Learning French

A snowHead

I’m currently doing a second job which involves delivering food at weekends whilst we are in Lockdown (sheer boredom and an opportunity to earn some extra money). Obviously this results in a lot of time in and out of the car. I’m thinking of using this time to learn French. Can anyone recommend a good app that I can download and use whilst out delivering? I don’t mind paying for something either, so if you’ve learn French please share your experiences

A snowHead

I was recommended Pimsleur to learn Croatian, they do most languages, it is audio only so no need to look at anything, ideal when driving, it's American so a bit irritating.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

may as well learn something useful like chinese or russian Toofy Grin

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@Ricklovesthepowder, I dip in and out of the Coffee Morning Spanish. There is a French version which you might want to look at. Podcasts are free but you can sign up and pay for more stuff if you like.

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I’d be happy for a decent app to learn Spanish but it has to be offline. Portuguese data package is mean and I would burn through a months data allowance in a week when commuting.

Sorry, to add; this was with Duolingo.

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@CaravanSkier, Buenas dias , Mi aerodeslizador está lleno de anguilas. Very Happy

After all it is free

Duolingo. My wife is addicted to it and her French has really improved. It's free and covers more languages than you'll ever be able to hold in your head. Not something to use while driving though.

I'm making an effort to learn Swedish using Babel. Seems pretty good but I doubt you could do anything with it while driving as some of it is screen-based.

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Rocket French is a good package, and you can stream or download the audio to listen to in the car. Bit cheesy at times but it's worked for me.

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Thank you for the recommendations. I will have a look this weekend. I may as well do something useful with my time Toofy Grin

You know it makes sense.

I got on well with the Michel Thomas tapes. My French at the time was what I thought would be passable, but it turns out I was way off the mark. Doing the Thomas tapes gave me a big push forwards. I would say it depends on how much of a base you have in the language though, they’re not for complete beginners I’d suggest.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Italki is great for classes and 1:1 lessons are good value, perhaps better if you are not a complete beginner but there's no monthly commitment so worth checking out.

I went from basic to advanced Spanish using.

A snowHead

A snowHead

@Ricklovesthepowder, I admire your desire. I tried to learn French while driving but found I couldn't concentrate enougth. The Duolingo programme is the only one that is working for me.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Friends here told me "apprendre le français sur l'oreiller" Laughing

I saw a very nice french woman for 2½ years but after a few months she wanted to speak English all the time Shocked

Woman I've been seeing since last summer will only speak french to me although she does criticise me all the time for being crap Laughing

But as she speaks English, French and about 5 African languages I guess she's earned the right.

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The most difficult thing I find trying to speak French with any half reasonable ability is that I can't pronounce the French 'r' sound properly. Embarassed

I guess it's as hard for most English speakers as correctly pronouncing the English 'th' sound is for most French speakers.

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I think the basic stages of learning a language are crap no matter what program you use. There is no magic bullet - from memory, I used a combination of Duolingo and Coffee Break French. There is a youtube channel and podcast called 'Inner French', which is also good.

The sooner you can move onto native content, the better. At that point, you can progress onto integrating language learning into your daily life as it no longer feels like a chore.

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After all it is free

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Consider also getting audio recording of famous children stories as basic as Three Little Pigs. You don’t have to concentrate on the vocabulary but you will absorb it naturally as you already know what the words mean, pretty much. Or any story that you know really well, from fairy tales to Harry Potter, and beyond.

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I spent a lot of time, especially driving, listening to French version of the Harry Potter stories. You do absorb stuff, and notice more, and understand more, each time you listen. I also greatly enjoyed the Girl in the Pearl Earring - beautifully read (unlike the French Harry Potter books). For most of us, "listening skills" are the hardest to acquire. I like earwigging conversations in shops, too (though no chance of that, at present, obvs). My favourite is (daughter to mother) "il est ou, ton chariot? That's a very French construction.

I enjoy learning French, and currently am part of an excellent U3A French group, led by an ex-languages teacher who speaks very good French (they don't all.....). But I know my limitations - I could never begin to learn to speak Russian, let alone Chinese. That's a pretty daft suggestion.

I’ve learned Russian but wouldn’t recommend this method unless you already have a good grounding!

You know it makes sense.

I had to learn Russian for 1 year at grammar school ('73). Most of us didn't see the point of it, and the teacher was crap. (they had an older teacher, who was very good, but they gave it to the new guy) Sad

Fast forward 20 years and the point became a bit more obvious, but too late rolling eyes

It could have been very useful over the last 30 years or so.

Incidentally, the older guy (who was also my Form Tutor), was in his late 50's, had a Phd, taught History, Fluent in Russian and German. Highly likely the sort of guy who would have worked at Bletchey Park, but we didn't find out about that for another 25 years. Would have loved to have been able to talk about it with him.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Ricklovesthepowder, I know you said APP but if you can get hold of of a set of tapes from the "Readers Digest".

The best way to learn a language is to listen to the lessons on the way to work in your car.
But .. you could copy them onto your smartphone and play as you drive around on your own able to repeat the phrases without looking or sounding like a French Nutter.

Time well spent, I learnt German like this.
Good luck,

I'm trying to learn to play the piano at the moment, but its not going too well.
Since I got my keyboard at Christmas I have only partly mastered "Twinkle Twinkle"

A snowHead

If you can find it second-hand, a useful book would be from the old DK Hugo's In Three Months series. I can't vouch for the French one but they're really good (better than teach yourself).

A snowHead

I can recommend 'Learn French' by Paul Noble - I got it via Audible.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@DrLawn, thanks for the info. I’ve always wanted to play the piano too, but delivering a pizza, whilst driving and playing the piano isn’t going to end well Very Happy

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I subscribe to the free bulletins of the local French-language newspaper/cyberpaper where we have our apartment. They have an app, so I can ignore the notifications if I'm busy. But what this does is force me to read some French every couple of days, which is good practice. Some bulletins I can translate, no probs, which is encouraging. Others are completely incomprehensible because I don't have the vocabulary of colloquial terms and phrases. But then this is good opportunity to build up a knowledge of how locals actually speak about day-to-day issues, rather than what a phrasebook would say.

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A good (and free) way to improve your French is simply by having it in the background. If you're doing washing up, ironing or whatever, just have some French audio on. It helps you get your ear around the language, and often you'll unexpectedly hear things you've learned, helping to reinforce it.

Spotify has loads of French playlists if you prefer music, otherwise the RTL app is useful (RTL Belgium used to help me a lot).

Every little helps! Good luck.

After all it is free

I was chatting to a neighbour this afternoon about another neighbour who mysteriously disappeared. He complemented me on my much improved french which made my day Very Happy

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+1 for Michel Thomas in the car. The system is all about learning to speak, not write, and if you're by yourself in the car you can talk to yourself without feeling like an idiot. Suggest you do the introduction session and first lesson while not driving though, just to get the hang of it. I've done the beginner Spanish and started the beginner Italian, and used the advanced French to refresh my long-ago A-level, and I find them excellent.

Help!!

Learning French

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