Learning French via Podcasts and Audiobooks

Kai

Hi,

I have very basic french, the remains of what i was thought int Secondary school. I was interested in brushing up on the language during my commute to and from work and podcasts/audiobooks seem like a good option.

Has anyone tried to do this? What podcasts do you recommend?

plein de force

Kai wrote: »

Hi,

I have very basic french, the remains of what i was thought int Secondary school. I was interested in brushing up on the language during my commute to and from work and podcasts/audiobooks seem like a good option.

Has anyone tried to do this? What podcasts do you recommend?

if you have itunes you can subscribe to "dailyfrenchpod" for free and each day you get a podcast on a certain issue, spoken slowly, words broken down and explained in french, they're for a higher level of speaker maybe so there are podcast sercvices on itunes that cater for complete beginners which might be good for you to brush up the basics

also listen to the news online in french and read some atricles and try writing letters to a hypotheical pen pal to make your expression blossom, you have to learn a language through more than listening, you need to learn how to write, the grammare and how to speak

eVeNtInE

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pog it

eVeNtInE wrote: »

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What did you make of it?

eVeNtInE

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km991148

hey,

I stumbled upon this and decided to give it a try also, I have at least 1/2 commute so I though I may as well make use of the time (although I am also going to use rosetta stone or similar);

Anyway, wanted to ask if anyone has used coffeebreakfrench.com (also on itunes)?

I have listened to a few so far and seems ok;

km

djcervi

If you are using your laptop while you commute, you can log on to tv5.org (French speaking Television station), and go to 'apprendre le francais' and then click on '7 jours sur la planete'. Every week you can look at small news items with audio and transcription. Also exercises come with them to test your understanding.

km991148

for me I cycle (Ipod in one ear, gibbering away in pidgin french masked by noise of raffic) so videos would be too dangerous! (yes, even one ear & podcast is iffy..)
but I looked at 7 Jours videos there.. way too soon for listening to real french (totaly lost after Bonjour, merci.. used at the start!).

Anyway, sorry op for jumping in..

djcervi

km991148 wrote: »

for me I cycle (Ipod in one ear, gibbering away in pidgin french masked by noise of raffic) so videos would be too dangerous! (yes, even one ear & podcast is iffy..)
but I looked at 7 Jours videos there.. way too soon for listening to real french (totaly lost after Bonjour, merci.. used at the start!).

Anyway, sorry op for jumping in..

Alright. Well then maybe a good idea would be to teach yourself some French grammar, and vocab. There's a good book you can get called English Grammar for Students of French by Jacqueline Morton. You can get it on amazon or in a good language bookshop. It explains grammar concepts in French but relates them to English. I study French at university level, so it's been a great help for me. It's very approachable.

Also maybe a language exchange with a French person would be good

I actually listen to 7 jours as part of my language homework, but I think it's brilliant if you want a challenge.

km991148

yeah I have some french friends so once I get up to a reasonable level I can try with them; two of us are going to start from scratch and I dont think podcasts + software are enough (although in fairness to rosetta it is handy for shopwing the differences between tenses/male/female etc but not near enough).
7 jours sounds handy enough but way down the line for me!

what podcasts are others using?

WildRover234

Don't forget YouTube

Here's an example - over 40 French lessons

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=73902A2D4AB6E0A0

darjeeling

RFI does a nightly (21:00 GMT) ten minute news bulletin called "Le journal en français facile".

You can download it via iTunes, or from the web here, where you can also read a transcript of the latest edition.

It's not quite as easy as the title might suggest, and I often give a second listen-through, or listen whilst reading the transcript to catch what I've missed.

KevinVonSpiel

darjeeling wrote: »

RFI does a nightly (21:00 GMT) ten minute news bulletin called "Le journal en français facile".

You can download it via iTunes, or from the web here, where you can also read a transcript of the latest edition.

It's not quite as easy as the title might suggest, and I often give a second listen-through, or listen whilst reading the transcript to catch what I've missed.

Excellent link.