Learning French

[Rick]

I want to learn fluent french, I am complete beginner, i dont know anything about french, except for some time i spent in Switzerland where i learned couple of words here and there to find my way around ... luckily people were helpful.

Any "cheap" or free places to start with? I already know about Rosetta Stone ... I don't know if its worth the money ...


Any suggestions?
Rick

[madanthonywayne]

I want to learn fluent french, I am complete beginner, i dont know anything about french, except for some time i spent in Switze
Rick
Not to discourage you, but why the interest in French in particular? Two of my kids are currently taking French in grade school because Spanish was all filled up. As an American, if you're going to learn two languages, Spanish should be number two. If I were going to learn three languages, I'd probably go with Chinese or Arabic, or even Russian. But that's just me.

[Pandaemoni]

I want to learn fluent french, I am complete beginner, i dont know anything about french, except for some time i spent in Switzerland where i learned couple of words here and there to find my way around ... luckily people were helpful.

Any "cheap" or free places to start with? I already know about Rosetta Stone ... I don't know if its worth the money ...


Any suggestions?
Rick

My guess is that languages are too vast and complicated to find an online course that is free. There's just too much work involved. That said, there are basics available online (in multipart lessons). Just Google "French Course Online" and you can see a few.

In NYC, the 92nd Street Y has language courses that are generally free or low cost, but that is location specific. You could see how much it costs to audit a local college (even community college) introductory course.

You can also often find language tutors on Craigslist, though i know of no one who has found a tutor that way personally. If you can find a tutor offering a class to multiple students at a local library, I am guessing that would not cost too much per head.

As for Rosetta Stone...it is expensive and I have never myself used it, but I have friends who swear by it. It's no substitute for living in the culture and immersing yourself in the language directly, but i hear it is the next best thing—in a box.

[Fraggle Rocker]

Hey, if you're interested in French, go for it. Learning any foreign language will immensely enrich your thought process. Most of your thoughts are formed in language so you'll have two ways to think and you can test one against the other.

The advantage of French is that despite the fact that it's an Indo-European language and the relationship to English is obvious, it's still considerably different so it will stretch your thinking apparatus. The disadvantage is that the phonetics are rather difficult for Americans to get right. Maybe not so bad for the British, who speak a different dialect of English. But then the Brits just seem more capable of learning foreign languages than we are. Maybe it's because they can't drive for six days and still be in a country where everybody speaks English.

Indeed, French is not the most "useful" language in terms of contemporary world influence, like it would have been 150 years ago or even 100. But if you plan on spending time in Europe, you'll find lots of people who speak it. And if you go to France you will be welcomed rather enthusiastically if you speak French WELL, but only grudgingly if you insist on making them speak English.

Spanish is certainly a bit easier in syntax, grammar and pronunciation, and if you live in the USA you'll have lots of opportunity to practice it. My wife predicts that Latin America is poised to be the next economic powerhouse and the way things are going this year she could be right, since the rest of the world seems to be collapsing.

Chinese is not as difficult as most people think it is, because even though it's not related to English it has a familiar structure with lots of compound words and a much, much easier grammar than English or any other European language. The pronunciation takes some getting used to, but it's not really hard once you get over some new concepts, like tone and aspiration being phonemic. Reading and writing is pretty daunting and most adults don't feel like expending the massive effort to master it. You need to know 2,000 characters just to qualify under the communist government's very generous definition of "literacy," and that won't get you through a newspaper.

If you learn Arabic (or any major Middle Eastern language like Farsi) you can always get a job with the US government. :)

Who knows where Russia is headed, but their language is charming and it will definitely stretch both your mind and your poor tongue.

[Nasor]

Not to discourage you, but why the interest in French in particular? Two of my kids are currently taking French in grade school because Spanish was all filled up. As an American, if you're going to learn two languages, Spanish should be number two. If I were going to learn three languages, I'd probably go with Chinese or Arabic, or even Russian. But that's just me.
As Fraggle Rocker already pointed out, French is probably the best language to learn if you want to travel around Europe (other than perhaps English, which he apparently already knows). You will usually be able to communicate with people in places like Italy, Norway, Holland, or Germany using French, but not so much with Spanish.

Also, I don't really know about Chinese, but Arabic and Russian are generally considered MUCH more difficult to learn than French. In terms of ability gained/time invested, you will probably get a better return from studying French. Especially since anyone you are likely to need to communicate with from China will probably speak English anyway.

[Fraggle Rocker]

Also, I don't really know about Chinese, but Arabic and Russian are generally considered MUCH more difficult to learn than French.I assure you that Chinese is far easier than Russian, although I don't have any experience with Arabic. Personally I also find it easier than French. French grammar is a nightmare.In terms of ability gained/time invested, you will probably get a better return from studying French. Especially since anyone you are likely to need to communicate with from China will probably speak English anyway.Oh yeah. If there's one place where people will not be delighted to speak English with you, it's France.

[phlogistician]

This is usually my starting point before visiting a new country;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

You can pick up enough to get by using the online tuition. I always like to learn a little conversational language of whatever country I visit, numbers, please, thankyou, beer, petrol and diesel (don't want to buy the wrong thing), words for foodstuffs etc.