Originally Posted by SaintÀlizee

I'm not worried about having an accent. I'm worried about not being understood period. lol

That's the point. The last times I had to give some information to americans tourist in paris I had a hard time to understand they were looking for " Le pont neuf".
The way the pronounced it was so far from the right way, that you really have to work your imagination to find what they were talking about