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Brian King
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Can any one give us any tips to learn the french language.

We have borght lots of CDs and books, and attended night school but we are still struggling.

The CDs seam to go to fast for us, and at night school we could not keep up.

Neither of us had any french lessons at school and we only have holiday french which we have picked up.

 

Any help would be greatly accepted as we have just spent hours in front of a CD and have only just stopped pulling our hair out.

Brian King

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[quote user="Brian King"]

Can any one give us any tips to learn the french language.

We have borght lots of CDs and books, and attended night school but we are still struggling.

The CDs seam to go to fast for us, and at night school we could not keep up.

Neither of us had any french lessons at school and we only have holiday french which we have picked up.

 

Any help would be greatly accepted as we have just spent hours in front of a CD and have only just stopped pulling our hair out.

Brian King

[/quote]

Perhaps audio tapes would be easier, in that you can rewind more easily to repeat bits you miss. I also think the BBC website has some good stuff on learning French. If you download ITunes on your computer and go to Podcasts you can download some very good basic French lessons that you can use through the computer, or have them on an IPod if you have one.

However, there is nothing like being surrounded by it to pick it up! Hearing it all day, every day, seeing it written on posters, in shops, signs etc etc, and watching French TV (anything) gets your ears and eyes attuned to it, even if you don't understand a thing to start with. My husband, like you, had never done French at school and had only 3-4 months lessons before we came to live here. He now understand almost everything in a normal conversation (as long as everyone doesn't speak to once!) although he still lets me do the talking if he can!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Brian

I am a Modern Foreign Languages Tutor who tutors both in a private capacity and in further and adult education. My advice to you would be, if you could possibly afford it, pay for private tuition. I know that this can be a comparatively expensive option, and it can often be difficult to locate a qualified tutor. However, an experienced tutor would be able to plan and deliver lessons to your exact level and ability, would be able to do more focused work concentrating on your weaknesses, boost your confidence, and hopefully put you back on the right track. Learners who come to me privately usually do have different needs and reasons for learning than those attending classes. They are quite often foreign property owners, and so their desire to learn a language becomes less of a 'leisure' activity and more of a necessity. Many of my private students have previously tried adult or further education classes, but found that they weren't for them for whatever reason.

Anyway, whatever you decide try not to become disheartened. Focus on what you have achieved (however small) and what you can do, rather than on what you can't. If you stick at it you WILL make progress. I think it would be a good idea for you both to start again with the basics (view this as revision rather than regression). I would recommend BBCs Talk French with accompanying audio for this. Perhaps trying to work together for 30 mins daily if possible. After this, I would suggest Breakthrough French (Palgrave Macmillan) for self-study. Other courses such as Voila and The French Experience are, in my opinion, more suitable for class or tutor accompanied study. Other beginning learners have rated Michel Thomas (although I personally am not a huge fan!). If you don't already have a copy of his audio course I would recommend that you try to borrow one from your local library first, as his teaching style and heavy German accent are not for everyone!

Good luck!

Julie.

 

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Thank goodness there is someone else who can't stand Michel Thomas - I thought it was just me![8-)]

Re. the private tutor suggestion - this is exactly what we did as my husband found evening classes far too daunting and gave up after only a few weeks. We approached the French teacher at our local high school who agreed to give us private lessons and it was great. She geared them to what we needed and to what we would need to know when we arrived e.g. buying things in shops (food and furniture), understanding directions, the body parts of a car (my husband was a car body repairer!), etc etc. Now when she visits us she says we know far more French words connected to house renovating than she does![:D]

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 I would definitely say go for Michel Thomas!!

It gets you speaking instantly and you feel like you are making progress quite quickly. It is such a different way of teaching.

