Bylan's French Beginnings

[Bylan]

I've just recently conceived the notion of learning French, and since I've reached a nice independent learning stride with Portuguese, where I mostly read and watch things with intermittent explicit study, I feel good about starting a new language. French appeals to me because for a few reasons. I visited Paris last Fall and really enjoyed it. I never thought much about French or France before then, but after that trip, my interest in the country definitely grew. The French and Portuguese languages are strangely similar for me, and thus I can see myself learning French at a bit of a discount, though I don't have any assumptions that it will resemble my Portuguese learning path based on my previous Spanish knowledge... I have a healthy amount of respect for what I'm getting myself into. That being said, sailing is already smooth and my "Romance" knowledge is helping things move along swiftly.

I also find a simple enjoyment out of starting a new language and watching it grow inside my head, using multiple courses to expose and reinforce the language. I've assembled an A-list set of materials, in my opinion, for French and will enjoy working them systematically, but without anxiety or stress. I'm still parsing out time for Korean and Portuguese, though this new project will take a certain priority for a good while.

My original post for my study plan is here ... where I go into a bit more detail about what I'm trying to do. The following is a summary.

My study plan is as follows:

Part One - Pimsleur + Michel Thomas + French In Action - Exposure to the language.

Part Two - Assimil + Linguaphone (1970's) + French In Action - Shadowing and structured grammatical learning.

Part Three - Living Language + FSI + French In Action - "Bird's eye overview" of the grammar and drilling.

French In Action will be something I use throughout the course. This course is humongous, and so I have no problem taking it slow through the whole thing. Additionally, I am not a completist in the sense that I have to complete one course before moving onto another one. My goal is to achieve a good conversational level first before entering the literary world, and so if I feel I have worked a certain course to my satisfaction, I have no problem closing it up and moving onto the next. I have a feeling I will not complete Pimsleur through level 3, nor will I finish Assimil (though Linguaphone is looking like something I might finish). Living Language and FSI as well, I may skim them and use the parts that are most helpful. French In Action... I will probably watch every episode, but I will probably use the textbook and workbook to my own liking. Again, I am looking for reinforcement and repetition, but over these 7 different materials, not necessarily all in one course.

My progress as of today is thus:

Pimsleur 1 - Unit 12
Michel Thomas - Disc 6
French In Action - Lesson 2
Assimil - Lesson 2
Linguaphone - Lesson 2

I don't even have a copy of LL or FSI yet, and Assimil and Linguahpone I've only experimented with. I will officially begin them when I am satisfied with Pimsleur and MT. Until then, let's begin!

[extralean]

Good luck! From the looks of things you're well set!

[galaxyrocker]

Thanks. Definitely looking forward to following you, and possibly getting some information for myself. Given the talk about FiA, I think I'm gonna find a copy of it and see what it is. I like Assimil, but I just feel it's going too slow through the passive only phase, eve with all my shadowing.

[extralean]

Thanks. Definitely looking forward to following you, and possibly getting some information for myself. Given the talk about FiA, I think I'm gonna find a copy of it and see what it is. I like Assimil, but I just feel it's going too slow through the passive only phase, eve with all my shadowing.

I've never been one for limiting myself, you can do 2 or 3 lessons a day, or GASP! Power through the lessons until you get to a point where it's hard.

[Bylan]

I've had a good last few days with French. I'm on lesson 21 of Pimsleur 1, and have gone through lesson 3 of French In Action. I find that to do FIA most profitably, I need to run through the textbook audio right after the lesson, which makes it essentially a 60-80 minute study session each time. I really enjoy doing it too. I just wish I knew how to better use the workbook, avoiding the fill in the blanks and making use of the conversational stuff in the back. Maybe I should do an Assimil-like 7th day review and just focus on the workbook conversation materials in the back of each lesson, to get the most out of it. Even if I don't, I still enjoy what I've been doing with just the video lesson and the audio afterward.

What I've learned and can say:

Être

je suis
il est
nous sommes
vous êtes
ils sont

Aller

je vais
tu vas
il va
nous allons
vous allez
ils vont

Ça va? Oui, merci!

Je peux parler un peu l'français.

Comment allez-vous?

