My 9 week ultra-intensive French resurrection summer project.

[Lawyer&Mom]

Spanish, I think yes. German, not as much. German, especially higher level German, doesn’t have nearly as much lexical overlap with English as French. For example, when I was studying in Germany I took a history class aimed at French Erasmus students. All the readings were provided to us in both German and French. It was easier for me, as a third year German student with no French, to read the French. Much easier.

German and English overlap pretty well for really basic vocabulary. Mother = Mutter, Milch= Milk, Hen = Huhn. Not so much for the vocabulary in a newscast.

[Skynet]

For example, when I was studying in Germany I took a history class aimed at French Erasmus students. All the readings were provided to us in both German and French. It was easier for me, as a third year German student with no French, to read the French. Much easier.

GULP!!!

I did not know that the chasm between the two languages was that vast! My goodness! I intend to pursue my PhD but have not quite yet decided on which country exactly I will undertake said research. What I do know is that French and German must be learnt before I graduate in 2020, as the countries that have seriously piqued my interest speak at least one of those two languages.

I cannot thank you enough for suggesting RFI's podcast. My comprehension and listening skills have improved tremendously.

[Lawyer&Mom]

German is great! I love German! Academic French is so much easier for an English speaker than Academic German.

I grabbed the first paragraph of the Wikipedia articles for Political Philosophy in French and German. They are *not* the same text, but should be at a similar level. Which is easier for you?

“La philosophie politique est une branche de la philosophie qui étudie les questions relatives au pouvoir politique, à l'État, au gouvernement, à la loi, à la politique, à la paix, à la justice et au bien commun entre autres. Elle est considérée comme une des branches de la philosophie pratique à côté de la philosophie du droit et de la philosophie moral.”

“Die politische Philosophie ist eine Disziplin der Philosophie und des politikwissenschaftlichen Faches Politische Theorie. Als normative Disziplin befasst sie sich hauptsächlich mit der Kritik, der Sinngebung und der Wegweisung allen politischen Handelns und umfasst unter anderem philosophische Theorien der Gesellschaft, die Rechts- und die Staatsphilosophie. Ihr Ursprung wird in der antiken griechischen Philosophie, insbesondere in den Schriften Platons und Aristoteles verortet. Aus dieser Tradition stammt auch die Bezeichnung; Polis (altgriechisch πόλις pólis, deutsch ‚Stadt, Staat‘) ist der antike griechische Stadtstaat.”

[Skynet]

UPDATE:

I am becoming a helpless French course addict. I am now PM's acolyte in that regard. I have many confessions to make, so bear with me!

Confession #1:

When I first started FWOT and NFWE, I was able to do three lessons each per day without breaking a sweat... Now, that has accelerated to eight lessons each per day. This is how I have always used these two courses:
a) Listen to the audio, repeat what is being said and write down what I hear (inc. doing the exercises)
b) Read the text out loud and correct any written errors.
c) Listen to the audio again as I read what I wrote (and corrected).
d) Listen and repeat with the audio (simultaneously).
e) Move on to the next lesson.

Assimil works brilliantly! The more that I understand, the better I become, and the faster I get at plowing through future lessons.

Confession #2:

This acceleration has spilt into all of my courses, so I am doing more lessons in far shorter time than had been initially projected. Simply put, I will run out of courses before the nine week period is finished. I say this because I had stopped the following courses because I had assumed that I would not have had the time to complete them (spoiler: I have already finished them):

a) FSI Belgium
b) FSI SS Africa
c) Teach Yourself French (2003)

The one course that I find nothing short of reprehensible is Oxford: Take Off In French (2000). What were they thinking???

Confession #3:

I am already planning my next phase of complete world domination French mastery during the upcoming semester. I already have a timetable and will be dedicating seven hours a day to my newfound obsession. In all honesty, I am turning more into Smaug when it comes to French resources Here are the courses I have amassed for my next French stint:

1. Assimil Business French
2. CLE Vocabulaire PdF (Int.)
3. CLE Grammaire PdF (Int.)
4. CLE Communication PdF (Int.)
5. CLE Comprehension Orale (Int.)
6. Hachette CdLedF
7. Didier Reussir le DELF B2

Yes, I know that the Assimilites out there are balking at the idea of my deciding against Using French, but I must embrace more native resources without an English crutch. (Assimil Business French survived because I intend to sit the DELF B2 Pro and have not managed to find CLE courses related to business.)

