Learning French is a pain in the A*s.

[Drvladivostok]

I've attempted and given up learning this language twice in the past, but just like God intended, I feel like third time's gonna be the charm.

The way French is structured where nouns, verbs, and conjunction have to warp themselves based on the distinction of feminine/masculine nouns, singular/plural nouns, with various tenses, and accents is very difficult to keep up, the number of nouns I have to memorize based on feminine/masculine classification is disheartening.

I became fammiliar with english by the virtue of cable TV and barely made any effort to learn a formal grammar course, my native language is probably the second easiest to learn after esperanto. So this will be the first language that I go our of my way to actually learn without an intense exposure, and-as close as any-from scratch.

My strategy to keep the ADHD at bay, and mitigate the convenient distraction of phone-procrastination is learning it mainly avec un livre, and accessing Gtranslate only when absolutely necesseary, but I'll tell you what c'est difficile beaucoup. I pick french as I'm very interested by their history, and for some reason the Novel Lolita piqued by interest in learning this languge.

So, you guys have any experience learning foreign languages? How do you keep yourself motivated and what strategy is best to learn?​

 

[EndogenousRebel]

So, you guys have any experience learning foreign languages? How do you keep yourself motivated and what strategy is best to learn?

It's hard. It's way less impressive to be multilingual when people realize how much time you dedicated to learning such languages.

I hear it gets easier but, I think that's because most languages have shared origins rather than you get better at learning languages.

My third language is German. I can only understand simple sentences and complex sentences take me time because I have to work through it, chew on it so to speak..

Ultimately you're only going to learn what you expose yourself to. Its like math, where there is no real short cut besides practicing it so much, you "automate" building blocks until you see the bigger picture without being overwhelmed.

 

[Cognisant]

Learn only the nouns, insert those nouns into English, compensate for your lack of grammar with an obnoxious fake accent.

You'll learn the rest of it from irritated French people correcting you, or not, who cares they're French.

Seriously though if you learn nouns you will be able to intuit what people are talking about, if not what they're saying, but you'll likely get that from context and their emotional state, at which point it's simply a matter of exposure and your brain will subconsciously run inference on everything you hear.

For example you learn the Japanese word for toilet, you see someone approach the serving staff at a restaurant and use that word in a sentence, the staff direct them to what is obviously the toilet, after several such observations you notice the one asking a question usually ends their question with "des-ka", you're now able to ask for the toilet by saying (in Japanese) "Toilet?" which isn't perfect but it gets the point across.

 

[dr froyd]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

 

[Drvladivostok]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

I honestly wanna do both.

But I don't have the access nor the time to find exposure by native french speakers, so my imaginary friends and youtube will have to compensate.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

I honestly wanna do both.

But I don't have the access nor the time to find exposure by native french speakers, so my imaginary friends and youtube will have to compensate.

They've had to have had one shitty sitcom that's been on the air for decades or something.

Cant be that hard: like Candice Renoir or something else that pops up from Google

 

[dr froyd]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

I honestly wanna do both.

But I don't have the access nor the time to find exposure by native french speakers, so my imaginary friends and youtube will have to compensate.

i personally think it's possible, but it does raise an interesting question: how do you know that you pronounce things correctly if no one is there to tell you? Because in some languages even subtle changes can change the meaning or words entirely. I think you need a good ear for it

 

[Drvladivostok]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

I honestly wanna do both.

But I don't have the access nor the time to find exposure by native french speakers, so my imaginary friends and youtube will have to compensate.

i personally think it's possible, but it does raise an interesting question: how do you know that you pronounce things correctly if no one is there to tell you? Because in some languages even subtle changes can change the meaning or words entirely. I think you need a good ear for it

I suppose I'll eventually have to introduce native speakers to my curriculum, perhaps I'll pay to join a class, but I think this will only be done after I'm at the very least able to operate inside a rudimentary conversation.

But as of the near future I'll have have to inuit the subtle differences by comparing myself to videos. And if any frenchman have the unfortunate destiny of meeting me in this premature period, well I guess they'll just have to grit their teeth and hold back from swinging at me.

 

[Drvladivostok]

guess it depends on purpose

if you want to read books and write text, read books, look up words in dictionaries and study grammar

if you want to use it verbally with other people, listen to the language a lot, try to pronounce words and sentences, learn its idiomatic expressions, its cadence, tonality, etc

I honestly wanna do both.

But I don't have the access nor the time to find exposure by native french speakers, so my imaginary friends and youtube will have to compensate.

They've had to have had one shitty sitcom that's been on the air for decades or something.

Cant be that hard: like Candice Renoir or something else that pops up from Google

I guess I'll start with music, comprehend the lyrics and then listen them play out.

 

[ZenRaiden]

Learn french by learning about your favorite subject in french.
If you like cars learn about cars in french.
If you like computers learn about computers in french.
If you like porn, learn about porn in french.

Don't learn about doctors visit, or stupid stuff like trivia about country or stuff that is hard to remember.

Learn about what you like.

Also learn about the countries that speak french. Try to find something interesting about France, or Switzerland.

For example you might admire Napoleon of France. So find his diaries or french war maps, or french sources about Napoleon and learn about his biography. Learn where he was born what he did, what he built, and about the things you admire about him.

You might like Swiss folklore so you might find folk tales from Switzerland and read those.

Don't bother with grammar until much later.

Learn to make mistakes. When we are kids we make mistakes all the time, but not dwelling on mistakes makes kids fast learners. Grown ups dwell on every mistake. So they learn sloooowly.

 

[sushi]

Learn french by learning about your favorite subject in french.
If you like cars learn about cars in french.
If you like computers learn about computers in french.
If you like porn, learn about porn in french.

Don't learn about doctors visit, or stupid stuff like trivia about country or stuff that is hard to remember.

Learn about what you like.

Also learn about the countries that speak french. Try to find something interesting about France, or Switzerland.

For example you might admire Napoleon of France. So find his diaries or french war maps, or french sources about Napoleon and learn about his biography. Learn where he was born what he did, what he built, and about the things you admire about him.

You might like Swiss folklore so you might find folk tales from Switzerland and read those.

Don't bother with grammar until much later.

Learn to make mistakes. When we are kids we make mistakes all the time, but not dwelling on mistakes makes kids fast learners. Grown ups dwell on every mistake. So they learn sloooowly.

this

speaking and listening is half

writing and reading is the other half

 

[dr froyd]

If you like porn, learn about porn in french.

agreed

 

[sushi]

there is so much apostrophe in french that is not in other european languages.

 

[ZenRaiden]

You can download comic strips from archive . org on the internet such as:

https://ia803400.us.archive.org/28/items/pif-gadget-hs-special-500-10-ans-de-bande-dessinee/Pif%20Gadget%20-%20HS%20-%20Special%20500%20-%2010%20Ans%20De%20Bande%20Dessinee_text.pdf

 

[sushi]

read children's books if adult is too much. compulsively translate.