As an English speaker I too find French quite hard to understand. Many of their words sound vague or unfinished, eg. Peux, veux. Whereas German to my ear sounds very precise and I find it far easier to pick out words. I keep trying though. The fact that our languages share so many words is a massive bonus, not to be taken for granted.
The channel InnerFrench speaks slowly but not too slowly and he speaks clearly and about interesting topics.. It's how I got my listening skills from an awkward A1 to a mediocre B1. (I don't want to oversell my skills)
Steve’s technique is quite simply find a reason to learn the language, find your motivation, find something fun to do in the target language, and the rest comes more or less by itself. That’s my experience of French and Swedish, too, and what I’m now trying to do in Spanish.
Honestly if he had a reason to learn different languages, he should just act on them rather than wait and possible miss out on opportunities. For example, if there's a large community of say Vietnamese and Tagalog speakers in your city, which is the case in Vancouver, and you either know that or hear the language often when going out for groceries or something, then how is that a reason to not to learn those languages? It's like a student raising their hand at the front but the teacher picks the kid at the back, never addressing the one in front. It's no different than discrimination, and polyglots who wait years to learn a certain language just miss out
I'm reading his book The Linguist in French on LingQ... he goes through his whole history, it's pretty good. I've learned alot of French just reading his book out loud.
I learned French on my own and he is exactly right. You need to be interested in a French-speaking country AND you need to start learning phrases and sentences first. It can be fun that way but to study grammar, conjugations, verb tenses is the WORST way to start learning. You will hate it that way! Play with the language, have fun with it, study what interests you and you will find a most marvelous experience which is rewarding and enriching. I started out this way and I have taken over 50 trips to France and consider it my co-nationality. I have friends and know Paris better than any U.S. city, although I've been to all 50 states and lived in or near both Boston and Chicago.
As a french person i can tell y'all, french is hard... and imo wanting to learn it is already a brave move! so to everyone who is learning, keep going! you will like it at some point and you will really be proud of yourself then lol ;) bon courage!
As a native speaker, you have no business telling people your language is _hard._ You got French for FREE. You're literally the last person (along with other French native speakers) to be the judge of that. I'm a native English speaker. I have no idea whatsoever how hard/easy English is to learn, and I'd never dream of telling learners that it's one or the other. I'd have to ask an English learner that question because they would know infinitely better than I would.
@@futurez12 easy big boy...You do have a point, my vision is obviously different, but I'll have you know, that languages are differents as well, and some are definitly easier to learn, it depends on your native language. I know that french has way more grammar rules than english for exemple, that can make it complex, french has harder sounds for english speakers especially, (easier for some others) while to us, english and spanish are generally the easiest to pronounce, except the old "th" lol. what i mean is, I do not no nothing like you say, i've done french studies, conjugation and grammar and it was hard! sooo i can definitly tell it can be hard for non native speaker, its not impossible and some languages might be harder, but french isnt the easiest imo, thats all i said. How can i never be a good judge? you know that some teachers teach kids their native language? its not always a non native speaker, they know difficulty if they make the effort.. the last person to help is someone non english speaker or non french speaker! and finally, I simply wanted to send good french vibes here, to people who have a hard time with it, thats all, so pardon my french but, no need to be an ASSHOLE! ;)
@@LM-zi9te What are you talking about? 60m+ native French people can speak French fluently, no problem at all. If it was hard, that wouldn't be the case. 1 billion+ native Chinese speakers can speak Mandarin easily, is Mandarin easier than French? Years ago, millions of French natives spoke French fluently whilst being illiterate. Did they find it hard without even being able to study these "difficult conjugations" you speak of? I'm assuming your comment was mostly directed at native English speakers (since that's the majority of Steve's audience)? French is listed as a category 1 language in terms of "difficulty," for native English speakers. It's one of the "easiest" languages to learn for us English speakers. As is English for you French speakers. NO language is hard BTW. What is it with natives thinking their own language is hard? Does it make you feel special that you learned this supposedly "hard" language for free? It's it an ego thing? I've heard Japanese people say a similar thing; they (some of them) believe that their brains are wired differently than everyone else's, making it harder for others to learn Japanese. It's complete BS. And, FWIW, they don't know how easy/hard their language is either. I had to study English spelling and grammar at school, does that mean I know how hard English is? Nope. Not in the slightest. Was learning it hard for me? Nope. Not in the slightest. It was one of the easiest things I've ever had to do, and I have little to no memory of it either. It was completely painless. Do you see what I was saying? Leave the comparisons to non-native speakers. I would be interested to hear how easy English was for you though...
@@futurez12 dude he is right my native language is french and I became fluent in english. French has more grammatical rules, and its just more challenging. Of course it also depends on the the persons native language, french and italian are similar so it might be easier for an italian native to learn french than english. But from my own experience and other peoples opinion its obvious that english is easier to learn than french.
Le français est une belle langue. Ce que je trouve tragique et déplorable, comment au fil de l'histoire, on a tenté d'enrayer la langue en Louisiane et dans certaines provinces canadiennes. Courage à tous ceux et celles qui défendent ce bel idiome et vive la diversité linguistique dans le monde!
@@kalvinstrohkopp8726 merci, c'est bien la première fois que je parviens à comprendre une phrase entière en portugais (que je n'ai jamais appris, j'essaie de progresser en espagnol) 😉
Of being captured by the culture and propelled into the language: I had a dismal experience with French in high school and couldn't get far enough away from it. One day, maybe around 1970, I was watching Bill Buckley's "Firing Line on PBS." Bill shared an anecdote about an American reporter interviewing the French minister of education. It went something like this: He was formally ushered into the minister's office by a stiff functionary. Without waiting for the invitation, he flopped into an ornate, Louis XV chair and offered a breezy, "bonjour, minister." The huge office had a 14-foot ceiling and a row of ornate, floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall, the "window treatment" featuring rich and graceful draperies of jaw-dropping richness and elegance. The minister sat behind his very large and highly-polished, antique desk, barely within conversational range of the reporter's chair, all of it formal and intimidating, to say the least. Being a brash young American, our reporter said, "So, minister, what's up with French education these days?" The minister, appearing stern and startled, hesitated for only a moment. He looked at his watch and clearing his throat said, "It is 11:45, the children are studying Molière." I took that to mean that all the children, or a least the older ones, from Menton to Cherbourg, in every town, village, and city were having their Molière lesson. Buckley's point in this story was that French education -- like many other things touched by the government -- was managed in minute and unwavering detail by a large, disciplined bureaucracy spread out from Paris and headed by this man in this office. It was an amusing insight into French sociology and government. France is not a slack, do-your-own-thing sort of country like the USA (although I have no doubt that it has become considerably slacker in recent decades, due in considerable part to the slopping over of American culture). On that day, I became obsessed with France (and am still struggling with the language to this day). I saw that the French had a different take on things, a different point of view, and I wanted to know more.
I do tell you my experience when I was learning French at the University of Alberta...my class mates in that time, they got stuck in the accent,they my English class mates had debates over the French accent and the origin of the French language. I did not participate to that debate and they quit the class or never learn French...but me I have succeed.Today I speak and write french....not perfectly but that does not bothers me...I am happy of my success and everyday I keep learning...I live in Quebec city....good luck to all who want to learn french
Hi, I am curious to know how the French language is viewed in Quebec, and even Canada in general. Is it part of the culture and identity of the place? Is it viewed as something precious, to be protected and continued by future generations?
@@Lalita_Chevaliere_108 It is a part of our country's identity, whenever a politician speaks, they state their speech in both languages. English takes a back seat in Quebec for sure.. unfortunately the Quebecois are looked poorly upon by western canada and vise versa. However, not everyone shares that mindset; I am western Canadian and have respect for them.
@@Austin_Patrick Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! That's really interesting - social and cultural subtleties. I wonder why Quebecois are looked down upon generally. Good on you for not sharing that! Anyway, have a great day.
Bravo. Vivre à Québec, génial ! Comme tous les Français, j'adore la façon de parler des Canadiens francophones, Québécois, Acadiens...J'aimerais visiter ce grand pays. Tous les gens que je connais, qui sont allés là-bas en sont revenus enchantés de l'accueil des Québécois, si gentils et chaleureux!