I also have the following CLE advanced courses that I will use when I sprint for C1/2:

1. Orthographe PdF
2. Conjugaison PdF
3. Phonetique PdF

I would love to get feedback from anyone who has used and completed any of the above-mentioned courses.

[Skynet]

German is great! I love German! Academic French is so much easier for an English speaker than Academic German.

I grabbed the first paragraph of the Wikipedia articles for Political Philosophy in French and German. They are *not* the same text, but should be at a similar level. Which is easier for you?

“La philosophie politique est une branche de la philosophie qui étudie les questions relatives au pouvoir politique, à l'État, au gouvernement, à la loi, à la politique, à la paix, à la justice et au bien commun entre autres. Elle est considérée comme une des branches de la philosophie pratique à côté de la philosophie du droit et de la philosophie moral.”

“Die politische Philosophie ist eine Disziplin der Philosophie und des politikwissenschaftlichen Faches Politische Theorie. Als normative Disziplin befasst sie sich hauptsächlich mit der Kritik, der Sinngebung und der Wegweisung allen politischen Handelns und umfasst unter anderem philosophische Theorien der Gesellschaft, die Rechts- und die Staatsphilosophie. Ihr Ursprung wird in der antiken griechischen Philosophie, insbesondere in den Schriften Platons und Aristoteles verortet. Aus dieser Tradition stammt auch die Bezeichnung; Polis (altgriechisch πόλις pólis, deutsch ‚Stadt, Staat‘) ist der antike griechische Stadtstaat.”

BALKING!!!!!

After just a fortnight of French, I can understand the entirety of that French text...but the German left me utterly confused. No wonder why the FSI always placed German in its own language group...It's considerably more complex than the Group 1 languages (for English speakers). I am stunned, to say the least!

[Lawyer&Mom]

Here is the thing as an English speaker: With French, you already know a ton of the vocabulary. With German, you don’t. But, German is very learnable for an English speaker. Once you are exposed to German vocabulary, the words will make sense and stick in your brain. So don’t fear German. You’ve got this.

(Fear Russian.)

[Skynet]

Here is the thing as an English speaker: With French, you already know a ton of the vocabulary. With German, you don’t. But, German is very learnable for an English speaker. Once you are exposed to German vocabulary, the words will make sense and stick in your brain. So don’t fear German. You’ve got this.

(Fear Russian.)

Hahahahah

Fortunately for me, Russian has never been on my list.

I believe that you're referring to German's orthographic depth? (Forgive me if I have gone ahead of you on this one.) Just a fortnight ago, I used to think that French was a monster when it comes to vocabulary and ease-of-writing/spelling...I now see that French is easier to spell than English...and that German will be even easier than French (and almost identical to Spanish!)

[Lawyer&Mom]

I think orthographic depth is part of it, for sure, but that would benefit anyone who learns German. I think English speakers have an advantage learning German, over speakers of non-Germanic languages. We get a feel for the language sooner. (The stereotype at the Uni was that as bad as the Americans’ German was, the French students were worse!)

[PeterMollenburg]

UPDATE:

I am becoming a helpless French course addict. I am now PM's acolyte in that regard. I have many confessions to make, so bear with me!

In many ways you have surpassed me. Where I dribble over courses for months on end, sometimes years, you plough through them at lightening speed. I do not think courses were meant to be approached in the manner that I have done so. I guess there’s no right or wrong here, and lessons could be learned from both approaches. Still, I am very impressed, keep up the momentum!

Confession #1:

When I first started FWOT and NFWE, I was able to do three lessons each per day without breaking a sweat... Now, that has accelerated to eight lessons each per day. This is how I have always used these two courses:
a) Listen to the audio, repeat what is being said and write down what I hear (inc. doing the exercises)
b) Read the text out loud and correct any written errors.
c) Listen to the audio again as I read what I wrote (and corrected).
d) Listen and repeat with the audio (simultaneously).
e) Move on to the next lesson.

Assimil works brilliantly! The more that I understand, the better I become, and the faster I get at plowing through future lessons.

Again, lightening speed! I was definitely not getting through a lesson a day- my personality/learning style wouldn’t let me.

