Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - French Language Lessons

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French Language Lessons

Can anyone offer advice on the best (and reasonably fast) way to learn to speak, read and write French. I am sure that college courses are among the best but I am entering into a business relationship with a French company so time is a factor. Also I want to learn more than tourist phrases and am willing to take a long-term approach. Thanks Jay

Hi Jay, The best advice I can give you is to contact the Olivia & Hill Press. They carry both textbooks & audio listen & learn type things on French. They do have a website. The woman who runs the company is French (and rather amusingly, speaks English with a bit of a NYC accent!) and was a professor of French for some time prior to deciding to start her own company. The VP, her husband, is also a former French professor, and has done professional translating for the U.S. government. I feel certain they can help you. Bonne Chance, BC

I bought a computer cd program called Success in French which helped me quite a bit, it's by Syracuse Language. I also bought a couple of cassettes that I listened to whenever I was in my car.

Many cities have "Alliance Francaise" or similar French organizations that offer French classes. The one in my city offers standard (weekly) classes, several review classes for those who've taken French in the past, and then another class for vacationers. One consideration is whether, if you're communicating in a business context, will you be communicating more in writing or orally? Slant your learning accordingly. A class would focus more on writing & grammer than would tapes or CDs, generally speaking. Another option, that would be faster but probably require a lot more work, is to have private French lessons. That way, you could focus on learning the French that you'll need for your rather individual situation.

I used the Pimsleur tapes for learning Italian, and found them terrific. They are VERY expensive, and, while my local library carries them, they were always out, and people keep them a long time. I'm not sure about how fast they'd be, but you could try them, especially if you commute to work. I listen every day and it's great mental exercise too.

You'll have to combine approaches to reach to your goal. To learn fast and more than tourist phrases would require immersion type of approach, time and money needed. If you cannot devote both at the same time, you will have to settle for fast and not thorough at first then followed by slow and thorough. I have listned to all three levels of complete Pimlseur French tape set, Michel Thomas tapes, several other tape sets, online CD course, as well as several years of college full credit French courses as well as courses at Alliance Francais. For speed, it is hard to beat Pimsleur tapes. It is also the most expensive. However, you'll find some expressions are not quite what you thought it should be and you think you hear a faint "e" "n" "l" etc, but don't know why you put them in and when you leave them out, and whether the speaker is actually putting that sound in at all. To answer these question, you'll need to be enrolled in a course who can answer these questions and also to meet your long term goal. Michel Thomas would be a distant second, but I had problem listining to the correct way of saying because the tape was recorded sessions of an instruction and students who make lots of mistakes. The instructor was supposed to always say the correct way the last but I did not find that was consistently done. Other tapes lack enough repetitions to have it stick in mind effortlessly the way Pimsleur tapes do. The courses at Alliance Francais were mixed bag. It depended on each instructor and how they ran locally. I had one that ran like a college course as well as other ones that were just little better than community college conversational courses (not good) ran by those who hardly know how to teach French as a second language, kept stumped by grammatical questions commonly posed by English speaking students. I liked course at 4 year colleges rather than community colleges even though the costs were higher. But community colleges tend to offer more night courses so they were more convenient for lower level courses. For advanced levels, you'll have to go to 4 year colleges. Some colleges offer intensive summer classes. Cost would be similar to full year, but you get to complete them in 10 wks instead of 33wks, but you'll be doing nothing but homeworks during the weekdays at night.

To begin with, for basis vocabulary and sentence structure, I highly recommend the deluxe 8 CD course "Learn French with Michel Thomas." (Don't buy the 2 CD intro course - it is just the first 2 CD's of the Deluxe course) It is available at bookstores. I used the same series as an introduction to Italian and then supplemented my knowledge with other materials to build vocabulary.

Allan, What other materials did you use to augment your Italian vocabulary? I'm close to finished with Pimsleur III, and I'm going to Italy in October, and looking for something else to enhance my speaking and comprehension skills before I go (something I can listen to in the car would be best).

I spent 10 months at Alliance Francaise taking lessons each day, 5 days a week. I'm still not fluent!! Don't get frustrated, but it will take a while to get everything "down". It's a very difficult language -- a lot of French people admit they don't fully understand all the grammatical regulations. Reading, for me, is A LOT easier than speaking (and listening). Be sure to tell your French collegues that you only speak a little French, and ask them to speak slowly for you. And read a lot too -- go out on French websites (Le Monde, etc.) It will help you see how the different forms of verbs are used, sentences are constructed, etc. Good luck!

Another factor that will significantly improve your French speaking skills is actaully practicing your speaking outside of the classroom. Perhaps you can join a local cultural club or French Film Society where you will be able to practice with native speakers. Even going to an authentic French restaurant and ordering will help. Rent some French movies and try to understand what they're saying without reading the subtitles. Listen for slang words and subtle changes in tone when they're amking a point. Most French people are very patient if you try to speak their language.

I think a very good, fast and not expensive method is Assimil's 'French without toil' (with tapes or CD's). If you study 2 or 3 lessons per day you will understand and speak a reasonable good french sooner than you expect.

Jay You could also consider supplementing your lessons with an intensive language skills course in France itself (if this is practical) or perhaps even in Quebec. When I was studying French at uni (my degree is French and History - soooo useful to my current job in IT ;)

ooops anyway when i was studying it i spent 3 weeks in Nancy, over summer doing intensive language classes, the university arranged them in the summer All levels can attend, you are tested and then placed in classes according to your level People from all over the world attended As well as formal lessons we learnt quickly because of the extra activitied, for example we had to write a comedy play in french and perform it (I cant recall the details other than that my group did a very comic version of Robin hood, and were applauded and compared to monty python) - also weekends included excursions out to local sites (sights ;) such as Champagne. It was an excellent way to learn fast, as we would walk round the twon in our spare time and use the language in situ. I dont recall the price though... Kavey

when i say the uni arranged them i mean Nancy university, not mine, and they were open to anyone, not just current students...