A language learners’ forum

note to self: "un ouragan" is "a hurricane" not "an orangutang" although the latter can be more amusing, depending on context.

finished Harry Potter #5 - up to 8k pages of my 10k target. I'm going to read something that's not Arry Potteur next.

it's been too nice lately to do much proper studying, so I've just been reading, & watching stuff on YouTube to keep myself ticking over. I do need to do some grammar though - my verb conjugation has slipped since I haven't been Anki'ing & has slipped from being quite bad to being atrocious.

finished Harry Potter #6 - 9k pages total now.

yay! hit my 10k pages of French! only 2/3rds of it was Harry Potter.

time to read something else. who knows, maybe even something originally written in French.

badger wrote:yay! hit my 10k pages of French! only 2/3rds of it was Harry Potter.

time to read something else. who knows, maybe even something originally written in French.

Pardon the interruption, but 10,000 pages of French is 10,000 pages of French. You deserve a big pat on the back, and consider this post to be one. Any ideas what "real" French you'll read next?

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Pardon the interruption, but 10,000 pages of French is 10,000 pages of French. You deserve a big pat on the back, and consider this post to be one. Any ideas what "real" French you'll read next?

thank you. I am quite pleased with myself.

I have a few French-French books to read: "L'elegance du Herisson", "Meursault, contre-enquête", a couple of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's flying-related books, plenty to keep me going for a while.

plus some more non-french-French books too.

bonjour à tous

it's now two years since I picked up L'Étranger (& a French-English dictionary) after 30 years of no language learning, so how far have I come?

in my first post in my log I said I'd like to be able to read a French newspaper: check; watch French TV shows: semi-check, I get quite a lot of it, but not so much when speech is at light-speed, which the French seem to like so much; and hold a conversation: fail - I just haven't tried, be that iTalki, or classes or whatever.

I can't remember if I've said this before on the forum, but I have a mild stutter/stammer & have enough trouble speaking my native language at times, so it might seem perverse that I'd be interested in learning a foreign language. however my interest in language learning is really more about being able to access culture & thought outside of the the Anglophonosphere than about being able to discuss the price of berets in a café. nevertheless, I think it's about time I bit the bullet & did some actual speaking, even if just to add another vector of learning.

anyway, after completing my 10k pages of French & finishing off Harry Potter #7 I've just been doing bits & pieces. I tried to get into Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, but the language is a bit flowery to be very useful so I've shelved that for now. I've mostly been just watching French YouTube - the same sort of things I'd watch in English, just in French (I wish people wouldn't put background music behind speaking) & training my ear to hear how I'd see things written on a page.

donc, going forward my plan is:

1. speak to a French person
2. speak to another French person
3. lots more watching/listening
4. read some originally-written-in-French French - seeing as how we've gone into Lockdown II here, La Peste might be appropriate, which I didn't get around to in Lockdown I

à plus tard

Ça fait trop longtemps que je n'ai pas écrit quelquechose là.

I've been doing bits & pieces of reading still - I read the two sequels to Joanne Harris's Chocolat which were okay, but don't really have the charm of the original.

I've mostly been watching stuff instead - Au service de la France / A Very Secret Service which I thought was very funny & Dix pour cent / Call my Agent which I liked too. I wish I knew a little more about French culture because I'm sure there were all sorts of in-jokes that I was completely oblivious to. I watched both of those with French subs as I still struggle with faster native speakers. plus, they're smart, funny shows & I wanted to understand them.

after trying to find what I wanted on streaming services & failing, I've bought a boxed set of Les files X from Amazon France & have started watching those - without subs as I do better with dubbed French than native. two discs down, 53 to go.

& the big news ... is that work have had a re-org & I'm now in a team which is half French & my boss is French, & he seemed very pleased when I told him I knew some French (in French). so I have no excuses not to speak/write French now - I will have to learn some work-related vocab now.

I've heard other people say things dubbed into French are easier, but I've never experienced it. Things might be better dubbed now, but I've seen the odd film dubbed into French and the voices were so cartoonish I couldn't watch. I found comedies were worst.

Great that you've got that team of French people around you. That sort of thing really pushes you forward to another level.

Le Baron wrote:I've heard other people say things dubbed into French are easier, but I've never experienced it.

my theory is that it may mostly be down to speed. the dubbed-into-French dialogue needs to match the originally-in-English dialogue to sync with what's happening on-screen, & I think natively-spoken English is generally a little slower than natively-spoken French, hence the dubbed-French is maybe a little slower than French-French. & perhaps also a little more clearly enunciated by voice actors in a booth than film/TV actors on a set.