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What are some French soccer/football terms?

Help me teach myself French

  • I have some very basic French language skills, and I would like to develop them to the level of working proficiency over the next few months (I am prepared to study hard). I am enrolled in a class and have a tutor. What are some other resources (preferably free ones) that I can work with my own time in order to accelerate my learning as much as possible? I am a graduate student who does fieldwork in Francophone Africa. In May, I will be travelling to Cameroon and Gabon for a three-month field season. I would like to work very hard over the next few months to develop my French language skills to the point where I am basically proficient in the language – able to carry out a conversation, understand what people are telling me, present information, read and write simple documents, etc. I have one semester of college-level French under my belt and spent three months working in Gabon last summer, but my skills are still quite rudimentary. This semester, I will be participating in a French course being taught online in conjunction with a field training seminar that I will be helping to run. I have also contacted the teacher and arranged for an hour of one-on-one tutoring each week. However, I would like to have additional resources for self-study so that I can make the absolute most out of my time and really get my French skills up to par. What are some (ideally free, though I am willing to pay if it's really worth it) strategies and resources that I can use to really supercharge my learning? I'm willing to put at least a few hours a day into this, every day. Conversational French (rather than written) is the most important, and people in Francophone Africa speak what is basically Standard French – not too much slang, and the accents are easy. They do, of course, speak rather fast. A lot of what we talk about is scientific of course, but that actually makes it easier since scientific terms are generally the same across languages – and if I need a specific word, I know how to ask someone for it. I will have bilingual people around me most of the time that I am in the field, but not all of the time; I really want to be able to operate more independently than I did last summer, which means I need to dramatically improve my language skills. I'm looking more for comprehensive programs of study than for little tips and tricks. I've tried Rosetta Stone but didn't care for it; I feel the same way about Memrise. I have a few French-language podcasts to listen to, a library of subtitled French movies, and some plugins for Chrome that allow me to switch back and forth between French and English on the page. However, I want something more intensive, more in-depth, and more comprehensive. I also want to be able to study mostly on my own – I realize that conversation takes two people, but I don't really have access to a French-speaking language partner and I'm not into the idea of finding a stranger to talk French with. I learn better "from the page" anyway, and am good at working out the correct pronunciation of a word – yes, even in French. And of course I'll be taking a class with some other students and working with a tutor one-on-one as well, so I'll have some opportunity to speak French. What are some options that I might avail myself of? I'm especially interested in things that people have actually tried personally and had success with. I look forward to your advice; thank you as always for your time.

  • Answer:

    The Foreign Service Institutehttp://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French are now online for free, including http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French%20Basic. I think they'd fit the bill for you. They are old school, based in oral repetition and drill along with linguistic explanation. Lot's of conversational building blocks are there too. It's generally agreed that getting the phonology right from the get go is crucial for acquiring French, and the FSI http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=French%20Phonology ought to address that. The FSI courses were originally devised to train US diplomats; whose needs would be somewhat similar to yours, I'd think, going soon in country.

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bquarters

Duolingo app, it has been amazing for Spanish

ladoo

mbrubeck

I don't know if this will help you, but I used to listen tohttp://www.africa1.com/ in Gabon. It is now on the web and has improved in speed and stability vs a few years ago. I used to listen it to it to improve my verbal comprehension while in country. You can select just the African news on that page if you don't want to listen to music all day long (see bottom right).

Wolfster

French talk radio, in the background, all the time. Go put it on now. You don't even have to listen to it for it to help — you need to get the rhythm of the language. This was one of the best pieces of advice I got in university from my French teachers. My alarm clock was set to Radio Canada (Québecois) and I knew it was working when I awoke to the weather report and thought "fuck, snow" without realising my half-asleep brain understood the méteo.

heatherann

I also want to be able to study mostly on my own – I realize that conversation takes two people, but I don't really have access to a French-speaking language partner and I'm not into the idea of finding a stranger to talk French with. You might try a weekly French language meet-up at a local coffee shop if there is one around.

sebastienbailard

I made some good progress on learning a new language as a beginner using http://livemocha.com/. I found their lessons kind of silly (bit reminiscent of Rosetta Stone) but I benefited a lot from the assignments where you record yourself speaking or you write a short composition and a native speaker of the language gives you feedback. In return it periodically asks you to correct assignments done by people learning languages you speak. This is not a terrible compromise between sitting holed up in a book and making a new language buddy in your town. I mean, it doesn't compare to having actual conversational practice, but at least you're getting feedback on your speaking and writing skills. And I found the turnaround times to be very very quick, for a language much less popular than French.

ootandaboot

Seconding Michel Thomas - my wife and I have used them for French, and were both pretty amazed at how quickly we picked up the basics. They are basic, but the emphasis on listening and speaking should be pretty helpful.

taltalim

I also came here to recommend Duolingo (though I've only used the Spanish version) - make sure to have it set so it speaks out loud to you, that's the most important part, at leeast for me. Also, nothing compares to conversational practice. I know you don't want to practice with a stranger - and I'd also hate doing that - but having conversations in a language is the best way to learn to be better at having conversations in that language.

insectosaurus

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