What if you started French In Action from scratch?

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What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby BOLIO » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:23 am

All the video, all the audio, study guides and workbooks? Anyone ever done it here? I have fooled around with the video and seem to like it better than Destinos and I liked that program just fine. I am a native English speaker and advanced intermediate Spanish learner.

I have never had a burning desire to learn French but man it would be useful. Tons of native materials that could last a person ten lifetimes. I had always imagined doing the FSI phonology course, Pimsleur and then start FIA. However, I was just wondering if it anyone had tried FIA completely and thoroughly at the beginning of their learning.

Just a thought
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby tomgosse » Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:07 am

Carmody started this thread: French In Action as a learning device. He is the conqueror of the Mount Everest of French language programs. Peter Mollenburg has a lot of experience with it. His 2017 log starts here.

I found it to be more of a challenge than I could handle at the moment.

All the best,
Tom
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby Carmody » Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:18 am

tomgosse is too kind. a man to whom i shall always be very indebted.

For the record, no one conquers FIA. I mean not really. Just read through that entire thread and ask yourself the question.
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby BOLIO » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:33 am

Carmody wrote:tomgosse is too kind. a man to whom i shall always be very indebted.

For the record, no one conquers FIA. I mean not really. Just read through that entire thread and ask yourself the question.

Yeah...so I could do Pimsleur 1-3, Hugo in theee months, Assimil FWE and probably another course in the time it would take to complete FIA one time through thoroughly.

I guess the question is, which would give the better results or better foundation for the student?
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby rlnv » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:51 am

BOLIO wrote:
Carmody wrote:tomgosse is too kind. a man to whom i shall always be very indebted.

For the record, no one conquers FIA. I mean not really. Just read through that entire thread and ask yourself the question.

Yeah...so I could do Pimsleur 1-3, Hugo in theee months, Assimil FWE and probably another course in the time it would take to complete FIA one time through thoroughly.

I guess the question is, which would give the better results or better foundation for the student?


In my opinion, Pimsleur, Hugo, plus Assimil would be the better foundation. The combination covers output, grammar, colloquial input, and doing the combo provides variety versus committing to all of FIA which would be a bit of a slog. FIA would be an extremely solid foundation, but much more of a commitment.

I agree with you that the three courses plus one more could be done in the time it takes to complete FIA. The fourth could be like a wild card course that you keep open based on need after progressing through the combo, or it could be Anki, native materials, tutor, or whatever.

My opinion is coming from having dabbled in Pimsleur, having finished Assimil NFWE and Hugo in 3 Months. I also have the complete set of FIA materials. So I've seen how extensive it is, but I've only watched the videos.

Good luck and I hope you find French rewarding.
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby smallwhite » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:35 am

BOLIO wrote:Yeah...so I could do Pimsleur 1-3, Hugo in theee months, Assimil FWE and probably another course in the time it would take to complete FIA one time through thoroughly.

I guess the question is, which would give the better results or better foundation for the student?

Similar to you but the other way round, I was (advanced in English and) upper immediate in French when I started Spanish. I used both courses and native materials to learn the 2nd one, Spanish, and reached C1* in about 1100 hours. So, starting at your current position, with 1100 hours of courses and native materials you can get C1. With 1100 hours of FIA, I don't know.

* I have no certificate in Spanish but I have a C1 one in French and my Spanish seems better than my French. Conversed in Spanish for 1 month in Spain after 400 hours of study.

Edit: It could even be 800 hours instead of 1100. Between 800 and 1100 anyway.
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby James29 » Fri Jun 16, 2017 5:43 pm

Bolio, I got to a B2+ or C1ish level in Spanish and then fiddled around with French for the same reasons you mention. I got to a pretty decent level of reading French mostly by just working through the first 2/3 of French for Reading. I did some other things, but 90% of my French time was with that book. I spread it out over several starts and stops, but did not spend too much time at all to be at a level where I can read and enjoy books for young adults (with much help from my pop up dictionary).

