learning a language, aaack

[Zoe Girl]

I am working on my study of French. It is Spring Break so I have extra time. I have forgotton sooo much. The test to get my credential includes listening to a speaker and answering questions talking at normal rate of French and also speaking answers totally correctly. I have been watching French films and trying not to watch the subtitles but I am only getting a little bit of understanding (although the movies have been good). I am so worried that what work looks like over the next 3 months is totally overwhelming and I can't keep up with the study.

So I can go to a conversation group at a coffee shop, it is just one more night away from kids in the evening. My son has been taking French for years so it would be great if I could drag him along. I think the answer is slooow down. make it fun like the movies, I also got advice to get the textbooks that the school uses and practice with those.

[Zoebird]

You can usually turn the subtitles off on different films, which is useful.

I tend to watch the film with subtitles, then without. The repetition helps. Also, children's cartoons. Mouk can be found in both english and french, so I have a tendency to watch it in english first, then french second. Also, the cartoon isn't annoying. It has a nice, sweet lesson and it's enjoyable. There are also several cartoons made in quebec in both french and english -- but I can't remember any titles off the top of my head. One was a cute one about a jewish kid living in montreal. really sweet stuff.

[lhamo]

One thing that really boosted my Chinese in the early stages was regularly immersing myself in radio and TV. I remember when I did my first intensive language program in Taiwan, when I'd only had about 2.5 years of college Chinese and asking where the bathroom was seemed like an immense challenge, I used to go home every night and listen to a talk radio program I found. At first I could only understand a few scattered words, but gradually it was whole sentences, and then by the time I was getting ready to leave (2 month program, very intense), I was probably getting about 50-60% -- 20 years later after living/working in China and using Chinese professionally I can probably get about 90-95% (just not the very local puns/high literary cultural references), so that early progress was pretty substantial!

The other thing that listening to native language materials does is give you a very strong sense for the cadence of the language. People always comment on how good my Chinese is, though I'm actually pretty horrible with tones due to many years in Sichuan, and I think a big part of that is that my cadence is very close to native speaker level. Some people have very good grasp of vocabulary and grammar, but when they speak they just don't sound at ALL like a native speaker because their cadence is flat or they are using patterns from their native language.

So I would see if you can find some online radio programs or podcasts -- talk based programs are best, but anything will do. Put those on while you are driving, cleaning the house, etc. -- wherever you have a free moment. You could turn this into a game with DS, too -- listen to a bit and then see who can summarize the topic the best in English.

lhamo

[Dhiana]

I totally agree with what Llamo said about listening to French speaking radio stations over the internet. And yes, the cadence and patterns are sooooo important in sounding like a native speaker. Those patterns make it so much easier to be understood by those who are native speakers. You will command much more respect from those you are speaking with.

Have you seen the Taxi movies by Luc Bessen? Your son would love them! Queen Latifah did an poor American remake of the first one but the original French ones had me laughing out loud yet I don't understand any French and couldn't read the Japanese subtitles when I first saw them.

[JaneV2.0]

I like Stitcher audio and Bee Line TV for foreign language practice, along with Spanish language TV. http://beelinetv.com/ http://www.stitcher.com/

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you all, I found a radio station and am listening to it on my computer. Sometimes I have internet issues but this is working just fine. I am encouraged to be able to function and maybe pass the test, I am not worrying about understanding, just listening and soaking in.

I will look for those movies through netflix or the library. It is good to have a title to search for.

[JaneV2.0]

There's another resource I like to play around with: Google News. There's a box at upper left that says (for example) "U.S. Edition." It's a drop-down menu and you can choose from among many different localization options, in corresponding languages. You could toggle back and forth between the same story in French, Spanish, and English translations--and get different perspectives in the bargain.