how to gain fluency?

woyzeck_kinski

My written and spoken French are poor, so poor I'll write in English. I've got a C in Honours French from a long time ago. I'll happily watch a French Movie and get the gist of what's being said. I'm watching more French Film these days than English as Hollywood isn't hitting the spot for me anymore. I have few problems reading French articles or French web pages. How do I make the leap to full fluency and expansion of my vocabulary? Total Immersion? Sleeping Dictionary? Neural download?
Evening classes were never satisfactory for me as an hour or two a week doesn't cut it and on some of the courses the tutors were more interested in getting through their course than leaving the students with a working knowledge of the language.

Shinto

You have the answer right there....."total immersion."

However, you'll only get true immersion by spending a year in a francophone country, which is what i did a few years ago...

http://www.unicaen.fr/cefe/Site%20CEUIE%207/Menu.htm

So if you've got no baggage (wife, mortgage, kids) then why not head off for a year? Pourquoi-pas?

elmolesto

Je suis tout a fait d'accord avec shinto, l'immersion totale est la meilleure des solutions;).

Xhristy

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ga2re2t

Total immersion is the obvious choice, but you can't avoid some hard work. I've being living in France now for the last four years and would consider myself very fluent, but I've reached a plateau because I'm just not putting in the work anymore.
Have you thought about getting a weekly or monthly subscription ("un abonnement") to a French paper or magazine? Le Monde is pretty good but very high level and very serious. I'd recommened "20 minutes" which is one of the free daily newspapers in France. You can download the PDF version for free:
http://www.20minutes.fr/pdf.php
There are different editions for 8 French cities, but Paris would be the obvious choice. The French word for "download" is "télécharger".

You could also try buying a French book that was originally written in English and buy both versions. Go to www.amazon.fr to get the French versions. Read the English one first, then try the French one without resorting to using a dictionary.

Good luck!

CasimiR

Speak Speak and Speak
Go out with a french speaking crowd .. speak speak and speak , best way to lean the language !

Sineadg

I think its all been said before but here's what I do to maintain my French. Watch TV5( I get it on sky) with subtitles in French, also Euronews in French. I listen fo France Info on the Internet which is the 24hour news channel. I usually have an old copybook and write down a few words or phrases that I like/or want to remember. Writing always helps me remember them. I occasionallly pick up a French newspaper or magazine like Paris match/le monde. I try and read out loud to practise accent as I very rarely get the chance to speak it otherwise.
I do go to France with the family in summer for a few weeks. We usually do a house swap which has always worked out really well for us. Even though being en famille we tend to speak all English so could not be compared to immersion, I find I always come back so enthousiastic about learning the language. And one more thing I bought some school workbooks for French kids last summer with answers at the back and try to fill those in as well although havent even got through half of them. Takes more discipline to do that than just switch on the TV
Bon Courage

KeyLimePie

or else you cud get all those michel thomas and pimsluer cds

DaDa

Can anyone recommend a simple French Novel to get me practicing more?

I have Leaving Cert French (20 years ago now!), and recently have got through about 5 CDs of the Michel Thomas collection (8 CDs).

Merci

Sineadg

The one that comes to my mind is le petit enfant du siecle. It's such a cute and funny novel...about a young teenage girl growing up in poverty in an HLM in a cité in Paris, that would have been like the ballymun towers.Anyway can't find my copy here to check the author but Id say you'll find it no probs..it is a real classic. I loved it. Bon courage!!

caoimhin44

You can read " les misérables " by Victor Hugo
it's very famous

or an easy tale called " le petit chaperon rouge "

But I think it's good to hear some pronunciation as well
listen to slow music like " Vanessa Paradis "

A total immersion is required for sure!

Riconho

I would recommend to anyone learning a language to get an Assimil book.

caoimhin44

by the way, it is " français " for french
there is a " ç " , that's why one pronounces it " ss "

Heinrich

caoimhin44 wrote: »

by the way, it is " français " for french
there is a " ç " , that's why one pronounces it " ss "

Avec mes respects c'est du pinaillage!

