Le groupe français 2016 - 2019 Les Voyageurs

[DaveAgain]

Dictation/transcribing, and shadowing are supposed to be good for this.

These techniques don't address the problem if you can't parse the words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALmloz9r5bo

Finding the ou in this video is the problem I'm working on. Shadowing this sentence doesn't work because I can't shadow a word that I don't 'hear'. In this case, it's more a realization that it's stuck to the end of planifié.

I've been doing something similar with some French Voices podcasts (not videos) and free transcripts. The host speaks kind of slow sometimes, but her guests are from all over the world and speak like regular people.

It's a tedious process, but very helpful.

The idea as I understand it is to force yourself to listen closely, to overcome your automatic 'tuning out' of non-English sounds.

Drawing on the right side of the brain presents a similar technique for drawing, you concentrate on the details rather than the whole.

[jmar257]

...but my comprehension of regular speed podcasts/shows (vs. InnerFrench, for example) is not that great...

We sound to be at about the same level. I was having a lot of trouble listening to non-learning podcasts and thought it was because of a lack of vocabulary. After a few months of working on some things, it seems that I was wrong (at least partially). My problem was that I was hearing words I knew in print, but not spoken. *

[...]

My other issue has been knowing and recognizing all of the words, but being too slow in processing to keep up. Kind of an avalanche of words.

I think listening has a tendency to get the blanket advice of 'just listen more', when more specific advice would be helpful. It's been frustrating for me.

(Looking back and comparing to my experience with Spanish) There's definitely a vocabulary aspect for me, but I do know of the problem you're talking about as well (which is also part of my issue). Obviously listening helped (and is necessary), but another thing that helped me there with Spanish was also extensive reading and becoming a quicker reader. Having certain words/phrases/patterns start getting engrained from seeing them a bunch in reading makes parsing them when hearing them easier. That said once the language stops being as clearly related to the written version it gets harder (i.e., I have trouble with some Castilian dialects and Rioplatense ones) which I think plays into French more than it did Spanish for me (my focus was/is on Mexican Spanish).

I do think you're right that "just listen more" isn't always the best advice...I do think doing a more regimented form of practice (dealing with transcriptions, slowing audio down, etc.) helps as well as the blanket advice of "just read more" lol. At least based on my experience.

[Carmody]

Betcha never heard of this French resource!

[rdearman]

Betcha never heard of this French resource!

Actually I had. It was on a podcast I listen to.

[Caromarlyse]

This week's dossier spécial in L'Express is on "Être français" - there are several articles on the topic which intermediate/advanced language learners may find of interest (I'm going to sit down and read them at least!). They're behind a paywall (I'm already subscribed), but it seems as though they are promoting special holiday offers, making subscription cheaper at the moment.

[DaveAgain]

I'm a little confused by "me/se smoke"

ça me smoke ce couvre fire
On se smoke de qui

https://twitter.com/tasgechan/status/13 ... 0006652928

[Dragon27]

I'm a little confused by "me/se smoke"

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A7a_me_fume

[DaveAgain]

There's a word that keeps cropping up in the video linked to below, sounds like 'bee' and seems to mean advice/tip/guidance. Do you know what it is?

9m41s: ... la seule bee que je puis vous donner ...
15m43s: ... vous allez leur donnez des bee pour ils puissent ..
30m53s: ... il faut leur donner la bee pour avoir ...

[guyome]

9m41s: ... les seules billes que je peux vous donner ...
15m43s: ... vous allez leur donnez des billes pour qu'ils puissent ..
30m53s: ... il faut leur donner des billes pour avoir ...

The word is "bille" (marble). Here it is used in the expression "donner des billes" which roughly translates to something like "to give somebody what he may need" (it seems to me that it generally refers to pieces of information not objects, but I may be mistaken).

[DaveAgain]

The word is "bille" (marble). Here it is used in the expression "donner des billes" which roughly translates to something like "to give somebody what he may need" (it seems to me that it generally refers to pieces of information not objects, but I may be mistaken).

Thanks for that.