I should have paid more attention to the previous French language threads.
What are the best online resources to learn French?
What are good French websites to practice one's reading?
Which books on French grammar would you recommend for someone who has previously studied language and grammar?
Feel free to post your questions about the French language and other such matters.
I downloaded a large torrent with a ton of French textbooks and I found this by far the most useful for getting a grounding in grammar
Thanks for the recommend.
Would it be possible to share that magnet link somehow?
Oh, geez. I just found this reddit thread: reddit.com
What's the best way to learn as a daily routine?
I use Duolingo and Lingvist daily but I've heard lots of people complain that Duo isn't very good. Is using Anki with pre-made decks worth it?
Also getting pic related as a gift for Christmas. Anyone have any experience with this or the other books?
I became conversational in about three semesters. I make mistakes, but I get my point across. If I were you I'd start studying all of the verbs and each of their tenses. Start with aller, faire, etre, avoir, then move on to er, ir, re, etc etc. Then start forming sentences and start immersing yourself by reading in french, listening to news in french etc etc. I learned the best by reading books in french and also by playing morrowind and fallout in french. Morrowind and fallout seemed to really do the trick cause it's like you're put in a world and are forced to adapt basically.
>English Grammar for students of French
Man that's a really stupid title
Anyway your routine will be dependent on your current proficiency. Early on things like Duolingo are more than adequate simply to beat in the core vocabulary and basic sentence structures.
Once you have a basic proficiency (can construct/follow basic sentences with time and help with vocabulary) you should get into reading texts. Its really the most effective way to understand a language and all polyglots emphasise it
it takes half a year avg to become fluent. if you arent a retard it takes nothing special
Yeah it's supposed to help with grammar in French but also explain it if you're not familiar with all grammatical terms in English as well. I'm hoping that it's going to be useful.
Any texts in particular that you'd suggest to begin with or do you mean just any text I can find? I can read along pretty well with just about anything that comes up on Duo apart from the more complicated vocabulary.
First year French students all use the University of Texas free website. All the homework there will help you become somewhat fluent by the end of it. If you're dedicated, you could become fluent in reading/writing in about two-three months.
Practice every day by translating some works from english to french, and vis versa. It will help you understand the similarities between the languages.
>laits.utexas.edu
This is your primary textbook and learning guide
This is the best website for looking up words.
use this to check grammar.
Other notes:
Add international keyboard to your computer (google it; this will make typing french much easier in tex)
Listen to French music. Even if you don't understand it, it will help you get in the mindset for learning and listening to French, since you won't have a teacher.
Get a French penpal. There are websites online for people who are trying to learn other languages, and will connect you with a French speaker who is learning English. They will probably be younger than you, but still be respectful.
Il y a un livre qui s'appelle "Savoir dire" par Diane Dansereau. C'est magnifique pour l'apprentissage du francais. Si vous etes anglophone, sachez que les francais nous a donne presque 25% de notre vocabulaire anglais
forgot to add:
duolingo is trash. it teaches you how to say phrases, but not how the language works. this will bite you in the ass later on.
wow so i guess i cant use duolingo for japanese then?
Half a year for you to be able to speak fluently in another language? What are you albert einstein?
i've never tried it for japanese. its a completely different language than french.
with romance languages, you absolutely need to learn how to conjugate verbs, the structure of direct/indirect pronouns, how adjectives are placed, etc. with eastern languages, I believe they're more picture oriented, and have a much different grammar style.
So you're saying I'm not a romantic?
Its not that hard. You can speak it at about the same level as illegal immigrants working on their citizenship can speak english. Half a year for a language is a long time. You should, if you try, be able to write essays (albiet short and trite) by 6 months. You should also be able to translate 1st-2nd grade level books fairly easily by that point.
Can anyone help me learn German?
I am going to go travelling around Germany this summer to visit distant relatives, ich kannst kleine sprechen deustch!!
My friend let me borrow his textbook from a university intro to German course, but its based around class activities and quite difficult to navigate alone.
Can anyone recommend me some good German resources for basic conversation?
Take a French class
use french social media, watch french films or shows and subscribe to any newspaper of your interest. Le Monde costs like 1-2 dollars per month
if you arent an idiot or dont fucking spend all your time being useless it is the average time spent to fluency by an english speaker that succeeds
if you fail, they don't measure the time, because it could take 4 years or 10 or 99. you failed.
and no, no one succeeds at french after 7 years. french is the easiest fucking language for an english speaker. if you fail you're a retard
fully half of all people do it in less than half a year
Check the /djt/ thread on /jp/. I've heard they're supposed to be helpful.
>Any texts in particular that you'd suggest to begin with or do you mean just any text I can find?
Down to your own taste, Houellebecq and Camus both use austere prose that makes for good novels to begin with
Fluency is a relative term
he is a retard asking basic fucking shit
start at books fir kindergarteners or maybe the little prince
Oh right in that case I'd actually recommend a book he already read already and knows the plot. Like the Bible
fluency is not relative at all. there is a european classification system that is fairly reliable that is used by int. unis. complete fluency in 6 months is average
Nah I mean like at what point in CERF are you fluent. B2 is the standard for entrance to Universities but I've been an English teacher and B2s still make tons of mistakes.
I don't see someone getting to C2 in six months unless they seriously hauled ass, that takes a lot of practice
Yeah because I've been taking french for a year and a half and it's like sure I can form sentences and speak like a child, but I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I were fluent. Fluent shouldn't be that relative.
>complete fluency in 6 months is average
No it isn't you actual fucking mong.
Yeah what I'd say is you're conversational when you're able to say/understand anything given enough time and maybe help with the odd word but you're not fluent until you can just babble on without even thinking about it
6 months is the average of (adult) people that succeed at reaching b2 EVER. if it takes longer than 2 years to reach b2 you NEVER reach b2.
the only vague gaps are c 1 and 2 bc many native monolingual fucking speakers cannot perform at this level
they've tracked this closely.
>bc many native monolingual fucking speakers cannot perform at this level
Like actual fucking Niggers. C2 is sophisticated but C1 at a native level is rudimentary
note the criteria for c breaktrhough
>Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer clauses, and recognize implicit meaning.
Can express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions.
Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
fully 50% of american college graduates cannot do this
in the USA you study a language exclusively for six months?
otherwise that is just a lie
Move to a small town in Quebec for three months like I did. Only teenagers speak English, and it's pretty hard to follow. Learn or starve.
this is measuring full time studying, inclusive of but not limited to immersion, of adult MONOlingual native english speakers learning french, and does not include failure (failure can last 10 years, distorting the metrics)
people think french takes long to learn because they are dumb and spend their time masturbating
Yeah this is a pretty rough framework I guess, because I've studied some areas more than others. Like for my field, I studied a lot of its vocab. I'd say I'm probably B2/C1 maybe, and that's after three semesters. Given, I studied a lot harder when I started out, and now I kind of study occasionally but still keep up with immersion.
I personally recommend Michel Thomas
I torrented his French and other audio courses
The best thing about Michel instead of teaching you basic vocabulary or phrases he naturally roles out the general foundations of the language very naturally, making it much easier to grow those skills
Plus you make noticeable progress pretty quickly
It was won’t be everything you need but it’s the best starting point I can recommend
I've thought about doing this since I'm currently in the GTA and trying to learn, stubbornly, for about 9 or 10 months now. Where did you end up going, and how did you sustain yourself?