Language-learners' chat

CAFCGirl

How is everyone getting on?

I've managed to move into the 'travel' section of Duolingo and still remember a few words from my school days.

I'm finding the accents a challenge, as it doesn't seem to actually 'teach' them.... so I'm only really noticing them when it gives me a little message to say 'look out for the accents' - well I would if I knew the rules of using them in the first place! LOL
That and figuring out whats a masculine and whats a feminine, is there a hard and fast rule in Spanish? The is just 'the' in my English brain

Dorisd

I’ve managed to move a up a league in Duoling0, from memory and as it’s similar to Portuguese words ending in O are masculine and words in A are feminine.
I did check out the Scots but am sticking to Irish as that’s what I grew up learning. Some words are written the same or similar but sound completely different.

Cherryfudge

I just treat accents as part of the spelling but I've not done Spanish so I don't know if there are rules. I remember being taught in French that a circumflex often occurs where there would be an 's' in English, and I think an acute accent makes an e sound like an a, but in Portuguese they seem to have different rules again and I'm foundering. Perhaps one of our language teachers can help out?

I've come to the place of assuming things are masculine unless I'm fairly sure they are feminine... there seem to be a more masculines in French than feminines.

I'm struggling with various uses of 'de' and its friends. I've got to get through it somehow but there is just 'of' in my English brain!  

Cherryfudge

Well done on going up a league @Dorisd! I am floating around in the league I'm in but managed to avoid demotion. No way was I going to get to the top as there was someone up there with over 7,000 points in the week. I wonder if they slept at all?

MissRikkiC

Going well here too, managing to do something each day however have started with mixing up the topic as I found the same lessons over and over whilst got it in my head, I was a little less enthusiastic to be diligent. 

3 weeks in almost though and stuff is definitely coming back to me from school 

diminua

I'm afraid I'm up to over 600 days of French (little and often) and I still completely ignore the accents. Regarding gender - if I word ends in a single e in French it seems to usually be feminine (chemise, robe, fenetre), and if it ends in a consonant it's usually masculine - but it's not a hard and fast rule, just a trend (homme ends in e, after all). 

tiddles

In French, I think that all nouns ending in -tion are feminine, and those that end -ment are masculine. 

Chris_English

Evening all.

I’m applying for French citizenship, which requires a decent level of spoken and written French.

I’m going ahead and booking my exams for March, which gives me two months to step up from my current level which falls a bit short.

Any hints or tips as to decent reading material or online courses at the right level would be appreciated. 

Cherryfudge

Chris_English said:

Evening all.

I’m applying for French citizenship, which requires a decent level of spoken and written French.

I’m going ahead and booking my exams for March, which gives me two months to step up from my current level which falls a bit short.

Any hints or tips as to decent reading material or online courses at the right level would be appreciated. 

My French isn't up to citizenship standard but I've improved it quite a bit using Duolingo. I'm doing it very slowly and thoroughly but reading around I gather some people just do the basics for levels they're comfortable with, so it's possible to go a lot faster.

I noticed FutureLearn has a (paid?) course for work and travel in France which might be more your level (basic Duolingo is free). (Just checked and it's through FutureLearn but it's an Open University course).

I also noticed my local library has free online access to magazines and there seem to be some foreign language ones there. All that takes in Internet access and a library card.

Someone on here mentioned reading books in French to keep their hand in and I suppose anything like that which helps you be immersed in the language, could help. I bought magazines about food when I was in France because I like cooking and it's easier if you are interested in a subject.

All the best with it! It sounds like an adventure to me!

P.S. I remember a teacher when I was in the sixth form telling us he had learned Italian in six weeks in order to study there. I don't know how he did it but he must have had enough to go to lectures so I have every confidence that if you throw everything at it, you can do it!

Mademoiselle

Chris, I would suggest you watch TV, we moved to France more than 25 years ago and only had French TV, I watched cooking programs to learn food vocab, 'the price is right' to learn money and numbers, loads of games shows and quizzes for general vocab.  Also the news, gives you the vocab you need to chat to locals and will help at the interview part when you apply for nationality.

Don't watch TV in French as an exercise but just have it as background noise, think about how babies learn, first a noise, then sounds, then words, then they understand.  Speaking is always the last skill learnt.  You need to be out of your comfort zone to learn and don't worry about making mistakes.  I did.  Expressing (breast milk) or milking (cows), I was very pregnant at the time but nearly caused several early deliveries in the ante natal class! I'll never forget that one!

Bon courage