# Teaching myself French **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897 "2004-11-15T18:16:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/1 "2004-11-15T18:16:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/2 "2004-11-15T18:24:18Z")
That’s funny I was thinking of starting a thread like this just minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![3894](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/f4b2a3/32.png) [@3894](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3894)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/3 "2004-11-15T18:32:51Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/4 "2004-11-15T18:34:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![HanoNymus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@HanoNymus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HanoNymus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/5 "2004-11-15T19:10:02Z")
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](http://www.languagequest.com/home/product.php?prodCode=FIA&lang=French) ; check it out, and if you like it get the [textbook](http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=118956&domain_id=1856&meta_id=1) and the [workbook](http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=118957&domain_id=1856&meta_id=1)(s). The materials are meant for classroom use (i.e., a course taught by an instructor) but they’re still useful for personal study. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/6 "2004-11-15T19:12:48Z")
> [@3894](#): > > 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 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? ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/7 "2004-11-15T19:13:26Z")
_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. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/8 "2004-11-15T19:21:44Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > 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. 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! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/9 "2004-11-15T19:33:18Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > 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.” ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/10 "2004-11-15T19:38:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![3894](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/f4b2a3/32.png) [@3894](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3894)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/11 "2004-11-15T19:49:52Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Le fromage Francais es bon. > > Mes amis Francophone parles au sujet de fromage seulement. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/12 "2004-11-15T20:10:44Z")
Alliance Francais 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. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/13 "2004-11-15T20:24:01Z")
> [@3894](#): > > 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. 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? ---
**Author:** ![3894](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/f4b2a3/32.png) [@3894](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3894)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/14 "2004-11-15T20:51:13Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > 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.) ---
**Author:** ![SaxFace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SaxFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaxFace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/15 "2004-11-15T22:06:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/16 "2004-11-15T23:50:45Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > 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.” 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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/17 "2004-11-16T01:19:01Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > 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… ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/18 "2004-11-16T06:22:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/19 "2004-11-16T07:15:31Z")
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](http://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. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897/20 "2004-11-16T12:22:58Z")
FWIW [Meetup.com](http://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? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-myself-french/274897.md?page=2)