I want to get to the point where I fall in so deep I wake up being fluent in French. I’ve lived in France a total of two years of my life and studied it as my minor in college and I know it well but want to be completely fluent I will get there!!this video was helpful to know it just happens and at that point you don’t remember the point where you become fluent. Thanks for the inspiration
I am french and i am struggling to become fluent en english. I wish i had a friend like you wich with i could speak and help each other become fluent in our language. If one day you cross a very cool blond guy eating cheese, that's me! And don't hesitate to talk to me and i will be your teacher and you will be mine if you agree. 😅
Je suis française et c'est passionnant de vous écouter. On ne se rend pas compte quand on est français que la prononciation est monotone et on a tendance à parler anglais, italien ou espagnol sans mettre d'intonation. Et la prononciation de l'anglais pour un Français est une réelle difficulté. De même , on ne pense pas que les liaisons que nous faisons automatiquement peuvent être difficiles pour un anglophone. Et il y a aussi en France deux grandes variétés de prononciation , celle de la moitié nord de la France, la langue "officielle " des medias, où on parle plus rapidement en sautant des lettres et celle de la moitié sud de la France où on parle plus lentement en prononçant toutes les lettres. Merci pour cette vidéo très instructive pour moi et je retourne à mon perfectionnement en anglais !
Immersion! Couldn’t agree more. I wouldn’t have continued with my Spanish as much as I have (reading Vargas Llosa and routine discussions) without the Spanish culture to tempt me! What wonderful worlds we language learners can explore... (And I loved the library tour, too, maybe this for other languages and respective recommendations?)
I’ve always thought French is really hard to follow when spoken but after a good bit of listening practice I learnt to follow it easily enough.... still not really there with the speaking though
I've read around 3000 books in my life. Best way to learn languages is by reading books. There are so many French writers to choose from, Camus, Proust, Sartre, balzac, Stendhal, Zola etc. Learning a language whilst reading French greats, killing two birds with one stone. I've learned French, German, and Spanish in this manner. Fun to be a polyglot and a polymath. :) Learn German and read Goethe
Not even close to those high profile authors, but I've started reading practice using TinTin and Astérix. It's reading French with images for context. It's helped a lot already.
I'm a native Spanish speaker and french was very easy for me. I already knew English so it became easier to follow. Now, I have a problem with pronunciation. I need to live in France in order to fix that. I recommend everyone to listen to conversations on TH-cam every day even if you dont understand at first. You will start picking it up little by little. Learning a language takes a lot of patience Dont give up amigos
As a german speaker, I never knew the "u" which is like a german "ü" is a problem for english speakers 😳 My biggest problem with learning French is that there are sooo many French words in English, and since I've been studying English for 12 years already and I am on an almost fluent level in English, I keep mixing up English and French words which are similar 😅 I started learning French over English now, because I realized how much easier it is than learning it over German.
Hi, i'm french, these are precisely the problems encountered by foreigners who learn the French language, you made the difference between sounds "in" et "un" but the ultra big french majority doesn't sound the difference, for the whole arguments and as other many languages, how to speak is different than how it's written in books as the Passé simple which is not spoken but often used in books, it's the same for the italian language, mainly not spoken in the north but still used in the south of Italy and often used in books. Congratulations it's a very pertinent video ! Et les liaisons sont un véritable problème pour ceux qui apprennent notre langue. Bien amicalement.
Hi Steve, I'm a Canadian education in Ontario. Despite taking mandatory French lessons in elementary school I was never able to learn the language. They way it was taught turned me off! Now, at the age of 37 I am committed to learning French by myself because I'm excited about it. I don't enjoy learning it as an academic discipline and prefer your method of immersion. Many thanks for these videos!
Lire Marcel Proust en français, chapeau Steve! J'ai connu une jeune étudiante américaine, il y a plus de cinquante ans, qui le lisait couramment, alors que moi, pourtant Français, je trouvais cet auteur plutôt difficile, avec ses phrases interminables, parfois longues d'une page entière; quand on arrive à la fin de la phrase, on ne sait plus de quoi il était question au début😀. Mais Proust est un génie de littérature, il mérite largement un peu d'effort pour le lire. Je suis convaincu que votre méthode pour progresser en langues étrangères est LA meilleure, avec en même temps le bain linguistique dans le pays concerné ou, à défaut, les radios, télés, films, chansons... Merci pour cette vidéo.
If you are interested in history, Napoleon is what you are looking for! Can you imagine someone so powerful and so feared that he retook France without an army, and immediately the rest of Europe declared war on France, not to conquer France, but to put the King of France back on the throne! Thereafter he was exiled to a isolated island off the West coast of Africa, far away from France.
Merci beaucoup, en tant que français j’ai trouvé votre vidéo très intéressante et instructive sur mon rapport à ma propre langue ! Comme apprenant en Anglais votre retour d’expérience m’a conforté dans ma façon de d’étudier. Cordialement de Toulouse
I'm currently learning French. The key to comprehension is input. There are studies of children who are born mute yet learn to understand language as well as anyone else even though they literally cannot speak it--so speaking a language isn't necessary to comprehending it. So I listen to French movies with French (not English) subtitles, listen to French music all the time, in addition to language classes through Busuu, immersing myself in the language.
When I began studying French and after I became fairly proficient, I used to read mystery short-stories by Pierre Bellemare. They were a collection of relatively short and interesting stories written in fairly easy-reading, uncomplicated French. I recommend them. My background: I came to live in France in 1992 (at age 29), after spending some time in the USAF and having studied Russian at DLI and KU.
@@roum9 C'était il y a tellement longtemps... mais je souviens que ses histoires étaient très agréables à lire. Au début j'écoutais ses histoires qu'il racontait à la radio, puis j'ai fait la transition à ses livres. Ils sont formidables pour les débutants, je trouve.
@@Zipperneck. merci en tout cas je veux evoluer mon fr alores je trouve que commencer par un guide tellement simple est tres utile merci pour le nom de l auteur . 👌👌
This must surely be true. I'm currently learning Arabic and what started it was my passion for ancient history and wanting to visit Egypt, Jordan, Syria etc 😁😁
I don't remember either how I learned French. My case is similar to Mr Kaufmann's. I never found French complicated. The key is to start learning it at a very early stage and massive exposure. The ones trying to learn it through grammar have later troubles with all the exceptions, subjunctive, liasons, argot, etc. I speak 5 languages at C level and French is the only one you never finish learning it. French is one of the few languages where native speakers will fight regularerly about how to say things correctly and they will keep correcting each other forever as a national sport.
HI, STEVE, YOU ARE RIGHT. I AM FROM MEXICO. I SPEAK 3 OTHER LANGUAGES & YES, I´D SAY MEXICAN SPANISH IS MORE LIKE SINGING, EVEN THOUGH MANY PORTUGUESE SPEAKERS WOULD SAY THAT "PORTUGNOL", A MIXTURE OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE & SPANISH IS THE MOST SING-SONGY.... GREETINGS! UN SALUDO SONRIENTE SOLAR SIMILAR AL SOL DE MEXICO (SONG-SINGY, ALL RIGHT...!)
Was very surprised not to hear mention of the difficulty in pronouncing the French "r" with its back-of-the-palate roll. Even after quite a bit of practice I cannot get it 100%. I guess maybe my small amount of prior German practice made the eu/ü sound not so difficult. Another reflection I have on speaking French (coming from American English) is how the focus shifts from consonant sounds/syllables to vowel sounds with diminished syllables. My pronunciation improved when I realized I needed to really focus on moving my face. If you watch speakers of English, there is this unconscious thing of moving the face as little as possible, whereas in France you see everyone's faces in constant animation to get the proper vowel and nasal sounds. Bonne année à tous!
I'm checking your useful videos about a lot of languages and Frances got me in different aspects the romantic way and great stability in words I am falling in love for it my mother language is Portuguese even thus France give me suspense atmosphere through air anyway thank you and keep up your excellent job
It's easy to understand how a language works if one knows more than one language. I know 6 languages and French is my 7th ( still learning) I understood how it works. I can read write and speak but listening is the hardest because of the liaison as you rightly pointed out. I think to learn any language the steps should not be to learn the grammer first or read and write first. The first step should be just to speak and listen. Like when a child is born , it learns only to hear and speak first and then learns it's working at school. If we use the same model for learning any language it will become much easier to pick a language.
