French

WordReference.com	WordReference is a multilingual dictionary and also some forums where people can ask all kinds of questions about languages and culture. Usually when I look up a word I find forum threads on it, in which I discover more words I need to look up, which lead me to other forum threads, until eventually I realise I've been reading for an hour and I've forgotten what my original query was. I learn a lot though, and help other forer@s when I can. My username is calembourde
TV and DVDs	The TV in my previous apartment had teletext, so I watched TV shows in French with the subtitles for the hearing impaired. That way, I can more easily recognise the words I know, and I can learn the spelling of words I don't know so that I can quickly look them up on WordReference. The subtitles aren't always identical to the audio, so sometimes I learn different ways of saying the same things. I never watch with English subtitles... it's too distracting trying to understand the same thing in two languages at once, and I'd probably end up not paying any attention to the French. More...
TV and DVDs	The TV in my previous apartment had teletext, so I watched TV shows in French with the subtitles for the hearing impaired. That way, I can more easily recognise the words I know, and I can learn the spelling of words I don't know so that I can quickly look them up on WordReference. The subtitles aren't always identical to the audio, so sometimes I learn different ways of saying the same things. I never watch with English subtitles... it's too distracting trying to understand the same thing in two languages at once, and I'd probably end up not paying any attention to the French. More...
Books	Fairly early in my French learning, I was lucky enough to come across Le Mystère de la Patience, the French translation of The Solitaire Mystery at a fair. I know the story well, having read it about five times in English, so I was able to follow it pretty well even in French. I should warn you that unless you already know the story, it's probably not a good book to start with... it has a complicated plot which could be difficult to follow even in English. More...
Books	Fairly early in my French learning, I was lucky enough to come across Le Mystère de la Patience, the French translation of The Solitaire Mystery at a fair. I know the story well, having read it about five times in English, so I was able to follow it pretty well even in French. I should warn you that unless you already know the story, it's probably not a good book to start with... it has a complicated plot which could be difficult to follow even in English. More...
Events	I go to lectures and other events on topics that I am familiar with and which I would like to think I'd understand in any language. Particularly technical things such as computers and physics, because a lot of technical words are the same in both languages, just differently pronounced. More...
Events	I go to lectures and other events on topics that I am familiar with and which I would like to think I'd understand in any language. Particularly technical things such as computers and physics, because a lot of technical words are the same in both languages, just differently pronounced. More...
Songs	I listen to a lot of music in French. I find that if I listen to something a lot, I don't just remember the general meaning of what was said, but the exact wording, pronunciation, and intonation. So after having listened to so many French songs, I have a bank of ready-made example phrases in my head which I can call upon if I ever have a doubt about how to form a particular grammatical structure, or the gender of a noun, or anything like that. More...
Songs	I listen to a lot of music in French. I find that if I listen to something a lot, I don't just remember the general meaning of what was said, but the exact wording, pronunciation, and intonation. So after having listened to so many French songs, I have a bank of ready-made example phrases in my head which I can call upon if I ever have a doubt about how to form a particular grammatical structure, or the gender of a noun, or anything like that. More...
Forums	To practise actually producing French rather than just understanding it, and also in the hope of meeting real people who don't speak English (or at least pretend not to), I post on various French-speaking forums on topics I am interested in. It takes a lot of time, because, in French as well as English, I always read what I've written several times and check all aspects of the grammar. And inevitably I still end up making mistakes. But I learn a lot in the process. More...
Forums	To practise actually producing French rather than just understanding it, and also in the hope of meeting real people who don't speak English (or at least pretend not to), I post on various French-speaking forums on topics I am interested in. It takes a lot of time, because, in French as well as English, I always read what I've written several times and check all aspects of the grammar. And inevitably I still end up making mistakes. But I learn a lot in the process. More...
La Pomme	Telling myself that I'd understand my Mac in any language, one of the first things I did, after learning the very basics of French grammar, was to switch my Mac to French. In general I know what all the menus and buttons are, it doesn't matter if they're called something different. I'd switch it back occasionally if there was something I didn't understand, or to learn a new application. More...
La Pomme	Telling myself that I'd understand my Mac in any language, one of the first things I did, after learning the very basics of French grammar, was to switch my Mac to French. In general I know what all the menus and buttons are, it doesn't matter if they're called something different. I'd switch it back occasionally if there was something I didn't understand, or to learn a new application. More...
Pimsleur Quick and Simple French for English Speakers	The very first thing I did, in late January 2005, the day I found out that I'd be moving to Geneva, was to download Pimsleur's French for English Speakers audiobook from Audible (now available on iTunes.) I'd listened to the equivalent audiobook in German and it seemed like a good enough way to get a basic introduction. It's eight half-hour lessons covering exactly the same stuff as the German one. Down to the exact phrases and conversations, with slight variations to suit the language. Hello, do you speak English, I speak a little bit of French, where is Rue Saint-Jacques, Rue Saint-Jacques is not here, Boulevard Saint-Michel is here, Rue Saint-Jacques is over there, etc. It's a good way to get a few basics and a general feel for the language just as somewhere to start from, though everything I learnt has been long since been overwritten by a more general grammatical understanding. More...
French Classes at CERN	Soon after starting my fellowship at CERN, I did two French courses there. Since I'd already started teaching myself some French, I was put in the 'false beginners' class, where they put people who either know a bit of French or speak a closely related language such as Italian or Spanish. So... all that effort teaching myself French and I may as well have been Spanish. Anyway, these courses were excellent... they are taught entirely in French. Here's an extract from my travelogue, in which I ramble about the benefits of such a course. More...
French Classes at CERN	Soon after starting my fellowship at CERN, I did two French courses there. Since I'd already started teaching myself some French, I was put in the 'false beginners' class, where they put people who either know a bit of French or speak a closely related language such as Italian or Spanish. So... all that effort teaching myself French and I may as well have been Spanish. Anyway, these courses were excellent... they are taught entirely in French. Here's an extract from my travelogue, in which I ramble about the benefits of such a course. More...
WordReference.com	WordReference is a multilingual dictionary and also some forums where people can ask all kinds of questions about languages and culture. Usually when I look up a word I find forum threads on it, in which I discover more words I need to look up, which lead me to other forum threads, until eventually I realise I've been reading for an hour and I've forgotten what my original query was. I learn a lot though, and help other forer@s when I can. My username is calembourde
Podcasts in French	Many of the podcasts I listen to come from Radio Suisse Romande. This way I greatly increase my exposure to spoken French, and at the same time I gradually learn about Swiss culture and everyday life. I hope that it will also develop a tendency toward a Swiss accent, if such a thing exists. To have a recognisably Swiss accent rather than simply a foreign one would be the ultimate feat in phonetic mastery. More...
Podcasts in French	Many of the podcasts I listen to come from Radio Suisse Romande. This way I greatly increase my exposure to spoken French, and at the same time I gradually learn about Swiss culture and everyday life. I hope that it will also develop a tendency toward a Swiss accent, if such a thing exists. To have a recognisably Swiss accent rather than simply a foreign one would be the ultimate feat in phonetic mastery. More...
Hugo French in 3 Months	Having had some success with Hugo German in 3 months, a month before moving to Geneva I bought the French version of the book. It's somewhat different in format... clearly the authors are not constrained by the publisher name. Nonetheless I found it just as helpful. I finished reading it in two months, that is, a month after arriving in Geneva. I managed to get by in a few shops etc, although looking back at what I remember saying I'm embarrassed at how badly I phrased and pronounced things. More...
Hugo French in 3 Months	Having had some success with Hugo German in 3 months, a month before moving to Geneva I bought the French version of the book. It's somewhat different in format... clearly the authors are not constrained by the publisher name. Nonetheless I found it just as helpful. I finished reading it in two months, that is, a month after arriving in Geneva. I managed to get by in a few shops etc, although looking back at what I remember saying I'm embarrassed at how badly I phrased and pronounced things. More...
Hugo Advanced French	I bought this book complete with CDs, and started reading and listening to it some time during or after the CERN French course. I often re-read bits of it because some of the subtler points haven't entirely sunk in. The straight texts read on the CDs were useful in the beginning, when I needed to read and listen to a passage several times before understanding every word. The CD versions of exercises from the book are not so useful though, since the CD can't tell me whether I am pronouncing things correctly. I would have liked more listening exercises focussing on distinguishing different phonemes, but I guess what I really want to do is a phonetics course. In any case, considering the importance of French in my life I think the CDs are worth having.
Hugo Advanced French	I bought this book complete with CDs, and started reading and listening to it some time during or after the CERN French course. I often re-read bits of it because some of the subtler points haven't entirely sunk in. The straight texts read on the CDs were useful in the beginning, when I needed to read and listen to a passage several times before understanding every word. The CD versions of exercises from the book are not so useful though, since the CD can't tell me whether I am pronouncing things correctly. I would have liked more listening exercises focussing on distinguishing different phonemes, but I guess what I really want to do is a phonetics course. In any case, considering the importance of French in my life I think the CDs are worth having.
Living in Geneva	Of course, one of the main reasons I learnt French was because I moved to Geneva, and one of the main reasons I wanted to move to Geneva was to learn French. But although I see plenty of signs and other things around in French, I don't get much French practice here. My colleagues all speak English, my friends all speak English (although I'm finally starting to find people who at least pretend not to.) Geneva is an international city. According to this most awesome book, Geneva is the canton with the largest percentage of people who do not speak any of the four official languages of Switzerland natively. A higher percentage (16.6) of people speak an 'other' language in Geneva than speak Rumansch in Graubünden (14.5). If you include the native speakers of other Swiss languages, 24.2% of inhabitants of Geneva are not native speakers of French. So it is very likely that if I go into town and speak French to a stranger for whatever reason, that person will hear my accent and respond in perfect English. It takes a lot of willpower to force them and myself to switch back to French, particularly when there's a one in four chance that my interlocutor is not a native French speaker either. More...
Living in Geneva	Of course, one of the main reasons I learnt French was because I moved to Geneva, and one of the main reasons I wanted to move to Geneva was to learn French. But although I see plenty of signs and other things around in French, I don't get much French practice here. My colleagues all speak English, my friends all speak English (although I'm finally starting to find people who at least pretend not to.) Geneva is an international city. According to this most awesome book, Geneva is the canton with the largest percentage of people who do not speak any of the four official languages of Switzerland natively. A higher percentage (16.6) of people speak an 'other' language in Geneva than speak Rumansch in Graubünden (14.5). If you include the native speakers of other Swiss languages, 24.2% of inhabitants of Geneva are not native speakers of French. So it is very likely that if I go into town and speak French to a stranger for whatever reason, that person will hear my accent and respond in perfect English. It takes a lot of willpower to force them and myself to switch back to French, particularly when there's a one in four chance that my interlocutor is not a native French speaker either. More...
This site	Most of my other methods of learning involve a lot of input, and not a lot of output. I don't have much problem understanding French now but I really need practice writing and speaking it. So as you can see, I'm working on a French version of this site. Most of the French pages don't say as much as the English ones at the moment, but I'm getting there. If you speak French, I'd appreciate it if you'd point out any errors in my French or anything that does not seem natural.
This site	Most of my other methods of learning involve a lot of input, and not a lot of output. I don't have much problem understanding French now but I really need practice writing and speaking it. So as you can see, I'm working on a French version of this site. Most of the French pages don't say as much as the English ones at the moment, but I'm getting there. If you speak French, I'd appreciate it if you'd point out any errors in my French or anything that does not seem natural.
Eureka's Languages of the World	I really loved this software because it allowed me to learn French the same way I learn a programming language... by getting a general overview, and then diving in and looking things up as I go along. The main idea is that there is a passage in French, which the software can read aloud (word by word, phrase by phrase, or continuously.) Clicking on each word or phrase will give the translation, information on the grammar, and other stuff. There are also games based on the text, such as a cloze exercises and crosswords, which can be customised to use only certain parts of speech, or only certain words which you have trouble with. There's even a way to practise oral French, which gives feedback on pronunciation! I didn't use that much as in some cases I couldn't figure out what was supposedly wrong with my pronunciation, but I should try again now that my pronunciation has theoretically improved. And I got all this for NZ$10. The DVD contains not just French but nine other languages as well. More...
Eureka's Languages of the World	I really loved this software because it allowed me to learn French the same way I learn a programming language... by getting a general overview, and then diving in and looking things up as I go along. The main idea is that there is a passage in French, which the software can read aloud (word by word, phrase by phrase, or continuously.) Clicking on each word or phrase will give the translation, information on the grammar, and other stuff. There are also games based on the text, such as a cloze exercises and crosswords, which can be customised to use only certain parts of speech, or only certain words which you have trouble with. There's even a way to practise oral French, which gives feedback on pronunciation! I didn't use that much as in some cases I couldn't figure out what was supposedly wrong with my pronunciation, but I should try again now that my pronunciation has theoretically improved. And I got all this for NZ$10. The DVD contains not just French but nine other languages as well. More...
Pimsleur Quick and Simple French for English Speakers	The very first thing I did, in late January 2005, the day I found out that I'd be moving to Geneva, was to download Pimsleur's French for English Speakers audiobook from Audible (now available on iTunes.) I'd listened to the equivalent audiobook in German and it seemed like a good enough way to get a basic introduction. It's eight half-hour lessons covering exactly the same stuff as the German one. Down to the exact phrases and conversations, with slight variations to suit the language. Hello, do you speak English, I speak a little bit of French, where is Rue Saint-Jacques, Rue Saint-Jacques is not here, Boulevard Saint-Michel is here, Rue Saint-Jacques is over there, etc. It's a good way to get a few basics and a general feel for the language just as somewhere to start from, though everything I learnt has been long since been overwritten by a more general grammatical understanding. More...

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