(Although i agree his accent is annoying, and as for that woman on it............... )

Louise

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  • 2 weeks later...
hi im new to this forum .as far as speaking french is concerned for me ,my wife had a stroke and cannot cope with the learning process,we have just completed the trek from roscoff to vieux mareuil dordogne for the second time ,getting lost in nantes again .but ive found using the basics of french very useful in this sort of situation .i just have a go !whatever the situation .and weather its food ,directions ,wood ,bits from the brico,the utitilities,etc .just have a go .everybody french person ive spoken to  however bad the french was ,were exceptionaly tolerent .but like somebody else said,being surrounded by french signs,conversation etc makes all the difference anyway good luck the guepe[:)][:D]
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We have all the Mikie Tomas courses and as long as you can get along with our tranatlantic lady on the first one then they are good but get very wearing! I admire our Mikie, he came thriugh a hell of a lot to get where he is. One reservation I have is that if his Frence accent is as bad as his English then he would NOT be understood here!!!

We decided that a new approach was a good idea and we found http://www.frenchclasses.com/ to do on our PC. It is very good and starts from the begining. The other one we tried is 'French for Dummies', the boxed edition. It comes with the book, an audio CD and a phrase book too. Look at www.play.com they have it. Very American and quite a lot about French Canada, but never the less good, especially for me. I don't learn things that you can't physically handle easily! Just give me a mallet a gouge and a piece of wood and the language will follow, bad if I hit my thumb but that's another story?

Oh gawd, I have just realised that I have probably upset 1/2 of our transatlantic cousins now. 'onest I do like the Dummies series, they suite me well!

P.S. Don't worry about being new to the forum. If anyone tells you that they weren't new at one time then ask them how much of an imperssion their hand leaves when they remove their hand from a jug of water? (old Chinese proverb!)

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I can't help with advice re which course / book etc as we had O'level French (well hubby did - I just had a couple of years school french) and have had private lessons - but what I would say is that what ever 'formal' tuition you have, get as much practice as you can.  Try to read Le Monde or Paris Match (both available online) - use a dictionary or babel if necessary but read and read - as much as you can.  It may seem like wading through treacle at first but bits will sink in and the more you come across a word in its various contexts the more you will remember.  Take every opportunity to talk to locals, find a French person you can chat on msn to - www.language-buddy.com is great...I have two French friends I chat to that I found on there.  (I would chat to friends in the village but we are second home ownders and sadly our village is a bit behind the times when it comes to computers!)

Kathie

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"spent hours" is a bit of a giveaway.  I think it's very difficult to learn a language on your own but my advice would be to do it little and often.  You will certainly get your head in a spin if you go at it for too long.  I speak reasonable French but my husband doesn't.  Trying to get him to sit down for ages gets us nowhere.  Ten minutes here and there works better.

Try putting post-it notes on, say, a dozen objects around the house with the french translation on them so you slowly increase your vocabulary. Tune into a French language radio station and have it on in the background as much as possible - you'll be surprised how you absorb the feel of the language even if you're not actually listening!  Watch a DVD movie you are familiar with, with the French soundtrack.  Buy a couple of childrens' books in French (again, start with ones where you know what's happening - ie a familiar story) with lots of illustrations and sit down together and just try to figure out what they say.  Make it fun.  Spend five minutes a day when the two of you speak nothing but French.

Don't despair.  It does take a long time and different approaches work for different people - you'll get there.

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I went to evening classes for three years, and by trying to talk to the locals and helping my husband with his homework, seem to be making progress.  However, my husband didn't start classes until a year ago, and he struggles desperately.  He is slightly dyslexic, which doesn't help.  He continues to go, which I think is so brave of him, as he comes back some weeks very despondent and, sometimes, even depressed by the whole thing.  However, he is determined to carry on, and says that however little he manages to remember this week, is more than he knew last week! 

Whenever I read smug threads on this website about they can't understand why us second-home owners aren't totally fluent, it makes by blood boil! 

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[quote user="Lapaix"]

Whenever I read smug threads on this website about they can't understand why us second-home owners aren't totally fluent, it makes by blood boil! 

