Me! I took French in school decades ago - yep, I’m old. But then I did nothing with it for decades. I recently took it up again and found that I remembered more than I anticipated, although nowhere near as much as I used to know. So I’m at a beginner level.
The husband and I recently went to France, and I managed to have broken stilted conversations with a few people - the hotel cleaning lady, shopkeepers, and the like. I would have liked to have had more conversations and level up a bunch more.
What about you? Where are you with your French? What have you done lately to level up?
Hello @lmashton How many courses do you follow on Memrise for French, and what works for you in learning that demanding language, at the beginning?
(Like German, very specifically framed languages with conjugations and peculiar grammar rules I find require a lot of work to start with but after require less effort, once those bases are learned - at the opposite Chinese and English are easy starters and tough after)
I’m using A1 French (now just reviewing) and Polyglot French. The Polyglot French is pretty good, but it has errors and inconsistencies that I find really annoying. I wish it was done better. I would love to go through an A2 French course, but… I’ve gone through other French courses, but none really fit what I was looking for. I also listen to French radio and podcasts and read beginner French books and news. I don’t understand everything for the French listening and reading, but that’s okay. I’m getting better. The rules don’t bother me so much - they seem fairly logical to me. But then, I’m also Canadian, so I grew up reading the backs of cereal boxes and packaging for food items in both French and English, so I had a fair bit of exposure to French as a kid.
Hi French learners! I’m a fairly advanced learner - around C1 level at the moment - and use Memrise mostly to drill vocabulary as that’s a weak point for me. I’ve just finished Advanced French (am just keeping up with the reviews now as I still forget stuff) and am following Advanced Vocabulary which is a huge course of over 5000 words and will be keeping me busy for a while now.
What resources do you guys use outside Memrise? I’m a particular fan of the Coffee Break French podcasts by Radio Lingua and also listen to News In Slow French as well as having lessons through work.
I am doing the course Polyglot French to refresh my knowledge of French where I was on advanced level already in the past. I am also using www.lingq.com to read and listen to podcasts.
hi i am doing A1 french and also use duolingo and podcasts like coffee break french and learn french with alexa.
only problem is I don’t have anyone to practice my French with so not able to improve pronunciations and learn faster.
I’m in the same boat as you @lmashton and we also recently returned from France. Sounds like I had similar experiences in conversation while in France. I literally know thousands of words in French - my problem is joining them all together, ie have conversations. Obviously I need to pursue some of the suggestions I’ve read. Onward and upward!
I am learning A1 but I took a pause for a while cause I prioritised other languages. I am on the 600th phrase. I am familiar with the language from before. It was always my wish to learn to speak it.
I hope we could practice together sometime in the future!
I’m co-curator of the “Advanced Vocabulary” course. And have nearly finished inputing the sound for this 5000 items course.
Any complaints or suggests let me know.
I also have 5 other Advanced French courses, but they are more for “perfection” than for actually mastering a conversation level in French. (One needs to be tested on actual speech, which needs a voice recognition module… in years to come this may be a reality)
For those looking for further steps, I would highly suggest this free professional service by TV5 monde…
I’m a bit late into this conversation, but thanks for your suggestion @flamantrose, namely of the free professional service by TV5 monde. I feel as if I know zillions of French words, but as I’ve said before, my problem is joining them all together …LOL. I just have to talk! Merci beaucoup.
I am doing one of the french courses to increase my ‘active’ vocabulary.I have been staying in France last year, so I have quite a good understanding, but I don’t use most of these words myself.
If you mean that you are stuck in level one of a deck, try selecting level two or any other level deck and then choose the learn new words mode. If you mean that you are stuck in the French 1 deck, you need to find the French 2 deck in the French category and start learning it.
@flamantrose On the topic of voice recognition, I had a friend who was using Rosetta Stone, which checks your pronunciation. She mentioned to me that she was trying to properly pronounce ‘garçon’ and doing it fairly well, and it wouldn’t accept it. Finally she got frustrated and said it like a person making fun of the French might say it, and it congratulated her on saying it correctly!
Sentence and short phrase courses are so much better for learning than individual words, and @flamantrose has contributed a lot to Memrise with her courses. My suggestion would be to do phrases only (plus listen to a podcast like Coffee Break French for grammar explanations) first, and later when you start doing intermediate and advanced vocabulary it is easier to remember because you can think about the word in the context of a sentence. I consider the mems I create to be my contribution to a course, and they are almost all sentences/short phrases. The tapping tests are the best for making you think about what order the words go in and why.
I don’t think the no-typing vocabulary courses are bad, but I think they should be the last thing you do as a refresher on the vocabulary you’ve already learned. I think too many people focus on those because they get swept up in competing for points.
Thank you @FishSlap for this anecdote on voice recognition. Reminds me of trying to use Google Voice Search one day. It kept trying to transcribe the French into English. That was years ago, I haven’t tried again yet.
I recently ran across this service by Radio France Internationale RFI. It may also be useful for those interested. The current evening news in “easy French”, with a transcript provided (you have to click to go to the page of the broadcast).
Hi, seems I’m also a bit late in the conversation.
I use Duolingo besides Memrise, and I also use Youtube, that is, I listen to a children’s song before I start with Duolingo. It’s the same every day, and i found the lyrics and I sing along.
Also, I’m slowly translating the lyrics, one word at a time (because I hate translating, I make very small portions).
I do the same with a certain chanson at the end of my french-learning lesson.
I’ll change the music only if I schould get really sick of always hearing them, or if I know every word by heart.
I have just finished up French 1 and have begun French 2. In addition to Memrise, I use Duolingo and busuu. I will be enrolling in French 1 at the university here for the Fall.
Vocabulary and listening recognition are my strong suits. My issue is sentence structure. I just cannot write a correct sentence without aid from things like google translate. I have changed the settings on my phone to French so it forces me to process what I’m reading.
I am even later again (so I guess I could say : je suis très tard ?)
I also use duo lingo and I spend most of my time on there at the moment.
I occasionally try to be more productive by adding variety; try reading random things changing the language on movies etc. but I don’t think I am dedicated enough as I don’t feel like I am getting anywhere.
I used to use the memrise app but started having problems and ended up here. I hope to get back in the habit of using memrise more again as I found it effective for learning the words long term, whereas on duo lingo I can’t seem to keep them for any useful length of time.
I would suggest :
“Je suis encore plus en retard” or “je suis même plus en retard” (to keep the idea of “even”) but the first one is more French, translating as “I am even more late”.
A person would be “tardive” and an event would “tard”, to add some details. But it is not a good translation.
I did not know how to say what you suggested so I meant what I said literally, as in if the other person was late to comment then my comment being a month later was very late. I think in context my comment is right, IDK? I wish I was at the point I could have known how to say what ever I might say in English in French as well, but alas, I am not there yet. Perseverance !
(Just for funs sake: I would have translated what you said as: “I am again more of late” which I would guess to mean, “I am again, more late” which I would think means that as usual I am later than the last time I was late, and have set a pattern of increasing tardiness. Yikes )
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to give some suggestions, it is very much appreciated
(so I guess I could say : je suis très tard ?)
)