Kick-starting my French endeavours for upcoming move to France

[bretagne]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and came across it after spending far too long searching for resources that will help me learn french... rather than actually sitting down and learning french! (Does that sound familiar to anyone? I feel I have an incredible library of unused resources, that keeps growing and growing!)

My partner is French and towards the end of this year, we're moving there.

Earlier this year I took the A2 DELF exam. For about two months before I studied hard but didn't feel I got very far. However, to my shock, I managed to get 93%. This was after calling the examiner monsieur (elle etait une femme!) and writing "oh la la" in the 'email to friend' written part of the exam. I thought I would probably scrape through with 50%. So I came from this and thought that perhaps I am good at exams, because I still don't have the confidence/will to practice speaking french with my partner. I still can't conjugate the basic irregular verbs with confidence in the present and my future and past is long forgetting.

Fast forward about four months since my result and I still haven't done a drop of french. I have a French language partner at my disposal but never utilise that! However, I am spending lots of time trying to find 'the next best thing' to help me improve my french. I think about signing up for the Lingoda marathon, signing up to French with Alexa, or paying for lessons at the French institute. I get these are all procrastination tactics that give me the sense of being productive but I'm having a public realist:lol:

So, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give a forum newbie some advice? Are there some good posts on the forum that I could learn from?

[Adrianslont]

Hi. Others will pile in here soon with good advice, I think. I have a couple of questions which will probably help them give said advice. What resources have you used so far to get to A2? What unused resources do you have on the shelf? What kinds of resources do you enjoy using most?

I suggest the french podcasts Balades and L’avis de Marie at www. Podclub.ch - there are lots of them, they are pitched at A2-B1, they are free and they have transcripts to support your learning.

If you are looking for a coursebook I suggest Assimil New French with Ease, being sure to have the audio as well as the book. The first half of the book may be a bit easy for you but you could work through it quickly. I like it because it has short lessons and you get through them quickly leading to a sense of accomplishment. Over one hundred lessons. Some other people find the audio too slow but I think that is mainly in the earlier lessons. It is well graded, progressing gradually in difficulty.

I totally understand not being ready to talk with your partner - I’m sure you will feel more confident when you have more of the basics under your belt.

[Skynet]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

DISCLAIMER: I am currently in the third week of a nine week long attempt to resurrect my has-not-been-used-in-eleven-years French, so please feel free to take what I am going to say with a boatload of salt.

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and came across it after spending far too long searching for resources that will help me learn french... rather than actually sitting down and learning french! (Does that sound familiar to anyone? I feel I have an incredible library of unused resources, that keeps growing and growing!)

Hahahaha, I did this for a fortnight too: I would haunt both HTLAL and LLO for hours on end, then gather all the resources that were highly recommended. I have been here for three weeks, but I have received invaluable assistance from others who were also on the same language path: Cavesa, PeterMollenburg, Teango, Lawyer&Mom, Lavengro, iguanamon (he did not study French, but has been tremendously supportive nonetheless), Adrianslont, Ani and Garyb.

My partner is French and towards the end of this year, we're moving there... I still don't have the confidence/will to practice speaking french with my partner.

You are most fortunate to have a French partner with whom to go to France! I am green with envy! To be honest, I am of the opinion that your partner will be tremendously helpful and supportive, and will abstain from destroying your confidence. As a language learner, you're expected to make many mistakes and get away with it without being executed by native speakers.

Earlier this year I took the A2 DELF exam. For about two months before I studied hard but didn't feel I got very far. However, to my shock, I managed to get 93%. This was after calling the examiner monsieur (elle etait une femme!) and writing "oh la la" in the 'email to friend' written part of the exam. I thought I would probably scrape through with 50%. So I came from this and thought that perhaps I am good at exams, because I still can't conjugate the basic irregular verbs with confidence in the present and my future and past is long forgetting.

Congratulations on your exam result! Seeing things like this makes me even more confident!

I have a French language partner at my disposal but never utilise that! However, I am spending lots of time trying to find 'the next best thing' to help me improve my french. I think about signing up for the Lingoda marathon, signing up to French with Alexa, or paying for lessons at the French institute. I get these are all procrastination tactics that give me the sense of being productive but I'm having a public realist:lol:

Why go through the hassle and cost of finding a language instructor, when you have a native partner? (Unless your partner is a fire-breathing dragon, of course!)

procrastination tactics that give me the sense of being productive

Procrastination is the mortal enemy of the language learner. You already have some semblance of a French base, so why not begin the next leg of your journey immediately?

So, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give a forum newbie some advice? Are there some good posts on the forum that I could learn from?

Feel free to follow the blogs of the people I have mentioned. You're also free to check mine - although I need to warn you that I am PeterMollenburg's acolyte, and have a multitude of courses that I am blazing through. Speaking of courses/resources, what have you lined up for your French journey?

