#orangekorkor

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

sour oxideBOT
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tacit badger
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hi Jenn
here, you can pick any voice channel and converse in French, some channels are slower, some also allow English
there also are text channels like #français-débutant

how have you been learning until now?

sharp coyote
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Uhh I have been using Duolingo, but the app keeps saying my pronunciation is correct. I don’t trust it though. 😅

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I also am playing Pokemon GBA games in French to learn. I wonder if I can play and someone can walk me through the pronunciations of what the characters say. I can understand bits and pieces

tacit badger
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duolingo is famously very unreliable and very bad at teaching
that's fine to get started and have a little fun, but you can't use it as a main resource if you're looking for serious learning

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importantly, it doesn't teach at all how things work and why things work the way they do

sharp coyote
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Yeah… I figured. My pronunciation is terrible and I said “Merci beau cul” instead of “Merci beaucoup” several times in real life already. 🥲

tacit badger
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is English your native language?

sharp coyote
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Well long story short English is my second language. Korean is my first. But I use English more currently.

tacit badger
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well, pronunciation wise
French has a lot of vowel phonemes that do not exist in English nor Korean
so I think a lot of your work when it comes to pronunciation is going to be about that
it can be sneaky as an untrained ear can not even realize they are pronuncing things wrong

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you may have experienced it already with /u/ (ou) vs /y/ (u)

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but there are others

sharp coyote
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Oh yeah. I have trouble with une and un sometimes if I talk fast

tacit badger
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une and un also use different vowel sounds

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"un" uses a nasal vowel for instance, there are multiple in French and they're quite important

sharp coyote
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Well une sounds like regirock the Pokemon. At least to me.

tacit badger
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do you follow grammar lessons?

sharp coyote
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Grammar lessons?

tacit badger
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grammar is basically the rules of a language, how things work and how a sentence is structured

sharp coyote
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I do Google things when I have time. I just haven’t had much time to take notes on my iPad lately.

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I noticed in Duolingo that the endings of verbs can change depending on the subject.

tacit badger
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it's quite important to have basic grammatical knowledge in order to be able to piece things out
you don't need it, but it's going to be way slower without as you're basically gonna have to intuit the rules through experience instead of having it explained to you

tacit badger
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the verb changes based on the subject and the tense you're using

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the same thing happens in English:
I am
You are (same verb, different subject, the verb changes)
I was (same verb, different tense, the verb changes)

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but this concept is way more prevalent in French, with way more forms

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iirc Korean has conjugation too but only based on tenses and not subject

sharp coyote
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Hmm… so with every verb, I have to learn the conjugation on my own? I guess with doing things on my own, practicing is very important then.

tacit badger
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in French, 6 different subjects are considered for conjugation
je (I) / tu (singular you) / il, elle (he, she, it) / nous (we) / vous (plural you) / ils, elles (they)

tacit badger
sharp coyote
tacit badger
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I am a native speaker, but you can find tons of learners just like you here

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I recommend you get through basic grammar lessons still
might not be the most fun experience depending on how you prefer to learn, but even a handful of hours can save you a lot of time in the long run

sharp coyote
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Hmmm I think I can hire someone maybe to sit with me and go through the grammar and pronunciations. People offer private French lessons in my area. They can be paid for the trouble of listening to me butcher the language. I jest.

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I actually prefer someone giving me homework and teaching me by sitting down with me

tacit badger
sharp coyote
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Uhh I watch this guy on Instagram who does “Le poubelle malicieuse.”

tacit badger
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you were saying you wanted to play Pokemon in French, that's a very good initiative!
interacting with native media is a very valid way to improve.
You basically need 3 things:

  • to be motivated by it
  • to understand at least something
  • to be at least a bit challenged
    Just make sure the second condition is actually met. If you don't understand anything, you won't have a clue how to progress and actually understand, and won't be able to think actively about how to solve what you're reading. You need to be at least able to figure some stuff out
sharp coyote
sharp coyote