Learning French

[guignol]

I've heard that the Quebec form of French is more pure, is this true?not really; it's a combination of 17th century french and very americanized french. and when you consider that the québécois were mostly peasants, and from brittany de surcroît...

And Quebec City is a really nice place. I enjoyed it more than Montreal.that's a valid general concept. but the old quarter of montréal is a gas. i've spent many a lost weekend there...

[guignol]

try the poutine.i never had this out in the gaspésie... the main specialty seemed to be yellow pea soup which was very good. poutine seems to be a kind of nachos using fries. out where i lived nothing was ever fried, as the woodburning stoves everyone used can't get hot enough for decent frying: they only eat boiled or stewed dishes.

New Brunswick is bi-lingual and you will see people kind of slipping between both languages. Lets allez to the bar but sans l'auto parce que its a nice day. my girlfriend in those days (ma blonde, even if she's brunette, your girlfriend is your blonde) went to university in moncton; she was a swimming instructor who had to get kids to, "kick harder with tes pattes!" :p

oh. one last note. Canadian chicks = ugly. Filles/Femmes/Nanas quebecoises = HOT.honestly i've never met enough english canadian girls to validate the first part but can vouch for the second. i think a campaign for abstinence in québec would meet with a lot of blank stares. it's inconceivable! (in their defense, the poor dears, one must say the nights are very cold)

once i was hitting on a young lady in a roadhouse in st.jean port-joli; when i learned she was my blonde's best friend from high school i tried to back off, but to no avail... "she'll understand"...

and she did! after all, if the guys in the village went out at night it wasn't for tiddlywinks, was it now ;) .

[ilv2]

i never had this out in the gaspésie... the main specialty seemed to be yellow pea soup which was very good. poutine seems to be a kind of nachos using fries. out where i lived nothing was ever fried, as the woodburning stoves everyone used can't get hot enough for decent frying: they only eat boiled or stewed dishes.


unfortunately we only spent time in montreal and quebec city so we weren't able to sample to countryside fare, although I did buy some of their apple cider. where exactly did you stay? I'm looking forward to when I can go back...

honestly i've never met enough english canadian girls to validate the first part but can vouch for the second. i think a campaign for abstinence in québec would meet with a lot of blank stares. it's inconceivable! (in their defense, the poor dears, one must say the nights are very cold)

i had no previous experience with the quebecois prior to going there, so i was just like 'hot damn :eek:.' seemed like every store had a cute salewoman/girl, not to mention those walking in the streets. It was great! Then I went to toronto....

once i was hitting on a young lady in a roadhouse in st.jean port-joli; when i learned she was my blonde's best friend from high school i tried to back off, but to no avail... "she'll understand"...

and she did! after all, if the guys in the village went out at night it wasn't for tiddlywinks, was it now ;) .

haha good on ya! :D :D

[Pierre-Henri]

A thread starting with linguistics, and it continues about food and women...
How typically french.

[gaijin]

A thread starting with linguistics, and it continues about food and women...
How typically french.
Yes, I agree its disgusting....










I mean not even any photos for comparison!

*tsk*

[quentinc]

I'm starting to get comfortable with reading it, and am getting pretty good at verb conjugations and vocabulary and all that. But I'm concerned that my pronounciation might be off, since I don't have a way to hear it. Outside of getting some audio program (or actually going to France), I don't know how I can actually hear the language spoken.

[guignol]

san antonio is a pretty big place, and i'll bet there are french people living there... for example, the president of my local PTA just came back from 7 years in dallas. in SF there's a whole french neighborhood around the consulate, with student housing, a church, chamber of commerce, shops and restaurants, and the alliance française... here's a list of places where they're present and though you're not in there, call and see if they can help you. http://www.utm.edu/staff/globeg/afusa.shtml

[Pierre-Henri]

I'm starting to get comfortable with reading it, and am getting pretty good at verb conjugations and vocabulary and all that. But I'm concerned that my pronounciation might be off, since I don't have a way to hear it. Outside of getting some audio program (or actually going to France), I don't know how I can actually hear the language spoken.


- Getting TV5 may be an good, but probably confusing at first, since they have shows in all different flavours of french language (canadian, african, belgian, swiss...).

- French movies. We have a tradition of good comedies. Everything with Francis Weber as scenarist or director is worth the view. "Le dîner de cons", especially, is a masterpiece.

If you like ... less refined humor, shall we say, the old movies from the "splendid" still have many fans : "Le père Noël est une ordure", les "bronzés", les "bronzés font du ski", "Papy fait de la résistance"... Some lines from these movies now belong to popular language.

Even older, and very old fashioned, are the good ole' movies from the 60' and the 70' : "La grande vadrouille", "La folie des grandeurs" ... watching them is like time travel.