Let's not forget that some children are born deaf in which case they would have to learn sign language. If the child is born blind, they can't read anything except braille. I have seen people learn languages, despite these handicaps even if they don't use them the same way. For example, deaf people can still read and write, and blind people can still speak and hear
@@michaelrespicio5683 you may be correct but isn't your examples are on exceptional situations? Our brain is so plastic that it learns to accommodate and rewire itself when there is deficiency of a vital function. What do you think? So those children born with special needs have different path of learning in their brain hence they pick up. I was referring to normal course in which speaking and hearing comes first before anything else in language learning. But then I could be wrong. Hehe
Thank you for sharing your experience Steve. We tend to separate language as a 'tool' for communication, which it of course is, but we also need to remember that it is embedded in a culture and society. And therefore, it is important to connect to the essence of the language, which as articulated by you happens when we try learning about the place it comes from, the people, the monuments, stories around them etc. In the standard curriculum, french culture is taught towards the end of the intermediate level, but this could be shifted to levels preceding that.
I loved that video, I'm a French speaking man from Cameroon. I'm still learning English, I have a lot of problem with connected speech is English and I have noticed French learners face the same problem. I laughed when he talked about the verb "devenir" in French, French people pronounce it like it was " devnir" they do the same thing with a lot of others words. For instance pronounce my country name" camroun" instead of " Cameroun" they don't pronounce one syllable. French people delete a lot of sounds when they speak, I don't have any problem with that, I understand all French accents perfectly, but it sometimes super hard for French learners to understand spoken French, because they don't pronounce words as they are written. I generally recommend to French learners to watch movies which have been translated into French instead of watching an original French movie, you can watch the French version of an American movie, or English movie, it doesn't matter but the original movie has not to be in French. When I watch a French movie and a movie which has been translated into French, I can perfectly see the difference, actors speak more clearly, they articulate better, compared to an original French movie. And I also notice that it's the same thing with movies in English, when I watch an American or a British movie, sometimes I feel like actors don't speak English, but it was before. Now I can understand some American movies at more than 70% depending on the movie thanks to the fact that I sometimes watch movies which have been translated into English. When I didn't watch movies translated into English, I thought that we didn't speak English in the USA. Generally in my country, we don't reduce words as much as French people do, that's why we recognize very easily when French guys speak, they like doing" uh uh uh " as he said in the video, the way he said it made me laugh 😂😂
Hello 😁Arriving 2021 Jan 1st, I am here to tell you about the future because we have a lot of thing coming 2021, This is a new year and a great call for celebration with family and dear ones. Start the new year holding on to the old memories with a new spirit and hope. Happy new year! This year may finally realize that real fun in life comes from real people, not from the virtual ones. Have a great year!
Right, I work on the e sound, native Swedish. I saw a Herman Lindqvist in your book shelf. He is a hero journalist to say the least. He also speak french most likely, he lived in France when I lived there. I was going to a seminar by him but missed it.
Je suis japonaise qui apprend le francais depuis quelques annees.Je pense que la prononciation du francais est tres difficile! Malgre la difficulte,je vais continuer a apprendre le francais!Merci beaucoup!Vous avez beaucoup d'efforts!Vous avez beaucoup de livres.Vous etes super!
I'm French born and raised and I just started to take French lessons again! I keep discovering new rules or rediscovering it. It's actually offered and paid for by my French university. It became quite a social issue, maybe, in France since a lot of French people make too many mistakes in French even though we are French. Actually it is often said that foreigners speak better French than French people themselves. If you are learning French, don't worry if you make mistakes, just keep learning and wanting to improve. If French people correct you, it's not persecution or rudeness, they really want to help you improve. French people are more authoritative/mad at French people making mistakes than foreigners doing so.
Great video Steve! It will help a lot of French learners. You talked about the challenges of the French pronunciation which will help a lot of French learners. I need to mention one thing though, I believe that the English pronunciation is way more challenging than the French pronunciation.
I have lived in France for over eight years, I listen to news and television programmes every day, I have two young daughters at school. I still don't hear individual words. I still can't construct a sentence. I did a six month course (15 hrs per week) and all that did for me was stop me speaking as I couldn't remember the gender or conjugation. I've just turned 70 and have made a new year's resolution to learn French. As an aside I didn't learn English grammar at school, so understanding grammatical vocabulary is a big problem. Any tips? Thanks
I suggest you get on LingQ and do our mini stories. Probably you know all the vocabulary, but focus on the phrases, focus on listening many many times, although not all at once, so that this core vocabulary and core phrasing becomes a part of you. This forms of base from which you can go forward into more interesting content. It's also a place where you can go back and work on your core, like a gym.
I’m four months into learning French and my biggest frustration is not yet being able to say sentences in my head smoothly. I speak in small chunks, translating 2 words at a time.
Good advice. First build motivation. Then show them the language. Then teach the language as needed. Don't teach all the rules upfront! No one needs to be able to say "I would have bought that except for all the thing I would miss out on," if they can't clearly say, "hi, I'm bob"
Canadian here, I had such a shit experience with learning french in class From really pompous french teachers that were more into grandstanding rather than just reading the stuff or focusing on the lessons To absolutely sucking ass at writing french or understanding what makes a word masculine or feminine without knowing if it has an "e" or has "Le" or "la" I loved speaking, listening and reading french though and that alone allowed me to kinda get the gist of spoken french up to like B1-B2 without being able to speak or write worth a damn
You are outstanding! By the way, I thought that the mother language in your area Montreal is French?! I respect your passion for many languages and still learning more. Thank you for sharing your goodness with others. Please keep up your great work!
As a person that learned French at the school and learn Italian now I can say it's impossible (at least, for me) cause I always mix them and even don't notice.
As a native English speaker, with a very good level of fluency in Spanish, French and Italian, I can say that's it's inevitable that you will occasionally mix words but it absolutely doesn't matter! Worrying about errors that don't matter can hold you back. Fear of making mistakes is often an unhelpful hangover from a formal education.
@@daiweihan1209 estoy estudiando Inglés desde hace 4 meses y la verdad me parece súper complicado entenderlo. Quisiera saber por qué piensas que el Inglés es fácil.
It was the same with me and English. As long as it was only a boring school subject, nothing happened. I was the dumbest kid in class. But then I discovered music, from Sinatra to Eminem, later on books, and finally the internet. The only time I remember putting some real effort in was when I had to remember the irregular verbs (at the age of 16). I memorised them all and that was it. The rest I absorbed organically through books, music, and movies. Now, as an adult, I try to repeat this process with French, Italian, and Slovak.
Usually I find your insights about language learning so helpful, this time I gotta say I didn't get much out of it, just the remainder of the importance of making things interesting for you and a couple difficulties you had with this and that pronunciation
I'm visiting Quebec for my third extended visit. I understand a fair bit of basics, but oy! The speed of speech is impossible for me to understand. But I'm working on it. I love love love the people. Already making plans to return, but I want to be more prepared to engage next time.
Each visit to the country where the language is spoken is a chance to use the language, but even more a new encouragement to spend more time with the language.
Guys, stop learning which verbs go with être. It's logic. With you can say 'something' or 'someone' after, it goes with avoir. Examples: Manger goes with avoir bc you can say "eat something". Aller goes with être because you can say "go something" Sometimes it depends on the meaning. Descendre goes with etre when it means go down, but with avoir when it means 'kill (someone)
The problem of pronunciation is basically the same with all languages. I taught myself a lot of French and French words and got the accent(in my opinion) pretty good. I just started 2 weeks ago to teach myself Cantonese. and im just starting to get the sound correct. You just have to listen and then listen again and when youve done that. Listen some more. And repeat of course.
The final E, like in "Ne me quittE pas" was commonly pronounced in French songs until the 70's. It was also common to add the E sound to the last word of a line, even for words that end in a vowel, which was a device typically used in songs but not spoken language. Like in that random line of a French song pre-70's: "Mais elle nest pas revenuuuE" (and the final E is pronounced). Later it became old fashioned, and with the style of French music being influenced by British/American pop music (even when sung in French), it is not used today.