[/quote]And so it should.  I was just lucky enough to have spent my holidays with a French family when I was little so I got a head start.  But language learning doen't come naturally to everybody so more power to your elbow if you're having a go and are sticking with it.  My experience with regard to my husband is that the French don't care about this too much - they are just delighted he has a go and egg him on when he tries.  More than a few have commented on his "sexy English accent" (sic). Brits seem to be much more "up themselves" on this subject than the locals!
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Last time we non-fluent holiday homers were over I took a phone call from EDF. About the card I had put our electricity meter reading on. I told her that I had sent it the day before, and she said yes, she had got it, but I had missed a part off. I asked her to talk me through reading the meter, which she did, and it seems our heures creuses calculation isn't working (took 3 goes through to convince her). So she wanted to send a man out, but couldn't do it that week and we would be gone by then. When would we be back? October. Ah, can't do October, the computer system only allows appointments to the end of September, so she will phone me in England this month to make an October appointment. All done in French in about 5 minutes. I did a lap of honour!

Really it feels great to be able to do that, and I don't care about all the snobby 'Oh we always speak French if we hear English voices in Intermarché' attitudes.

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[quote user="Rob Roy"]And to hear French spoken watch French TV, again and again and again - in the end it starts to make sense! (Whether you enjoy it or not is another matter!!)[/quote]

Exactly - if you have Sky, go to International channels and look for TV5.  They often have a quiz show on where they give you jumbled letters on screen and a definition and you have to unscramble the letters to find the word.  Each word that is correctly identified by the contestants is rewarded by the addition of a letter to a common french phrase - a sort of a french version of hangman.  The woman is a bit irritating but its a lot easier than trying to watch the more serious programmes. 

News programmes are also good as they repeat throughout the day so you catch more of what is being said with each repetition - you also have a good idea of the story in English - so your brain is dealing with only one 'new' thing at a time.

Kathie

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I don't speak fluent French and I have lived here now for nearly a year. I don't let it worry me any more, I am getting better and I can make a little language go a long way.

If I had waited until I was fluent, I would have never got here and life would have passed me by.

I am hopeless on the phone.  I can understand one French person fine but then find I cannot the person standing next to them.

 French is a hard language, even my French friends acknowledge that, but if you try you will find that most French people will meet you at least half way.

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[quote user="beryl"]

 French is a hard language, even my French friends acknowledge that, but if you try you will find that most French people will meet you at least half way.

[/quote]

True, and I have found many French people very accommodating with my French, but what do I do if they don't even try to speak French back to me but launch straight into English?  Is it a sign that my French is so bad, are they trying to be friendly and spare me the trouble, are they doing it to show me their superiority in linguistic skills or simply to annoy me?!  And I never know after that if I should stick to my French (which is not so bad after all) or to revert to English (which is not my mother tongue anyway!).  Do you get similar problems when visiting France?

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[quote user="davieszak"][quote user="beryl"]

 French is a hard language, even my French friends acknowledge that, but if you try you will find that most French people will meet you at least half way.

[/quote]

True, and I have found many French people very accommodating with my French, but what do I do if they don't even try to speak French back to me but launch straight into English?  Is it a sign that my French is so bad, are they trying to be friendly and spare me the trouble, are they doing it to show me their superiority in linguistic skills or simply to annoy me?!  And I never know after that if I should stick to my French (which is not so bad after all) or to revert to English (which is not my mother tongue anyway!).  Do you get similar problems when visiting France?

[/quote]No, it's not you.  They're the same as us in my experience - they want to practice English too. Many's the conversation I get involved in where they're speaking English and I'm speaking French and we usually have a good giggle about it afterwards. I used to go to a pub in England with a French chef and we amused the locals on a regular basis with this kind of "backwards" conversation.
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Hi Brian

Like you I have found classes, CD's hard to keep up with, The best thing I find for learning single words is flash cards,(french one side English the other) I brought a pile of them and play a little game where when i get them right they went in on pile and wrong into another, after 2 weeks they all now go into the right pile, I wish I could find more of them, but will probaly make some my self, also I have stuck the names of things all over the house, then taken tham away as I have learnt them , only a few left now. I also found it came much quicker when out there talking to french people.

