Salut!
Wow! I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve made great progress in just a few days of starting on my quest to learn French fast. After getting a bit bored of just looking at the French words and matching them to pictures in online quizzes, I discovered a site called ‘About.com’ which has a whole load of free French language resources.
First on my learning list was a few of their “French Essentials”; I listened to the alphabet first of all, then checked out some of the most common phrases. I found the bit on “Survival French” pretty useful – I can imagine I’ll be saying “Plus lentement” (“More slowly”) quite often in Paris! It’s amazing what you can discover once you start learning a language. Did you know that “Si” is actually the French way of saying “Yes” in response to a negative question? As in, “You don’t speak French, do you?” “Si, actuellement , je parle bien le français!” I always thought “Si” was just a Spanish thing.
I’ve also tried listening to a couple of French learning CD’s in the car, and I’m finding they really help. Mind you, I don’t like all the stop / start “beep” noises and annoying musical interludes! But the opportunity to speak French in the privacy of my car is great! I plan go back to these in a couple of weeks once I’ve had a chance to fine-tune my listening skills elsewhere.
The French evening classes start tomorrow at the local college, hope I don’t make a faux pas on my first outing! It’s one thing to be speaking French to the computer or in the car, but something altogether different to be conversing with real people!
Ciao for now!
Nic