C'est une très bonne idée que d'apprendre le français. De mon côté, j'apprends l'anglais avec une professeur particulier native English and it is a pleasure 😃
It reminds me of how I learnt English as a French speaker. I had three main issues: the two "th" as in "this" and "teeth", stress on consonants, and the worse part the aspiration on consonants such as p, t, k, which is an absolute nightmare for a French speaker. Actually, I would go as far as to say that this is usually the main error that French speakers make in English. I say worse, because the only time I got a teacher talk about it was during a phonology class, where the professor compared words such as: pub(ads in French)/pub, khan/can, tombe/tomb. It took me years to muster all these differences to be able to at least get rid a little bit of my French accent. But as my phonology professor at the Université de Montréal used to say, he was American but spoke French without a hint of accent, to speak is to hear... The more you speak, the more you train your pronunciation, the more you understand... hearing and speaking trigger the same zones in the brain...
Well, I think you didn't get the point. He explains in the video how he did it, though he doens't remember 100% how. But nevertheless, he gave some explanation. He sais he read journals, books, etc. and he immersed himself in the language. What more of an explanation do you want to have.
Steve, I wish you could watch "Tout le monde en parle" when you were in Montréal. La liaison is the 1st challenge, what you memorized individual words may sounds different in a phrase like the example Steve said which almost everyone learnt in on day1 : Comment allez vous? there are also rules for non liaison before some "h" words, like : les héros. Another language used a lot liaison is Korea. In English we have have a little bit : Trick or treat ; Same old, same old (favorite compaigne slogan of Jack layton); 2nd challenge is the passé simple in the novel vs passé composé & imparfait when you write. On the Hydro Québec airplane from LG2 power station to Montréal, one engineer told me that normal people don't use "passé simple", only the "Écrivain" ! Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache! Même chose pour le français, Even Justin Trudeau said he has LI (language Insecurity).
Chers amis francophones, si vous voulez comprendre le français tel qu'on le parle en France, suivez une chaîne TH-cam d'un français sur un sujet qui vous passionne. Vous aurez 2 bénéfices... Je ne compte plus mes amis immigrés qui ont lutté plusieurs années avant de s'en sortir, avec les genres et les auxiliaires (avoir, être)... sans compter les liaisons (soulignées dans la vidéo). Bon courage, en tout cas. N'oubliez pas que le français est écrit avant d'être parlé, donc il faut savoir l'écrire pour pouvoir le parler correctement... Sorry, guys & gals!
The stack of material you got from the Italian Tourist Bureau was probably about the twenty different regions :-) Regional identities are actually quite varied in Italy because of their long, twisted and separate histories.
Hello Steve! You mentioned in this video that you started learning French with a book about the history and art of France. Can I find out his exact title, writer? Thank you very much!
You may have gotten bored of French in Gr7 but that was when my immersion class went to Quebec, haha. I forever live with the shame of forgetting the word cucumber while trying to order at Subway. My headstone one day will just have the word "concombre" on it.
Steve Kaufman, I’m learning French to get me through the books I read for fun. I recently finished The Lesser Devil by Christopher Roucchio which is a Science-Fiction book. Now how did this get me wanting to learn French? It had a fair bit of French in it. I was thinking so I’m reading a book in English that happens to have French in it. Some of it I understood like Bonjour, Monseiur, Excusie-Moi. But a lot of it I didn’t. Then I started thinking about English and what French words we already use like Deja-vu, Crème Brûlé. There was an even a song I listen to a lot that had a French word in the title Faith Noel by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. So I’m like okay I’m learning French.
For me to learn French my advise will be simple move to a city where everyone speak French.and if you are sou rounded by English speakers and French is the language use most in your city,never ever reply to an English speaker in English because they are not interested on learning french but you are.Listen always to French music,t.v. shows on French, speak to everyone only in French..and do not worry if you have an accent that is Hispanic or English as its my case...I do have an accent in English as well since my first language is Spanish,so i do not give a F.....about my accent...and y- should not as well,.because that will limit your success in any language... you are trying to learn
Okay, first of all, I'm a native french speaker, and I have to say your pronunciation is absolutely fantastic. Secondly, I'm learning Czech as a fourth language. And with great surprise, I see that you're also into Czech! I have to say the Czech language is fresh new for me and pretty tough, can I have some tips, advice or is there any e-book, program, or anything to help me with my Czech?
I would definitely recommend you go to LingQ. Start with the mini-stories and then look at the other material we have there. You can also import from TH-cam or other sources as you progress in the language.
![PASULOL รามเกียรติ์ ตอนที่ 4 นนทกพบรัก [Ramakien Ep.4: Nonthok in love]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tMUQgmZzf_A/mqdefault.jpg)
11:56 "How did I learn french? I don't remember" The answer you're looking for, short and sweet
The key word here is *sparkle* 😉
What do you mean with sparkle :)?
"court et doux"
The hardest thing I find about French is understanding it. It all sounds the same and everyone speaks super fast 😩 But I’ll keep trying!
Maybe you lack the thousands of hours of listening your brain needs to adapt . Keep listening!
As an English speaker I too find French quite hard to understand. Many of their words sound vague or unfinished, eg. Peux, veux. Whereas German to my ear sounds very precise and I find it far easier to pick out words.
I keep trying though. The fact that our languages share so many words is a massive bonus, not to be taken for granted.
The channel InnerFrench speaks slowly but not too slowly and he speaks clearly and about interesting topics.. It's how I got my listening skills from an awkward A1 to a mediocre B1. (I don't want to oversell my skills)
@Its RX my respect
They speak Castilian Spanish in Spain which was different than the Mexican Spanish I was used to. Had a rough time understanding the dialect there.
Steve’s technique is quite simply find a reason to learn the language, find your motivation, find something fun to do in the target language, and the rest comes more or less by itself. That’s my experience of French and Swedish, too, and what I’m now trying to do in Spanish.
Honestly if he had a reason to learn different languages, he should just act on them rather than wait and possible miss out on opportunities. For example, if there's a large community of say Vietnamese and Tagalog speakers in your city, which is the case in Vancouver, and you either know that or hear the language often when going out for groceries or something, then how is that a reason to not to learn those languages?
It's like a student raising their hand at the front but the teacher picks the kid at the back, never addressing the one in front. It's no different than discrimination, and polyglots who wait years to learn a certain language just miss out
For us Spanish speakers French isn't so hard but the Pronunciation requires special attention.
It also helps if you know english too, you have more sounds at your disposal and more vocabulary in common.
Yeah im native Spanish, im studying french and the read is easy but its pronuntation is very confusing in special the "R"
Sorry my english isn't good
@@MicromataDxD reading*
@@sofiaelkahla3796 xD
Je dirais la même chose, il est difficile pour un français de prononcer de l espagnol 😊😊
„So how did I learn french? I don‘t remember.“ 😂😂👍🏻
I'm reading his book The Linguist in French on LingQ... he goes through his whole history, it's pretty good. I've learned alot of French just reading his book out loud.
J apprends le français !
SAY " Je ne me souviens pas."
XDDDD
@@danton1333 pourquoi tu apprends le français est-ce que tu as un raison ou une raison pourquoi tu veux apprendre comment parler le français
Mandarin proverb: 興趣是最好的老師 “interest (strong interest and vehement enthusiasm) is the best teacher”
I learned French on my own and he is exactly right. You need to be interested in a French-speaking country AND you need to start learning phrases and sentences first. It can be fun that way but to study grammar, conjugations, verb tenses is the WORST way to start learning. You will hate it that way! Play with the language, have fun with it, study what interests you and you will find a most marvelous experience which is rewarding and enriching. I started out this way and I have taken over 50 trips to France and consider it my co-nationality. I have friends and know Paris better than any U.S. city, although I've been to all 50 states and lived in or near both Boston and Chicago.
You're so funny, Steve. Twelve minutes into the video: "So how did I learn French? I don't remember." Lol.
XD
It made me chuckle too!
Title of video: "How I Learned French"
12 minutes into video: "How did I learn French? I don't remember"
😂
As a french person i can tell y'all, french is hard... and imo wanting to learn it is already a brave move! so to everyone who is learning, keep going! you will like it at some point and you will really be proud of yourself then lol ;) bon courage!
As a native speaker, you have no business telling people your language is _hard._ You got French for FREE. You're literally the last person (along with other French native speakers) to be the judge of that. I'm a native English speaker. I have no idea whatsoever how hard/easy English is to learn, and I'd never dream of telling learners that it's one or the other. I'd have to ask an English learner that question because they would know infinitely better than I would.