Apres ca vous allez nous expliquer le mot circonflex.:p

La cédille est un petit z ; en français, on pourrait la nommer zédille. La graphie actuelle est issue de l'écriture gothique médiévale (ʒ). L'utilisation du signe gothique est due aux limitations de l'alphabet latin. Le nom provient de l'espagnol et apparaît au XVIIe siècle, il signifie petit z.

Le phonème /ts/ des langues romanes est issu du c /k/ latin palatalisé puis assibilé. Devant les voyelles qui auraient amené à une prononciation « dure » (/k/ devant a, o et u) on notait le phonème de différentes manières : soit simplement c, ce ou cz (e et z servent alors de lettres diacritiques). ceo doit alors se prononcer /tso/. Cette notation est utilisée dans Cantilène de sainte Eulalie – IXe siècle.

L'écriture wisigothique abrège cette graphie vers le XIe siècle, en Espagne. En suscrivant d'abord le c au z sous sa forme ʒ puis, dans un mouvement inverse, en rendant au c sa pleine taille tandis que ʒ s'est réduit à un signe souscrit. Ainsi, le mot espagnol lancʒa /lantsa/, « lance », en est-il venu à s'écrire lança. L'utilité d'un tel signe ainsi qu'une première volonté de systématisation de la notation de /ts/ a permis l'extension éventuelle (selon les copistes) de la cédille devant les voyelles i et e (çinco, « cinq »). Ce procédé est ensuite considéré comme une forme d'hypercorrection étant donné que la lettre c seule suffit (« cinq » et « çinq » se prononcent de la même façon).

The OP could go to a pub frequented by francophones and have a chat over a few pints. When one is relaxed the conversation flows.;)

Xhristy

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caoimhin44

Heinrich wrote: »

Avec mes respects c'est du pinaillage!

Apres ca vous allez nous expliquer le mot circonflex.:p



The OP could go to a pub frequented by francophones and have a chat over a few pints. When one is relaxed the conversation flows.;)

Je n'expliquerai plus rien vu que vous en connaissez un rayon
et meme plus que les français eux-memes.

garbanzo

This is a good thread folks. Merci a tous. I am probably like earlier contributors, insofar as I learnt French in primary and secondary and am still working on it 20 years later.

For the Dubs amongst us I find Modern Languages on Westland Row a very good shop for buying "contes" (novels) which you can work through. When there I did buy Colloquial French (Routeledge) for around €40 which gave me two CD's and a book which were great in the car. Brought me along a good bit

Also, for The Dubs amongst us NEAR FM between 90 and 91FM are a radio station which broacast a feed from Radio France International from 8:00am to 9:00am each weekday. It broadcasts from somewhere on the Northside. Reception is patchy on the Southside of Dublin but I can just about get it from Churchtown where I live. Not sure how legal it is but it is great for tuning in to your French. There is a lot of focus on Le Maghreb and Africa in general but apparently 45% of the worlds francophones live in Africa so it is designed to cover their lives, world etc.

Spent two fab weekend this time last year at the rugby world cup in Paris immersed in the language and really loved the experience. My goals are to up my French and Irish to good conversational level.

Bon courage a tous et n'oubliez pas le chanson ....... " spider cochon spider cochon, il peut peut marcher au plafond ..est-ce-qu'il peut faire un toile .... !! "

Aard

I recently bought a dual-language book called "Contes Francais" (edited by W. Fowlie) off Amazon for about €12. It contains 10 short stories by Voltaire, Balzac and more contemporary writers too. Can't go wrong

Terpsichore

Get a French girl friend!

garbanzo

Good call Terpsichore . . . . unfortunately my wife won't let me; so i will have to stumble on at the level I am at for the next wee while

Quel dommage !

Riconho

garbanzo wrote: »

Bon courage a tous et n'oubliez pas le chanson ....... " spider cochon spider cochon, il peut peut marcher au plafond ..est-ce-qu'il peut faire un toile .... !! "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrqOaAdDNq0

IvyTheTerrible

Terpsichore wrote: »

Get a French girl friend!

I wish this worked! I have a french boyfriend, we met in Ireland 3 years ago. He went from very poor spoken English to completely fluent. Now we are living in France and he doesn't want to speak French to me at home. So I am not improving my French because I only speak it at work. Arrrghhhh.

I need to convince him it's important for me now to improve my French.