Advice for English speaker, struggling to learn French.

[zenmonkey]

Excellent stuff - I think I am also going to have a quick look at News in Slow French.

From what I have seen, just now, the free material is still really good.

Zenmonkey - you also referred to GEO as an alternative. I cannot seem to find this - could you clarify what this is, please?

See:
https://www.geo.fr/photos/reportages-geo/videographie
https://www.geo.fr/reportages/videos

Geo is a bit like National Geographic (although not as good, in my opinion.) They have videos and I remember reading the transcripts...

[elsmandino]

Perfect - thank you.

My Assimil course should be with me in the next couple of days.

By way of a small update, I had a look on Netflix to see whether there were any French films, with French subtitles, that looked "light-hearted".

My premise was that something like an action film would involve lost of noise, fast speaking and slang that would add an additional layer of difficulty for me.

I came across a film called 12 jour en or, which was meant to be mildly amusing.

I watched with the French subtitles on was surprised by how much of the gist of the film I picked up from key words (though the basis of the film, itself, was probably simple enough to follow in any language).

However, I was truly appalled when I had a go at turning off the subtitles - I could barely understand a word.

To make matters worse, the soundtrack and subtitles were almost never the same, which meant that even after having a go at re-listening to parts, I just could not work out what they were saying.

Not only does this help to show that my French listening skills are way below those of my reading, I do get the feeling that I am just not proficient enough to be trying to watch any native TV, yet.

Hopefully, once I have completed the Duolingo and Assimil beginner course, I might be in a better position to have another go.

[iguanamon]

... However, I was truly appalled when I had a go at turning off the subtitles - I could barely understand a word.
To make matters worse, the soundtrack and subtitles were almost never the same, which meant that even after having a go at re-listening to parts, I just could not work out what they were saying.
Not only does this help to show that my French listening skills are way below those of my reading, I do get the feeling that I am just not proficient enough to be trying to watch any native TV, yet.
Hopefully, once I have completed the Duolingo and Assimil beginner course, I might be in a better position to have another go.

Listening is generally harder for most learners who haven't learned a second language yet because of several factors, the main one being that they don't listen enough, compared with reading. Course audio isn't sufficient to prepare a learner for listening outside of course world. Two posts that I think will help you: listening from the beginning and my own Understanding Spoken Latin American Spanish- principles are applicable to French.

Listening must be trained. It is important when training listening to have French media with accurate subtitles or a transcript... and it takes time- perhaps months of regular listening with the eventual aim of weaning yourself off of the transcript/subtitles. Bonne chance !

[dgc1970]

By way of a small update, I had a look on Netflix to see whether there were any French films, with French subtitles, that looked "light-hearted".

Not sure if you've seen this series, made specifically for beginners:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaNqp4F ... HV&index=1


And some more light-hearted stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVVubp ... 13&sort=dd

[Cainntear]

Others have been alluding to relistening and listening with transcripts, but as far as I can see, no-one's really explained why or how to use them yet.

There are different ways to use material, but here's how I used such material when learning Gaelic.

What are you trying to achieve when listening? One of the most frustrating things about listening is not being able to understand spoken something that you would understand if you read it. So bring the two things together. Let your brain start to tie what you hear with what you understand from reading. Relistening is always easier than first listening, so relistening to something at your level in terms of grammar and vocab should bring your comprehension up.

I used to do the read-and-listen thing first, at home in the evening, then listen again on my commute to work. Then I would relisten to whatever appeared next on my MP3 player (I had a cheap MP3 player that contained nothing but Gaelic audio). At times I would run through everything I'd listened to before.

I also did similar things with Assimil audio in Catalan -- I would revisit old lessons without the book, just listening to the audio on my way to/from work.

I also had some audio I relistened frequently in Spanish, but in that instance it was an audio tour of Santiago de Compostela, and I didn't have a transcript.