Confession #2:

This acceleration has spilt into all of my courses, so I am doing more lessons in far shorter time than had been initially projected. Simply put, I will run out of courses before the nine week period is finished. I say this because I had stopped the following courses because I had assumed that I would not have had the time to complete them (spoiler: I have already finished them):

a) FSI Belgium
b) FSI SS Africa
c) Teach Yourself French (2003)

The one course that I find nothing short of reprehensible is Oxford: Take Off In French (2000). What were they thinking???

Confession #3:

I am already planning my next phase of complete world domination French mastery during the upcoming semester. I already have a timetable and will be dedicating seven hours a day to my newfound obsession. In all honesty, I am turning more into Smaug when it comes to French resources Here are the courses I have amassed for my next French stint:

1. Assimil Business French
2. CLE Vocabulaire PdF (Int.)
3. CLE Grammaire PdF (Int.)
4. CLE Communication PdF (Int.)
5. CLE Comprehension Orale (Int.)
6. Hachette CdLedF
7. Didier Reussir le DELF B2

Yes, I know that the Assimilites out there are balking at the idea of my deciding against Using French, but I must embrace more native resources without an English crutch. (Assimil Business French survived because I intend to sit the DELF B2 Pro and have not managed to find CLE courses related to business.)

I also have the following CLE advanced courses that I will use when I sprint for C1/2:

1. Orthographe PdF
2. Conjugaison PdF
3. Phonetique PdF

I would love to get feedback from anyone who has used and completed any of the above-mentioned courses.

Below is a reply a sent you via other avenues, but I’ll paste it here, as I feel it’s pertinent to the discussion and a wider audience might like to ponder my musings as well:

A couple of points on your approach to using courses with very little to no reliance on English. I don't know that this is a particularly good or bad thing. It might be excellent, it might be limiting your experience, I don't know. I do know that had I had my time over, there are a few French courses I would skip altogether. Assmil's French (edit: Assimil’s Using French), is absolutely NOT one of them. I highly recommend it, but if in the end it feels right to you to skip this course, then that's the right thing for you. I got a lot out of it, and to date it's been my most useful course I believe. Now, since you want to not use English based courses, I would highly recommend you get your hands on the complete French in Action course in it's entirety. It's ALL in French (except lesson 1 in the video, and some instructions up to lesson 9 in the workbooks). After that, NO ENGLISH, and although this could potentially be a perpetual B2 that never ends, if you really use the course how it's intended, there is plenty of reading that goes beyond B2. Just a thought.

I've not been overly impressed by the CLE Vocabulaire PdF series. Don't get me wrong, they done very well, but I find it hard to apply the knowledge on a straight run-through of these courses. The information is too abstract and therefore, for me, difficult to retain. I think the best way to use these books, in my experience, is to use them like a Vocabulary list, Frequency Dictionary or Picture Dictionary. For those (when I do use them), I'd allocate 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of each hour of study dedicated to vocabulary study - attempt to memorise and recall the words in one of these such books. On the contrary, hour blocks of study, just seem too tedious and ineffective for CLE's Vocab PdF.

The CLE Grammaire series, I have found excellent and much more easily studied for lengthy periods. The CLE Communication series, I don't/haven't used, so I can't comment. I briefly used Reussir le DELF B2 and found it to be very informative. Assimil Business French I am still yet to use (and FWoT for that matter - yes I will use this despite my level - I do enjoy Assimil that much). I am also unfamiliar with CLE Comprehension Orale and Hachette CdLedF.

Another CLE series I do own is called "Grammaire en dialogues". I'm very keen to complete this series some day - I've heard that it's similar to Assimil but better (based on one person on the forum), still I'm keen to try those out.

[Ani]

I've done the CLE vocabulaire & grammaire books through intermédiaire (not every exercise in grammaire). I liked the vocab books actually. My method was to write them out, looking up and adding both a translation & french only definition for any words I didn't know. Made a decent improvement in writing & spelling for me and I picked up some uncommon words. I probably forgot bunch too since there are many topics I've never come across in any other way but I'm ok with that.
I actually don't like the int. grammar book. The adjective section in the beginning is fricken torturous and I found that book the biggest struggle for the least result in all my French studies so far. If I could do it again, I'd probably do something like the practice makes perfect series and go from CLE GPdF débutant right to avancé. Maybe with the conjugation book in there too