#mr.moderino

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

zinc cargoBOT
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Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

thick thicket
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Hey there! The answer is yes, regardless of what you've written about. Anyone can learn another language and that includes you.

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Speaking and listening are definitely the hardest to get used to, so reading might be a better start. You'll find that you recognise a lot more in spoken French if you've become a proficient reader/writer.

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Best of luck on your journey! We're here to help whenever we can.

idle cargo
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You can absolutely learn French. Your issue with listening is probably because you're not adjusting your level. Babies don't learn to ride a car when they're just barely starting to crawl. Same principle for a learner; don't listen to native conversation as a beginner. Find material one level below you and train there. You'll make it

civic ether
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Because I genuinely cannot understand a single thing listening to regular conversation French and I feel stupid

thick thicket
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If you learn actively, then progress may still feel slow. Compare your proficiency to that of six months ago, though, and you'll soon see a difference.

idle cargo
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hell I sometimes don't

pearl slate
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yes, even babies who we think of as the best language learners take 2 years minimum to even speak their first words, and we don't think of it often, but their accent, grammar, and vocabulary are usually pretty terrible until their like 10

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and that's after listening to their native language every waking hour at home, at school, from friends, from tv

whole moat
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Keep in mind that you have already learned a language fluently. Language is like the big thing that human brains are evolved for, you can always learn another regardless of what you may think or what other people say.
100% support what the others said. Don't beat yourself up. Keep a journal of your progress week by week so you can look back and see how far you've come. The progress will be very gradual.
As for French being fast... Every language is spoken fast by native speakers. Listen to informal English, the number of syllables that get crunched or dropped is huge.

pearl slate
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yeah, literally the only pre-requisite to studying a language to fluency is that you already know one

civic ether
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It seems I forgot to press the enter button. Thank you helpers. I have to note, quitting French is impossible. There is no scenario where I can just give up on French like you could with Japanese or German (Becuase we live in North America) because French is virtually mandatory for jobs in my city

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@pearl slate @whole moat @idle cargo @thick thicketAny thoughts on how much I should be spending daily learning French? I am currently using Busuu mainly and listening to the Coffee French podcasts from 2007 on Spotify. Feel free give feedback on what more I should be doing and how long I should be spending. I pushed myself to spend 20-30 minutes on Busuu and french podcasts yesterday. I had been on a very long break because it was very difficult starting French practice due my french level being laughable and embarrassing

pearl slate
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i think it depends on your level and just what works for you

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like if you don't know the past tense, it's probably more important to learn that from a textbook and the basic vocabulary than it is to listen to a podcast

civic ether
civic ether
pearl slate
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sorry, i don't really know what level that is

civic ether
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I don't either but extremely low

pearl slate
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i would say, since french is a necessity for you, that you should find a pdf online for a french textbook (assimil is the best) and work through it

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create flashcards, anki is the best way to do it, but it costs a little bit of money

civic ether
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I found a children PDF document on google. Feel free give me more

pearl slate
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you need to learn grammar in a systematic way, that duolingo probably won't teach you (busuu is better as far as I know, but it still can't be you're only tool)

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i would set aside minimum 30 minutes a day of study, an hour would be ideal, but with 30 minutes you'll make good progress if you're consistent

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i think as for listening to podcasts etc. it's probably best to not make that apart of your "study time", because you'll likely understand very little (that's ok though!)

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i would set as much stuff on your phone into french, so that youtube videos, twitter, instagram, whatever comes in french, listen to a french podcast on the bus, in the car, etc.