@@futurez12 easy big boy...You do have a point, my vision is obviously different, but I'll have you know, that languages are differents as well, and some are definitly easier to learn, it depends on your native language. I know that french has way more grammar rules than english for exemple, that can make it complex, french has harder sounds for english speakers especially, (easier for some others) while to us, english and spanish are generally the easiest to pronounce, except the old "th" lol. what i mean is, I do not no nothing like you say, i've done french studies, conjugation and grammar and it was hard! sooo i can definitly tell it can be hard for non native speaker, its not impossible and some languages might be harder, but french isnt the easiest imo, thats all i said. How can i never be a good judge? you know that some teachers teach kids their native language? its not always a non native speaker, they know difficulty if they make the effort.. the last person to help is someone non english speaker or non french speaker! and finally, I simply wanted to send good french vibes here, to people who have a hard time with it, thats all, so pardon my french but, no need to be an ASSHOLE! ;)
@@LM-zi9te What are you talking about? 60m+ native French people can speak French fluently, no problem at all. If it was hard, that wouldn't be the case. 1 billion+ native Chinese speakers can speak Mandarin easily, is Mandarin easier than French? Years ago, millions of French natives spoke French fluently whilst being illiterate. Did they find it hard without even being able to study these "difficult conjugations" you speak of?
I'm assuming your comment was mostly directed at native English speakers (since that's the majority of Steve's audience)? French is listed as a category 1 language in terms of "difficulty," for native English speakers. It's one of the "easiest" languages to learn for us English speakers. As is English for you French speakers. NO language is hard BTW.
What is it with natives thinking their own language is hard? Does it make you feel special that you learned this supposedly "hard" language for free? It's it an ego thing? I've heard Japanese people say a similar thing; they (some of them) believe that their brains are wired differently than everyone else's, making it harder for others to learn Japanese. It's complete BS. And, FWIW, they don't know how easy/hard their language is either.
I had to study English spelling and grammar at school, does that mean I know how hard English is? Nope. Not in the slightest. Was learning it hard for me? Nope. Not in the slightest. It was one of the easiest things I've ever had to do, and I have little to no memory of it either. It was completely painless.
Do you see what I was saying? Leave the comparisons to non-native speakers. I would be interested to hear how easy English was for you though...
@@futurez12 dude he is right my native language is french and I became fluent in english. French has more grammatical rules, and its just more challenging. Of course it also depends on the the persons native language, french and italian are similar so it might be easier for an italian native to learn french than english. But from my own experience and other peoples opinion its obvious that english is easier to learn than french.
@@lojfiojo4725 merci homie :)
Le français est une belle langue. Ce que je trouve tragique et déplorable, comment au fil de l'histoire, on a tenté d'enrayer la langue en Louisiane et dans certaines provinces canadiennes. Courage à tous ceux et celles qui défendent ce bel idiome et vive la diversité linguistique dans le monde!
Bien dit. Pour encore mieux connaître le français, se mettre au latin et au grec !
D'accordo!
Eu attempto apprender aquesta bella lingua romance a solo.
@@kalvinstrohkopp8726 C'est censé être quelle langue, ça ?
@@yeehaw693 C'est portugais antique.
@@kalvinstrohkopp8726 merci, c'est bien la première fois que je parviens à comprendre une phrase entière en portugais (que je n'ai jamais appris, j'essaie de progresser en espagnol) 😉
Of being captured by the culture and propelled into the language:
I had a dismal experience with French in high school and couldn't get far enough away from it. One day, maybe around 1970, I was watching Bill Buckley's "Firing Line on PBS." Bill shared an anecdote about an American reporter interviewing the French minister of education. It went something like this:
He was formally ushered into the minister's office by a stiff functionary. Without waiting for the invitation, he flopped into an ornate, Louis XV chair and offered a breezy, "bonjour, minister." The huge office had a 14-foot ceiling and a row of ornate, floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall, the "window treatment" featuring rich and graceful draperies of jaw-dropping richness and elegance. The minister sat behind his very large and highly-polished, antique desk, barely within conversational range of the reporter's chair, all of it formal and intimidating, to say the least. Being a brash young American, our reporter said, "So, minister, what's up with French education these days?" The minister, appearing stern and startled, hesitated for only a moment. He looked at his watch and clearing his throat said, "It is 11:45, the children are studying Molière."
I took that to mean that all the children, or a least the older ones, from Menton to Cherbourg, in every town, village, and city were having their Molière lesson. Buckley's point in this story was that French education -- like many other things touched by the government -- was managed in minute and unwavering detail by a large, disciplined bureaucracy spread out from Paris and headed by this man in this office. It was an amusing insight into French sociology and government. France is not a slack, do-your-own-thing sort of country like the USA (although I have no doubt that it has become considerably slacker in recent decades, due in considerable part to the slopping over of American culture).
On that day, I became obsessed with France (and am still struggling with the language to this day). I saw that the French had a different take on things, a different point of view, and I wanted to know more.
I do tell you my experience when I was learning French at the University of Alberta...my class mates in that time, they got stuck in the accent,they my English class mates had debates over the French accent and the origin of the French language. I did not participate to that debate and they quit the class or never learn French...but me I have succeed.Today I speak and write french....not perfectly but that does not bothers me...I am happy of my success and everyday I keep learning...I live in Quebec city....good luck to all who want to learn french
Hi, I am curious to know how the French language is viewed in Quebec, and even Canada in general. Is it part of the culture and identity of the place? Is it viewed as something precious, to be protected and continued by future generations?
@@Lalita_Chevaliere_108 It is a part of our country's identity, whenever a politician speaks, they state their speech in both languages. English takes a back seat in Quebec for sure.. unfortunately the Quebecois are looked poorly upon by western canada and vise versa. However, not everyone shares that mindset; I am western Canadian and have respect for them.
@@Austin_Patrick Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! That's really interesting - social and cultural subtleties. I wonder why Quebecois are looked down upon generally. Good on you for not sharing that! Anyway, have a great day.
Bravo. Vivre à Québec, génial ! Comme tous les Français, j'adore la façon de parler des Canadiens francophones, Québécois, Acadiens...J'aimerais visiter ce grand pays. Tous les gens que je connais, qui sont allés là-bas en sont revenus enchantés de l'accueil des Québécois, si gentils et chaleureux!
I want to get to the point where I fall in so deep I wake up being fluent in French. I’ve lived in France a total of two years of my life and studied it as my minor in college and I know it well but want to be completely fluent I will get there!!this video was helpful to know it just happens and at that point you don’t remember the point where you become fluent. Thanks for the inspiration
I am french and i am struggling to become fluent en english. I wish i had a friend like you wich with i could speak and help each other become fluent in our language. If one day you cross a very cool blond guy eating cheese, that's me! And don't hesitate to talk to me and i will be your teacher and you will be mine if you agree. 😅
Je suis sûr que vous allez vous réveiller un matin en vous croyant française! Bon courage et bonne chance.😀
Je suis française et c'est passionnant de vous écouter. On ne se rend pas compte quand on est français que la prononciation est monotone et on a tendance à parler anglais, italien ou espagnol sans mettre d'intonation. Et la prononciation de l'anglais pour un Français est une réelle difficulté. De même , on ne pense pas que les liaisons que nous faisons automatiquement peuvent être difficiles pour un anglophone. Et il y a aussi en France deux grandes variétés de prononciation , celle de la moitié nord de la France, la langue "officielle " des medias, où on parle plus rapidement en sautant des lettres et celle de la moitié sud de la France où on parle plus lentement en prononçant toutes les lettres. Merci pour cette vidéo très instructive pour moi et je retourne à mon perfectionnement en anglais !
I remember when the French were proud to speak there own language.
Immersion! Couldn’t agree more. I wouldn’t have continued with my Spanish as much as I have (reading Vargas Llosa and routine discussions) without the Spanish culture to tempt me! What wonderful worlds we language learners can explore... (And I loved the library tour, too, maybe this for other languages and respective recommendations?)
I’m learning French this year as my next language learning resolution and I think this video is a sign!!
Good luck!!
