Background- I’ve studied French for 10 years off and on. Because I haven’t studied it continuously, I haven’t progressed past an intermediate level- I ended up retaking basic French classes to review. I am confident that I could, say, travel in France quite easily- making purchases, asking for directions, etc. I have a basic vocabulary for everyday interaction, but lack advanced vocabulary, and my listening comprehension isn’t too bad, but that’s in class with a rather slower speed of speech than normal.
I recently discovered some French internet radio, and wondered how much they will help my French. Obviously, it will improve listening comprehension, probably my accent and intonation, but other than that, will it do anything? TV would of course be a better medium for general learning- I imagine it is easier to pick up new vocabulary while watching it instead of just listening to it, but at the moment I don’t have access to anything more than the occasional French movie (which I do watch from time to time).
Also should mention- I lack confidence in my French speaking skills generally, which makes it dificult for me to really get anything out of classes. Intermediate classes have progressed beyond basic grammar drills and require participation in the conversations to be useful, but I get really flustered when put on the spot. I rarely participate in classes in English, and it’s that much harder to do it in another language. My accent is actually really good considering, because I am able to mimic sounds rather easily and when I am bored occasionally practice the more dificult sounds such as r’s and an’s / on’s /em’s etc. I just sort of freak out when I can’t think of a word or struggle with a conjugation or uncertainty about a particular tense or diffcult structure, and get so embarrassed that everything else flies out of my head and I effectively lose the ability to speak. Not big on public speaking, which speaking in class arguably is, and am even so embarrassed that though I know several francophones I don’t even speak to them unless I’ve had a few beers.
I just want to improve my general French speaking/listening ability on my own, so that I can take the French literature classes and not be totally lost or look like an idiot. So, opinions/advice/personal experience on whether or not radio can help, and any other techniques that would be useful are much appreciated. I am also in the process of making vocabulary study sheets to learn some of the more advanced political and philosophical terms and review some more common words so that I hopefully will struggle for a word less often and consequently freak out less when my speaking skills are put to the test.
All the old world-band transoceanic shortwave radio advertisements always used to use this as a selling point. “Boon to the foreign language student!”. Can’t see why streaming internet audio would be much different. It should help with the subtleties of language and things - once, for example, I tried for quite a while to explain “spring cleaning” to a german couple - I was using the german word for a spring, not the season. Hm.
I’m not sure what’s most useful / etc. — I 'll leave that to other Dopers.
However, I wanted to tell you that when I was brushing up on my ol’ Francais, I listened to Radio France’s Le journal en français facile. I felt like listening to it everyday helped tune my ear back in to french. Also, it helps that it comes with a script - so I could look at the words if necessary.
I really think you’re on to something. I took French for a zillion years and never improved because I’m to self-conscious to speak it. I worked with a guy who spoke Spanish and only knew a few words in English. It was amazing how quickly he picked up English because he wasn’t embarrassed to make mistakes and he tried to speak English any chance he got.
Absolutely. When I was taking Spanish, I got a lot out of watching Telemundo. Soccer was pretty straightforward, but when I could finally understand telenovelas, all that watching was worth it.
Listening to the radio will also provide more vocabulary. The vocabulary you get in class tends to be very limited: they teach you how to say “meat” but not “steak,” much less “T-bone” or “pulled pork.”
The first time I went to the US, it was to work as a receptionist in a summer camp. Next year, my best friend E and her boyfriend V went with the same program, in their case as monitors (I’m ok with children one-on-one, children packs should be flash-frozen only). In school she’d always had good grades in English while he barely scraped by; in the interview, he would just keep talking, using his hands, looking for alternative words, drawing, whatever, until the interviewer understood him. She kept going “eeeeh… eeehhh…” whenever she couldn’t find the exact word.
He was placed within a week; she still hadn’t been placed when it was time to fly over.
My aunt had been living in Miami for over ten years when I met her. She didn’t speak English for the same reasons, “oh, they’ll make fun of my aksent!” (uh, this is Mayami, anyone who makes fun of a Venezuelan accent will be subjected to a pileup), “oh, I don’t always know the right word!”
I suppose it depends on the kind of programmes you’re listening to - an interview on a specific subject will often contain lots of repetition of terms, which should make it possible to pick up some vocab.
Definitely. I came to France having learnt French for two years at school about 14 years ago, so my French was firstly shaky and secondly very very rusty. Six months later whilst my French isn’t fluent, its damned close, because I’ve been in a position to practice all the time; my boss and I even discuss the astrophysics in French. Speaking the language and not being afraid to make mistakes (this is the advantage of French in a way, the French aren’t afraid to correct you!) is the easiest way to get upto speed.
And Nava, that’s exactly the method I use (hand gestures and description) if I can’t find a word!
Seconded, fourthed, whatever… listening to radio in a foreign language will help… to a point. What you need in order to truly improve is immersion – you need to use the language, not just understand it*.
Anecdote – a few years back my family and I were in Italy on vacation. My wife and I both took French in high-school (and sorta, kinda scraped by when we were in France). By the end of that week I was babbling with the shopkeepers in a sort of pidgin-Italian-cum-impromptu-sign-language. She was still completely tongue-tied. It boiled down to the fact that I was never embarrassed to make mistakes; she was.
Case in point – while I started life as an English speaker, and have always read almost exclusively in English, by 2003 my spoken and written English had been going downhill for years. My (written, mostly, but also spoken) English skills have (re-)improved considerably since I joined the SDMB.
Radio and television are better than nothing. But what really helped me was reading. I bought a French language newspaper every day for two years and read, at a minimum, the main news stories, the culture or entertainment section and the sports. Some days, I went through the whole paper, reading whatever caught my interest. Newspapers are good because you can usually find stories that you already know something about (Iraq, global warming, World Cup, Cannes, U.S-French relations, restaurants, etc.), which gives you a leg up on learning vocabulary quickly.
You don’t even need to buy papers anymore. They’re all available online.
It’s also a good idea to read some articles out loud. Even better if you record yourself. All you need is a cheap little tape deck, or a hand-held recorder, which costs about $15 these days. Or just use your computer or whatever.
I’m currently searching for news, stories, children’s books, etc., written in pinyin. I’m trying to teach myself Mandarin, and I know my progress would be a lot better if I could read some stuff in pinyin. I know it’s a romanization of Chinese, and not really intended to be a literary form, but I can only learn quickly by reading. Anyway, that’s a hijack. Good luck with your French.
