Learning French. Any tips?

[Stormness_1]

Hey guys, I'm attempting to learn french. It might be a fairly futile attempt, because I really suck at languages, but I want to give it a good crack, as we are planning on travelling to a few places where it will come in very handy!

Does anyone have any tips? Books, videos, tutorials, apps, whatever? any help is greatly appreciated. At the moment I'm using Duolingo, but it's slow going, haha!

[ponyqueen]

I recommend watching these encouraging videos on rapid language acquisition... I'm going to try this stuff too! I just need to pick a language...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WLHr1_EVtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0

[Roccoriel]

Ideally, find someone patient to practice with!  I had to learn French because my husband's family is French, and I tried for 1 or 2  years to learn to I could communicate better with them, but on my own (my husband speaks fast and gives up when I don't understand- patience is not his virtue haha).  I didn't really make any progress until I found a woman near my work who gives French lessons.  Really, I just go over once a week and chat in French, but it has made a huge difference.  I'm sure you could find a person who took French in school and really wants someone to practice with! 

Also, try to watch TV shows and movies you know well dubbed in French (you can keep the English subtitles to help you along).  This really has helped me a lot.

Good luck!

[Hervoyel]

Also, try to watch TV shows and movies you know well dubbed in French (you can keep the English subtitles to help you along).  This really has helped me a lot.

I'd add watching French movies and TV with English subtitles as well.  And then French-language children's programming or sports coverage without subtitles - those tend to use repeated phrases and give plenty of context, so it's the next best thing to actual immersion.

[melodys_angel]

Do you know any of the other romantic languages? Italian? Spanish?

I cant help you out with books or anything but I was forced to learn French for 10 years due to our school system and found out learning a second languge in the same set is dead easy because the grammer is similar.

That said, I would NOT look at vocab at ALL until you learn some grammer.  The bases are the same but the endings will be different based on the verb.  get the hang of that, then you can learn a few words at a time and see how those change with the context

[kaoskat]

I would love to learn another language and these tips sound great!

[Stormness_1]

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys - I never even thought of watching french dubbed stuff, that will be super helpful!

Duolingo is really great with the grammar, it's what I'm struggling with - things being masculine/feminine, and the small words. It's really my first language undertaking aside from school japanese which I really don't remember as I've never used it outside of class, and unfortunately I've changed learning type since then, so what really worked then is hopeless now!

Unfortunately my work colleague who speaks french has been moved out of my area, and we work opposite shifts now, so he can't help me anymore But the people we are staying with in France are aussie friends who moved there last year, and one of them is still learning french, so he's offering tips for us as well. The other french-speaking places we're headed too are fairly tourist-y and should have a fair percentage of english-speaking people. And my hubby is learning too, so hopefully we'll trip over different things and be able to help each other out... hopefully, lol...

[ashes]

I took French for four years in high school, then traveled there a few times in college.  It just takes practice.

Duolingo is great!  I use it as well - although their sentences sometimes make me laugh (I mean really, who would eat a black apple?)

I've been lucky since my husband is fluent in Haitian (which borrows significantly from French as well as other romance languages), he's been able to help me remember words and such.  Sometimes reading or listening to books in French can help with comprehension.

[StoryDreamer]

There are some podcasts on iTunes of conversational French. Neat to listen to - and free!

They have daily ones.

Coffee Break French is neat! They have over 100 episodes.

[Rainbowrific Renia]

I took French when I was in high school and, during my senior year, a group of us (who had "excelled" in French according to our teacher) were allowed to spend the second half of the year teaching French to the special needs students at the school.  It was such an awesome experience and it certainly helped me retain a lot of what I learned, since I was passing it on to other people.  I'll say this: it's a lot easier to learn a language when you have someone to practice with.  Saying words and sentences out loud helps so much and it's a great way to ease into conversational French.

I love Duolingo.  I just started using it, but it's a great app. So I'd suggest that you keep using it, but I'm sure the others here have given some great tips to use along side it.  Good luck!

[Stormness_1]

Thanks guys for the help, I'm actually really enjoying learning - my hubby is just really silly and makes me laugh constantly - picking on my pronunciation and then producing something really quite ridiculous himself! That's really helping me remember too - having 'french experiences' - lol that sounds a bit iffy, haha! But I'm glad for the assurances that duolingo works as well - I was kinda concerned that I'd learn all this crazy stuff that would be a bit dodgy, and get over there and be lost and not be able to get any help!

I think though that I'm getting the reading much better than the speaking, but hubby is opposite, so we should hopefully pick up complimenting skills. We have been to Mauritius, and he picked up a little french from the people that lived there, where as I didn't - he seems to be better at the vocal in general, whereas I could loosely translate signs and the like - I'm better with the written word I guess.