Learning a Language

[megakiller32]

For learning a language, i think going to the country is the best thing, but i can't go to the country. So what i'm asking here, is what are some good french websites, radio stations or tv shows etc, to help me learn french properly? anything is appreciated, i just need to get better at french :oops:

[deloriagod]

Take a class on it. French is hard to pick up on from just listening if you plan on writing it as well. Lots of silent letters or letters that sound very similar.

[dragoonson]

Take a class on it. French is hard to pick up on from just listening if you plan on writing it as well. Lots of silent letters or letters that sound very similar.

 

 

 

And "false friends" that look similar to words in English,but are not.Like rester(inf.),it means to remain,to stay.

[Jaziek]

 

.Like rester(inf.),it means to remain,to stay.

 

 

 

actually that makes a hell of a lot of sense.

 

 

 

there are some real curve balls in languages though I agree.

 

 

 

S[racist term]en .. so that means chicken? Hah! You couldnt be MORE wrong! It means ham you idiot! where did you get chicken from?

[cadburys_egg]

Heh, French. I dont remember anything particular from my 3 years of learning it (well, yr 7-9) and then dropped it like its hot. But as dragoon said, theres a lot of similiar words in English to French (mainly because English stole them like they did most european languages) though there are a few red herrings in the group. 'Travailler' (lord knows if thats spelt right or im right in saying this), although it looks similiar to 'travel', it infact means 'to work'. I never found French too tasking, just the little things like learning whether a noun was masculine or feminine (je/ja) were always a bit LOL WUT. And remembering how to spell oiseau is always helpful.

 

 

 

But the weird thing is, I learnt more Japanese (You all saw it coming with a language thread) in maybe a month on my own (1~2 hrs/day) than I learnt in those few years at school (~4 hrs/week). Maybe its because I was more familiar with Japanese from watching the animu and whatnot, or maybe because I actually wanted to learn it, but applying yourself to the language youre attempting to learn is the best way to do it.

 

 

 

Dont restrict it to the classroom/study time, watch some French TV (I wouldnt recommend it personally, its not all that great) or get some French music. Youll pick up a few words, maybe even phrases, but above that youll learn the language. How its set out, how the words interweave and - this may or may not be a good thing - learn a bit of common slang.

 

 

 

Je ne comprends pas francais, c'est ennuyeux. Shikashi, nihongo wa katai daze. Ganbette yo.

[Faux]

the gay thing is that with french, even the verbs differ depending on the subject

 

 

 

nous avons, vous avez, etc. confusing language. and you're not even dealing with the stressing yet.

 

 

 

i got a french award in elementary and i couldn't even count to ten in french. :lol:

 

 

 

[megakiller32]

Hmmm... i probably should have put i take french, and am pretty good at it, but i mean i want to improve. The work i do for it moves extremely slowly, because of the people who are bad at it in my class, and i'm one of the best, so i want to further my skills with other stuff. So i need to find some extra texts or websites, radio stations or tv shows to help me. (But french tv is utterly crap...)

[Stephen9o3]

Well, in Canada we have CBC, I guess it might be sort of like a Canadian BBC, and there's also a french version of CBC called Radio-Canada, click HERE for the website. It's a long story why, but right now I don't have the English CBC on TV, only the french CBC, so I've been watching a lot of the olympics in French :P Unfortunately I don't understand French :(. From that website you can watch Live olympic coverage in french.

 

 

 

For French music, MuchMusic, Canada's music TV station has a french program that runs for like 1 hour/day, called French Kiss, and also a French sister station, called MusiquePlus, click HERE for the website. There's french programs and whatnot on the website you can watch. There must also be a french music section on that website, but I can't find it, probably due to the fact that navigating a French website is hard with how much French I know :P If you do find it though, it could help you find french music you like that you can later go download or whatever.

[Kenshinjapan]

Go to rosetta stone :P. I took a class for 2 years (and it was very hard :( )

 

 

 

And they are correct about french words being confusing to english. Manger=to eat #-o .

[Sbrideau]

 

S[racist term]en .. so that means chicken? Hah! You couldnt be MORE wrong! It means ham you idiot! where did you get chicken from?

 

 

 

Where did you get that? S[racist term]en is not even a word in french. Ham would be Jambon in french.

 

 

 

There's a thing most say while learning english, and it's that for french people, it's easy to learn english, but for english people, it's pretty hard to lean french, and the fact is, most of the time it's because of exemptions, the french language has a lot of exemptions too to the language rules.

 

 

 

Btw, Am I the only one here that has french as first language?

[dsavi]

S[racist term]en .. so that means chicken? Hah! You couldnt be MORE wrong! It means ham you idiot! where did you get chicken from?

 

That would be German or a German based language, not French. For example, ham in Swedish, also German based, would be skinka.

 

 

 

BTW if you want to learn a language, the only way that I can imagine would work is being excessively exposed to it and being forced to use it nearly daily or taking large amounts of high intensity courses. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Well, it worked for me because it had to.

 

 

 

Reminds me, I met a girl today (Swedish speaking so I spoke Swedish back) who I had to convince to make her believe that I was really an American citizen/That I was born in America. :D I suppose that learning Swedish has really paid off.

[bongo_man]

I've been taking French for 7 years - I'm good with grammar, and I can understand people when they talk French, but my speaking is only average. I don't know what year you are in French, but you should definitely attempt to speak French in class more. It's hard at first because you'll probably have the fear of getting tongue twisted and not know what to say, but as the year progresses I can guarantee that you'll see a large improvent in your speaking. If you want to learn French properly as you say, then I wouldn't suggest radio stations since it'd be an extremely slow learning process. As for TV shows, I'm sure there's some stations for kids where they don't speak as fast so that you can hear and try to understand what they're saying. Books are always good as well, have a dictionary beside you to look up words you aren't familiar with and try to apply them in your sentences so they stick in your head. Or you could find a French forum so that you're regularly posting in French. Just try to surround yourself around the French culture as often as possible, and remember that you can only improve by doing so.

 

 

 

Bon chance :

[issy2]

You could watch 'Extras' on YouTube. It's rubbish but...

[Lenticular_J]

Tellin' ya, Rosetta Stone is the thing for learning a new language. Expensive but totally worth it.

[cadburys_egg]

Tellin' ya, Rosetta Stone is the thing for learning a new language. Expensive but totally worth it.

 

My experiences with Rosetta Stone have been horrible. I used to use it a bit for French and I shouldve better spent my time reading a novel completely in French. The Japanese version is also abysmal, teaches you nothing but phrases and just sort of hopes you get everything in between.

[ThurinEthir]

J'ai apprendu le français pour trois années?

 

Honestly don't remember anything. Summer vacation has that effect. Anyway, I'd go with Rosetta if you have the money, otherwise there should be some online "classes" that might help.

[megakiller32]

I can't afford rosetta stone :|

[JeremyM]

 

S[racist term]en .. so that means chicken? Hah! You couldnt be MORE wrong! It means ham you idiot! where did you get chicken from?

 

 

 

Where did you get that? S[racist term]en is not even a word in french. Ham would be Jambon in french.

 

 

 

There's a thing most say while learning english, and it's that for french people, it's easy to learn english, but for english people, it's pretty hard to lean french, and the fact is, most of the time it's because of exemptions, the french language has a lot of exemptions too to the language rules.

 

 

 

Btw, Am I the only one here that has french as first language?

 

 

 

jaziek was just saying languages can be confusing, using an example other than french.

[warren211]

The only French phrases I know are RSVP and bon appetite :wall:

 

 

 

Oh and there's avalanche. But arguably it's an English word derived from French. Sacre bleu!

 

 

 

I always wondered what that meant

[Flodder450]

The only French phrases I know are RSVP and bon appetite :wall:

 

 

 

Oh and there's avalanche. But arguably it's an English word derived from French. Sacre bleu!

 

 

 

I always wondered what that meant

it means:eww........

[cadburys_egg]

The only French phrases I know are RSVP and bon appetite :wall:

 

 

 

Oh and there's avalanche. But arguably it's an English word derived from French. Sacre bleu!

 

 

 

I always wondered what that meant

it means:eww........

 

what

 

Its a stereotypical french exclamation. Literally 'Sacred blue', its an old oath relating to Mary.

 

Its written as a single word in French, oddly. The seperated version was popularised by Hercule Poirot, a character created by Agatha Christie.

[Giordano]

The key to mastering a language is to use it often. I was in a French class in school and I had it everyday. The teacher made us work our [wagon] off in that class...but in the end, most of us learned what we were taught pretty good. I'll say 75% of the class got a 'B' or higher.

[Celt23]

I had already known some German before this, but I became fairly fluent in German by talking to German-speakers online (i.e in chat rooms and RuneScape). If you can find some French channels on an IRC network, that could help you improve your fluency in it. If you are just starting out, you can try classes, or a program called Rosetta Stone.

[Cyco_Reborn]

Go watch some random French videos on youtube and turn the screen away so you can only hear it.

[Rebdragon]

Really, the only way to do it is to immerse yourself in it.

 

 

 

I took four years of Latin in school, and although I've learned thousands of words and mastered the grammar perfectly, the fact that I havn't used it in quite a while is making me forget it. Like in cadbury's case, only after a few months I'd say my Japanese is much better than my Latin; although I have not encountered as much of the language as with Latin [i.e., if I see a Latin word I don't at least recognize, it's probably not useful/is extraneous], the Japanese is fresh since I encounter it almost every day.

 

 

 

Basically, follow the advice everyone has been saying: talk to people who speak the language, study it every day, go to the country, whatever, just make sure that you're encountering it at the very least on a bi-daily basis.