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Emery Davis[_3_] · 11-02-2013, 11:15 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:10:52 +0000, Sacha wrote:

On 2013-02-11 10:23:07 +0000, said:

In article ,
David Rance wrote:
On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 Martin wrote:

All those years ago school French was taught better than now.

Don't agree.

If it had been, I would never have passed my O-level (which I did very
comfortably). 25-30 years ago I decided to brush up my French by
listening to a cassette while commuting, and found out why I have so
much trouble understanding it (despite being able to read it, sort-of).
I literally cannot hear it. I can't hear the word breaks, distinguish
most of the vowels and, when spoken by a Frenchwoman, some vowels come
across as silence.

On this matter, I would like to recover my old ability and enhance it
enough to read literature (50 years ago, I could read Boule, Livres de
Poche etc., but not Camus). But trying to get any advice on how to do
so is murder, and my colleagues are unhelpful.
Inter alia, I need a reference on grammar, and dictionaries of idiom
and historical usage - not Villon, obviously. Any useful suggestions
appreciated but, to me, French is a dead language!

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The obvious recommendation is total immersion by spending 6 months
living there and speaking nothing but French. When I was doing French O
level we had to go into the French dining room at least once a week and
speak nothing but French. I chose to go in every day and actually found
myself thinking in French at one point. But the more easily accessible
route and one I've heard teachers commend, is reading a French newspaper
every day. Apparently, it starts off like visiting Mars but it does
disentangle itself and one picks up idiomatic French, as well as 'good'
French. I speak fairly good French for a foreigner but I find listening
to the radio murderous!

TV is useful, especially drama shows without complicated plots. (That
covers 99% of 'em)

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy