Brushing up on my French

Improvolone

There is an audition coming up in a few weeks that is looking for a very specific type of person, a French/English speaking improv comedic actor with puppet experience. Seriously, this has to be a super small field of people to draw from (especially in Florida where most people learn Spanish as a second language).
As it turns out, I fit all of those. They say they would prefer someone fully fluent in French, but I'm not really there. I'm decent. Let us call it conversational French. I know my pronunciation is very good.

I really want to brush up on my French. Basic vocabulary, verbs, phrases, etc. I have a book from when I took French in college, but I never liked it. Can anyone recommend a particular book for this? I'm partially interested in Rosetta Stone because Michael Phelps totally used it to learn Chinese, but I'm not about to spend several hundred dollars. Maybe there are audio tapes that would work well for what I need?

Jasconius

I liked Rosetta Stone. My grandparents speak fluent French, so if you already know the proper pronunciation, the Picture -> Speech segments of Rosetta Stone are a quick tool to pick up vocabulary. The only thing Rosetta doesn't really teach from my experience is grammar, and by that I mean they never explain anything. That's just how it's done.

But, I mean, "quick" is relative, even basic "boy, girl, house, car, red, blue" type tutorials are 20-30 minutes a pop.

Unfortunately French is diced up into 3 or 4 units at a few hundred a pop. But Unit 1 should be the "tourist" edition in terms of vocabulary.

Reckless

Rosetta Stone is pretty excellent, check your local library for it. Renting out French-language movies might also help.

During school breaks, I do my best to keep active by switching my Facebook into French and reading the news on Le Monde.

Entriech

Some good suggestions. While I'm technically bilingual due to french immersion through my public schooling, I tend to get rusty when I don't use it. To brush up I'll usually inundate myself with french language sources. Watch movies and television in french, if you can. Read books in french, especially ones you've already read in english. I find that helps if you're having trouble, because you'll be able to use your pre-existing knowledge of the literature to help you make connections.

Improvolone

Reckless wrote: »

Rosetta Stone is pretty excellent, check your local library for it. Renting out French-language movies might also help.

Oh fuck, thats a good idea.

Hah, so now might be a great time to break out the French language option on the Simpson DVDs?

Reckless

Improvolone wrote: »

Reckless wrote: »

Rosetta Stone is pretty excellent, check your local library for it. Renting out French-language movies might also help.

Oh fuck, thats a good idea.

Hah, so now might be a great time to break out the French language option on the Simpson DVDs?

Of course! Especially episodes where you're already familiar with the dialogue in English, because at first that'll let you get back into the swing of things nice and easily. The library thing is pretty sweet, actually, my local back home used to provide cardholders with free access to the entire Rosetta Stone suite. They canceled it recently due to budget cutbacks, but it gave me a heads-up when I switched from Italian to French between High School and College.