Learning The Language

[shawcoast]

Hi, thinking of moving to France. Have learnt a bit of French at school, think will pick it up easily again, but out of practice completely....

Can anyone recommend any courses (CDs, books, etc) to get ready? That will be great!

Thanks
Anna

[Bevdeforges]

Literally any preparation will come in handy. I like the Assimil courses on CD because most of the dialogues are funny, but there is also a new series out called Rosetta Stone which are supposed to be very good.

When you get to France, check with the local mairie for low cost French classes in the area. It's a great way to meet other foreigners (not necessarily Brits).
Cheers,
Bev

[giantpanda]

Originally Posted by shawcoast

Hi, thinking of moving to France. Have learnt a bit of French at school, think will pick it up easily again, but out of practice completely....

Can anyone recommend any courses (CDs, books, etc) to get ready? That will be great!

Thanks
Anna

Hi!

Depending on your age, you may find it is much more difficult than you esteem.

If you intend to move to France, it is certainly worth while brushing up your French before coming.

In France, you more specially need to talk, talk, talk.

That means mixing with people - you can easily do that if you have hobbies, and look for the loacl associations ( Ask Mairie or Office du Tournisme ). NB. It i always to look and peer, because being a member.

Otherwise you have the following situation.

Expats wanting for example to pruchase something, prepare nicely their sentence, can repeat it to the shop staff.

They then think, you can speak French, and when the answer comes, you are completly lost.

So talk, talk, talk.

It is mostly not important if you make mistakes - usually these contribute to get people laughing, and then you are making headway.

Of course if you move to the France profonde, your neighbours, may speak a local patois.

Yours,

giantpanda

[MichelleAlison]

Originally Posted by shawcoast

Hi, thinking of moving to France. Have learnt a bit of French at school, think will pick it up easily again, but out of practice completely....

Can anyone recommend any courses (CDs, books, etc) to get ready? That will be great!

Thanks
Anna

Don't forget about the internet - there are so many resources.

Michelle

[bertles86]

I'll back up the Rosetta Stone recommendation, it does virtually every language you could imagine. They have been around for a flipping long time and the FO use them to get new employees up to scratch!

[Peter]

hello,

The BBC French website has some very good exercises and audio.

[conky2]

Hi

Michel Thomas has a good series of tapes which are logically constructed and concentrate between the similarities in language rather than differences.

However having listened to them many times here in the UK, it is so easy to forget it all as you are not using it every day. It seems to me to be best to wait until you know the date of your move before really throwing yourself into learning the language.

[reallylight]

Hi Anna,

I too am just starting out (well, it's my second attempt!) at learning French. Last time around I stuck with books but this time I've taken the plunge and bought some learn French software. It seems really informative so far. I like being able to hear the native speakers and then repeating it myself, it's so much better than other online resources.

[dcat]

I haven't used it, but I have heard from several personal sources that Rosetta Stone is excellent. I was looking at it on the internet and it did look good and well-rounded. I may be buying it.

I have gone through Pimsleur's first course in French and I think it is excellent. It really allows you to hear and understand and gives excellent speaking and pronunciation practice. At the end of those lessons I felt I had moved forward significantly, and I will probably buy the next course to continue. The one drawback is that you don't learn to read with Pimsleur. The technique is to teach you to learn as a child would learn, and for speaking and understanding it really does that well, much better than I had imagined.

In the end I think I may be doing both courses (if I decide to actually move to France instead of just taking vacations there). Pimsleur is more expensive but can really get you speaking, and with a decent accent, very effectively. Rosestta Stone looks like it will additionally help with the reading (because French words simply do not look like they sound!), but I can't tell if the speaking and comprehension will be as good.

Dvora

Originally Posted by bertles86

I'll back up the Rosetta Stone recommendation, it does virtually every language you could imagine. They have been around for a flipping long time and the FO use them to get new employees up to scratch!