This is anecdotal and I am a sample of one, so do with this as you will. I have learned to speak French at two particular times. When I was very young, my Grandma Yvette often spoke French to me and I spent three years in French immersion. Now, I am an adult who barely speaks the language, but I have a daughter who I badly want to bless with the French language. So, I’m learning again... I have noticed two things. Th…
> As an adult, I’m damned near petrified to speak the language. Have a drink or two. Really. I've noticed I'm much better in a foreign language when I'm mildly drunk (or at least I think I am, which helps get past the self-awareness block).
You're being harsh for pouls / poux being singular/plural, provided it was the first time the author had encountered those words. That kind of knowledge comes with experience with the words, which the author didn't have. Bouloche has been corrected.
> Bouloche has been corrected. Indeed it has. But silently, which is surprising.
I don't think news outlets usually include spelling corrections in their list of corrections at the bottom of articles.
> If required, I can read French books. Not reading books will limit your vocabulary. If you read when required, you don't read.
It's not like it's actually possible to comfortably read french books when you learn the language, with their specific grammatical tenses only used in literature. I speak French fluently and at home but I'd be incapable to read a complicated book in that language (while I'm absolutely able to read English books and do that all the time, and speak English way less often).
You don't get better at what you don't do.
English books use different registers, vocabulary, and grammatical tenses than found in everyday speech also. Basically every language has differences in formally printed books and daily speech.
And it's not like you have to read dense texts only. There are plenty of short books, or books with lighter material, that learners can definitely read. It's a very good way to discover new vocabulary and see how words are used in what contexts.
Languages require continuous practice. Immersing yourself in it is the only way, or else just forget it, it won't happen. Every language in particular is hard on the tongue depending on your linguistic background and upbringing. An arabic speaking person would have challenges with french that are similar to an english speaking or spanish one but still not the same. How? Well for starters for example, such as in "de rien", the "e" vowel would threw off the Arabic speaker but not the "R". With Spanish the "R" is a nightmare and also the "e". For the English speaker the combining both brings pain and suffering. This simple comparison is about not just the non existing tones and sounds that one must master before uttering the correct word, but like I said before, it rhymes with immersing oneself in the language. Learning the meaning of "de rien" and using it correctly in a sentence is far from speaking it. Observing its context, ways of pronouncing ( think state of mind, a word can be spoken following many colors, something a non native lacks. as his or her speech comes flat). I wish I could use other words to deliver what I must say, but I hope you get the idea that Spoken language runs deeper than pronunciation and mastering grammar. Another side note I wanna add is that occasional practice is not gonna cut it. You wanna learn a language? Make it a daily activity. Music, TV,trivial conversations etc..You'll realize you're stepping out of your comfort zone, and that is a huge sign enough that you're building actually something solid.
The problem with French is that the French are very sensitive to mistakes. If I speak bad English (I am Russian), everybody is still happy, the worst thing can happen is I’ll get corrected, and in 99.9% of cases it’s not even that. If I speak bad French with a French person... may God have mercy upon my soul. Especially if I forgot to say bonjour/bonsoir first (abomination! burn the heretic!)
My experience in France is people in many places are very happy for you to attempt to converse in French. Outside of the main tourist areas, many people only speak French so you have to at least try. Of course in Paris, this is often not true.
> And I revel in small triumphs, like discovering that a woolen ball on a sweater is a “boulouche” It's not. It's "bouloche" -- https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/bouloche > When my kids brought home notices telling me to check their hair for “poux” (pronounced “poo”), I correctly deduced that it meant lice. But later, in a first-aid course, I was perplexed when the instructor told us to immediately check an unconscious…
And homonyms are not a french monopoly. Beach/bitch, sheet/shit, swan/swine are minefields for a non native speaker.
Languages require continuous practice. Immersing yourself in it is the only way, or else just forget it, it won't happen. Every language in particular is hard on the tongue depending on your linguistic background and upbringing. An arabic speaking person would have challenges with french that are similar to an english speaking or spanish one but still not the same. How? Well for starters for example, such as in "de r…
> Languages require continuous practice. Immersing yourself in it is the only way, or else just forget it, it won't happen.
I wonder if this applies to programming. I have tried many times to pick up Swift and Python. I am interested in it but I tend to get distracted by something else and then completely forget the languages.
I know any skill requires constant practice. But I still feel like programming falls more towards learning a different language.
In college Mandarin courses we were required to learn 30 words a day. That was a nearly impossible task for 20 year old me and required three hours of study a day on top of the 1:20 or 1:50 long daily class. To think a person more than twice that age can learn 30 words a day is, to my aged brain, ludicrous. Maybe it’s just me, but my learning ability is now vastly below what it was in my teens or even college.
So, it isn't actually. I did a short foray into learning Morse Code, and I ran into what I found to be the biggest barrier to learning new languages. The bloody lookup table phenomena. What happens is your mental representation maps the Morse sequence->your primary language character->whatever the message then actually means. This is a very high overhead mental process, and one specifically advised against by fluent…
I pasted that Morse code into Google fully expecting they'd have an automated translation to text. I was surprised when that failed.
An anecdote from a trip to Paris, I walked into a store to look for a gift for someone back home. After making the greeting in French, I started to explain what I was looking for. The woman stopped me. With a dramatic eye roll she said, "Speak English, pleeeease." An anecdote from a trip to Quebec city. My wife and I walked up to a hostess to inquire about getting a table for dinner. We greeted her in French. As soon…
> An anecdote from a trip to Quebec city. My wife and I walked up to a hostess to inquire about getting a table for dinner. We greeted her in French. As soon as we started to ask about a table, she stopped us and said, "No no no no. This will be in English." Native Québecois here. That's most definitely very odd. The typical scenario is someone not fluent in French attempts to speak it, and the other person switches…
I had a similar experience in Paris. "No, no, no, monsieur; we make this easy for everyone and do it in English." Depending on your mood and charitable inclinations, that's either supremely helpful or amazingly condescending.