No google is spying on your browser searches
I'm learning French too. Good luck 🧡
Bonne chance et bon courage à tous ceux qui font l'effort d'apprendre cette langue 😉
How's it going so far?
I’ve always thought French is really hard to follow when spoken but after a good bit of listening practice I learnt to follow it easily enough.... still not really there with the speaking though
any progress is good,I'm still trying to ge there
Parle plus lentement, s'il te plaît.
Practice! That is what it takes.
Any particular thing you did to 'practice'? Any particular things you listened to?
chantelle r lingq playlists I’d made (mostly short stories plus history series) and also some Harry Potter audiobooks
C'est tellement inspirant d'entendre votre histoire d'apprentissage de la langue française. Vous avez une bibliothèque impressionnante !
I've read around 3000 books in my life. Best way to learn languages is by reading books. There are so many French writers to choose from, Camus, Proust, Sartre, balzac, Stendhal, Zola etc. Learning a language whilst reading French greats, killing two birds with one stone. I've learned French, German, and Spanish in this manner. Fun to be a polyglot and a polymath. :) Learn German and read Goethe
Bruh you’re such a cool human being. Wow.
Not even close to those high profile authors, but I've started reading practice using TinTin and Astérix. It's reading French with images for context. It's helped a lot already.
Reading the comments, I'm so glad to be French ! Bonne et heureuse Année !
Haha ta gg que 2021 t'apporte du bonheur
I'm a native Spanish speaker and french was very easy for me. I already knew English so it became easier to follow. Now, I have a problem with pronunciation. I need to live in France in order to fix that.
I recommend everyone to listen to conversations on TH-cam every day even if you dont understand at first. You will start picking it up little by little. Learning a language takes a lot of patience
Dont give up amigos
As a german speaker, I never knew the "u" which is like a german "ü" is a problem for english speakers 😳
My biggest problem with learning French is that there are sooo many French words in English, and since I've been studying English for 12 years already and I am on an almost fluent level in English, I keep mixing up English and French words which are similar 😅 I started learning French over English now, because I realized how much easier it is than learning it over German.
German has stolen a few French words too Wie gehts Ihnen?
@@sleepsmartsmashstress740 gut :)
I can totally relate to you. I get French and Portuguese mixed up, so for now it's only active listening and reading subtitles.
Sépare les deux langues , vraiment.
Do you mean you started learning French in English? Saying over (and from) does not make any sense.
These videos are always so motivating, thanks for all you do Steve!
Also that English accent was great
Hi, i'm french, these are precisely the problems encountered by foreigners who learn the French language, you made the difference between sounds "in" et "un" but the ultra big french majority doesn't sound the difference, for the whole arguments and as other many languages, how to speak is different than how it's written in books as the Passé simple which is not spoken but often used in books, it's the same for the italian language, mainly not spoken in the north but still used in the south of Italy and often used in books. Congratulations it's a very pertinent video ! Et les liaisons sont un véritable problème pour ceux qui apprennent notre langue. Bien amicalement.
I'm Brazilian, but I think that learning English is easier than learning French.
Hi Steve, I'm a Canadian education in Ontario. Despite taking mandatory French lessons in elementary school I was never able to learn the language. They way it was taught turned me off! Now, at the age of 37 I am committed to learning French by myself because I'm excited about it. I don't enjoy learning it as an academic discipline and prefer your method of immersion. Many thanks for these videos!
Lire Marcel Proust en français, chapeau Steve! J'ai connu une jeune étudiante américaine, il y a plus de cinquante ans, qui le lisait couramment, alors que moi, pourtant Français, je trouvais cet auteur plutôt difficile, avec ses phrases interminables, parfois longues d'une page entière; quand on arrive à la fin de la phrase, on ne sait plus de quoi il était question au début😀. Mais Proust est un génie de littérature, il mérite largement un peu d'effort pour le lire. Je suis convaincu que votre méthode pour progresser en langues étrangères est LA meilleure, avec en même temps le bain linguistique dans le pays concerné ou, à défaut, les radios, télés, films, chansons... Merci pour cette vidéo.
Hey Steve, please start teaching all the laungages...it would be greatest gift you can give to students and this world !!!
4:45 so "how I learned French was by becoming interested in its culture" thank you very much best advice ever I'm heading to wikipedia now.
what hahha
If you are interested in history, Napoleon is what you are looking for! Can you imagine someone so powerful and so feared that he retook France without an army, and immediately the rest of Europe declared war on France, not to conquer France, but to put the King of France back on the throne! Thereafter he was exiled to a isolated island off the West coast of Africa, far away from France.
The 19th century French literature too!
Merci beaucoup, en tant que français j’ai trouvé votre vidéo très intéressante et instructive sur mon rapport à ma propre langue ! Comme apprenant en Anglais votre retour d’expérience m’a conforté dans ma façon de d’étudier. Cordialement de Toulouse
French is very useful. We need to learn it even if we weren’t originally motivated. He’s so right about how French is taught in Canada!
especially back when he was in school when the separatist movement was on the rise.
I'm currently learning French. The key to comprehension is input. There are studies of children who are born mute yet learn to understand language as well as anyone else even though they literally cannot speak it--so speaking a language isn't necessary to comprehending it. So I listen to French movies with French (not English) subtitles, listen to French music all the time, in addition to language classes through Busuu, immersing myself in the language.
I totally agree mon ami. Our brain is recording information at all times.
The u and oe sounds in French are so easy for Cantonese speakers like me.
I am really willing to see Steve in a french lesson series. In this marvelous language he really meets all my points.
When I began studying French and after I became fairly proficient, I used to read mystery short-stories by Pierre Bellemare. They were a collection of relatively short and interesting stories written in fairly easy-reading, uncomplicated French. I recommend them.
My background: I came to live in France in 1992 (at age 29), after spending some time in the USAF and having studied Russian at DLI and KU.
Tu peux me recommneder quelques titres des histores qe tu as trouvé plutôt interessantes et merci d avance
@@roum9 C'était il y a tellement longtemps... mais je souviens que ses histoires étaient très agréables à lire. Au début j'écoutais ses histoires qu'il racontait à la radio, puis j'ai fait la transition à ses livres. Ils sont formidables pour les débutants, je trouve.
@@Zipperneck. merci en tout cas je veux evoluer mon fr alores je trouve que commencer par un guide tellement simple est tres utile merci pour le nom de l auteur . 👌👌
@@roum9
Il faut se pencher vers les sujets qui vous intéressent et que vous connaissez déjà un peu. Ca aide.
Thank you you’ve inspired me. I am 26 just starting to learn and I live in London so not far from France. I love mystery novels so I will read those
This must surely be true. I'm currently learning Arabic and what started it was my passion for ancient history and wanting to visit Egypt, Jordan, Syria etc 😁😁
the pronunciations are easy because I grew up speaking haitian creole
La langue française très facile.
Very cool. Here in Brazil I meet a lot of haitian people everywhere I go and I love them, always in a good mood and talkative
@@lucasrba wow I didn't know they were out there
@@jamesatem6046 wi
I always wanted to attend McGill. Not too late I think After all, I will only be 67 on February 01😆
I don't remember either how I learned French. My case is similar to Mr Kaufmann's.
I never found French complicated. The key is to start learning it at a very early stage and massive exposure.
The ones trying to learn it through grammar have later troubles with all the exceptions, subjunctive, liasons, argot, etc.
I speak 5 languages at C level and French is the only one you never finish learning it. French is one of the few languages where native speakers will fight regularerly about how to say things correctly and they will keep correcting each other forever as a national sport.
🤣🤣 You’re not wrong!
HI, STEVE, YOU ARE RIGHT. I AM FROM MEXICO. I SPEAK 3 OTHER LANGUAGES & YES, I´D SAY MEXICAN SPANISH IS MORE LIKE SINGING, EVEN THOUGH MANY PORTUGUESE SPEAKERS WOULD SAY THAT "PORTUGNOL", A MIXTURE OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE & SPANISH IS THE MOST SING-SONGY.... GREETINGS! UN SALUDO SONRIENTE SOLAR SIMILAR AL SOL DE MEXICO (SONG-SINGY, ALL RIGHT...!)
