Teaching Self French

Hey

I'm an UG and need to learn French fairly quickly to apply for a masters.. any tips to do this? :smile:

I've bought myself a CGP GCSE French textbook and also have Duolingo.

Any othr tips would be greatly appleciated? :smile:

(I have not learnt french since about Year 9 when I'd done it either 4 or 5 years).
I am a bit of linguist as well (not setting myself an obscene challenge) as I study German and Dutch :smile:

Reply 1

FrenchUnicorn

17

Original post by anna__

Hey

I'm an UG and need to learn French fairly quickly to apply for a masters.. any tips to do this? :smile:

I've bought myself a CGP GCSE French textbook and also have Duolingo.

Any othr tips would be greatly appleciated? :smile:

(I have not learnt french since about Year 9 when I'd done it either 4 or 5 years).
I am a bit of linguist as well (not setting myself an obscene challenge) as I study German and Dutch :smile:

Hi !

Duolingo is good, carry on with it :yep:

Also what you can do to improve your french :
- listen 10min of the French news everyday
- listen to French music everyday (Stromae, Zaz, Corneille, Louane, Shym )
- read a few pages of a French book before you go to sleep
- watch your movies/series settled in French WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

If you do that everyday you'll improve VERY quickly :yep:

Also what you can do is taking 30min-1h per day to learn one notion in French. That's what I do to learn Czech, and it's going well. You just have to pick something to learn for the day (ex : day 1 : how to count ; day 2: how to introduce yourself ...) And the following day you revise your old notion before learning the new one !

If you ever need help in French let me know, I'm a french native and I'd be happy to help :h:

Good luck

Reply 2

anna__

OP

4

Original post by FrenchUnicorn

Hi !

Duolingo is good, carry on with it :yep:

Also what you can do to improve your french :
- listen 10min of the French news everyday
- listen to French music everyday (Stromae, Zaz, Corneille, Louane, Shym )
- read a few pages of a French book before you go to sleep
- watch your movies/series settled in French WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

If you do that everyday you'll improve VERY quickly :yep:

Also what you can do is taking 30min-1h per day to learn one notion in French. That's what I do to learn Czech, and it's going well. You just have to pick something to learn for the day (ex : day 1 : how to count ; day 2: how to introduce yourself ...) And the following day you revise your old notion before learning the new one !

If you ever need help in French let me know, I'm a french native and I'd be happy to help :h:

Good luck

Thank you - especially thank you for the music ideas, as I was thinking that too, as I spend all day listening to music at work :smile:

and Duolingo is good on the way to work.

What I've done today (absolute basics) is writing down the days of week, months and some numbers on a sheet of paper trying to memorise them.

Thnak you for your help! How are you finding learning Czech? My friend studies it at uni and it looks hard haha!

Reply 3

FrenchUnicorn

17

Original post by anna__

Thank you - especially thank you for the music ideas, as I was thinking that too, as I spend all day listening to music at work :smile:

and Duolingo is good on the way to work.

What I've done today (absolute basics) is writing down the days of week, months and some numbers on a sheet of paper trying to memorise them.

Thnak you for your help! How are you finding learning Czech? My friend studies it at uni and it looks hard haha!

You're welcome :h:

Perfect for the music ! Carry on :wink:

! And what you did today is great, if you do stuff like that everyday it's perfect :five:

It looks a bit hard at 1st but once you start it's pretty cool actually :biggrin:

! I'm a linguist as well and like to learn languages :3 I am fluent in French, English, Arabic, I understand German to some extent - but barely speak it as I never practise - and I'm currently learning basic Czech (I plan to move to Prague next year for my studies so I thought it would be a good idea to learn a bit - my course will be in English tho )

What do you study btw :3 ?

Reply 4

DanteTheDoorKnob

5

I've heard of Selfridges, but Self French?

Reply 5

anna__

OP

4

Original post by FrenchUnicorn

You're welcome :h:

Perfect for the music ! Carry on :wink:

! And what you did today is great, if you do stuff like that everyday it's perfect :five:

It looks a bit hard at 1st but once you start it's pretty cool actually :biggrin:

! I'm a linguist as well and like to learn languages :3 I am fluent in French, English, Arabic, I understand German to some extent - but barely speak it as I never practise - and I'm currently learning basic Czech (I plan to move to Prague next year for my studies so I thought it would be a good idea to learn a bit - my course will be in English tho )

What do you study btw :3 ?

Well if you ever need to practise German then feel free to message me, I'm actually half German haha but study German at uni & am currently doing my YA there :smile:

Arabic would be such a cool language to know!

I study German and economics, with modules in Dutch, but I hope to be a language teacher so I need the French arghh... what do you study :smile:

Reply 6

FrenchUnicorn

17

Original post by anna__

Well if you ever need to practise German then feel free to message me, I'm actually half German haha but study German at uni & am currently doing my YA there :smile:

Arabic would be such a cool language to know!

I study German and economics, with modules in Dutch, but I hope to be a language teacher so I need the French arghh... what do you study :smile:

Aw that's very nice of you thank you :hugs:

Cool !! A language teacher :ahee:

I'm sure you'll be amazing don't worry about French you're gonna make it ;D !

My case is complicated xD gap year student best describes my current situation

I had my baccalaureate in 2014 (I live in France, and I am 20 right now)
Then I did one year of medicine but didn't validate it, so I did it again. The exams here are in 2 parts (in December and in May) and when I had my results of the 1st part I noticed it would be hard for me to validate my year anyway , and after I've been offered a place for a pharma/dentistery/midwifery/physio course, I decided to drop out to apply abroad. (For a med course)

So now I'm revising for my entrance examination to get in Charles Uni in Prague (the exam is next Wednesday :afraid:

) so fingers crossed :biggrin:

Reply 7

anna__

OP

4

No problem!

Haha I hope sooo.. I've not done anything French related since I was 14... and to be honest I did not care for it much at school.

To be honest - it's more interesting to do it like that :biggrin:

My friend did a semester at that uni :smile:

you'll love it, Prague is so beautiful!

Reply 8

Asolare

20

Probably iterating what's already been said but:

- Watch French YouTubers
- Watch French TV shows/Films etc.
- Try and read French children's books
- Listen to French songs
- Follow blogs/check out websites which are French-speaking
- Duolingo/Lingvist/Memrise all good websites for vocab.
- Change language settings on websites, your phone (though only when you know enough) etc. to French
- Try and find some natives to type or speak to
- Start incorporating French into everyday life e.g. start counting in French, not English (or German if you're like me where German has practically ruined my English)
- Try and set targets e.g. learn 30 French words a week, learn how to say various greetings
- On tumblr there's something called 'langblr' community for people who blog about learning languages, could give that a shot.
- Read French newspapers (online obv..)
- Cry.

Hope dis helped

Reply 9

FrenchUnicorn

17

Original post by anna__

No problem!

Haha I hope sooo.. I've not done anything French related since I was 14... and to be honest I did not care for it much at school.

To be honest - it's more interesting to do it like that :biggrin:

My friend did a semester at that uni :smile:

you'll love it, Prague is so beautiful!