2010/05/23
French, Anyone?
I have decided to make an attempt to learn French. I need to stress that this will be a tiny attempt. In my short past, I have found the attempt to learn a language to be something that is an impossibility to me- like math. No matter how hard I try, I have not been successful. Its almost like I have a mental block that tells me I can't do it... so therefore I live up to that idea and I am truly unable to do it. I feel a little uncomfortable with that idea though; the idea that something that is perfectly possible in impossible for me. I am intelligent, kind, motivated, and determined. There is no rational reason that I can come up with that I cannot learn a language. And I loved my time in Paris and I am interested in moving to Canada... so...
Today I will try! I pledge to give five minutes at least four days a week to this goal. Not so much that I feel pressured, but enough to remind me of my goal and to learn a word and how to use it. And if I am really good... I will try to stick to appropriate words, although that doesn't sound like as much fun! :o)
So, if I want to try and do this without the help of my family because I am hoping it will be a pleasant surprise, does anybody else know of any good resources for learning the language? If you have learned a language before, what helped you the most? And please, what was not helpful to you? What advice would you give me?
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I'd advise you to try a whole bunch of different methods to find out what works best for you. For example, can you pick phrases up as other people are speaking if you have a translation to follow along with? Or are you best off learning vocabulary one word at a time?
ReplyDeleteI had four years of French in school, with the results that:
1. I can read almost anything with a dictionary.
2. If people speak very slowly, as if talking to a lousy speech recognition program, I can sometimes get what they are saying. In normally-paced speech, I can catch a word here or there. There are a few phrases like "Hi, how are you?" that I recognize as a whole.
3. Other than a few pat phrases, I can speak at the level of a French parrot, so long as no one is too fussy about verb tenses. Also, my accent is lousy.
So, I'm probably not going to be much help. Is there a conversational French group anywhere nearby?
CWB