Thinking about learning french

[Marquis<3Alizée]

I gotta say French is pretty frustarting, but then it's worth it in the end. I just stared learning French two weeks ago I know some of the basics. I'm not just taking French just to understand her songs, In the future I'm planing on moving to France. If not France then Montreal, If I get any luck I'll move to Corse.

Your going to have to practice your ass off, well I'm guessing you know that already since you knoow seven different languages.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Ooh!
I want to say a few things. First, give you a bit of my French background. Well, first, I originally discovered French at the age of 8, when reading Harry Potter. In 6th grade, at like 11-12 years old, I took formal French classes in school. Then, for a while, I never spoke French (it's useless in Virginia, as well as very rare) but I'd always stop to read anything in french, usually warning and safety labels on thing. But ever was there enough to really practice. And then, in 2008, a good friend of my sister gave me an old French-English English-French dictionary he had:

That was published in 1991. Then, I started flipping through it a few times a week looking at random words. But I still didn't really learn. In late 2008, I started taking formal Latin classes in High School. These were simple for me, having the french background I did. So those two languages advanced each other. But I still didn't know anything of French modern culture. Until this year when I discovered Alizee. And then, I picked a lot of idioms, turns of phrase, and the like. So she helped me a bit too. And about two weeks ago, I met a guy named Riki Sanon from haiti. And he has ever increased my french skill.

Now, why does any of this matter to you? I can't really say, but I tend to rant. But anyways...
First, make sure French is what you want to learn. If it is, I highly recomend you sing along with Alizee WITHOUT looking up lyrics to her songs, french, or translated. That's what I did, I just memorised the sound patterns, and that is a much greater help to your pronunciation. It gets your mouth used to making the sounds. When I first decided to learn Korean, I just sang with the songs a lot. And it made my throat hurt a lot. But now, it's no problem. I can sing for days on end with SNSD, Kara, whoever, without any pain in my vocal cords. Then, of corse I had to learn the alphabet, which was easy since I knew how to make the sounds. You won't have to re-learn an alphabet, which the Korean alphabet is 1000000x easier than the two Japanese alphabets, but whatever. This means going against what Chuck said, I advise you learn the pronunciation first. Reading it in your head and not knowing how to pronounce it will just confuse and unnecesarily worry you. Then, work on the simplest vocab, like pronouns, a few simple verbs (I agree 'avoir' and 'etre' are good places to start), hello, goodbye, thanks, basic stuff. Then learn the grammar. Then, take the rest of your time to learn the vocab. there's a whole lot more vocab to learn than grammar. And as long as you know how to make sentences, then any new word you learn you will already know how to use.
But that's just my way, and it may not work for you. If it doesn't don't give up. And yes, scruffy, French may not be the most useful language there is. And no, I think it's a bad idea to focus on french just to learn her songs. But I have a true passion for French anyways. Before I learned of Alizee. So, dwightks, if you feel french is the language for you, learn it. More people should be interested in learning languages, it's sad they aren't; I commend you!

[wasabi622]

Honestly just listening to French music, watching French movies and the like really do help. I took French last year for a semester, and though it was my first French class, for I had studied Spanish in high school, the professor was very surprised by my fluency. I don't mean that I was fluent in French, but how I could carry a conversation, which I really attribute to the various interviews and movies I've seen in French.

But just to be clear, I'm saying that all the above is great supplementary material.

[alizeefan]

Originally Posted by dwightks

Hi everyone, I was thinking about learning some french. Alizée has had a really big effect on me and I feel like learning french is a good idea. I just have a few questions.
1. Did anyone here have the urge to learn french because of Alizée and did you actually succeed.

2. What materials did you use and how long did it take you.

3. Is French a hard language to learn?

I already know a few languages. I'm fluent in English, I can understand Tamil and Telugu (indian languages), and I can read, write, and somewhat speak Japanese. I am also wondering if already knowing other languages will have an effect on learning French?

Thanks

First to say i agree as Scruffy and Ronald stated above if you do not use it you may lose it , which may be differing depending on the individuals memory skills . Definitely something to take into heavy consideration when considering learning . Also to add there when reading about people learning languages it is VERY very helpful to use it with a native or learned speaker/s that way you become accustomed to the nuances . The best way to learn is to be using it on a daily basis . Now from researching i have found that everyone recommends the Rosetta Stone tools but it is expensive .

With that in mind and after some researching for free tools i found byki -

http://www.byki.com/

They also have the upgraded pay version but the free one seems great.
Now i can not say if the lessons work as time has not permitted me to get highly involved to learn but they seem very well writ also having a native speaker say the words so you can learn by hearing as well reading .
More importantly as elated above about using the language to learn , one of the tools is they hook you up with people who speak the language you want to learn to be sorta pen/chat pals . That way you can teach them languages you know and they want to learn and vice versa by not only writing but talking too . Add to that it is pretty cool to become friends with people around the world or in the country you are interested in .

One more tool i found helpful is to create my own desktop wallpaper background with words and alphabet translations .
That way it is right there for you to see and study constantly or easily refer back to without having to open things .

1. - Yes i have the urge but yet to get into it due to time restraints.

2. - Again i would like to get the Rosetta Stone but expensive so trying Byki .

3. - Depends on how much time you have as well effort put into learning .
Also each individual will be different in learning/memory skills.

Another thing to keep in mind which i think many overlook is -
As with any language there are varying dialects depending on location one is in of the respective country . From what i understand and evidence all over this forum about her pronunciations , Alizee being from the Corsica island has a variation on the dialects with both French and English . For instance on dialects , talk to someone from New York , LA or Texas and not only is the accent different but the wording and phrases will vary greatly too .

[dwightks]

Originally Posted by alizeefan

First to say i agree as Scruffy and Ronald stated above if you do not use it you may lose it , which may be differing depending on the individuals memory skills . Definitely something to take into heavy consideration when considering learning . Also to add there when reading about people learning languages it is VERY very helpful to use it with a native or learned speaker/s that way you become accustomed to the nuances . The best way to learn is to be using it on a daily basis . Now from researching i have found that everyone recommends the Rosetta Stone tools but it is expensive .

With that in mind and after some researching for free tools i found byki -

http://www.byki.com/

They also have the upgraded pay version but the free one seems great.
Now i can not say if the lessons work as time has not permitted me to get highly involved to learn but they seem very well writ also having a native speaker say the words so you can learn by hearing as well reading .
More importantly as elated above about using the language to learn , one of the tools is they hook you up with people who speak the language you want to learn to be sorta pen/chat pals . That way you can teach them languages you know and they want to learn and vice versa by not only writing but talking too . Add to that it is pretty cool to become friends with people around the world or in the country you are interested in .

One more tool i found helpful is to create my own desktop wallpaper background with words and alphabet translations .
That way it is right there for you to see and study constantly or easily refer back to without having to open things .

1. - Yes i have the urge but yet to get into it due to time restraints.

2. - Again i would like to get the Rosetta Stone but expensive so trying Byki .

3. - Depends on how much time you have as well effort put into learning .
Also each individual will be different in learning/memory skills.

Another thing to keep in mind which i think many overlook is -
As with any language there are varying dialects depending on location one is in of the respective country . From what i understand and evidence all over this forum about her pronunciations , Alizee being from the Corsica island has a variation on the dialects with both French and English . For instance on dialects , talk to someone from New York , LA or Texas and not only is the accent different but the wording and phrases will vary greatly too .

Thanks I'll try out Byki. I've thought about Rosetta Stone but it's too expensive. I'm also thinking about taking a French course at a community college close by, which will also be good for my transcript to get into college. These courses are very cheap for High School students.

[Dark Engine]

Originally Posted by dwightks

Thanks I'll try out Byki. I've thought about Rosetta Stone but it's too expensive. I'm also thinking about taking a French course at a community college close by, which will also be good for my transcript to get into college. These courses are very cheap for High School students.

There is actually another program out there that is a lot cheaper than Rosetta Stone and reviews claim that it's almost as effective. Look for a program called "Instant Immersion". But regardless of the cost of a program, learning a new one is hard. The pronunciation of French from reading seems to be really hard. To me, It seemed really different when compared to Spanish. The reviews seem to vary from good to bad, but for the price, it's hard to argue.

http://www.amazon.com/TOPICS-Enterta...ef=pd_sim_sw_4

There is another program out there called Fluenz that is about as expensive as Rosetta but uses a different learning style. Rosetta uses total immersion which can be difficult for a lot of ppl. Fluenz teaches you a language by explaining it in English for beginners. Similar to how high school students learn from the beginning. Just hunt around and see which interests you the best. I know I've tried the total immersion for Spanish and I lost interest pretty fast. And that's with 3 years of studying it in school.

http://www.amazon.com/Fluenz-Version...4294694&sr=1-5

[Nubcake]

Lol, I'm not the only one, I'm know the basics, magent/eatting, boit/drinking, garcon/boy, but i'm having a hard time how the words roll together and you don't pronouce the R or S's or even hear them. Reading it seems easier than speaking currently.

Also I had rosetta stone for years, just never touched it, I got it years ago when I went on a trip to Spain and than Norway so I lost the language cds, but you can find them on a torrent tracker, so I'm sure you can also find the whole client.

[DrSmith]

I tried installing Rosetta Stone yesterday but the language CD torrents don't come with bloody activation codes. I can't find them shits anywhere.

[Nubcake]

Originally Posted by DrSmith

I tried installing Rosetta Stone yesterday but the language CD torrents don't come with bloody activation codes. I can't find them shits anywhere.

Don't activate it, you can learn up to lesson 3 or something, other than that, you'll have to find a crack for rosetta stone itself not the language cd.

[Aayush]

Yups, Rosetta Stone is the very best in the business. M totally satisfied with its use and will recommend the same to the newbies in learning french.