Learning French - any recommendations?

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2003
Posts
7,361
Location
Shropshire
We're off to France again this summer. Last summer I could manage to order breakfast from the local boulangerie but when the girl replied to me, I just stood there like this > :confused: Thankfully, I think she could tell I was Johnny Foreigner and tried the much simplier tack of "voila?" which got me my goodies and her some cash.

Hence I'd like to learn more "conversational" French - does anyone have any recommendations for books and/or audio CDs? I do quite a bit of driving so something I could listen to in the car would be good.

There's quite a selection of books on the usual websites. I noticed Linguagphone offer what looks to be along the lines of what I'd like to learn for £24. Rosetta Stone is £140 for course 1 – ouch!
 
Try the Michel Thomas learn French audio courses. they are very reasonably priced and as French speaker I must say they are very competent from what I have heard.
 
neil3k said:
or don't bother :p
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I go for this.
I have been living in a french speaking country for 18 months now and have had numerous holidays to france, did 5 years of french at school and lived a year in a french speaking country when a toddler.

I still can barely speak jack ****. French is an impossible language to learn I think.
I understand about as much German and Italian as French and I've never taken any German or Italian lesson, just hang around a lot of native speakers.

What ever people recommend just doesn't seem to work. I have half a dozen books, my school text books, audio CD, online courses, I have done 3 semester long courses at university here, I live with French speaking flatmates, I regularly listen to French speakers, I read the french paper every morning, I try to translate every french letter I get, I walk around with a dictionary, I always try to ask for things and speak in french, I watch movies in French- with and without subtitles, french radio, french TV. I've printed out useful french phrases to place around the apartment. BBC, Rosetta stone, berlin, whatever, doesn't work. Had a french GF for time but learnt nothing useful.



I think if you really want to learn you have to start at a young age or quiet your job and practice it constnatly full time with natie french speakers. ( hoiurs a day, 7 days a week learning from every book and course and constnaly speaking. After a couple of years you should get somewhere. For most people I don't think this is plausible.

Now I have a German GF I might try and learn German instead and drop the French.
 
Eugh. Reminds me I got an E for my AS french reading/listening exam yesterday. Shows then they shouldn't force people to do AS languages in Year 10/11 if you don't want to :/
 
I have both Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but I prefer Pimsleur.
Rosetta Stone needs to be put into a PC and uses pictures & sound.
Pimsleur can be put on your MP3 player and I learnt quite a bit of Italian while running.

Heres the style that Pimsleur is in : Pimsleur French example

Its good because you could get to the 5th lesson and then it suddenly throws the 1st lesson back at you.

The best way is to live in France.
I spent 3 months there in 1979 and the bloke I stayed with only spoke English to me and I only spoke French to him.
 
You've got to want to learn it. Immersing yourself is the best way to do it, but you need to learn the basics first, otherwise you won't get anywhere, you need to understand French grammar if you're going to be able to get by.

Alternatively you can just speak to me in French ;) :D

If you do go for a learning DVD you're going to have to be proactive and dedicated to your learning if you're going to make progress. Learning a language the additional 2 I know are only very basic levels but enough to be conversational. However I spent a lot of time in those countries and studied it hard and put hard work into it.
 
My degree is in French (&Spanish) so I'd say that you can learn it any time any place anywhere!
If you want written help I'd gladly translate whatever phrases you want into French. Other than that I'd suggest watching French tv or French cinema or anything with French subtitles. Newspapers are good too. As for books/cds I can't really suggest any :(

Good luck with it though! And its not as hard as everyone makes out so go for it :P
 
D.P. said:
I go for this.
I have been living in a french speaking country for 18 months now and have had numerous holidays to france, did 5 years of french at school and lived a year in a french speaking country when a toddler.

I still can barely speak jack ****. French is an impossible language to learn I think.
I understand about as much German and Italian as French and I've never taken any German or Italian lesson, just hang around a lot of native speakers.

What ever people recommend just doesn't seem to work. I have half a dozen books, my school text books, audio CD, online courses, I have done 3 semester long courses at university here, I live with French speaking flatmates, I regularly listen to French speakers, I read the french paper every morning, I try to translate every french letter I get, I walk around with a dictionary, I always try to ask for things and speak in french, I watch movies in French- with and without subtitles, french radio, french TV. I've printed out useful french phrases to place around the apartment. BBC, Rosetta stone, berlin, whatever, doesn't work. Had a french GF for time but learnt nothing useful.



I think if you really want to learn you have to start at a young age or quiet your job and practice it constnatly full time with natie french speakers. ( hoiurs a day, 7 days a week learning from every book and course and constnaly speaking. After a couple of years you should get somewhere. For most people I don't think this is plausible.
Click to expand...

I find this hard to believe. Actually, I really don't want to believe it. I've been learning a language that is a great deal harder (no Latin influence) and really hope it's not like this. I'm trying to stay optimistic.
 
Another vote for "rosetta stone" here; good way to learn ..... visit the site at least and read about it.
 
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