French for myself; which program?

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I'm interested in learning French. Is Rosetta Stone the best program?

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

No, it's not. Rosetta Stone will never really be a good program for any language. But that's my opinion...

[Jen500]

You might start with LiveMocha. It's free.

[Punks in Ontario]

Aurolog's Tell Me More French is highly rated. I've used it some.

[jld]

Breaking the Barrier French may be a good choice, depending on the kind of learner you are.

[Nan in Mass]

I would do Pimsleur first (your library might have them) so you get the accent right, and then look for a regular program. I would also try to read things on my own regularly as soon as I knew enough French to know how to look things up in the dictionary. And I would find some music to listen to or a news station or something.

-Nan

[Hunter]

What is available for edutainment?

 

What is available for kiddie workbooks?

 

When I have done language learning in the past, I found that the more resources the better. Reinforcement using as many different senses and styles as possible.

 

I decided this morning that I want to tackle French too. I was looking at getting back into Greek and/or Latin....but I think I want to combine French language learning and some French cooking.

 

Has anyone used Memoria Press French?

 

I put Pimsleur French on hold at the library. I know I want to have some strong iPod resources in place, to make use of those wasted minutes.

 

I think Berlitz has some super easy first readers.

 

So far any children's song resources I've found have been very inefficient. I like to use children's resources when they work better than adult ones, but have no time for silliness for the sake of silliness. Have I missed out on any good musical resources?

[Nan in Mass]

I began by reading TinTins, then some other comics. Then I read some fairy tales and other children's books (the gnome book was fun), then I tried some Agatha Christie's in translation. Because the speech patterns were English, I found translated French easier to read than real French, and the stories moved quickly enough to hold my attention even at the snail's pace at which I was working my way through them. From there, I moved to Harry Potter. Since then, I've read a number of things. Meanwhile, I began watching DVDs with set to French with English subtitles, mostly for my poor husband but I found them helpful. Now I find that it is more helpful not to have the subtitles. I began with familiar Disney movies and then tried familiar adult ones. I also found Swiss radio on the internet. Swiss French is sooo nice because it is easier to understand than French French. I had music I listened to, also, but I don't remember the names of the artists.

-Nan

[Kates]

Aurolog's Tell Me More French is highly rated. I've used it some.

 

I agree - Tell Me More is excellent. It's also 40% off right now at https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1091 :)

[Hunter]

I looked at so many French resources today, but didn't buy anything.

 

I paid just $5.00 for Hooked on French awhile back and I have The Berlitz Self-teacher French I haven't seen anything else I'm sure is better, so I will save my money.

 

My girlfriend wants to watch James Bond in French. I told her we should start with something easier.

 

I want to try the Madeline or Barbar books I think. Are those originally French? Looking for English books translated into French is a good idea.

 

I know some people have had really good luck with bilingual bibles.

 

Thanks for the tip about Swiss French.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I want to try the Madeline or Barbar books I think. Are those originally French?

 

Madeline is English first. Babar is French first. I had never heard of Madeline until we read it with Five in a Row. I did grow up on Babar. You can also add the Martine series. http://www.club-martine.fr/

[Nan in Mass]

Don't get discouraged if you find Babar hard. I found it more on a par with Agatha Christie's than TinTin's. There are two sorts of children's books - the kind that use adult language and are meant to be read aloud to the child, and the kind that use simple language and are meant to be read by the child. The Babars that I have (and that were read to me in English as a child) are the first kind, not the second.

 

We go to the French library in Boston sometimes. They have a lovely batch of children's books. You have to belong to take the books out, but I think you could probably go in and read them in the library without paying to become a member.

 

-Nan

[Hunter]

I was having trouble loading the Martine page on my iPad. I'll have to check it out later on a regular computer. It looked sweet though.

 

The French library looks interesting!

[Laughingmommy]

Remember this? French In Action. It used to play on PBS all the time. It's a silly story about a young American man and a young French woman. I remember really enjoying watching it when I was into French 'cause they used real French conversation, with snippets from commercials and stuff, instead of the usual super-enunciated French-teacher French that I would get in classes. I believe the videos are free to watch online somewhere. It might be worth checking out.

