french classes! ugh!

[vibrant]

not french, just the classes. I took french classes all throughout high school but never truly got it. So I decided to take a class, every friday. But, my gosh, it's frustrating.

The books have no vocabulary section at the back, the list of verb conjugation is sparse, the homework barely has instructions, I know no one in the class so I can't turn to for help, and when we take up the homework, the teacher's looking for the answers, not really to help me. The whole class is done in french. I understand it, just barely, but it is as though I have to know french to learn french. I even have to speak it... I don't know french grammar, and yet I have to speak with it.

ack! ugh! someone

 

[tamtam92]

Salut !
Courage !!! A vrai dire je suis à peu près dans la même situation que toi avec l'allemand, donc je te comprends. La seule solution que je voie c'est un gros effort de ta part.

Si tu as des questions, n'hésite pas à les poser ici.

Pour la grammaire, effectivement c'est compliqué. Mais si tu arrives à comprendre le français, essaie d'en lire régulièrement, et de retenir ce que tu vois. Un bon truc, en général, c'est de prendre un article de journal, et de chercher les nouveaux mots (parce que dans un journal tu vas avoir des mots de la vie courante). Tu peux en trouver plein sur internet (quotidiens d'actualité : www.lefigaro.fr, www.lemonde.fr, TV : france2, france3, tf1...)
Tu peux aussi essayer d'écouter la radio ou de regarder la télé en français, ou alors des films avec les sous-titres...

 

[Multi-Elis]

You might want to get some extra grammer workbooks. You know, work sheets that introduce a concept and then give you endless exercises utill you know it perfect.
When I first learned French, I used "French in Action" method. The tapes give you oral exercises: they give you a grammer concept, and then exercises where you have to answer out loud. It also gives texts to repeat untill you can pronounce things intelligeably.
You might also find that French commic books are a fun way to improve without too much effort.

 

[Multi-Elis]

Oh, I forgot to give you the secret for learning vocabulary: Look the words you don't know from each lesson up in the dictionnairy, write them on cards and paste them all over the back of the toilet's door, your kitchen and maybe even your bedroom. You won't have a problem after that.

 

[vibrant]

french grammar texts, that is EXACTLY what i need. can anyone suggest some more of these texts?

 

[Multi-Elis]

Here are links to a book I found extremely usefull:

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2090338547/qid=1115931926/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/171-0094704-5215459

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2090338547/qid=1115932040/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0653022-6097729?v=glance&s=books

Ordering form .com seems more that twice more expensive than ordering from .fr. But if you can get a 2nd hand copy that's good. There is also a correction pamphlit that can be bought as well.

This is the book I was given when I was taking classes here in France. It covers all the basics.

 

[vibrant]

je suis allé à la librairie et j'ai acheté le livre, "the ultimate french review and practice"

 

[tamtam92]

Bravo !
Bon courage pour ton apprentissage ! Et surtout n'hésite pas à venir nous poser tes questions !
a+

 

[Bulldog]

I'm teaching myself, and learning, speaking, and thinking better in French in months then with years in Spanish classes.

 

[Bulldog]

je suis allé à la librairie et j'ai acheté le livre, "the ultimate french review and practice"

Es que est ce c'est bon (ou bonne?)?

 

[Femme Savante]

vibrant,

There are some online aids that you may find useful.

I'm not sure what your problems with vocabulary are, but if you go to the site fr.wordreference.com/fr/ you can type in a word in English and get a French translation ; or from French into English. Their home website for the online dictionaries is (www)wordreference.com.

For help conjugating verbs, go to the site (www)verbix.com/languages/french.shtml. Go down to the box with the caption, "Conjugate a French verb:" and type a verbe like faire (the infinitive form) in the box & click "Go". You will see the verb conjugated in all its tenses : Participe présent, Participe passé, Indicatif, Impératif, Subjonctif, and Conditionnel.

Also, the ARTFL Project, University of Chicago, has some useful references. Their home page is (http) humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ARTFL/.

FS

 

[vibrant]

i've the final class tomorrow. it has a test. i'm trying to study.
demain, j'ai le classe finale. il y a une teste. j'etude.

 

[Bulldog]

I have a really good verb conugation book (photocopied) called "Conjuguons en chansons." It's a young children's school books that uses songs to help teach verb conjugations, but is quite good.

 

[Emmanuel-A]

Sinon, il y a les livres des editions Bescherelle, notamment "L'art de conjuguer". C'est la "bible" de la conjugaison française.
Même les français comme moi s'en servent beaucoup (notre conjugaison n'est pas facile, même pour nous). Il existe des editions anglaises que l'on trouve facilement sur amazon (ou d'autres libraires en ligne).

www.verbix.com est un très bon site ! Merci de l'avoir indiqué, Femme savante (j'aime bien ton pseudo).

 

[Pentecostal Boy]

je reellement ne parle pas francais. J'ai juste un grande program! But de traduction que je sais la classe de langue etrangere peut etre. Il est tres dur. (parfois)

 

[tamtam92]

Les langues étrangères, c'est rarement facile (à part l'anglais ? peut-être... et encore).
Arriver à se faire comprendre, c'est déjà beaucoup !
Arriver à parler couramment, c'est déjà plus difficile, et quant à être parfaitement bilingue, il faut avoir fait quelque chose de particulier pour ça !

 

[Sitting Duck]

It's hard to learn a foreign language if you don't have fun doing it. Classes are good, but it's often hard to keep going to classes to learn a language you only use in the context of that class. The best way to learn a language is immersion, but this is rarely practical. I personally enjoy exchanging languages with people over the world using voice chat software.

There's a site dedicated to helping people finding voice chat language exchange partners called "mylanguageexchange". They recommend two free software: Skype and Paltalk. I would provide you with links, but I can't post them yet. But you should be able to google for them if that interests you.

Bonne chance!

 

[tamtam92]

bump

 

[tamtam92]

re-bump

 

[jobygirl]

French class can be frustrating. I had to find outside texts, to find a way i'd learn it. And occasionly I still have to pick up my handy dandy english to french dictionary. But don't give up, you can do it!