Learning French in order to get access to French literature

How long do you think it takes to learn French from scratch to the level which enables you to read its literature and poetry?

for a native English speaker? depends on your prior language learning experience and how much time you can spend, but it shouldn't take more than a few months.

ok. ok. wow. just... ok. there is not a single fucking french text worth learning the entire fucking language for. in fact the translators for Proust and Flaubert (the only French writers worth a damn) are often regarded as better prose writers than Proust and Flaubert themselves. If you are going to learn a second language, as a native english speaker, just double down on english. expand your vocabulary a lot more and learn how to actually appreciate great prose by the best writers of all time - James Joyce, Shakespeare, etc. - whose prose become more and more beautiful the better you understand english. plus they are so good they make almost all other writers irrelevant.

>but it shouldn't take more than a few months.
>to be able to read Zola, Balzac and others in French
are you actually kidding me?

actually not one bit, mein n word

>in fact the translators for Proust and Flaubert (the only French writers worth a damn)
the only French writers you're aware of

in short you're ignorant as fuck

If you specifically target reading, it will only take a few months if you work at it full time. There are several books designed to get reading (not speaking or writing, just reading) advanced French as quickly as possible. The best is "French for Reading" by Sandberg.

Will I be able to read Madame Bovary within a few months of studying French? Something tells me you don't have a clue.

which something is that

Louis-Ferdinand fucking Céline you asshole

common sense

If you can work through, memorize, and understand that entire book in a few months, sure. You'll have to work at it many hours a day. If you work slower it will take longer. They use books like this in intensive language courses to get masters students to the point of being able to interact with advanced literature and scholarship in their field in a few months' work.

If you think this is something strange, there are universities which do the same thing with ancient Greek and Latin. They'll hold intensive reading courses over the summer which will have you reading Greek texts in 3 months or so.

common sense? cute, but try a little harder pls.

what about like all of french philosophy

...

French prose is regarded as one of the best.

Why the fuck do you pop up in every thread?

what does Japanese have to do with French, I wonder?

not an argument

makes you think

you can learn french in 3 months if you join the french foreign legion

neither is "hurr common sense XDD"

I'd say, if one studies hard and puts his mind to it, it shouldn't take longer than 5-6 years of day-to-day accumulating as well as internalising vocabulary. But definitely not a few months.

this. Literally changed my life.

ITT: resentful monoglots who know fuck all about language learning

I'm not a native English speaker, so you're wrong.

I think the agreed upon number for reading fluency is 1 year of active practice. I've been studying latin for about 10 months now and I still can't read shit, but I guess with living languages it's easier.

Jesus, just consume tons of french media. Movies, books, music. You're on Veeky Forums so you don't have anything to do; watch a movie daily, then go straight to read books. I've taught myself italian that way

was Italian grammar difficult for you? especially irregular verbs?

bump

what books are you going to read?
I haven't read anything really in french since early Highschool and want to learn french again especially now that I have a little bit more time.

Not really, since my native tongue is spanish; but i don't think it would be that hard for an anglo to learn it. What i do is write down the grammatical persons in a column, and next to it the conjugated verbs, it helps a lot.

Srry. Stupid phone

It is notoriously hard to reach of a level of reading fluency in Latin, because the language is taught like a grammar puzzle. You need to go through a reading course like Lingua Latina by Orberg in order to get up to speed.

>because the language is taught like a grammar puzzle

God damn this. I studied Latin for 4-5 years and my vocabulary was piss poor by the end of it, but hell I knew my conjugations like the back of my hand. I think the reason is, since it is a dead language and you don't ever need to use it conversationally, and since therefore you only ever use it to basically translate old texts, you can pretty much always rely on a dictionary.

It is embarrassing though when someone tells you to tell them something in Latin and all you can remember is some classic idiom.

Art thou retarded?
It's fucking French. It's practically the same language as English.

2 full years at university level.

Yeah cos English has gendered nouns and 6 or more conjugations for each verb right including irregular verbs...

Fuck off.

Any university program which will teach you specifically how to READ French will only be a few months long.

French people like "surrender," so I rather think you should learn something else or read another country's au revoir. Learn American English and watch television. Americans (i.e. United States of Americans) have a high kill-death count, thus they be the best nation to ever live by those standards. Killing's as easy as breeding. In conclusion, the French were so bad that Americans had to invent the fry for them. I HATE AMERICANS! I HATE TELEVISION! THIS IS A RUSE! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE