On 2013-02-11 11:15:18 +0000, Emery Davis said:

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

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

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)

I hope they don't have the wretched music ott that we have here. Makes
me spit!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk