Living in target country. Help me not squander this opportunity.

Ask specific questions about your target languages. Beginner questions welcome!
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Ani
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Re: Living in target country. Help me not squander this opportunity.

Postby Ani » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:01 am

cavesa wrote:
-Grammaire Progressive by CLE. Perhaps the most popular French grammar series in the world and for good reasons. Just skip the complete beginner level, I think that is just copy of a half of the original débutant supposed to make students pay twice for the same stuff. Start with débutant or perhaps intermediaire. Open the books in a bookshop and decide for yourself.


I just want to say don't underestimate the orange débutant book. It is really great for nailing down the basics of spoken grammar. The writing exercises in it are extremely well structured and progressive. IIRC, all it lacks is the subjunctive for covering the basics. It would be easy to get bogged down in he first half of the intermédiaire book, where the exercises aren't as immediately useful (things like sorting out gender agreement and which masculine words change to which feminine endings).

Also for the CLE series, you need to buy both the workbook and the answer book which is sold separately (or can be found online if cost is an issue)
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Cavesa
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Re: Living in target country. Help me not squander this opportunity.

Postby Cavesa » Mon Feb 27, 2017 12:01 pm

Ani wrote:
cavesa wrote:
-Grammaire Progressive by CLE. Perhaps the most popular French grammar series in the world and for good reasons. Just skip the complete beginner level, I think that is just copy of a half of the original débutant supposed to make students pay twice for the same stuff. Start with débutant or perhaps intermediaire. Open the books in a bookshop and decide for yourself.


I just want to say don't underestimate the orange débutant book. It is really great for nailing down the basics of spoken grammar. The writing exercises in it are extremely well structured and progressive. IIRC, all it lacks is the subjunctive for covering the basics. It would be easy to get bogged down in he first half of the intermédiaire book, where the exercises aren't as immediately useful (things like sorting out gender agreement and which masculine words change to which feminine endings).

Also for the CLE series, you need to buy both the workbook and the answer book which is sold separately (or can be found online if cost is an issue)


I wasn't underestimatening and advising against the orange débutant book, quite the contrary! I was advising against the new level débutant complet, which is beige.

The description of the level on the official CLE website: "Pour réussir ses premiers contacts avec le français."
Yeah, you could definitely faint during your first lesson, if your resources aren't completely dumbed down. :-D

A few generations of learners have been learning just fine, starting with the very good orange book already. But we are in the 2010's, where people "need" more handholding than ever. So, why not use this opportunity, copy half of the orange book, and make people pay for it once more?
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Ani
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Re: Living in target country. Help me not squander this opportunity.

Postby Ani » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:16 am

Cavesa wrote:
I wasn't underestimatening and advising against the orange débutant book, quite the contrary! I was advising against the new level débutant complet, which is beige.

The description of the level on the official CLE website: "Pour réussir ses premiers contacts avec le français."
Yeah, you could definitely faint during your first lesson, if your resources aren't completely dumbed down. :-D

A few generations of learners have been learning just fine, starting with the very good orange book already. But we are in the 2010's, where people "need" more handholding than ever. So, why not use this opportunity, copy half of the orange book, and make people pay for it once more?


I'm sorry I wasn't clear! I agree with you on the "complete beginner" level. I was referring to the part of the post where you mentioned the OP should look at both débutant and intermédiaire and decide between those. I bought both about the same time and almost didn't do the débutant book because it looked easy at first glance, but I got a ton out of it. A quick scan in a book store would have made me choose poorly and maybe not fall as in love with that series as I have :)
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


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