French

[afrozenflower]

I've been learning French in school ever since I was 13, but now after 4 years, I still don't feel like I know enough. I don't know if it is because I'm lazy and a slow learner (which I don't think I am, since I love learning languages and it is basically everything that I study) or is it because the education sucks.

Maybe I'm just restless because I am used to be pretty good at languages. But then again, Arabic is my first language and I've been learning English since I was in Kindergarten. I've been reading and writing in both languages for years now. So it is frustrating for me that I am not that good in another languages as I am in Arabic and English.

Regardless, I have been slowly trying to study more than what is required for me at school. I'm fairly good at grammar but my vocabulary isn't impressive. And naturally, since I have been learning French only from school, my pronunciations is awful. (It is getting better now, but you don't want to know how I pronounced French words when I was 14 *shudders*.)

I guess my tongue is just used to talking in three accents and that's it. (I keep switching between American and British English, but lately I have just been using BE. Mostly because I'm most comfortable with it.) But I'm slowly getting used to the accent. I've been using Duolingo mainly for that, so there is some sort of improvement at least.

So anyway, aside from Duolingo, I have been pushing myself to study French more. It would certainly help me in school, but I also would love to be as good in French as I am in English, or at least close.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to do more to help me. Do you have any tips for learning new languages? Any books I should be reading?

Comments

[afrozenflowerr.livejournal.com]

Duolingo is really good. And it really helps with pronunciation, since I don't know anyone who speaks French in real life and so I can't practise it with anyone. What languages are you learning?

I think I need to that more. I will start with movies (with subtitles of course) and songs. Then, maybe books. (I will probably wait for a while before that last one though.)

[navaan]

At the moment I'm using Duolingo more for keeping in practice than for learning new things. Mostly for Italian. I grew up bi-lingually, but I'm not actually speaking it much outside of meeting family a few times a year and never learned to write it properly so that's something I'm working on. At work I use English and Japanese every day and I feel by now I'm more fluent in both of them then I'm in Italian and that's a bit sad.

Last year's job stint at a French firm also made me realize that I really want to at least attempt to learn French "again", but an Eastern European language would probably be more important for my job... So, I'm thinking about picking up something new. :D

I think I need to that more. I will start with movies (with subtitles of course) and songs. Then, maybe books. (I will probably wait for a while before that last one though.)

*nods* I've spoken about that with a colleague who is trying to get better at English recently. For some reason I remember that when I was learning English in school I attempted to read books first, before attempting movies, bit it could be that back then I didn't have access to subtitled films as easily as I have today, because today I'd also recommend subtitled movies as the first option. I found it very helpful for English and Japanese to after a while watch movies with Japanese/English subtitles so that I could read along the things that I didn't catch right away, too. Improved my listening comprehension (and in the case of Japanese my character reading ability) tremendously.

[afrozenflowerr.livejournal.com]

Japanese seems very popular. It certainly is here too. I once asked my friend why she wanted to learn it, she told me because she wanted to watch Anime without subtitles. XD
But in all seriousness, she really loves the language.

Yes. Movies/TV shows really help in understanding the slang and how everyone in those countries talk.

[navaan]

Yeah, manga and anime fans are quite frequently among the Japanese students. I studied Japanese at uni and taught the language for three years to a more mixed crowd of students, though. In the end all reasons to learn a language and find out more about different cultures are good reasons. :D