Recommendations - to learn French

Merci EP.

Ellianne

Call me Madame Gazelle anna7! I'll be back in a bit to answer you, and any other requests!
Got to take GCs to school for the last day.

I put Peppa Pig on on Channel 5 one day some years ago so as to see what it was all about as I had seen Peppa Pig computer programs on sale in the supermarket*. and I was just watching

Suddenly a little boy called out to the teacher "Madame Gazelle" and I noticed the long horns on the teacher.

I laughed out loud, it seemed hilarious.

*Yes, computer programs on sale in the supermarket. What would suggesting that possibility have sounded like in the early 1970s before the first microprocessor was launched?

Me voici ElderlyPerson.

Ellianne

PS Is there a trip to Paris for us please?

Good idea.
It will need to be virtual though.
Are you aware of Google street view?
If readers want to use the wonders of Google street view and are stuck, well, I can help out there (free)

Personally, I have not found language classes run by Adult Community Learning or similar for any language that helpful. Participants tend to have too wide a range of abilities, lesson get bogged down with people stressing over tenses and conjugation and not enough emphasis on speaking even if one does make mistakes. Plus the perennial problem of student drop out and classes folding early due to lack of numbers.

I do realise that structure and grammar is important but that's not how we first start to learn our native language. Being understood, however haltingly and inaccurate is the most important thing.

What I've found helpful, enjoyable and social is a French Circle if you have one locally or can get to one. A mix of native French and English speakers but all Francophiles.

Pivotal to our local group are les soirées or conversation evenings where we just chat in French, some proficiently, some bumbly, over coffee, wine and nibbles. I'm somewhere in the middling to bumbly end of the scale depending on the topic but there is always someone to help.

I think the best way to learn a language is to immerse oneself in it even if unable to get to France or a French-speaking country. French Circle, France Culture radio and French cinema and TV are good substitutes.

Thank you so much for all your suggestions - and so quickly !

How wonderful you Gransnetters are ?
I’m going to get a notebook and write them all down so I can investigate them.
I haven’t heard of the memory programme on the tv but I need to look at that, as I lost a baked potato I’d just cooked the other week.

Golly there are certainly some proficient and talented linguists on here ! I admire all of you !

I can’t do a physical class as I can’t walk properly, and I couldn’t sit for a length of time.
I’m not worried about the cost of a course as it’s an investment, although if money were no object I’d be trying to entice one of you ex pats or Elianne to come round.
A Gransnet French club is a stroke of genius although I’ll probably be just watching ! All this talk of grammar etc nearly made me faint !

www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/1298890-Le-Caf-des-flamants-roses-has-a-small-garden-where-people-can-talk-English-to-ask-questions-about-what-is-being-said-in-French-in-the-caf

I've used "Façon de Parler" with two adult students over lockdown. As a languages tutor, I used to do lessons face-to-face, but I've had to do my lessons via Zoom since lockdown. Both are now capable of holding a conversation and I've linked them up with their own social media group and I just let them get on with it. They swap all sorts of things at a level which is right for them. They still have a structured 30 minute lesson with me each week, but could probably cope without. If you have a local Facebook group, it might be worth enquiring whether anybody else is in the same boat.

PS. Don't get hung up on grammar. A good course teaches the grammar you need for various situations - not the other way round. You then need to practise the grammar, so that it becomes automaticised (ie you can use it automatically) and can apply it to different situations.

Another useful aid is French women’s magazines. The vocab is limited to language you are likely to use and the topics are familiar, so it’s a great way into the written language once you have mastered the basics. Femme Actuelle is widely available - their website is here: www.femmeactuelle.fr/

Merci Ellianne. I think you're right about not getting too hung up about verbs. I was losing confidence and not practising as much as I was. I think I will just continue ploughing through duolingo. I quite enjoy using duolingo because I can do it when I have a few spare minutes without having to get books and tapes out. I find it very convenient.

geekesse

Another useful aid is French women’s magazines. The vocab is limited to language you are likely to use and the topics are familiar, so it’s a great way into the written language once you have mastered the basics. Femme Actuelle is widely available - their website is here: www.femmeactuelle.fr/

Good idea.

If you have access to Libby Overdrive through your county library, you'll have a big choice of popular magazines on many different topics.

