<p>My son is going to be living abroad this coming semester and we’re going to visit. Part of this trip is going to involve going to France for a few days. I’ve got five months before this trip and I’d like to learn some French.</p>
<p>What is the best way to go about this? Do you have a book or program you can recommend? We don’t live in a place big enough to offer language schools, so that’s out.</p>
<p>Me too, pugmadkate. So far, I’ve found some youtube sites and taken a set of Audio CD’s out of the library (faculty borrowing privileges, yeah!). I’ll be interested to see if anyone has other ideas. </p>
<p>Au revoir!</p>
<p>Both Rosetta Stone and Berlitz offer programs that are live small groups in distance format. With a computer, webcam, and headset you can work with a real human teacher.</p>
<p>Watch movies/DVDs with spoken English and foreign subtitles, it can really help you see how things are spelled and how the sentence structure works.</p>
<p>There are TONS of wonderful lessons on Youtube. And plenty of French movies and documentaries as well. Learn things you will actually use while traveling. The French are very formal and appreciate being addressed by their formal titles, even when you are just thanking them or greeting them. Five months is enough time to learn greetings and formalities, proper titles, counting, names of foods and how to order in a restaurant. Have a great time.</p>
<p>PIMSLEUR, no hesitation!!</p>
<p>I know you don’t have language schools, but our local high school has evening classes for adults and I know beginning French is one of their offerings. Have you had any French at all? Do you know another Romance language? My brother’s favorite program for learning languages on your own is Pimsleur - I’ve never gotten very far with anything on my own, but I do great in classes though I’ll never speak any language well without spending substantial time in the country.</p>
<p>Two different county libraries close to us have a online computer program called Mango Languages where you work through levels. They also have French children’s books, learn French CD’s and popular French movie DVD’s.l</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your suggestions!</p>
<p>There are some services where you can have live interactive language instruction from a native speaker online over Skype. Live Lingua is one. I’ve never used it personally, but a friend did, and she said it was very good for conversational practice, and inexpensive and convenient.</p>
<p>Check a podcast called coffee break French by radio lingua</p>
<p>Tr</p>
<p>BBC has a variety of programs, as below. </p>
<p>[BBC</a> - Learn French with free online lessons](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/]BBC”>http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/) </p>
<p>Unless you have a very good ear, having someone correct your pronunciation is good idea. I am impressed at folks taking language lessons via Skype these days. But a university student in person could do as well. My Ds have a great time correcting my feeble efforts to speak French.</p>
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<p>Do your local community colleges offer French 1 courses?</p>
<p>My adult students, ages 50-91, like the 52-episode cult video series French in Action. Previously featured on PBS, it is now available—for free—online. Everything is in French (no subtitles), but each concept is featured repeatedly, and reinforced through a wide variety of contexts. I would recommend that you buy a used copy of the accompanying textbook (not the workbook), since it provides scripts for the video dialogues and supplementary readings. You should also purchase (or borrow from your public library) a basic French grammar book.</p>
<p>I discovered that after certain age I could not learn another language. this type of learning was gone from my brain. I have tried, I wanted to focus on it, but the next day I did not remember any words unless they were the same as in languages that I already knew. But everybody is different. I know that some other learning is actually much faster with age. Specifically, art.</p>
<p>^^I took elementary Spanish lessons at the nearby junior college and then some at the U where I am finishing up my accounting degree. I found I am very good at the mechanics and can read it really well and can write it tolerably well (enough that I got As through intermediate which is where I gave up), but I can’t seem to get the stage of being able to understand it well when spoken outside the classroom setting nor can I speak it well. I really enjoyed the classes and my goal was to become fluent, but I just don’t seem to have an “ear” for it. I suspect that is an age related thing - just can’t process it quickly enough or something. Yet when I see it in writing, I can understand it very well. Someone told me it is easier to read a foreign language than speak or listen to it because reading is more passive. Certainly seems the case for me. </p>
<p>Pugmadkate - If you spend a lot of time in the car, I have enjoyed the behind the wheel series of CDs for Spanish and I know they have them for French also. They are not stand alone and you would probably need other basic introductory book or CD. But I found them a fun and easy way to practice pronunciation. Also the “practice makes perfect” series of workbooks is very good for learning grammar and conjugating verbs. I think it is an excellent idea to pick up a few basics. A lot of people in Paris speak English, but I have found my schoolgirl French to be both useful and the attempt much appreciated. Definitely learn the courtesies - the French put more emphasis than we do on basic courtesies such as saying hello when you walk into a store.</p>
<p>^Anybody who ever learned another language as an adult will discover that reading and writing are much easier than understanding with the absolutely hardest part speaking. It is complete opposite with kids. To speak, you have to break a psychological barrier. If you are in situation when people are seeking your help but you can help them only by using the new language, you will start speaking. the reason is that you know that they will try very hard to understand because it is important to them. Here psychologial barrier is gone and the more you practice the better you get.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, I have a terrible ear, but have learned to speak two languages fluently and am pretty confident I could learn more (maybe not Chinese or Arabic) if I put my mind to it. But what I would have to do is spend about a year learning basic grammar and then at least six months immersed in the culture. That said, even after five years in Germany, I didn’t always get the punchline of jokes. (Sometimes because they were half in Bavarian dialect, but not always.) I generally had no problem getting jokes in comics or books even the local paper’s Bavarian jokes.</p>
<p>One of my dreams is to spend 6 months to a year immersed in the culture of Paris - I think I could get pretty fluent as, on my couple of visits, my schoolgirl French has come back to me more than I would have expected given how little effort I made in school. And while I am there becoming fluent I would learn to make French pastries, especially almond croissants. Sigh. Need to go buy that lottery ticket.</p>
<p>I did try and learn Arabic when we lived in Egypt. Learned some basics, but where we lived there were a lot of Americans and Brits and, for the most part, the Egyptians wanted to practice their English and would revert to English when I attempted Arabic. I do remember trying to buy a rat trap and being in a store surrounded by a crowd of helpful staff and customers trying to figure out what the heck I needed (they finally figured it out but they didn’t have any). The me of today would put a lot more effort into learning the language than the me of 25 years ago did. I did become much more descriptive with my hands though. To this day I find myself holding my finger and thumb close to indicate small and drawing large air circles to indicate big. People probably think I’m crazy (or a little slow).</p>