Best way to learn French....

specialman

specialman

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Me, the missus and a mate go snowboarding to the Alps and to be truthful, I've fallen in love with holidaying in France. I can say a few basic sentences and muddle along thanks to kind French who speak Anglais. However, it's time I learn for real.

What ways have people found the best, especially when they have limited free time?

I do a lot of driving so through the stereo on CD is an obvious choice, but have people found their concentration being affected?

Obviously, when i go fishing I could learn on an iPod or something. But I rarely go fishing these days... :lol:

I also have a bit of time to read but it's broken time that is spent with one eye on the little one as he causes havoc.

Or there's french classes, but I never know what time I'm going to be home (depends where the shoot is that day) so I might not be able to do a full course.

Any other suggestions or is it a case of harnessing all of these? Or are there some crazy Derren Brown-type mind control methods that are worth looking into!!!! :)
 
Pillow talk! Or live there for a while.
Personally, I would advise against CDs in the car - you might find yourself concentrating too much on learning rather than what's going on around you.
 
specialman said:
Me, the missus and a mate go snowboarding to the Alps and to be truthful, I've fallen in love with holidaying in France. I can say a few basic sentences and muddle along thanks to kind French who speak Anglais. However, it's time I learn for real.

What ways have people found the best, especially when they have limited free time?

I do a lot of driving so through the stereo on CD is an obvious choice, but have people found their concentration being affected?

Obviously, when i go fishing I could learn on an iPod or something. But I rarely go fishing these days... :lol:

I also have a bit of time to read but it's broken time that is spent with one eye on the little one as he causes havoc.

Or there's french classes, but I never know what time I'm going to be home (depends where the shoot is that day) so I might not be able to do a full course.

Any other suggestions or is it a case of harnessing all of these? Or are there some crazy Derren Brown-type mind control methods that are worth looking into!!!! :)
Click to expand...


For me (Spanish) it was Adult Education through local county council, but made sure I got a Spaniard to teach me, followed by flatly refusing to speak any English whatsoever to a Spaniard whilst in Spain, despite often them trying to switch to English (to improve their English) ... so we had the irony of a Brit speaking Spanish to the Spaniard who insisted on speaking English... :lol::lol:

Had a listen to some of the Michel Thomas (sp?) CD's, good theory and picked up some bits but too patronising for my tastes.

I can honestly say my Spanish is far from perfect, but has been invaluable in remote inland areas where "they" do not speak English, and in the more touristy bits, there is a general appreciation if you give it a damned good go.... nothing like discussing arguing in Spanish the merits of Schumacher over Alonso in a taxi driven by a guy from Alonso's home town..... :lol:

Or finding yourself in the midst of the Majorcan chapter of Hell's Angel's in Palma on a Saturday morning..... :cuckoo:
 
Try to find a few French movies with English subtitles , another option is to listen to the French news on the radio, you will quickly pick up words and get used to the accent.
You can also read the news on French websites (using a dictionary!!!) very slow process but it works, here are a few:
http://www.europe1.fr/
http://www.francesoir.fr/
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/

A few glasses of will wine also help !!!
 
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See if you can find someone in your area who speaks French as mother tongue an see if they Provide lessons. Watch films you know really well, in French (without subtitles). I did this with Star Wars while learning German. Listen to French Radio and watch French TV. If you can, install a Sat Dish. I did a quick search and for French channels you should point it at Atlantic Bird 1 which is 12.5 deg W.

Have fun.
 
This will sound weird, but here goes...I'm half french, my wife 1/2 spanish - we're trying to get our little boy to learn.

We've got a DVD with kids on it aimed at learning for young children, they basically sing 50% of the time and repeat stuff a lot, but with visual images. I've now watched \ listened to the spanish one more times than I care to remember - it's annoying as hell! However my spanish (I did have a small base and there are similarities to french) has actually improved a lot more than when I listened to audio recording.

So my suggestion would be:

Kids video in french - watch at least a few times a week
Have one dinner \ lunch per week with wife where you try to speak in french the whole time - tough at the start, gets easier.
Cartoons might also be good (Asterix \ Tintin - actually pretty good and in the original language!).

The above sounds patronising but it's not meant to be!

Bonne chance!

Al
 
Lynton said:
Had a listen to some of the Michel Thomas (sp?) CD's, good theory and picked up some bits but too patronising for my tastes.
Click to expand...

He also teaches Latin American Spanish and not Castillian Spanish.
 
I've tried a couple of times to learn French. I have the Michel Thomas CD's but don't get on with them:(.

I did go to lessons at a local college, which wasn't ideal as I work shifts, and that didn't work either. The teacher was excellent, but she had to go at the pace of the slowest student.....and this was very slow. When I get round to it again I'll be going the tutor route.

If you have Sky I think you can get French TV channels, I find watching the news when in France pretty useful.
 
When I learnt French & German I went the Adult Education route as it makes you learn regularly.
If you cannot do that make sure that you study in small bits regularly and at the start of each session go over what you learnt last time.
This is a good start and has links to other resorces.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/
Do not get discouraged if you listen to French news, films etc. and cannot understand due to the speed at which they speak, it does come as you get your ear in :)
 
I'll second the kids books/DVD's.
Its something fun for your little lad, and youll be surprised just how much you will pick up yourself through repetition.
I did it before going on an adult education course to learn German
 
I think practising conversation is a key point, and where the CDs fail a bit, as you can learn all the phrases you think you'll need but when someone asks you something you didn't expect, or words it in a different way then you can get all confused and lose your mojo.
 
For me, there was no better way of learning french than real time practice. Although after 9 seasons working in the alps, I should have been better than I was at speaking french. Trouble is, everyone out there speaks english, so it is easy to resort to that, rather than persevering in French.
Since moving out to the south, i have spent a lot more time struggling through speaking french which has yielded good results. If there are any anglo0french conversation swaps near you, they have been recommended to me as a very good way.
With my french friends I usually speak french to them, and they practice their english with me, or the conversations are conducted totally in french.
I found the Tintin books a good learning aid as well, and I watched a lot of subtitled french films. French TV such as the news is really good, or quiz shows etc, I find the radio pretty useless though, its either throwaway french on the music stations or really technical financial talk on the radio 4 equivelents.
I have heard that the Rosetta Stone french learning tool is meant to be good, but I haven't used it myself.
There is no substitute for practice though, and if you have a choice, head to the more rustique french ski resorts (read not Meribel or Cham) and you will find it easier to practice, but conversely more tricky to get exactly what you want.
Try speaking in french at home like someone mentioned, me and my fiance do that quite a lot, works pretty well.
 
Cheers for all the advice guys.

Kiddy books and CDs is a good call. We've managed okay so far, and the French people we've met have liked the fact we are trying, but I just don't want to feel like an ignoramus, hence wanting to develop my skills. Wish I'd paid more attention at school :)
 
I've just started learning another language (Italian) but I'm going to evening classes. Going well so far, interacting with the teacher helps a lot.
 
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