Things like this... I can understand a great deal from FIA and Pimsleur, but creating written French right now is a bit beyond me. Everything I've been doing has been heavy audio / video, and I haven't worked far enough into FIA to really digest any of the spelling patterns. I could definitely have a small conversation with someone though, and look forward to when that happens.

My progress:

Pimsleur 1 - Unit 21
Michel Thomas - Disc 6
French In Action - Lesson 3
Assimil - Lesson 2
Linguaphone - Lesson 2

I'm doing 4-5 Pimsleur lessons daily, and my idea is to reach a level with Pimsleur that eclipses Michel Thomas, run with that for a bit more and then return to finish off Michel Thomas Foundation. I have lot's of time on my commute to work these audio-only courses, so I'm making the most of it. Once I finish off Pimsleur Level 2 and Michel Thomas Foundation, I will start to rotate Portuguese and Korean news and podcasts back into my commutes. But for now, it's all French!

[Bylan]

Bonjour! Mon prénom est Bylan. J'ai vingt-six ans. Ma famille n'est pas pauvre, et elle n'a pas de l'argent. Ma famille est une famille aisée. J'ai un pére et une mére. Ils ne sont pas divorcés. Ils sont mariée. J'ai aussi un frére. Il est plus âgée. Il a vingt-neuf ans. Mon frére et moi, nous n'avons pas de une soeur. Et mes parents n'ont pas des filles. Ils ont des deux fils.

Je vais écrire plus tarde, mais pas aujourd'hui. C'nest pas facile!

(Progress Completion)

PImsleur 1 - Lesson 21
Michel Thomas - Disc 6
French In Action - Lesson 5
Assimil - Lesson 2
Linguaphone - Lesson 2

[pir]

Well done!

Do you want corrections, by the way? Not a word-by-word thing, but when we see something general that might give you an "aHA" effect?

[Bylan]

Well done!

Do you want corrections, by the way? Not a word-by-word thing, but when we see something general that might give you an "aHA" effect?

Yes, please!

[Arnaud]

deleted

[pir]

Ok, I try not to overwhelm you!

Ma famille est une famille aisée. J'ai un pére et une mére. Ils ne sont pas divorcés. Ils sont mariée. J'ai aussi un frére. Il est plus âgée.

One big thing is agreement of adjectives in gender and number with the noun they modify.

• «une famille aisée» is correct -- famille is feminine and singular, therefore the basic form aisé becomes aisée (feminine adds an 'e').
• «ils ... divorcés» is also correct -- ils is masculine and plural, therefore divorcé becomes divorcés (plural adds an 's').
• «ils ... mariée» nope. I bet you see it now in comparison with the above -- ils is again masculine and plural, so marié has to become mariés: «ils sont mariés».
• «il ... âgée» nope. Il is masculine and singular, therefore âgé remains âgé: «il est plus âgé».

C'nest pas facile!

I've seen something like this in a previous post as well so I'll tell you about apostrophes -- the apostrophe means something has been deleted, and the something is usually a vowel in French. A vowel gets deleted from the end of articles and pronouns and some other things if the following word also starts with a vowel (to facilitate more flowing pronunciation). You will therefore never find an apostrophe in front of a consonant.

«C'nest pas» can't happen. You got there from «c'est», I imagine, and tried to shoehorn the negation into it somehow. You have to roll back the deletion of the vowel first -- «c'est» comes from «ce est», and then you wrap the negation around the verb: «ce ne est pas». But wait! Now there's again a darn vowel in front of «est». Get rid of it. That's how you end up with «ce n'est pas», yay. This feels complicated at first (ce n'est pas facile!), but trust me, it'll soon become second nature. Soon you'll be slinging double object pronouns in front of verbs and not even hesitate to cut out vowels with the mighty apostrophe hatchet.

I'm not gonna say anything about «de» yet, because that's too much complication too soon.

@Arnaud -- the sentences are all taken from French in action, have you seen that? The course teaches by immersion, and often contrasts words with opposites to get the student close to the meaning. In this case they tried to teach a progression of «pauvre, aisé, riche» -- it was rather quickly presented, they say about the parents once «ils ont de l'argent, ils sont même assez riches», later implying that «aisé» is well-off as in middle class, rather than filthy rich.