Preparing for learning French

Reckless

Heyo,

I've recently decided to switch my language from Italian, which I took 3 years of in High School without really absorbing anything, to French. I'm starting with 101 this coming semester. I made the choice because I'm an International Relations major, and I'd like to work for an NGO along the lines of Amnesty or Human Rights Watch, and French is going to be a whole lot more useful to me in the areas I'd like to work.

However, I have zero French background or prior knowledge to how the language really works. What can I do in the month leading up to the beginning of class to give myself a little head start? Once I get up to the 200 levels, I plan on doing a summer program in France to really give myself the immersion I'll need to be proficient.

Thanks for any help!

TaGuelle

The BBC has a French radio program and they may even have a "slow" french program, meaning, that it's intended for those learning French. Radio Canada has a ton of information and help, but its Quebec French.

Best advice I can give you is don't get over involved in the grammar, it's far too difficult for French people let alone non-French people. It's a language that has to be learned by speaking so get out there. I hope that helps.

saggio

As an anglophone, I find listening to French to be the hardest part. Those damn francophones speak to fast and mush their words together so much I find it hopeless...So! If you want to be learning French, my best advice is for you to listen, listen, listen!

Which is why you need: http://www.fsi-language-courses.net/default.aspx

Listen to the tapes, do the exercises. Listen to SRC and Radio-Canada. Tune into TV5. Check out TVA. Listen to French music!

Get used to the sounds of the language and you will find things start to make sense a whole lot quicker than if you were only doing grammar.

Pure Din

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

^ Here's a link to watch free videos of the series "French in Action." It's basically a romantic comedy in Paris with a bit of language instruction thrown in. My college uses it for all Elementary French, and I've met alumnae who still remember it years and years later.

Also I recommend reading manga or comics in French if you're into that.

LoneIgadzra

Listen listen listen. Watch french movies with english subtitles (I know this didn't work for me because I don't like most french movies, but whatever). Languages have distinctive sounds, and getting used to hearing them is half the battle; it doesn't matter if you understand. Even with a basic understanding of french you still won't be understanding dialogue if you turn off the subs because it's just too goddamn fast and backwards from english - this is just to get french in your "ear" so that when you start learning actual words and grammar, it'll gel with the sounds and patterns that are already bouncing around in your brain.

Also, if you have a good ear, this will give you a huge head start on pronunciation. Even if you can't make your mouth duplicate the sounds at first, your class will show you the tricks and if you already have the reference firmly ingrained in your mind your progress will be much faster. I never had the discipline to learn much grammar or vocab, but I can often fake french people out with my accent and I think it's due to my musical background and experience at listening for very subtle things. (Also, I am a computer programmer, so what grammer I do know, I know with absolute precision.)

Edit: Honestly it doesn't matter that much. You'll be fine once the class starts if you put a decent effort in, like any other class. I've found college language classes to be much more useful than high school.

Rami

I recommend the learn french with michel thomas audio series. 30 minutes of that a day for a month would give you a pretty serious headstart.

TaGuelle

Michel Thomas is an excellent program but he assumes some knowledge of the language so it's difficult for those who have absoutely no experience with the language. My two cents.

saggio

You can look at the Pimsleur language tapes. But they are expensive, and don't teach you a very expansive vocabulary.

But they do work.

Thanatos

Three years of Italian is a great way to get started with French. The languages are replete with cognates (they're both essentially vulgarized Latin).

Basar

I am using Rosetta Stone for Spanish. CIA, FBI, SS, etc. all use it to train their agents so that must mean something, right? They are expensive though.

yotes

Thanatos wrote: »

Three years of Italian is a great way to get started with French. The languages are replete with cognates (they're both essentially vulgarized Latin).

This is very true. I went the other way and Italian seemed pretty easy to learn after a year of French.

CheerfulBear

If you want a head start in your class, learn how to pronounce what you're reading. Seriously, if you can get the hang of making good approximations of French sounds then your teacher will get like 50 bonères. A quick Google search provides some good starting points:

http://www.howtopronouncefrench.com/
http://www.europa-pages.com/lessons/french-pronunciation.html
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/phrases/french/data/pronunciation.html

Learning the international phonetic alphabet would be helpful as well, as you'll start to understand exactly how certain sounds are produced. For example, the /u/ in "tu" is not pronounced like "oo" but like the German "ü" (basically you make an "ee" sound and then round your lips). Understanding pronunciation and the patterns involved will help you hear the language better in addition to helping you speak it.

Along with that, I would suggest learning what the French terms are for grammatical concepts. Since you've had 3 years of Italian, French grammar is going to be very familiar to you, except it's just going to have different names.

passato prossimo - passé composé
im/perfetto - im/parfait
trapassato - plusqueparfait
passato remoto - passé sample
participio passato - participe passé
infinitivo - infinitif

They're all incredibly similar, but if you know the terminology before hand it will give you an advantage. Also, since you studied Italian, learning how the patterns work between languages is helpful. For example, the endings of the participio passato in Italian (-ato, -ito, -uto) become "é" in French.
Amare - amato vs. aimer - aimé

The formation of the tenses are all the same as well, except that, unlike Italian, you always have to include the pronoun.
ho amato vs. j'ai aimé

If you have any other questions just send me a PM since I've been studying both languages for awhile now.

Edit: I should mention that it's not terribly important that you start off pronouncing "tu" correctly, but it's good to know how to listen for it because there is an enormous difference between "tu" and "tout" (tutto). The first one is pronounced like "tyoo", while the second one is "too."

Even if you can get the hang of not pronouncing the "S" at the end of a plural, or the "ent" at the end of a third-person plural verb like "aiment", it will make your teacher very happy and will definitely give you a head start on learning how to pronounce everything better down the road.