Language-learners' chat

VJsmum

Ooh hello fellow duolinguists.  I'm on day 653 of German (do i win?  LOL).

I did also start welsh but it's really hard - though 'hoffi coffi' is a favourite 🤣

most of my mistakes now are word order...

tiddles

Chris, what level exam do you need to pass to gain French citizenship?

TV5 monde has some good exercises to work towards the DELF/DALF? exams: https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/en

You can also buy books of exercises which I believe are like sample exam papers:
https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=delf+b2+francais+2021&crid=1N0HSPJO5UGVT&sprefix=Delf+%2Caps%2C78&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_7_5

Bon courage!

Chris_English

Mademoiselle said:

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

That's a good idea, thanks.

My French in-laws have very kindly bought me books in French, but at the moment I'm not quite able to read Victor Hugo comfortably (or at all, really.)

Rosa_Damascena

Mademoiselle said:

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

There is a fascinating programme I stream on YouTube called "C'est La Vie" hosted by France's answer to Laurel and Hardy. Its actually not that fascinating but the language and colloquialisms are easy to pick up; it helps that the participants are often shy / stuck for words.

Cherryfudge

VJsmum said:

Ooh hello fellow duolinguists.  I'm on day 653 of German (do i win?  LOL).

I did also start welsh but it's really hard - though 'hoffi coffi' is a favourite 🤣

most of my mistakes now are word order...

Day 339 French. And my poor Brazilian Portuguese has now got to 250 words, which is quite encouraging.

'Hoffi coffi' is fun! I've picked up a few fairly useless but very pretty French words: une barbe a papa (candyfloss) is literally 'daddy's beard' and a libellule is a dragonfly.

My most bewildering Portuguese word is 'homem' (man) and however hard I listen it still sounds like 'homami'. There are lots of words that are almost equally incomprehensible: a restaurant is 'o restaurante', pronounced 'o hestauranchee'.

Cherryfudge

Chris_English said:

My French in-laws have very kindly bought me books in French, but at the moment I'm not quite able to read Victor Hugo comfortably (or at all, really.)

Perhaps watch 'Les Miserables' subtitled into French?! 

Dorisd

Cherryfudge said:

VJsmum said:

Ooh hello fellow duolinguists.  I'm on day 653 of German (do i win?  LOL).

I did also start welsh but it's really hard - though 'hoffi coffi' is a favourite 🤣

most of my mistakes now are word order...

Day 339 French. And my poor Brazilian Portuguese has now got to 250 words, which is quite encouraging.

'Hoffi coffi' is fun! I've picked up a few fairly useless but very pretty French words: une barbe a papa (candyfloss) is literally 'daddy's beard' and a libellule is a dragonfly.

My most bewildering Portuguese word is 'homem' (man) and however hard I listen it still sounds like 'homami'. There are lots of words that are almost equally incomprehensible: a restaurant is 'o restaurante', pronounced 'o hestauranchee'.

I once heard Portuguese described as lazy and I get it now. There is no emphasis on the first letter of a word so homem is omem, which for me gets harder when you have to say O homem. I also think the last letters of words are not said such as Sim it sounds like si.
I should say my DH is Portuguese and he has been teaching me to roll my r’s! And make a weird hacking sound because r’s at the beginning of words are pronounced a bit like h 🤔 Brazilian Portuguese do pronounce words differently.

Cherryfudge

Thanks @Dorisd, that does help clarify it! I need to get hold of a thorough explanation (along the lines of 'Portuguese pronunciation for Dummies' if there's such a thing) because I'm learning mostly by ear, but I need to be able to write things down.

I did buy a book or two but they were too technical for me.

Cherryfudge

What do other Duolingo users think of the recent changes? There are a couple of things with the format which I don't think make much difference but last Friday I found a 'happy hour' where you get another 5 points between 7 and 8 pm. As the game aspect of it appeals and I want to stay in the league I'm in, I did use it, combined with the bonus evening points added when I put in a morning lesson. Is the 'happy hour' new or I have I just not noticed it before?

I'm still making mistakes over some of the uses of 'de', but otherwise pressing on...

I'm plodding on with vegetables in Portuguese (on Drops). Will I ever need to know the Portuguese for an artichoke, I wonder? Other languages seem to assume familiarity with vegetables we hardly get here!

OrkneyStar

I started learning German last March and have been using Duolingo for 250 something days (I initially started with a BBC CD)! I also dabble in Russian, though it really is dabbling and German is my main language of choice. I watch YouTube videos (Easy German and a few others), listen to podcasts, watch German made TV/films/series, try to read articles, listen to German music and so on, I love it! I found the BBC Bitesize website really useful for the grammar too. I can read written German better than I ever imagined and understand a fair bit of spoken German too, so I feel like I am making progress. I dropped French at age 13, and the only other language was dabbling in a Spanish evening course, so it's lovely to feel like I am finally picking up another language, albeit slowly!  Today I had to buy lightbulbs, and I remember learning that they were called Glühbirne(n) in German - the literal translation of that is 'glow(ing) pear(s)', and I think that's such a cool and funny name! I am so glad I started learning.

Edit - to expand reply, I got excited and wrote something quickly when I saw the thread!