Was very surprised not to hear mention of the difficulty in pronouncing the French "r" with its back-of-the-palate roll. Even after quite a bit of practice I cannot get it 100%. I guess maybe my small amount of prior German practice made the eu/ü sound not so difficult. Another reflection I have on speaking French (coming from American English) is how the focus shifts from consonant sounds/syllables to vowel sounds with diminished syllables. My pronunciation improved when I realized I needed to really focus on moving my face. If you watch speakers of English, there is this unconscious thing of moving the face as little as possible, whereas in France you see everyone's faces in constant animation to get the proper vowel and nasal sounds. Bonne année à tous!
Some accents of French barely make that r sound too while others use it heavily
th-cam.com/video/yNJtAibUeOc/w-d-xo.html that's the sound and the easiest to learn video
I'm checking your useful videos about a lot of languages and Frances got me in different aspects the romantic way and great stability in words I am falling in love for it my mother language is Portuguese even thus France give me suspense atmosphere through air anyway thank you and keep up your excellent job
Le Horla! Excellent taste, Steve.
Happy New Year ! My Best wishes for You and your family....🙏
Félicitations monsieur ! Je suis très fier de vous ! Un exemple pour toute l' Amérique ! Prenez soin de vous
It's easy to understand how a language works if one knows more than one language. I know 6 languages and French is my 7th ( still learning) I understood how it works. I can read write and speak but listening is the hardest because of the liaison as you rightly pointed out.
I think to learn any language the steps should not be to learn the grammer first or read and write first. The first step should be just to speak and listen. Like when a child is born , it learns only to hear and speak first and then learns it's working at school. If we use the same model for learning any language it will become much easier to pick a language.
Let's not forget that some children are born deaf in which case they would have to learn sign language. If the child is born blind, they can't read anything except braille. I have seen people learn languages, despite these handicaps even if they don't use them the same way. For example, deaf people can still read and write, and blind people can still speak and hear
@@michaelrespicio5683 you may be correct but isn't your examples are on exceptional situations? Our brain is so plastic that it learns to accommodate and rewire itself when there is deficiency of a vital function. What do you think? So those children born with special needs have different path of learning in their brain hence they pick up. I was referring to normal course in which speaking and hearing comes first before anything else in language learning. But then I could be wrong. Hehe
I also learned nothing but French grammar in school. And Roch Voisine music.
"I don't remember it"
Ok sir I got it.
Thank you for sharing your experience Steve. We tend to separate language as a 'tool' for communication, which it of course is, but we also need to remember that it is embedded in a culture and society. And therefore, it is important to connect to the essence of the language, which as articulated by you happens when we try learning about the place it comes from, the people, the monuments, stories around them etc. In the standard curriculum, french culture is taught towards the end of the intermediate level, but this could be shifted to levels preceding that.
I loved that video, I'm a French speaking man from Cameroon. I'm still learning English, I have a lot of problem with connected speech is English and I have noticed French learners face the same problem. I laughed when he talked about the verb "devenir" in French, French people pronounce it like it was " devnir" they do the same thing with a lot of others words. For instance pronounce my country name" camroun" instead of " Cameroun" they don't pronounce one syllable. French people delete a lot of sounds when they speak, I don't have any problem with that, I understand all French accents perfectly, but it sometimes super hard for French learners to understand spoken French, because they don't pronounce words as they are written. I generally recommend to French learners to watch movies which have been translated into French instead of watching an original French movie, you can watch the French version of an American movie, or English movie, it doesn't matter but the original movie has not to be in French. When I watch a French movie and a movie which has been translated into French, I can perfectly see the difference, actors speak more clearly, they articulate better, compared to an original French movie. And I also notice that it's the same thing with movies in English, when I watch an American or a British movie, sometimes I feel like actors don't speak English, but it was before. Now I can understand some American movies at more than 70% depending on the movie thanks to the fact that I sometimes watch movies which have been translated into English. When I didn't watch movies translated into English, I thought that we didn't speak English in the USA. Generally in my country, we don't reduce words as much as French people do, that's why we recognize very easily when French guys speak, they like doing" uh uh uh " as he said in the video, the way he said it made me laugh 😂😂
Hello 😁Arriving 2021 Jan 1st, I am here to tell you about the future because we have a lot of thing coming 2021, This is a new year and a great call for celebration with family and dear ones. Start the new year holding on to the old memories with a new spirit and hope. Happy new year! This year may finally realize that real fun in life comes from real people, not from the virtual ones. Have a great year!
Right, I work on the e sound, native Swedish. I saw a Herman Lindqvist in your book shelf. He is a hero journalist to say the least. He also speak french most likely, he lived in France when I lived there. I was going to a seminar by him but missed it.
Je suis japonaise qui apprend le francais depuis quelques annees.Je pense que la prononciation du francais est tres difficile! Malgre la difficulte,je vais continuer a apprendre le francais!Merci beaucoup!Vous avez beaucoup d'efforts!Vous avez beaucoup de livres.Vous etes super!
やはり日本人にフランス語の発音は難しいですね。頑張ってください!
@@robertoorsi3203 Oui,vous avez raison!Merci beaucoup!励まし有難うございます。
To save your time: He says in the end he doesn’t remember how he learned French.
Thank you, click bait thumbnails drive me mad.
Merci
Really?
Ahahahahahahahhahaha
Thank you so much I won't watch it
Talking about the dominance of the E, somebody managed to write a whole novel without a single E 😄
It's called "la disparition".
I'm French born and raised and I just started to take French lessons again! I keep discovering new rules or rediscovering it. It's actually offered and paid for by my French university. It became quite a social issue, maybe, in France since a lot of French people make too many mistakes in French even though we are French. Actually it is often said that foreigners speak better French than French people themselves. If you are learning French, don't worry if you make mistakes, just keep learning and wanting to improve. If French people correct you, it's not persecution or rudeness, they really want to help you improve. French people are more authoritative/mad at French people making mistakes than foreigners doing so.
Great video Steve! It will help a lot of French learners. You talked about the challenges of the French pronunciation which will help a lot of French learners. I need to mention one thing though, I believe that the English pronunciation is way more challenging than the French pronunciation.
I have lived in France for over eight years, I listen to news and television programmes every day, I have two young daughters at school. I still don't hear individual words. I still can't construct a sentence. I did a six month course (15 hrs per week) and all that did for me was stop me speaking as I couldn't remember the gender or conjugation. I've just turned 70 and have made a new year's resolution to learn French.
As an aside I didn't learn English grammar at school, so understanding grammatical vocabulary is a big problem.
Any tips?
Thanks
I suggest you get on LingQ and do our mini stories. Probably you know all the vocabulary, but focus on the phrases, focus on listening many many times, although not all at once, so that this core vocabulary and core phrasing becomes a part of you. This forms of base from which you can go forward into more interesting content. It's also a place where you can go back and work on your core, like a gym.
I'm Brazilian and I'm learning english yet But I already want to start learn french too
Boa sorte miga, eu já tô tentando o francês, tô lascado rsrs
I’m four months into learning French and my biggest frustration is not yet being able to say sentences in my head smoothly. I speak in small chunks, translating 2 words at a time.
Me on French now 😋my fifth language , ўзбек тили она тилим :)
Good advice. First build motivation. Then show them the language. Then teach the language as needed. Don't teach all the rules upfront! No one needs to be able to say "I would have bought that except for all the thing I would miss out on," if they can't clearly say, "hi, I'm bob"
Feliz año nuevo Mr.steve
Canadian here, I had such a shit experience with learning french in class
From really pompous french teachers that were more into grandstanding rather than just reading the stuff or focusing on the lessons
To absolutely sucking ass at writing french or understanding what makes a word masculine or feminine without knowing if it has an "e" or has "Le" or "la"
I loved speaking, listening and reading french though and that alone allowed me to kinda get the gist of spoken french up to like B1-B2 without being able to speak or write worth a damn
You are outstanding! By the way, I thought that the mother language in your area Montreal is French?! I respect your passion for many languages and still learning more. Thank you for sharing your goodness with others. Please keep up your great work!
I enjoy these types of videos , i.e how i learned French, Chinese, Russian etc. Interesting and I like seeing your book collection.
If you know similar languages, such as Spanish, French, and Italian, how can you make sure you don’t mix them up?
As a person that learned French at the school and learn Italian now I can say it's impossible (at least, for me) cause I always mix them and even don't notice.
