I’ve got a bit of extra time and decided that learning another language would be something to kill time. I’m not enrolled in school so pretty much the only option I have is teaching myself. What method should I use? Book? CD? Some other method I’ve not heard of before? Any reccomendations on specific books/CD sets?
It should be noted I’m not trying to become fluent in French, just trying to gain a basic grasp of the language.
That’s funny I was thinking of starting a thread like this just minutes ago.
Can you take a night course at a junior or community college? Communication is the name of the game; it’s hard to do that without other people around. Software and tapes have their place but are best used as supplements, not primary sources.
That said, it’s no tragedy if you prefer the solo route. French in Action is a very fine course sometimes offered on PBS. If your goal is touristic French, then Pimsleur and Berlitz are okay but so, so boring to work with.
French is a pretty easy one to learn, so it’s a good choice. I’d honestly recommend a class, though, as books never seem to do justice to the grammar of a language.
Le fromage Francais es bon.
Mes amis Francophone parles au sujet de fromage seulement.
Oui, j’ai rien. Je parle Francais un peu.
I second French in Action. No method is perfect, but this one is the best I know.
See if you can find a library that has the video collection ; check it out, and if you like it get the textbook and the workbook(s).
The materials are meant for classroom use (i.e., a course taught by an instructor) but they’re still useful for personal study.
French in Action is also (or was, when I was there) the supplemental training program for French at the Foreign Service Institute. The program has the additional perk (heh) of a…er…bouncy lead actress who eschews undergarments in favor of the au naturelle look.
What ever became of her?
French the Easy Way is a decent instruction method if you’re forced to study on your own. I’d definitely have to go with those who recommend taking some type of continuing education classes, because it is in talking with others that you really begin to understand the language.
I also highly recommend a book called something like English Grammar for Students of French. I found it most helpful when I was trying to learn the different verb tenses and how they corresponded to English.
According to BabelFish, you just said:
“The French cheese be good.”
“My Francophone friends only speak about cheese.”
“Yes, j’ai nothing. I speak French a little.”
I must say, that be quite interesting! 
Babelfish is having trouble conjugating the French verb ‘to be’, I think.
I believe I used it correctly for he/she/it.
Je suis / il ou elle es / vous etes / nous … Hm. Don’t recall. And ils/elles sont. I think.
It barfed on j’ai because of the capitalization, I suspect. Loosely translated, I said. “French cheese is good. My French-speaking friends only talk about cheese. … Yeah, I got nothing. I speak a little French.”
Oops. It’s been too long. Looked it up…
Tu es ; il/elle est. Still shouldn’t translate as ‘Be’ though. ‘Are’, maybe, since it’s matched to the informal French for ‘you’.
And apparently, nous sommes.
About to increase my putzfactor tenfold. Once a French teacher, always a French teacher. :rolleyes:
Le fromage est bon. = The cheese is good.
Mes amis **francophones parlent seulement ** au sujet du fromage. = My French-speaking friends only talk about cheese.
See if there is a chapter of Alliance Francais in your neck of the woods. This is what I did. It’s not cheap but their lessons are very very good.
BTW
I don’t think French is all that easy, but that’s just me.
Yeah, caught the first one - ah, well.
Not bad for someone who had only two semesters of high-school French in an underfunded backwater high school ten years ago, non?
;j (For this thread only, this smilie wears a beret.)
Much luck to you!!
I’ve lived here in Frenchland for almost two years and STILL don’t speak French well enough, probably never will. And French is my third language but maybe I’m just dumb. It’s not as easy as you might think, especially the pronounciation. And if you think you know the correct way to differentiate the pronunciation of “vous” or “vu” or “tout” or “tu”, HA!
Anyway, I recommend taking classes just for the pronunciation. The rest is just verb conjugation and vocabulary.
If you’d rather start by yourself, a good pronounciation learning CD is Michel Thomas’ Speak French . For the rest, I use the Vocabulaire Progressif du Francais and Grammaire Progressive du Francais series published by CLE International.
Most importantly, find yourself a fluent French speaker with whom you can converse. I really don’t think you can learn a language just by yourself.
CandidGamera, I hope my snarky little post didn’t appear to be a criticism of what you wrote. I intended it as a comment on the inadequacy of BabelFish. Sorry if it seemed I was making fun of the comments you made in French. 
Wasn’t sure, but criticism would’ve been valid.
Still Babelfish leaves a lot to be desired. What I especially like about it is how if it fails to match a word for translation, it returns the unmodified word as the translation. Since there are several words that are the same in two languages, this is very misleading…
Well, for right now, school is not an option; money is definitely too tight for that. I will, however, be pricing the products you all have reccomended. Spanish actually came to me pretty easy and I’m still able to converse in it four years after my last lesson. I imagine the best thing I can do is find a buddy online who speaks French and practice it with them, hoping I have the pronunciation somewhat close.
There is a lot to be said for doing book studies in French and getting a good grasp of the written language. Of course that is almost completely different from the spoken language. But you know Spanish already, so you have a huge advantage.
My advice would be to try to find a french speaking group on Meetup.com. I don’t know if there is one near you, but I would do that in your position. They’ll be happy, I’m sure to help. If you go, make sure you do as much to converse as you can. Also, maybe you could join a French club at a local university? There could be one, but again, it depends on what you want to do.
It also depends on your personal ability to study a discipline on your own. I a very bad at that, and I tend to lack the discipline. You may be different, but language learning is very dull at the beginning, and isn’t very rewarding until you get a certain positive feedback.
FWIW
Meetup.com operates through Alliance Francais.
(But of course you could find them on your own, w/o the AF.)
I can’t imagine going to one of those meetings without having at least a smattering of French, but that’s just me. Maybe you are more the ‘plunge in’ type.
Alliance Francais has some great CDs and other learning materials you can purchase, but you have to join (I think it is $60.) The CDs really helped me.
Here in Denver, the public television station has French lessons on TV. Don’t think it is French in Action, but it is helpful.
Maybe there is something like that in your locale?