Cookery is subject where the layout of recipes and the format of the instructions will be familiar. Dr Good's C"est Bon looks interesting. This month's edition includes 25 recipes for using up courgettes!

There's also a Dr Good health magazine for children. I can also see the French version of Top Santé which is a familar magazine in Britain.

We lived in france for 18 years. I studied frnch at school to A level and could drag some of that back from my memory but the biggest boost came from being in hospital there.
But hope you don't need to go as far as that.
Good idea about french magazines. Their gardening magazines are another example.
I still read our local french newspaper online.
www.ladepeche.fr/

I don’t think anyone has mention DuoLingo a free online course to learn any language. It’s brilliant. I have been learning Spanish online 5 mins (well it takes me a quarter of an hour) each day. I have an unbroken record of a year and a half.

I recommended it to friends, one is learning Hindi and another Italian. ???

Please look it up even though you don’t want to do it online. GN is an app and presumably you can cope with that. I’m sure a friend would set you up.

NanKate - I got DuoLingo !
I don’t use apps at all. I only recently got this phone as my old fashioned brick died ( at least it did when I dropped it). This is my niece’s old phone and she set it up for me.

I’ve never even pressed the button for an app as I read Gransnet through the browser.

After a panicked phone call to my niece and a lot of messing round due to my unfamiliarity with all the things it asked, I got my first app.

And I’ve already done lesson one !
My niece is looking at some of the books suggested and is getting back to me on Sunday.

Thanks for explaining Infinity

We are both learning a language to keep our brains going which I think is an excellent idea. I’m really enjoying my Spanish, I hope you enjoy yours as much.

NanKate - ??

Have nearly driven myself mad with DuoLingo today.

Unless I meet a boy, a girl, a woman, dog, cat and a horse - all eating a pizza - I’m sunk.

Any French course will start with a very limited vocabulary. I got a B in A level French, including full marks in the oral paper, but it wasn’t till I bought a house in France that I learnt the really useful stuff - things like ‘is it OK to use this loo cleaner with a septic tank?’, ‘your mechanic is trying to rip me off. It’s a hole in my exhaust pipe, not a faulty component in my engine’ and ‘my son wants a kilo of maggots and hooks suitable for catching river perch’.

I always found «le nouveau bescherelle - l’art de conjuguer» the perfect guide to verbs… used it from my degree in French days (early 1980s!) up to a couple of years ago when I moved back to the uk after living in France for a few years again… I’d virtually never used it in those last few years (you can google everything these days!) but oh I wish I’d kept it.

I liked the Breakthrough French series. There were three levels, each consisting of a book and CDs or cassettes. Obviously, as a beginner, you would want Breakthrough French 1

They have been around quite some time, but if you could get hold of the Euro Edition (as the name suggests, this was the revised version after the introduction of the Euro), I don't think that matters. Do make sure that you get the audio too, though - they could be bought either together or separately, so don't take it for granted that the book will come with audio!

Right now, I can only see used ones on Amazon, but they might still have them on the shelves in some bookshops.

Above all, don't get bogged down. Keep using a variety of sources, and don't be afraid to swap and change between books/courses if you think it will help you to consolidate what you have already learned or get to grips with something you are finding difficult.
I think I must have almost every French course ever brought out in the last 40 years on my shelves - half bought when I started teaching myself, then the rest when I started giving private lessons after I'd done a Modern Language degree. I still can't bring myself to part with them

Have a look at www.citylit.ac.uk Currently classes are offered via Zoom so can be accessed from anywhere. All the tutors are native speakers and I highly recommend learning with them. Everything from complete beginners to very advanced learners are covered.
Not just languages - an enormous range of courses are available but some are taught face to face which means getting to their main site near Holborn.

I started French using Duolingo but I'm fairly sure I came to a point where I couldn't access it any more. Is there a point at which you have to pay a subscription? I don't mind doing that but I don't recall there being a request for payment.

Grannynise A few years ago I did autobiographical writing at City Lit. It was a really good course with excellent teaching and I would certainly recommend it. I imagine most of the courses are of a similar high quality.

Eloethan, my DH and I have been using DUOLINGUO for years, my husband is pretty advanced in Italian now, but despite using it on a daily basis for years, he has never been asked to pay.

I suggested this site on ElderlyPerson's French Cafe thread for anyone looking for a gentle way in. I used it when teaching French four to twelve year olds in addition to the more formal work.

www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1798&c=22