Quote: (07-20-2014 09:19 AM)Cunnilinguist Wrote:
Some things Ive been noticing as Im progressing through the French-language universe:
- the French compress A LOT. For instance, in French courses you will be taught to say things like "Est-ce que tu vas au cinema ce soir?" (Are you going to the movies tonight?). In conversation, youre more likely to hear something like "t'vas au cine?" which will blow the mind off a newbie French speaker. This might seem obvious but I find with French it is especially true. The French often engage in this type of speaking: highly informal and compressed. It is one of the reasons why classroom learning is almost always a time waster for learning this language.
- the French speak FAST. Especially the girls and younger people, in general. A good way to practice your French is to seek out older people. They tend to slow down and enunciate their word better. You need to crawl before you can walk, so to speak.
- the Bescherelle is an invaluable tool. The Bescherelle is a compact little textbook full of conjugated French verbs in all tenses. Highly useful.
The compression and talking speed is what really got me when I was in France. Took me months to be able to understand people in Paris.
Parisians make "T'vas au cine" sound like "Tvascine"
But after a few months in Paris, when I went to Provence, I felt completely fluent. They made fun of me for pushing everything together like a Parisian. Everywhere outside of Paris they speak slower and don't slur all the words together.
French is a very structured language. If you learn the grammar and pronunciation rules you will be able to teach yourself the rest just listening to conversations on the metro and going out to talk to people. You can get by with a limited vocabulary and a good grasp of basic phrases and conjugations. Even most native french speakers don't use the more sophisticated french tenses that often.
Also most people speak some English too, especially in Paris. Went to the hospital and all the doctors wanted to practice their English, so I would speak in French and they would answer me in English.