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David Rance[_6_] · 11-02-2013, 01:43 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 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.

You're absolutely right. Going into a situation where you *have* to
speak in the local language is the only way to become really fluent.

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!

To make sure that we don't lose our ear while we're in England we watch
some French television (by satellite!) most days, usually the news.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK