dcstrange87 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I have just started taking a French course, it is my first venture into the language. I recently switched from a Bachelor of Science to a Bachelor of Arts in English literature meaning I need two years of a foreign language to graduate. I was just wondering if any of you had some tips or pointers with learning a new language? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechevre Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Embrace it! I studied it for 12 years. Absolutely love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 study. a lot. practice writing sentences in French and translate sentences into English. by the time i got to college i already had 5 years in German so i had a leg up in terms of vocabulary, but grammar still gets me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtw88 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I took two semesters of spanish in college, and 3 years worth of high school, and I'd just suggest reading stuff in French once you build up a decent vocabulary, which you're pretty much just going to have to memorize at the beginning. I'm not talking about reading a book or anything, but just something basic stuff that you can find with a translation that goes with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcstrange87 Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 Embrace it! I studied it for 12 years. Absolutely love it! Yea, I've already rented a movie or two from the library...Mon Oncle and La Cage Aux Folles...figured it couldn't hurt to watch some French movies, even if I wont understand anything and just try to pick up a few words. study. a lot. practice writing sentences in French and translate sentences into English. by the time i got to college i already had 5 years in German so i had a leg up in terms of vocabulary, but grammar still gets me. That's what I think my biggest problem is going to be, grammar. I'm comfortable studying and memorizing vocab terms just the whole getting the grammar down scares me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 after studying any foreign language that uses the latin alphabet you'll come to realize that English is pretty fucked up grammar wise. verb order is pretty much ass backward in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechevre Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Embrace it! I studied it for 12 years. Absolutely love it! Yea, I've already rented a movie or two from the library...Mon Oncle and La Cage Aux Folles...figured it couldn't hurt to watch some French movies, even if I wont understand anything and just try to pick up a few words. study. a lot. practice writing sentences in French and translate sentences into English. by the time i got to college i already had 5 years in German so i had a leg up in terms of vocabulary, but grammar still gets me. That's what I think my biggest problem is going to be, grammar. I'm comfortable studying and memorizing vocab terms just the whole getting the grammar down scares me. Haha..dude, you won't pick up anything in Mon Oncle, there are only a few words in it. I love that movie though. Try Parapluies De Cherbourg. It is absolutely brilliant. It's all sung, so you'll catch more vocabulary in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcstrange87 Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 I am pretty excited though. I took two years of Spanish in high school, but the teacher was awful and it really was a waste of two years. She ended up losing her job the following year. It should be an interesting year for sure. Four 400 level English classes and French 101 lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodooramen Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I've decided to dive into Russian. Taking elementary Russian this semester. Learning the Cyrillic alphabet and the pronunciations aren't that bad so far. But I am motivated to learn it. Good luck with French, it's a huge bonus to have a second language in both professional and personal life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcstrange87 Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 I've decided to dive into Russian. Taking elementary Russian this semester. Learning the Cyrillic alphabet and the pronunciations aren't that bad so far. But I am motivated to learn it. Good luck with French, it's a huge bonus to have a second language in both professional and personal life. Good luck man, Russian sounds like quite the challenge. And yea, having a 2nd language to add is such a bonus especially since I'm going into education. I hope I can stick with it, it never hurts to know another one, unless you are the random guy that one of your of friend knows who decides to eat lunch with you and claims "You dont need to know another language, everyone speaks English anyway" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adammuzzy Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 i took french for four years, then my senior year of high school french 5 was the same period as ap calculus so i had to pass that up. i barely remember any of it. good look with this class, love the jim james avatar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grammarpolice Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 For those who studied French, or an other language In English, we generally combine the words "an" and "other" to form a super-word: "another." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jess7286 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 If you're really serious about learning it, go study abroad. Best way to actually learn a language is to use it in its natural environment. Typically what you learn in books isn't the actual way people talk. Find random French people on Skype and ask if they'll help you (that's if they actually understand English...) And definitely watch French films, no dubbing, and French television, and listen to French music. Whatever you can do to absorb the culture will help. My theory on why Scandinavians, the Dutch, and the Swiss know so many languages and speak them fluently is because they watch films and television in the language it was recorded in while the French and Germans dub just about everything they import. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojie Horsie Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 find interest in the culture whatever it is... shop for baguette online.just some kind of meaning to learn the language and find someone to practice with.. and about those french films, search mininova for Nikita and les bronzés. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldsnap Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I'm glad i never had to take any lessons to learn english. I'm french and i started learning english at the age of 7-8 with my neighbour. Also, at the cottage in the states where i used to talk a lot with the neighbours so yeah that is pretty much how i learned english. so the best way to learn a language is too actually speak with someone that is speaking the language you wan't to learn, well atleast that's how i did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcstrange87 Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thanks for the tips. As long as I can keep up with it I should be fine, well hopefully anyway. For those who studied French, or an other language In English, we generally combine the words "an" and "other" to form a super-word: "another." Thanks for the call out, I forgot about our super-words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murakami Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 my two cents on this is trying to read childrens books (since they are written for kids learning a language) and subtitled movies (to help get an ear for how it sounds spoken) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emiri Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 just speak it as much as possible, and have it spoken to YOU as much as possible. grammer is a total bitch, but i think if you just keep it flowing you will eventually naturally use the right terms. i took french for 4 years and hated going to class, but i love that i can still pick up little bits of it. my teacher had a russian accent, so not only was understanding the french more challenging, but even when she spoke english i had to pay careful attention. taking part in the class can be frustrating, but it's so cool when you actually start to understand. i've thought about going back for more. loki says rosetta stone is supposed to be really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grammarpolice Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 grammer is a total bitch Yes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Well now I want a French Dip sandwich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emiri Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 PHILLIPES YO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 PHILLIPES YO. Yup, been there the last 2 weekends. Might have to go again this weekend. Place is incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emiri Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 ah im jealous. this shit is so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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