channelshop_and_drop

Hi guys, I'm three weeks into my RS online course and finding it very hard indeed, but at the same time I am learning. Can anybody suggest any other courses which may supplement this type of learning?

Terry

Ka Ora!

Welcome to the Forum, Best thing I have found is being in France with the locals.

channelshop_and_drop

Thank you for the welcome. Unfortunately, I'm Kent based so am not in a position to immerse myself with locals. Due to family commitments, I cannot talk my wife into moving right now, although in the long term I'm hopeful! I do however, travel over to France most weeks.

There's obviously nothing quite like being there, but for now I'm really looking on software or reading material which someone has used so can recommend.

Wishing I lived in such a wonderful Country

Donnarhi303

Hi. I have just started learning French again after a long gap (did O'level and found it difficult many years ago) and I am using two systems, both borrowed from my local library for £1.65 for 3 weeks. The first is 'One day French' by Elisabeth Smith and the second is the BBC 'Talk French' series. It seems to be a lot easier than my attempts as a 16 year old and after repeating the exercises many times, I am feeling a lot more confident about speaking to French speakers. Both are CD based and can be downloaded on to a computer and then on to my iphone. I also play the CD in my car whilst driving around.

I agree with the previous post that to learn a language it is better to immerse yourself in it but for some of us, we have to learn in UK first before we can spend more time in France. All the posts suggest that it is better to learn as much as you can before you go to live there.

channelshop_and_drop

Many thanks for the recommendation, I shall try both

Terry

howiet01

You can try Babbel.com. There are loads of different levels for you.

I would also try and do as many things as possible in French. I try and listen to French radio every day, when I'm driving I listen to le mouv 7-9 breakfast show podcast that I download daily, I have my Facebook in French, subscribe to French sites in twitter and try and read french newspapers online.

NewLifeAbroad

I've used Rosetta Stone for learning Spanish and I think it's a great product. It's impossible to learn a language with just one method though and you'll need to do many different things to keep your motivation up.

Here are a few things I've done for learning Spanish, but you can use them for learning French or any other language...

1) Listen to French radio on the internet to get your ear attuned to the rhythm of the language. You don't need to understand it, just listen. I leave Spanish radio turned on in the background when browsing the internet. Do you have a DAB radio? There's a French radio station based in London called, funnily enough, French Radio London. You might be able to get it being in Kent.

2) Buy some decent grammar and verb books - my personal favourites are from a range called Practice Makes Perfect. I know they do French versions and they should prove helpful. Amazon sell them.

3) I absolutely love audio books and you can learn a ton from studying them. You have to get level appropriate books though otherwise your efforts will be futile. As a beginner you'll need to get books that are labelled A1 (beginner level according to European Framework for Languages). A2 (elementary), B1 (lower intermediate/intermediate), B2 (intermediate/upper intermediate) will come later. My personal method is to read the book silently, read it out loud to practice pronounication, listen to the book with the CD, highlight any words I don't understand and look them up in the dictionary, try and memorise the new words, listen again with the book and CD, then listen to the CD without the book. If you're trying to learn 30+ words per chapter, then it's far too high a level. I aim for around 10-20 words per chapter, especially if the words come up again later in the book. If you've only been studying for three weeks, I'd leave audiobooks until you've done a bit more studying and feel comfortable with basic verbs such as to speak, to eat, to drink, to walk, to be, to have, etc.

4) Practice! This is the part that lets me down. I can study all day long, but without getting the chance to put what I've learnt into practice, I tend to lose motivation. I'm slowly getting better at it though. If you have any French speaking friends, then ask them if you can practice with them. If you don't, then you'll need to find some either in the real world or in the virtual world via the beauty of the internet. There are a few sites that have people trying to learn languages and are looking for language partners to practie with. Babbel.com and Phrasebase.com are two that come to mind.

5) If you can afford them, I would opt for one-to-one lessons over college courses. I did a couple a few years back and found them too slow and unchallenging. When you've got 20 people in a class with different abilities, it's difficult for the teacher to get the best out of everyone and it's difficult for the students who want to get ahead as the teacher's time is usually taken up by trying to improve the slowest learners (this isn't a bad thing, but it'll soon get to you). When you know how to say or understand something in French and others are still struggling with things from lessons three weeks before, it will get incredibly frustrating.

I hope these tips help. It's a long road to learning a language, even longer if you don't get to practice, but keep with it.

Nibbler

hello,
i have lived in france for 4 years, and have now just cracked the fluent side of french.
working here is and can be difficult ,with regional accents,fast speaking and the dreaded telephone.... plus no one who speaks english where i work...
but this on the flip side has helped me no end to adjust,i suppose in emersing myself.
however i think these tips will help
no english tv or iplayer...sorry...i could not afford it when i arrived after 6 months of french tv ..you understand.
radio..RTM,INTER,NOVA whatever station talky radio is best loved it in London,love it here french people are so badly informed on things its sometimes brings you to tears in laughter.
childrens books are written more easily and much better to understand.
if you live with someone talk french not english.
get some grammer books from england that in some way explain the structure of french easily.
good luck

Peabrain

Hi,
Have you thought about investing in French television via satellite? Also, as others have also said, listening to French radio can be invaluable, and being in Kent you should be able to pick it up with no trouble, as indeed you might be able to get French tv without a dish.
PB

cyrian

TV5 is on Sky channel 779 and probably on Virgin.
TV5 is an international broadcast in french and includes the evening news.