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

[glinda]

I'd suggest consuming as much culture around the language that you're learning. There's nothing like using a language to improve your use of it, but since talking to native speakers can be nerve-racking or impractical (depending where you live). But its relatively easy to access culture cheaply or for free, the internet makes this much easier now than it was when I was a teenager (when I used to have to travel to the nearest big city to see a foreign-language film or raid the import section of the big record and book shops) with various on demand/streaming services and whole swathes of free stuff. I studied French and German at school but haven't studied them since then, and the main reason that I can still get by without a phrase book if I visit a country where those languages are spoken is that I've maintained by memory of the language with culture. Even with subtitles, if you have some knowledge of the language then a film can help reinforce your knowledge. Popular music and current movies also help give you a feel for how the language is used in everyday life, the slang and contractions that you just can't learn in a classroom. The advantage of french is that its spoken so many places so there's a huge variety of options, you can have your favourite genres in music or movies. I read a variety of comics in Gaidhlig (which I'm learning at the moment) and that's a really fun way to improve your vocabulary (the pictures carry me over the places my vocabulary let me down) and the French have made comics an artform in its own right. Good luck!

[afrozenflower]

I think I need to do that more often. The main reason why my English gets better is because I read/watch stuff in that language and have a couple of foreign friends whom I practice it with. Lately, I have been studying French like something that I need to be good at for my education, not a language I need to use and practise daily.

Thank you! :)