[Lawyer&Mom]

If I was shortly moving to France, I would focus on listening comprehension. You can have a whole conversation with just “Oui” and “Non” *if* you understand what the other person is saying!

Assimil is great. Podcasts are great. I’d also suggest TV. Pick a show you like on Netflix with a French dub and just start watching. You won’t understand much at first, but you soon will!

[bretagne]

Thank you for replying!

What resources have you used so far to get to A2? What unused resources do you have on the shelf? What kinds of resources do you enjoy using most?.

Twenty-six years ago I did two years of french at school, so there is the stuff that was burnt onto my brain and can't be forgotten. Then, one and off over the years, I have played about with duolingo. I was going to do the A1 exam but my partner looked through the syllabus and encouraged me to do A2, because it appeared a key part of the syllabus is being understood, rather than being right.

I think I booked the exam about three or four months prior to sitting it. In that time, I mostly used two books: Le Nouvel Entrainez-vous: Nouveau DELF A2 - 200 Activites and Reussir Le Delf 2010 Edition: Livre A2 & CD Audio, in addition to the Memrise french track. I then wrote a couple of 'scripts' to describe me and my partner. I was lucky in my oral exam that I was asked to describe someone in my family - so a lot of what I intended to say in my introduction about my partner, ended up being used twice! We then did a few mock exams in the week running up to the exam, using sample papers I found on the internet. So as you can see, everything was about passing the exam!

Thanks for the recommendations! Podclub looks great - what a resource! I like how there are the transcriptions (on l'avis de Marie) but then there are also definitions for more unusual words. I have heard about Assimil but found it hard to get a copy in a local library so the £50 purchase price feels like a leap of faith but do keep hearing good things so it might have to be an early Christmas present!

[rdearman]

So, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give a forum newbie some advice? Are there some good posts on the forum that I could learn from?

Welcome to the forum. If you're going to read logs then I would recommend you read the logs of EMK, who is married to a French speaker and had to got through the same thing as yourself. He also has a lot of tips on language learning. You can read his logs here and on the old forum.

here: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=723
old forum: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... ?TID=17265

you might also want to read up on EMK's Cheating and Consolidating methods.
Old Forum: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... ?TID=39069

If you're looking for more resources then you can't really go wrong looking at the Master List of Resources, French link here: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 19&t=2914/

You might also want to consider joining the French Study Group for even more recommendations and insights: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =26&t=1575

You've already gotten a lot of good advice. I personally would recommend you start reading and watching a lot of native media and content. You can challenge yourself to read 100 books and watch 100 films by joining the Super Challenge:
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =21&t=7990
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =21&t=7997

You might want to consider using the Listening-Reading method to help you with French comprehension. This method is discussed in various places, but you can start looking at the links below, the second one is someone using this method for French.
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=2777
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=2432

Another method worth a look at is iguanamon's Multi-Track approach: http://www.language-learners.org/2016/0 ... iguanamon/

For memorisation of vocabulary you might want to consider a SRS (Space Repetition Software) such as ANKI: https://apps.ankiweb.net/

For recommendations about what French media is good these threads will be helpful.
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=1899
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =17&t=7153

That should get you started.

EDIT: BTW, it might help if you told us what country you're currently in?

[rdearman]

Oh yeah, forgot grammar. You can get seriously good at French grammar using this site: https://www.kwiziq.com/

[bretagne]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

Thank you for your warm welcome, kind words and for the names of people to follow on here. I have to admit I haven't had a proper look through the posts yet, so your signposting will be a helpful start. If you are exam focused, I would really recommend the books I mentioned on the previous posts becuase when I sat the exam I did think to myself 'oh, this feels familiar' - which was a nice feeling for something as awful as an exam!

It's been really helpful to put my situation 'out there' and your post has motivated me to make the best of all the resources I have - rather than be wasteful and miss out on the opportunity to improve my French! Thank you!

[bretagne]

If I was shortly moving to France, I would focus on listening comprehension. You can have a whole conversation with just “Oui” and “Non” *if* you understand what the other person is saying!

Assimil is great. Podcasts are great. I’d also suggest TV. Pick a show you like on Netflix with a French dub and just start watching. You won’t understand much at first, but you soon will!

Ohhhh I had never thought of the value of comprehension in that way. And when I think about how my own conversations in English are often very monosyllabic then it makes perfect sense!

I've read a few ties about watching a dubbed show I'm familiar with but struggle for that very reason that at the beginning it just feels so.. hard! Going to give that another try. Thank you for the support!

[bretagne]

That should get you started.

Wow! Yes, that will get me started! And then some!

EDIT: BTW, it might help if you told us what country you're currently in?

I am in the UK. London to be precise.

You can get seriously good at French grammar using this site: https://www.kwiziq.com/

A brilliant resource!

Thanks for all of this! I can't tell you how helpful it's been just to get this post out there (I never usually participate in forums.. just lurk) and get many really helpful responses. I'm looking forward to learning from others.