I am currently looking for some one local to teach or learn with me on a one to one basis which is the best way for me.

Im not going to worry to much about getting my sentances correct at the moment but to get a good store of words under my belt first, Im sure its not the right way but its my way.

Good luck, and keep at it.[8-)]

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[quote user="pads"]

Im not going to worry to much about getting my sentances correct at the moment but to get a good store of words under my belt first, Im sure its not the right way but its my way.

[/quote]

I absolutely agree - I find that having a good knowledge of vocabulary solves half of the problems.  I have been learning words like a maniac for the past 18 months and I simply can't believe how much it has aided my comprehension and general confidence with the language, even though my grammar is still a bit rusty and hesitant.  I have started a sort of personal phrase book with new words and phrases grouped into categories and that has proved to be extremely useful in all sorts of real life situations in France. 

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Some close friends near us are learning French from scratch and we really admire them for that.  She is grinding through the intricacies of French grammar, and he will happily chatter away in his newly learnt pidgeon French.  People do understand what they are saying and it is making their life in France much more complete and fulfilling.

I speak French reasonably well and now that Mrs Sunday has gained more confidence in speaking over here, she'll rabbit away to anyone who'll listen.  If we pop into a restaurant in a tourist area, we'll often find the waiter recognises our accent and launches into English, so as a courtesy, we respond in English.  We're not upset or offended by this because he/she is trying to be helpful. 

In the end, it's not a competition and it doesn't matter which language you are conversing in, as long as you are understood.  On one French campsite a few years back, Mrs S walked past a German sitting outside his caravan.  He smiled and said "Bonsoir", she smiled back and replied "Guten Abend" (the only German words she knew) and he expressed delight that she'd responded in his own language.

 

 

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I had 40 year old O level French so the locals thought it highly amusing that I could read and write quite well but spoken French was beyond me. After two years of extended visits I am now told I speak with a local accent.

 My advise is to spend a lot of evenings in the local bar - you can drink coffee or squash - the locals do. I speak French in reply to our sole English speaker and we have a lot of fun explaining the intricacies of our native tongues. The bar has also opened the door to the social side of the village. Volunteering to help with the fete and other events earns you browmie points as does using local tradesmen, but only on personal reconnendation. This ploy saved me a lot of money on the double glazing and got me a superb new roof with none of the problems recounted in forums and the magazines.

Good luck with your French.

Boris

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

We spent our first year in france studying in an expensive private class and found that each week we were back at square one as you forget a lot of it with just one and half hours a week.  Our teacher cheerfully informed us that fluency would not be in sight for at least 4 years at the current level of learning.  I was horrified and with a young child in school I though I had to do something about it.

I found out about a course at a University about 30 minutes away and signed myself up! It's heavy duty 20 hours per week (yes per week) and it's all in French, you have to struggle through the first couple of weeks but it is after all what we are all expecting our children to do.  After those intial weeks things started to click and by the end of the term (13 weeks) I could converse and understnad 90% of what was said.  I am now as close to fluent as I was hoping to be and just 6 months after my smug teacher comdemn me to 4 years!

So my advice, take 13 weeks out of your easy life and go learn the language, everything about living here gets a howle lot easier after that.

French as foreign language courses are available at all Uni's here and cost about 600 euro per term, a snip when compared to the cost per hour for a private tutor.

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I did the same - signed up for an intensive 20hr per week course at a nearby university.  I was a total beginner, but was pretty fluent after two years (four semesters) there.  A year later, I started working as a interpreter.  It would've taken me ages to get to that level had I continued on with the local classes 1-2 hours per week. 

The thing I liked best about the university level classes it that they were serious and well-thought out, and run by trained French-as-a-foreign language professors.  I had seperate classes for grammar, reading, writing, speaking, and oral comprehension, not to mention phonetics and other optional courses like literature or history or civilisation (that all helped me understand more about the country I chose to live in).    Mine was 800€ for the semester, or 1000€ for the year (they really encourage people to stay for the school year).

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