Suggestions for L-R French

[Ani]

I figure there has got to be a way to search for this but I am turning up the wrong things so pardon me if there is a compilation of suggestions somewhere..

I want to give listening-reading a try and was hoping to hear what others liked since the cost investment for audiobooks plus the foreign paperback can get spendy. I'd hate to track something down and find out either the text didn't match the reading, the voice actor is terrible, or the book is very dry.

Anyone have suggestions? I am not married to any genre but like something fairly modern with a little pep to the story line to keep me interested. Also ideally NOT written in the passé simple for this exercise. Thanks!

[Xmmm]

If it has to be modern, I think you will have to pay. If you can give up the modern requirement, there's tons of free stuff for French. Librivox.org and litteratureaudio.com.

This is one of the greatest novels ever written and the reader is excellent. Book and audio files are free, unabridged, audio matches text perfectly, etc.

https://librivox.org/le-comte-de-monte- ... dre-dumas/

[rlnv]

The passé simple is just about everywhere. It's difficult to avoid in literature, but here are some ideas for L-R.

The book L'Étranger while written in 1942 has a contemporary feel in some ways, and does not use the passé simple. The audio is available for it. You may find it on Youtube or elsewhere.

The graded readers by Mondes en VF don't use the passé simple if I recall correctly. I have 4 of their books and took a quick look at a couple and saw lots of passé composé so perhaps my recollection is correct. If you buy one of their books in either paper or eBook, they give you a code to download the audio. BTW, their books are good, much better stories than typical graded readers.

The podcasts located at podclub.ch are without passé simple. Transcripts are available for L-R. Look for L'avid de Marie and Isabelle: Balades.

[Finny]

You're looking for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in French, or Journal d'un dégonflé. I'm using it to learn French right now and can happily confirm that it doesn't include the passé composé; that's why I'm using it, as it was a big help for learning Spanish, in terms of picking up grammar and vocabulary.

[Ani]

You're looking for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in French, or Journal d'un dégonflé. I'm using it to learn French right now and can happily confirm that it doesn't include the passé composé; that's why I'm using it, as it was a big help for learning Spanish, in terms of picking up grammar and vocabulary.

Hehe no no I am not. I don't know what happened to the post I thought I posted on here yesterday. It got swallowed up by the internet. I can happily read adult books in all tenses but with listening-reading I was hoping to practice spoken tenses more.. particularly the latter steps of reading along and shadowing long blocks of speech. I am thinking I need a biography perhaps?

[Ani]

If it has to be modern, I think you will have to pay. If you can give up the modern requirement, there's tons of free stuff for French. Librivox.org and litteratureaudio.com.

This is one of the greatest novels ever written and the reader is excellent. Book and audio files are free, unabridged, audio matches text perfectly, etc.

https://librivox.org/le-comte-de-monte- ... dre-dumas/

Thank you so much. I can always appreciate a good book recommendation, and especially if the narration is good and text matches up, it might just work perfectly.

The passé simple is just about everywhere. It's difficult to avoid in literature, but here are some ideas for L-R.

I think perhaps the problem is literature. I am only trying to avoid passé simple so I can shadow/read along with more spoken words and tenses.. It is the speech improvement that I am after so passé simple doesn't make as good of a target. Thank you for your suggestions though

[Finny]

You're looking for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in French, or Journal d'un dégonflé. I'm using it to learn French right now and can happily confirm that it doesn't include the passé composé; that's why I'm using it, as it was a big help for learning Spanish, in terms of picking up grammar and vocabulary.

Hehe no no I am not. I don't know what happened to the post I thought I posted on here yesterday. It got swallowed up by the internet. I can happily read adult books in all tenses but with listening-reading I was hoping to practice spoken tenses more.. particularly the latter steps of reading along and shadowing long blocks of speech. I am thinking I need a biography perhaps?

LOL. I wasn't implying you couldn't read adult books; I suggested it because the books are popular (i.e., easy to find and cheap to buy used), decently long (200+ pages), written in a practical style (i.e., the way people speak and with current idiomatic phrases) and don't use the PS. However, I don't know how available audio books are for the series, and if you aren't interested in the genre, then no harm done.