- Listen some french music might help too, but choose artists who are using a correct language, even if you prefer rock. Georges Brassens (dead in 81) is eternal, but also difficult. I like Francis Cabrel too, is "double tour" album is great, and the last one ("les beaux dégâts") contains some wonderful songs. Jean-Jacques Goldman is hated by many, but has some nice and easy songs : "pluriel", "en passant tournée 98"...

NOTE : I suggest you these albums for their linguistic qualities, they probably won't fit with your ...errr... peculiar musical taste.

- But don't feel too concerned about this anyway : US colleges have excellent programs in french studies (most of the time even far better than french universities), so put your teachers at work. You're paying them high enough.

[guignol]

je t'encule thérèse...

C'est cela, oui.:D

[Fulham Fan]

At my old school we listened to "Les Champs-Elysées" by Joe Dassin constantly.

[Gnafron]

A very good exercise would be to read a book while listening to the audio book !

You could for eg. read "L'étranger" by Albert Camus listening to the author's own voice.

It has been recorded in 1954,and is published by Frémeaux & Associés (http://www.fremeaux.com/) (they have dozen of genuine pearls)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006F7OD.08._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

You could try Flaubert and Céline (read by Fabrice Lucchini) or novels by Amélie Nothomb (modern and sarcastic) by you'll find that on other labels.

I have done the same thing to learn English, one would read out loud Shakespeare, Shelley, Faulkner or Dickens, the rest of the class had to read the text.
Confusing in the beginning but pretty straight and very effective.

[guignol]

nom d'un rat mon pov' pillandre, si tu crois que c'est les gognandises de chignol et gnafron qui t'apprendra à japiller le français! quelle vartigolerie!

[guignol]

if you listen to celine you'll need the pleiade edition with the glossary handy, but after that you'll know more parisian slang than 99% of parigots!

[quentinc]

- Getting TV5 may be an good, but probably confusing at first, since they have shows in all different flavours of french language (canadian, african, belgian, swiss...).
Where could I get that? (Not asking you in particular, but mainly people in the US that might know). I would do it simply to get all the Ligue 1 matches.

[Jon Pall]

Hi all,

Very interesting thread here. I myself am trying to learn French, and beginning in September 2006, i will be spending a year in France in an intensive language study program. Right now, i can read a good bit, but my speaking skills are terrible. One of my hobbies right now is translating Alizee and Mylene Farmer songs to Portuguese and/or Spanish...so that is helping me a lot with reading comprehension, but obviously not with speaking. It certainly is a very challenging language to learn but i hope that with some diligent study and practice, I can reach a high level.

I would like to appy to grad school somewhere in North Africa, so French knowledge is either vital or mandatory. But heck, I am not studying French for purely academic reasons...I think its the most beautiful and elegant language in the world (this extends to French women :D ) and the French play a great brand of football too. A few years ago, I was about ready to buy at ticket to France and try to join the Foreign Legion (my parents talked me out of it).

[ilv2]

I would like to appy to grad school somewhere in North Africa, so French knowledge is either vital or mandatory. But heck, I am not studying French for purely academic reasons...I think its the most beautiful and elegant language in the world (this extends to French women :D ) and the French play a great brand of football too. A few years ago, I was about ready to buy at ticket to France and try to join the Foreign Legion (my parents talked me out of it).

sounds like a plan (not the french foreign legion part!), why not apply directly to study in france.

Where could I get that? (Not asking you in particular, but mainly people in the US that might know). I would do it simply to get all the Ligue 1 matches.

contact your satellite provider, they usually have TV5 etats-unis available

I recommend watching l'auberge espagnole, you get a good mix of languages in there, its a good film, and they provide french sous titres for esp, eng, etc. which are interesting.

[prymetyme]

i speek french, and spent a month in angers living with french boy last year when i was a freshman in highschool and i watched a lot of canal plus, is there anyway that i can get that in America?

[quentinc]

Contact your satellite provider, they usually have TV5 etats-unis available
That's the problem, I don't have satellite.

[quentinc]

Question about the whole vous/tu thing. When you ask a question, for example: "Do you speak English," it would be translated "parlez-vous anglais?" with the pronoun hyphened after the verb and all that.

If you're using "tu," would it just be "parlez-tu anglais?" or something different?

[chilistrider]

Parles-tu anglais?

Yes, there are two ways of forming the interrogative (asking a question) in French. You can invert the subject-verb order & hyphenate (though this way is seldom used with "je"---a notable exception being "Suis-je"), or you can keep the subject-verb order the same and begin with Est-ce que.

For the folks who have suggested ways for you to listen to French, yes, this will help you some, but true language acquisition is an active, not a passive progress. You can listen to good pronunciation all you want, but until you start actively producing the pronunciation in meaningful contexts, it won't change your pronunciation all that much.

Try to find a conversation partner. AF was mentioned above in this thread. You may also be able to find somebody to do a conversation exchange through craigslist or some similar online community bulletin board---e.g., you help them with their English with them for an hour one week, and they help you with your French for an hour the next.