A language learners’ forum

I'll definitely follow this group, but as I've said in my log, I'm just not feeling the desire to learn French at the moment. I'm still interested in learning it in the long run, and I do think it'll be interesting to see. And who knows, maybe y'all'll rekindle the spark?

I will also be looking on with interest. While I'm currently focusing on Irish, I do enjoy occasional forays into French, which I studied for a number of years when I was young. I've worked from Assimil, both With Ease and Without Toil, along with various Practice Makes Perfect workbooks in Kindle format, which I love because A) they can be in my phone, tablet, or laptop and B) the exercises are hyperlinked to their answers (and back again), C) they have no mass, and do not need to be shelved or lugged around.

My favorite online resource for French hasn't been mentioned yet though: http://www.lingvist.io
It mixes word frequency with context and spaced repetition, to create a rewarding challenge for a false beginner like me, seeking to reactivate vocabulary and grammatical forms.

What I want next is to get the bilingual edition of The Little Prince that comes with a CD of it being read (ISBN 9780956721594) to try some elementary L-R. I'm curious what other short/easy novels might be available in the magic combo of L1 & L2 texts, plus L2 audiobook. Suggestions?

There is a discussion of Grammaire Progressive du Français in this post. Also has links to the previews of the latest versions.

Salut à tous! You can count me in as well...

I'm currently around A2 level in French, having done very little with the language beyond a year in high school back in the Jurassic period, but I really hope to level up to B2 level next year with enough luck and perspiration.

I'm otherwise currently focusing on different languages up until the beginning of 2016. Hawaiian was the main focus of my TAC this year, whilst Russian will now become my priority until the end of 2015, after which I'll need to initially brush up on my spoken Hawaiian for a third year conversation class at the university starting in January.

However, after January, I'll be in a good position to start studying my copy of Assimil's "New French with Ease", followed by "Using French" after a short break. I've also got a number of cool resources lined up to keep me busy and moving forwards towards my goal, but I'm always interested in and open to any new suggestions and recommendations. Well, that's the general plan anyway.

Looking forward to following your blogs, perhaps chatting online, and reaching our goals together next year. Bon courage! ~Teango

Bonjour à tous,

Now that the group has started it's time to ask, "What do we want to do?" Do we want to pick a study project to work through together? Or, do we want to do our own thing and post our experiences here and to our logs?

My suggestion is that we pick a study project to work on together. Reading through the posts and other people's logs it seems that most of us have some experience in French. I guess that we are what they call, "faux débutants", or beginners who have some experience in French. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

So, I have two suggestions:
Assimil New French With Ease. This book and CD set has good reviews, and it seems that most of us are familiar with it. The lessons are short enough that we could do one a day and finish the course by May 2016.

Grammaire Progessive du Français. I used this book in a previous class. It is all in French and quite intense. As hard as it was, I learned more from that class and this book, than any other that I took. It has 52 chapters and finishing one a week is pretty aggressive. The version we used was for niveau intermédiare. A preview of this book can be found here.

I'm waiting for your input!

Finally, I would like to set up either a Google Hangout or Skype meeting. Nothing special, just a "meet and greet" and to see if we all can get online with video and audio. Later on we can look at a more formal study or chat meeting. I'm thinking of this weekend of next weekend. I'm available on Saturday and Sunday from 18h00 to 23h00 UTC. That's 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Eastern Standard Time (USA). Let me know what you think, or if a different time is better for you.

À bientôt,
Tom

Bonjour Tom -

Thanks again for leading this French Study group. I like your idea of having a common study project, but I'd like to make a suggestion or two. As we are all different levels in this group, perhaps rather than saying our group project would be "Assimil New French With Ease", how about something along the line of choose the appropriate course for your level. For me, I completed Assimil French Without Toil and Using French. However, I do have Assimil Business French on my hit-list. Or if the group wants to focus on Grammaire (or Vocabulaire) Progressive, again, I recommend we "choose our own level". Some may want to start at a debutant level whereas others may want to do a more advanced level. I'd love to find a way that would be inclusive to all learners regardless of level.

Mohave wrote:Bonjour Tom -

Thanks again for leading this French Study group. I like your idea of having a common study project, but I'd like to make a suggestion or two. As we are all different levels in this group, perhaps rather than saying our group project would be "Assimil New French With Ease", how about something along the line of choose the appropriate course for your level. For me, I completed Assimil French Without Toil and Using French. However, I do have Assimil Business French on my hit-list. Or if the group wants to focus on Grammaire (or Vocabulaire) Progressive, again, I recommend we "choose our own level". Some may want to start at a debutant level whereas others may want to do a more advanced level. I'd love to find a way that would be inclusive to all learners regardless of level.

Thanks for your input. Of course we could have people at different levels. For instance two people may be using a débutant book, three using an intermediaire book, and a few advanced learners. And the more advanced could help those lower down.

Or everyone could read a book, like a nice Jules Verne novel. This would be no cost, and therefore wouldn't exclude anyone who doesn't have the money for a course book. In addition something like Jules Verne comes with audio. For example:

Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours

So it could be used for extensive, intensive & L-R. Then a skype hangout / book club style meeting in French? You could also pick a more obscure work from Verne or other authors with audio books available.

I'm currently using Assimil Using French so that would suit me (the Assimil idea). I have one of the grammaire progressive (thanks to Mohave) so that's a potential for me too if people really want to do thus.... but...

I'm not too fond of working on group projects. For some it's great for motivation but for me I really enjoy working on projects on my own. If Assimil just happens to fit in with the format then bonus, otherwise i'm not too flexible on clunky group projects that involve introducing more components to an already bursting at the seams schedule. Happy to be counted out, and help out with tips/input for the group but more into my own thing.

Not keen on reading currently either.

Basically i'm not keen on much at all My timetable (shift worker) will make it tricky for me to coordinate skype 'hangouts' but i'm definitely keen on trying that when i'm available.

As for reading, not currently my thing considering i've 1700 courses to plough through. But really don't consider this message too much, do what the rest of the group votes to do, not me, as like I said, i'm stubbornly doing my own thing, but may be persuaded otherwise.. we'll see. I know I know, this message is just a tad absurd, reflective of it's author I'd say

I'd replied in the wrong French team thread, so I'm copy-pasting from there:

I'm currently level A0 — starting from scratch in January 2016. However, I have a decently high level of Spanish to help with my French, so I'm definitely a "false beginner". For example, I can understand the gist of much of the written French I see here on the forum already! (Native/idiomatic written French is harder, and spoken French is another story, but I do still catch words and can often guess the topic, at least.)

I would certainly make a mess of things if I tried to write French, though, and my active vocab is essentially this: bonjour, bonne nuit, merci, très, d'accord, et exactement.

I'll be learning along with one of my sisters, which will almost certainly have some interesting interpersonal dynamics.

I'd be game for stumbling through "Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours" with y'all, even if I'm far below the levels of the rest of you. I'm not as interested in doing Assimil, largely for money reasons.

Links:

• language log
• study plan