That said, I wouldn't discount books for younger audiences in general; with Spanish, I found them to be far more useful for refining my speaking abilities than novelly, classic-type books, because they were far more likely to contain dialogue, while novels were more likely, in my experience, to contain long blocks of 3rd person backgrounds, descriptions, and scene-setting. I remember reading Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth in French years back, and doing so with L-R (French audio and parallel French / English texts), and the books taught me to read French well enough, but they didn't do much for my speaking. I also L-Red The Stranger in Spanish (and planned on using that for French specifically due to the lack of PS), but eventually abandoned the book for the same reason. I'd just caution against using things that weren't written recently and in a modern, straightforward style if you're interested in speaking the way people speak in daily life.

[Ani]

LOL. I wasn't implying you couldn't read adult books; I suggested it because the books are popular (i.e., easy to find and cheap to buy used), decently long (200+ pages), written in a practical style (i.e., the way people speak and with current idiomatic phrases) and don't use the PS. However, I don't know how available audio books are for the series, and if you aren't interested in the genre, then no harm done.

I didn't mean to over react It's not the genre or the suggestion but Diary of a Wimpy Kid I don't like. I recently bought it for my son after hearing good things and I was surprised by what it was. Of course I was evaluating for my 7 year old, not as second language resource for myself. I am a grown up and can pick the bones or if my own books.

I was going to ask you in the homeschool thread if you had any specific techniques when you were learning Spanish to prepare for so much speaking to children. I think most of the language I use daily comes from cartoons and cheesy lifetime-esque movies

[Finny]

LOL. I wasn't implying you couldn't read adult books; I suggested it because the books are popular (i.e., easy to find and cheap to buy used), decently long (200+ pages), written in a practical style (i.e., the way people speak and with current idiomatic phrases) and don't use the PS. However, I don't know how available audio books are for the series, and if you aren't interested in the genre, then no harm done.

I didn't mean to over react It's not the genre or the suggestion but Diary of a Wimpy Kid I don't like. I recently bought it for my son after hearing good things and I was surprised by what it was. Of course I was evaluating for my 7 year old, not as second language resource for myself. I am a grown up and can pick the bones or if my own books.

I was going to ask you in the homeschool thread if you had any specific techniques when you were learning Spanish to prepare for so much speaking to children. I think most of the language I use daily comes from cartoons and cheesy lifetime-esque movies

No problem...I realize it's not everyone's cup of tea : D With Spanish...I basically talked normally (the way I'd talk if having the conversation in English), but looked up words as needed. I talked to my infant daughter in Spanish for several months before I started teaching in my current job, so that gave me time to discover a lot of random words I didn't know in Spanish and learn them. My suggestion, as a result, would be to just keep talking, and look up stuff after when you realize there's something you don't know how to say.

And don't be afraid to substitute English words until you learn the French ones! Bilinguals do that all the time, but I feel L2 learners are much more hesitant to do so due to viewing it as a sign of inadequacy. I found it annoying when I didn't know words, but that also motivated me to look them up, even though I also would often need to look them up repeatedly, due to forgetting the word a day or two later. I never wrote things down because I wanted it all to go into my head. I also read aloud a lot to my daughter and sometimes to myself; that really helped get my mouth used to producing full, fluid sentences, and was probably a confidence booster that I could get the language out at a native speed.

Additionally, I think your input sources are fine; my primary audio sources while learning came from soap operas, morning radio shows, and music (radio and personal), as well as from random radio church programming and occasional talk radio. It doesn't matter what you're listening to as long as it's native and it's interesting enough for you to learn from. That said, I did find TV series more useful than movies because the ones I watched had much more dialogue. However, I also didn't have the attention span to sit through movies, so it comes down to what works best for you!

[paz]

I would suggest you to read Voltaire: Candide, Zelig and Micromegas.

The stories are funny and interesting, you can find the audiobooks for free in this channel and, if you have an e-reader, the ebooks are almost everywhere (french and even in english).

Andrea