I wish to learn French.
I do not have any prior academic experience (classes) in French. I took four years of high school Spanish, and two years of college Spanish.
My girlfriend knows some French and has insisted that I could teach it to myself with books and tapes/cds. I feel I'd probably need to sign up for classes at the local community college and my university or at least find a reasonably priced tutor to get very valuable conversational experience, though language classes can be a pain (especially those that meet 4-5 days a week.)
So, what do you think? Do you think I should at least skip French I?
do it if you want to lern french, itll all help
I should admit that I'm doing it with one eye on possible future Canadian citizenship...not like most of them speak French...but it'll help me gain more immigration "points".
Jay, where are you from? I have a Canadian friend who told me about the points system, and speaking French gives a person A LOT of points.
I too, have thought about immigrating to Canada, but I am too proud of my American Heritage (in a historical sense) to migrate there. However, if I ever settle down there, I would get Canadian citizenship.
Jay
I'm learning French too. I need academic learning, so I took some lessons and It helped a lot. My brother, on the other hand learned French by himself and he learned pretty well.
Bonne chance !
Clark
I recommend you to Immigrate to France instead of Quebec as I know both accents very well and lived in both places.
Bon courage !
Sima, if I immigrate to Canada, it will be to Digby, Nova Scotia as my Canadian ancestors were from there. But you are right; if I were moving somewhere because of the French language, it would be to France.
Clark
yes, speaking French as you say gives a person a lot of points. %60 of English words are borrowed from French. As a result it's good to see where the majority of the words of English is from. It's like the French verb "se ressourcer" et comme on dit : "ça coule de source !" or "it's obvious !".
30% of the words are borrowed from French, 30% are borrowed from Latin, 5% from Greek, something like 2% from the rest; and the rest of the English vocabulary is from Anglo-Saxon/Danish. Some pronouns are from the Danish (like they and their).
Clark - I'm from Chicago, USA.
Quebecois French is pretty different from the Parisian French one learns in the USA, correct? Not a value judgement, just a question.
Canadian vs French French - there are not many differences, mainly it's the accent, but in France people have some weird accents too, so... And if you teach yourself make sure you get to listen to how native French sounds whenever you can, and always check in a dictionnary for pronunciation guidance.
Another tip: don't just stick to one textbook, use lots. Somehow this helps you learn things more permanantly.
Bejabers! My French AP class has a new teacher who speaks with a odd Normandy accent. She says things like "ahn Frrrrahnce" instead of "on Fronce". We have a hard time understanding her sometimes. Plus, when she realises that we don't understand her, she instantly starts talking to us in English as if we're first-year French students. Everyone in my class is probably going to fail the dratted oral section of the AP exam.
A.S.C.M.
You should ask her to articulate more.
Sorry for the question. Do you mean she says : "en France" ?
Jamie On, you are kidding, right? There are many differences between Québecois (Qu.) and Parisian French (PF)! For one, "Québecois" is not pronounce as "kay-beh-kwa," but as "kay-beh-koy." And then there are lots of phrases that are different, not to mention vocabulary.
In Qu., one pronounce "tu" like "tsu." "Mail box" in Qu. is "Boite a malle" and in PF it is "Boite aux pettres."
There are too many differences to list here.
And there are too many spelling mistakes in my last post!
"Jamie On, you are kidding, right? There are many differences between Québecois (Qu.) and Parisian French (PF)! For one, "Québecois" is not pronounced as "kay-beh-kwa," but as "kay-beh-koy." And then there are lots of phrases that are different, not to mention vocabulary.
In Qu., one pronounces "tu" like "tsu." "Mail box" in Qu. is "Boite a malle" and in PF it is "Boite aux lettres."
There are too many differences to list here."
Jay, what I wrote probably answers your question. But I do not mean to sound like Qu. and PF are not comprehensible to each other. I think that communication between the two variances would be harder than American and British English-speakers communicate, but easier than Brazilian and Portuguese Portuguese-speakers communicate. Plus, I am sure that in school, all of the Québecois learn Parisian French, or at least to recognise it.
I spoke with an Anglo-Quebecker one time, who told me that he took a three month French-immersion programme. After the three months of learning Parisian French, he went and lived with a family on a farm in rural northern Québec. He said that he had to practically relearn the French language as it was so different from Parisian French.
Yes, Sima "ahn Frrrahnce" for "en France".