Learning French.........

[yello]

without the fear of realying on furious pointing and hopeless mimes

Sadly, they are part of the learning process

byegad; top marks! The O level attempts must have helped somehow! I wish I was as adept as you at language learning. I'm finding it a slow process... but I suspect age is not on my side!

 

[zimzum42]

Try the rosetta stone series - not cheap, but they are good and are used by the diplomatic community, and people posted overseas in general, since it's quite an intensive programme

 

[Panter]

Thanks Zimzum, I'll look into that too. I downloaded the Micheal Thomas free demos yesterday and I'll have a listen to them first to get a feel for them but....

I may try that then, with the CD's and then reading and listening to frech to "learn it properly."

Maybe I should learn to simply spell it first

 

[zimzum42]

Rosetta stone offer a generous money back scheme if it doesn't work, and they are good to their word - i sent one back after 6 weeks and they gave me a full refund. wasn't cos it didn't work, but because i no longer needed to learn the language i'd bought

 

[Panter]

Thats some serious guarantee

Mind you, they are expensive. I'm not sure I'm keen enough to spend that sort of money but I'll see how it goes.

The good old BBC also offer online language learning FOC so I'll proabaly have a play with that first and spend some money if I do manage to persist with it

 

[Aperitif]

Plenty of radio stations online too Panter. Nostalgie might be a good start as it is mostly music...at least you will be able to 'la de da la-la-la boom titty boom etc' in French!

 

[red_tom]

All the french you need thanks to Flight of the Conchords

On a more serious note, the BBC have some very good language resources.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Also, a friend of mine was learning spanish and found some very good Skype channels were you could go to practice your conversational skills.

http://voip.about.com/b/2006/06/12/learn-a-language-using-skype.htm

 

[Aperitif]

Ah - another dose of Conchords- excellent!

 

[Yellow Fang]

I went through a stage of trying to learn French and German. I eventually ended up with a couple of A/S levels. I went to evening college and listened to numerous tape courses. When I first wanted to learn German, I did a week's intensive German course at Brighton Polytechnic University. It was a good way of frying your brain, but I learnt quite a bit in a short space of time. It's a long hard slog getting competent at a foreign language IMO

 

[asterix]

Most regions of France have their own dialects. You can still find elderly people that don't speak 'French' at all, only the local dialect. So don't expect the French to speak French! They're as likely to make as many mistakes as a non-native speaker!

My 88 yr old neighbour speaks French to me but when talking to other elderly neighbours it's like some other language that sounds very different.

Unfortunately I speak very poor French still, only my willingness to sound like an idiot has increased.

 

[yenrod]

Ha ha John - I try and read L'equipe and Midi Libre...just keeping pace you understand.
SWOMBO is French I get nailed -often. But, I can play the 'con' easily
Masculine and feminine stuff is a flippin' nuisance. Viz. La Tour v Le Tour et seq.

And then there's the regional accents to consider. Parisien - ok ish... listen to the same stuff in the Languedoc - I'm listening without seeing.

So your woman is French Aperitif: do you talk to each other in both languages or mainly one lang. (English).

If you do talk in English does she mind talking English or its not a deal...etc..

 

[yenrod]

My 88 yr old neighbour speaks French to me but when talking to other elderly neighbours it's like some other language that sounds very different.

Unfortunately I speak very poor French still, only my willingness to sound like an idiot has increased.

This reminds me of whe I was in Italy you see the natives with a smirk on their faces when you where trying

Though at least i tried.

Or when I was talking with an English friend they'd listen in even though they couldn't speak English at all or understand it apparently

 

[rich p]

Panter, if you're serious I'd recommend evening classes as the best way. You need someone to help with pronunciation etc, motivation etc IMO. I did Italian for a couple of years and learnt enough to speak reasonably well in conversation. I also had a lot of fun with the group and language classes are invariably stuffed with women!

 

[Yellow Fang]

Somewhat middle-aged or elderly women for the most part, or young women who did not come back after several weeks.

 

[Aperitif]

So your woman is French Aperitif: do you talk to each other in both languages or mainly one lang. (English).

If you do talk in English does she mind talking English or its not a deal...etc..

'Elle' works at Terminal 3 - makes the announcements etc...

I can't understand a word she says either...

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