Regarding the audio based courses, I thought about this quite a bit too. I'd suggest looking at FSI Basic and the DLI course. I think those would get you to a higher level faster than FIA (although FIA would likely be much more interesting).
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby -JM- » Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:33 pm

BOLIO wrote:
Carmody wrote:tomgosse is too kind. a man to whom i shall always be very indebted.

For the record, no one conquers FIA. I mean not really. Just read through that entire thread and ask yourself the question.

Yeah...so I could do Pimsleur 1-3, Hugo in theee months, Assimil FWE and probably another course in the time it would take to complete FIA one time through thoroughly.

I guess the question is, which would give the better results or better foundation for the student?


Levels 4 and 5 of Pimsleur are great, if you decide to do Pimsleur you should check them too. I'm about to finish the level 5 and I learned a lot. I also suggest Michel Thomas.
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Re: What if you started French In Action from scratch?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:19 pm

Way back in 1998 French in Action was the first French course I used to learn French, and the first thing at all that I used to attempt to learn French. I used all the components- study guides, videos, workbooks, textbooks and accompanying audio (weren't CD's then!). I made it half way through the course by finishing leçon 26. Although, in a few of the latter leçons I skipped some exercises in an attempt to just cover the ground I needed to, to sit an exam based on the material.

I was using FIA as I was learning French via correspondance through the University of New England (an Australian university), who provided the course for Open Learning Australia at the time. I had to post in assignments with recordings of myself on tape, and later sat an exam in a nearby town. As a side note, I was also using Destinos for learning Spanish concurrently through a different university but also as an Open Learning Australia subject.

Given I had very very little understanding of learning foreign languages at that point, immersion felt nervously unfamiliar. Also, being a perfectionist, I couldn't trust that I would 'pick up' what I couldn't work out (i'm still like that). I cheated by using a bilingual FR-EN dictionary along the way quite a bit, but I did feel that by mid way through the course I had a good deal of perhaps midway between A2 and B1 French under my belt. When I spoke, I didn't rely on English much, and that's where I think immersion helped.

In fact some years later on restarting FIA, I can recall a couple of times conversing with native French speakers (one from Québec, the other from Mauritius) based entirely on the French learned from FIA. And the think I recollect the most from these experiences, is that I didn't translate in my head- it flowed it in French. I thought in French even for a beginner, and didn't translate from English in my head (well at least if I did, it was very little). It felt natural.

I personally prefer Destinos, but I still rate FIA very highly, due to it's thorough approach. However, I've also stated that this is it's achilles heel - it's so thorough that many a learner either won't last the distance through the entire course. I'm still aiming to complete this course, and over the years have started again from scratch only to stop again a handful of leçons later.

I am aiming to complete it soonish.

Now, in comparison, when I came back to French finally in 2014 after many false starts over the years, I went the other route (I had forgotten a good deal of French btw). I used Pimsleur (all levels), Michel Thomas (all levels), a few other equally large audio courses, Hugo French in 3 Months, Colloquial French, Assimil NFWE, Assimil Using French, and some other smaller courses. I've fallen in love with the Assimil courses. I think they keep the learner interested. I think I went for a handful of varied smaller courses as opposed to FIA both to be able to rely on English (not necessarily a good thing), and to have change or variation to keep my interested/on my toes, where FIA is one hell of a long journey and I was likely to stall again. However my French didn't feel as natural, I believe, because I have relied a lot more on English as a crutch. Now, having advanced further, that's largely disappeared.

For yourself, coming from a Spanish learning background and having learned another language before attempting French (again Spanish), if you do attempt it, that is, the immersion approach of FIA shouldn't worry you, in my opinion. If you're enthusiastic about the course, I think it's a very good idea to use it.

You probably have some understanding of the course already, but one of the good things in my view, is that there are quite a few layers to the course- stict grammar focus, audio (listening) activities, writing, listening/body language obersvation through the videos, and some decent readings throughout which even an advanced learner can benefit from.

Not sure if my input here helps, but good luck if you do undertake FIA, BOLIO!
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