 

Good luck!

Pei

[stripe]

Don't get discouraged if you find Babar hard. I found it more on a par with Agatha Christie's than TinTin's. There are two sorts of children's books - the kind that use adult language and are meant to be read aloud to the child, and the kind that use simple language and are meant to be read by the child.

I think there is another sort as well -- a sort that uses childisms that are very hard for non-native speakers to understand. In English this would be things like cimmanun and pasketi and "Me go bye-bye". I found L'enfant noir to be a hard read because of this, whereas academic French was very much easier for me because it was more like academic English.

[regentrude]

Remember this? French In Action. It used to play on PBS all the time. It's a silly story about a young American man and a young French woman. I remember really enjoying watching it when I was into French 'cause they used real French conversation, with snippets from commercials and stuff, instead of the usual super-enunciated French-teacher French that I would get in classes. I believe the videos are free to watch online somewhere. It might be worth checking out.

 

The videos are available for free (streaming only, no download) at:

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

[Nan in Mass]

Yes. Longer sentences are easier to understand than shorter sentences, and longer words. The longer sentences are grammatically easier for me, and the longer words are more likely to sound like their English equivalents. TinTin was a challenge because of all the on's and y's, but it also turned out to be very useful because of that. After struggling through a few TinTins half a page at a time, looking up almost every word, I had a much better feel for French pronouns and didn't have to think about them much. The TinTins had picture clues, which saved me some dictionary work, and the story line went fast enough that my snail's pace wasn't boring.

 

For those of us who are busy parents stuck in a monolingual place, I think reading is a great way to make the leap from textbook French to more useful French. For me, reading has transfered into understanding (not necessarily speaking) with just a little work. I did the old foreign service French pronounciation program (free online - took me about three weeks) and watched some dvds. Speaking is harder, but the most frequently used vocabulary transfered into speaking without any effort on my part, and so did some of the grammar (happily). Reading is pleasant, not too hard to do at the end of the day when I'm tired, and eventually I became good enough at it that I could escape into the book, just like in English. It takes more effort, but at least I can do it. Books use the same vocabulary over and over again, so although I use the dictionary a lot at in the first twenty pages or so, after that, I hardly have to use it at all. I tend to look up every word I am unsure about at first, even though I can generally guess the meaning of the sentence or don't really need the meaning to understand the gist of the paragraph. That way, my French improves faster. I have an abysmal memory, so I don't make any effort to try to memorize anything. (I'm building off bad high school French and a little college French.)

 

I'm hoping to do the same thing with Latin now. I've been through the textbook. Much of it I don't remember. Now I need to switch to being able to read Latin, so I am reading Latin, beginning with modern Latin fairy tales.

 

If you are willing to put more effort into your language learning (thereby getting someplace better, faster), look for Ester Maria's posts. She has some where she explains the pitfalls of doing it the way I am. I think she is probably right, but I don't have the energy at the moment to do more than read, and I've come pretty far this way, all things considered.

 

(Just in case somebody wants to try this GRIN)

 

-Nan

 

-Nan

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Yes. Longer sentences are easier to understand than shorter sentences, and longer words.

 

Yes, for years, people thought I was "highly educated" because I would use long words in English that they barely knew. It just turned out that those long words matched the ones in French, and thus were easier to remember and use on a regular basis. It's also kinda funny because the higher you get in a spelling bee, the easier most of the words become for me!

 

Reading is pleasant, not too hard to do at the end of the day when I'm tired, and eventually I became good enough at it that I could escape into the book, just like in English.

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

 

I'm hoping to do the same thing with Latin now. I've been through the textbook. Much of it I don't remember. Now I need to switch to being able to read Latin, so I am reading Latin, beginning with modern Latin fairy tales.

 

Nan, you should try Lingua Latina. It's halfway between textbook and pure reading.

[awtl]

I second LiveMocha. I really like that site and it's helped me a lot. Two other free resources that I like are French in Action: http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

 

and this free open course by Carnegie Melon. It has really helped my French tremendously. It might be too hard, though, for someone who is just starting to learn the language.

 

http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses/french