@@ouicommunicate The language hasn't fully clicked for me yet. I know some vocabulary. Some grammar. Some tenses. I can speak some basic A1 and A2 level sentences. However, I'm still translating in my head so I can't keep yet understand spoken French. I've made a lot of progress but being able to have real conversations still seems far away.
@@dispassionateobserver I understand. My personal advice is to choose your battles. For example study all the vocabulary or grammar that is relevant to you. This way, you have it for sure. The next battle might be to practice listening more. Ideally, there shouldn't be plateaus. They often happen when we don't visualize what is next. You can move forward through French in a quantifiable and objective way. I do a free trial class if you like - I can explain my approach !
Did a similar thing with german. Thought of it, kind of cringe though, as a "second native language". By doing an absolute cognitive immersion, which might be compared to a sort of self-hypnosis, I was able to integrate it as a core and inseparable part of my identity. This led to excellent results
That's so interesting! Me too actually. When I was in college, I "saw" myself using German, I decided it would happen. I'm still not that good but I progressed a lot 😀 Thanks for the comment!
Great video! I really enjoy your sense of humor. Regarding the psychological side of things, I often find myself being a bit too self-confident. For example: "Yeah, French... it's a piece of cake, and I'll pick it up easily." This mindset leads me to skip the effort it actually takes to succeed. The result, unfortunately, ends up being the same, I guess.
I find when I do not have available sources to help me and I am on my own facing someone who speaks fluent French. I quelque stumble and then retreat. Je suis trying to break that habit. The fact of not living in a full immersive French speaking society makes it even more difficult and annoys me. I need filler words, phrases etc idioms to get back on track when I stumble.
Oh dear ! My advice is upstream, always upstream. The tools that hold the French language together Idioms are downstream. There's nothing that a native speaker will say that isn't held together by the principles that a re upstream. It helps a lot to see clearly in the building blocks of a language instead of it being a vast collections of phrases.
This was interesting. I appreciate your thoughtful parsing of the reasons for success, or lack thereof, in learning a foreign language. If I may, I think there is a category of learners who possess an additional factor in the process, which is need. Now, many ppl live in foreign countries & never learn the language of the host country. Thus, they don’t’need’ to learn, likely because they have family and friends who take care of things for them. But, aren’t there people who absolutely must learn, despite psychological impediments or predispositions & therefore do learn? I’m thinking of a school within the US federal government for people being posted abroad. In any event, I completely agree with you about the apps or the online teachers who post on TH-cam. That being said, I enjoy some of the latter because I can use them to enhance the experience of listening to people speak French. I wouldn’t expect to become fluent through them, though. Have you done any videos explaining your process for tutoring?
Hi thanks for the comment. Indeed, I am sure that there are people who absolutely must learn. Perhaps they too condition their future results by aiming higher or lower? My own method is very simple: we use a native ability of English to direct the teaching of French towards a specific group of 1st language users, we explain rationally how the French language behaves and we do targeted exercises. It's a "no failure" method because learners either know or they don't. Our students only show up to class when they've done some background work to make sure the teacher doesn't carry the class. Chop away at French little by little and make quantifiable progress. When there's nothing left to learn, you know French! (or at least the vast majority of what holds the language together!) I have learners who can use the Present tense in French better than expats who actually live in Europe, There are 4 PDFs, just do the exercise and bang! you know it. Simple. Or am I not looking far enough into the problems? 😀
When I was a long distance runner and people would say ''wow, I could never do that'' my reply would be, well it's 90% phycological and the other 10% is in your head. 😉 Seriously though, the phycology of learning is a great subject.
this video is way more than a language learning video, it talks about something that can be applied in everything in life and I appreciate it so much!
Thanks so much !
This is something I struggle with. When I hit a plateau in my language learning sometimes self doubt starts to creep in.
Yes the psychological element! Can I ask what sort of plateau?
@@ouicommunicate The language hasn't fully clicked for me yet. I know some vocabulary. Some grammar. Some tenses. I can speak some basic A1 and A2 level sentences. However, I'm still translating in my head so I can't keep yet understand spoken French. I've made a lot of progress but being able to have real conversations still seems far away.
@@dispassionateobserver I understand. My personal advice is to choose your battles. For example study all the vocabulary or grammar that is relevant to you. This way, you have it for sure. The next battle might be to practice listening more. Ideally, there shouldn't be plateaus. They often happen when we don't visualize what is next. You can move forward through French in a quantifiable and objective way. I do a free trial class if you like - I can explain my approach !
Did a similar thing with german. Thought of it, kind of cringe though, as a "second native language". By doing an absolute cognitive immersion, which might be compared to a sort of self-hypnosis, I was able to integrate it as a core and inseparable part of my identity. This led to excellent results
That's so interesting! Me too actually. When I was in college, I "saw" myself using German, I decided it would happen. I'm still not that good but I progressed a lot 😀 Thanks for the comment!
Great video! I really enjoy your sense of humor. Regarding the psychological side of things, I often find myself being a bit too self-confident. For example: "Yeah, French... it's a piece of cake, and I'll pick it up easily." This mindset leads me to skip the effort it actually takes to succeed. The result, unfortunately, ends up being the same, I guess.
Thanks for the comment! People usually think that of Spanish. How easy it is. There's definitely work involved in learning French!
I think you’re right on regarding the subconscious playing a big role in language learning success!
Thanks !
I find when I do not have available sources to help me and I am on my own facing someone who speaks fluent French. I quelque stumble and then retreat. Je suis trying to break that habit. The fact of not living in a full immersive French speaking society makes it even more difficult and annoys me. I need filler words, phrases etc idioms to get back on track when I stumble.
Oh dear ! My advice is upstream, always upstream. The tools that hold the French language together Idioms are downstream. There's nothing that a native speaker will say that isn't held together by the principles that a re upstream. It helps a lot to see clearly in the building blocks of a language instead of it being a vast collections of phrases.
This was interesting. I appreciate your thoughtful parsing of the reasons for success, or lack thereof, in learning a foreign language.
If I may, I think there is a category of learners who possess an additional factor in the process, which is need.
Now, many ppl live in foreign countries & never learn the language of the host country. Thus, they don’t’need’ to learn, likely because they have family and friends who take care of things for them. But, aren’t there people who absolutely must learn, despite psychological impediments or predispositions & therefore do learn?
I’m thinking of a school within the US federal government for people being posted abroad.
In any event, I completely agree with you about the apps or the online teachers who post on TH-cam. That being said, I enjoy some of the latter because I can use them to enhance the experience of listening to people speak French. I wouldn’t expect to become fluent through them, though.
Have you done any videos explaining your process for tutoring?
Hi thanks for the comment. Indeed, I am sure that there are people who absolutely must learn. Perhaps they too condition their future results by aiming higher or lower? My own method is very simple: we use a native ability of English to direct the teaching of French towards a specific group of 1st language users, we explain rationally how the French language behaves and we do targeted exercises. It's a "no failure" method because learners either know or they don't. Our students only show up to class when they've done some background work to make sure the teacher doesn't carry the class. Chop away at French little by little and make quantifiable progress. When there's nothing left to learn, you know French! (or at least the vast majority of what holds the language together!) I have learners who can use the Present tense in French better than expats who actually live in Europe, There are 4 PDFs, just do the exercise and bang! you know it. Simple. Or am I not looking far enough into the problems? 😀
When I was a long distance runner and people would say ''wow, I could never do that'' my reply would be, well it's 90% phycological and the other 10% is in your head. 😉 Seriously though, the phycology of learning is a great subject.
Wow, thanks for sharing. It seems to be all in the mind, indeed!