As a native English speaker, with a very good level of fluency in Spanish, French and Italian, I can say that's it's inevitable that you will occasionally mix words but it absolutely doesn't matter! Worrying about errors that don't matter can hold you back. Fear of making mistakes is often an unhelpful hangover from a formal education.
I speak French, English, spanish and Chinese. French is very similar to Spanish. English is the most easy language in the world.
@@daiweihan1209 estoy estudiando Inglés desde hace 4 meses y la verdad me parece súper complicado entenderlo. Quisiera saber por qué piensas que el Inglés es fácil.
@@davidalvarez325 Yo estuve
Opening a lot with Steve
It was the same with me and English. As long as it was only a boring school subject, nothing happened. I was the dumbest kid in class. But then I discovered music, from Sinatra to Eminem, later on books, and finally the internet. The only time I remember putting some real effort in was when I had to remember the irregular verbs (at the age of 16). I memorised them all and that was it. The rest I absorbed organically through books, music, and movies. Now, as an adult, I try to repeat this process with French, Italian, and Slovak.
Usually I find your insights about language learning so helpful, this time I gotta say I didn't get much out of it, just the remainder of the importance of making things interesting for you and a couple difficulties you had with this and that pronunciation
I'm visiting Quebec for my third extended visit. I understand a fair bit of basics, but oy! The speed of speech is impossible for me to understand. But I'm working on it. I love love love the people. Already making plans to return, but I want to be more prepared to engage next time.
Each visit to the country where the language is spoken is a chance to use the language, but even more a new encouragement to spend more time with the language.
J’adore votre bibliotheque!
Guys, stop learning which verbs go with être. It's logic.
With you can say 'something' or 'someone' after, it goes with avoir. Examples:
Manger goes with avoir bc you can say "eat something".
Aller goes with être because you can say "go something"
Sometimes it depends on the meaning. Descendre goes with etre when it means go down, but with avoir when it means 'kill (someone)
The problem of pronunciation is basically the same with all languages. I taught myself a lot of French and French words and got the accent(in my opinion) pretty good. I just started 2 weeks ago to teach myself Cantonese. and im just starting to get the sound correct. You just have to listen and then listen again and when youve done that. Listen some more. And repeat of course.
The final E, like in "Ne me quittE pas" was commonly pronounced in French songs until the 70's. It was also common to add the E sound to the last word of a line, even for words that end in a vowel, which was a device typically used in songs but not spoken language. Like in that random line of a French song pre-70's: "Mais elle nest pas revenuuuE" (and the final E is pronounced). Later it became old fashioned, and with the style of French music being influenced by British/American pop music (even when sung in French), it is not used today.
even though it's my mother tongue, I've learned a few things . Merci Steve
C'est une très bonne idée que d'apprendre le français. De mon côté, j'apprends l'anglais avec une professeur particulier native English and it is a pleasure 😃
It reminds me of how I learnt English as a French speaker. I had three main issues: the two "th" as in "this" and "teeth", stress on consonants, and the worse part the aspiration on consonants such as p, t, k, which is an absolute nightmare for a French speaker. Actually, I would go as far as to say that this is usually the main error that French speakers make in English. I say worse, because the only time I got a teacher talk about it was during a phonology class, where the professor compared words such as: pub(ads in French)/pub, khan/can, tombe/tomb. It took me years to muster all these differences to be able to at least get rid a little bit of my French accent. But as my phonology professor at the Université de Montréal used to say, he was American but spoke French without a hint of accent, to speak is to hear... The more you speak, the more you train your pronunciation, the more you understand... hearing and speaking trigger the same zones in the brain...
Hi Steve, while you have learned French language, I Have learned English too, my favorite language. By the way, l am from Brazil
I like how your accent shifts to Montrealer as you think about being in Montreal.
thank you for everything your do !!!!! You are a true inspiration !!!!!!
Wow. 12 minutes into this 14-minute video, he actually goes like "How did I learn French? ... I don't remember.". Wow! Then why make the video?🤣🤣🤣
Well, I think you didn't get the point. He explains in the video how he did it, though he doens't remember 100% how. But nevertheless, he gave some explanation. He sais he read journals, books, etc. and he immersed himself in the language. What more of an explanation do you want to have.
Bonne nouvelle année, Steve
Another epic video from THE LANGUAGE GURU.
Steve, I wish you could watch "Tout le monde en parle" when you were in Montréal. La liaison is the 1st challenge, what you memorized individual words may sounds different in a phrase like the example Steve said which almost everyone learnt in on day1 : Comment allez vous? there are also rules for non liaison before some "h" words, like : les héros. Another language used a lot liaison is Korea. In English we have have a little bit : Trick or treat ; Same old, same old (favorite compaigne slogan of Jack layton); 2nd challenge is the passé simple in the novel vs passé composé & imparfait when you write. On the Hydro Québec airplane from LG2 power station to Montréal, one engineer told me that normal people don't use "passé simple", only the "Écrivain" ! Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache! Même chose pour le français, Even Justin Trudeau said he has LI (language Insecurity).
Chers amis francophones, si vous voulez comprendre le français tel qu'on le parle en France, suivez une chaîne TH-cam d'un français sur un sujet qui vous passionne. Vous aurez 2 bénéfices...
Je ne compte plus mes amis immigrés qui ont lutté plusieurs années avant de s'en sortir, avec les genres et les auxiliaires (avoir, être)... sans compter les liaisons (soulignées dans la vidéo).
Bon courage, en tout cas.
N'oubliez pas que le français est écrit avant d'être parlé, donc il faut savoir l'écrire pour pouvoir le parler correctement... Sorry, guys & gals!
j crois que j manque tellement la lecture et écriture en effet c'est pq g pas de base pour parler couramment le fr, merci pour ton astuce frérot
AMAZING! BRAVO!
I've learned English and now as an advanced French student I can confirm that the pronunciation in French is just crazy. 😂
Very helpful tips Steve. Thank you!
The stack of material you got from the Italian Tourist Bureau was probably about the twenty different regions :-)
Regional identities are actually quite varied in Italy because of their long, twisted and separate histories.
Hello Steve! You mentioned in this video that you started learning French with a book about the history and art of France. Can I find out his exact title, writer? Thank you very much!
You may have gotten bored of French in Gr7 but that was when my immersion class went to Quebec, haha. I forever live with the shame of forgetting the word cucumber while trying to order at Subway. My headstone one day will just have the word "concombre" on it.
I am learning French.
Same
Je suis français et polonais et le Français est la langue latine (la plus complexe.)
3:22 🎶"Out of the night, when the full moon is bright....comes a horseman known as Zorro". 🎶😉
Steve Kaufman, I’m learning French to get me through the books I read for fun. I recently finished The Lesser Devil by Christopher Roucchio which is a Science-Fiction book. Now how did this get me wanting to learn French? It had a fair bit of French in it. I was thinking so I’m reading a book in English that happens to have French in it. Some of it I understood like Bonjour, Monseiur, Excusie-Moi. But a lot of it I didn’t. Then I started thinking about English and what French words we already use like Deja-vu, Crème Brûlé. There was an even a song I listen to a lot that had a French word in the title Faith Noel by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. So I’m like okay I’m learning French.
For me to learn French my advise will be simple move to a city where everyone speak French.and if you are sou rounded by English speakers and French is the language use most in your city,never ever reply to an English speaker in English because they are not interested on learning french but you are.Listen always to French music,t.v. shows on French, speak to everyone only in French..and do not worry if you have an accent that is Hispanic or English as its my case...I do have an accent in English as well since my first language is Spanish,so i do not give a F.....about my accent...and y- should not as well,.because that will limit your success in any language... you are trying to learn
Bravo 👍
Wow... You studied for 3 years in France...in French.
Okay, first of all, I'm a native french speaker, and I have to say your pronunciation is absolutely fantastic.
Secondly, I'm learning Czech as a fourth language. And with great surprise, I see that you're also into Czech!
I have to say the Czech language is fresh new for me and pretty tough, can I have some tips, advice or is there any e-book, program, or anything to help me with my Czech?
I would definitely recommend you go to LingQ. Start with the mini-stories and then look at the other material we have there. You can also import from TH-cam or other sources as you progress in the language.
@@Thelinguist Thanks a lot
To read the literature or to speak? Hard to find a French person here to talk to. But you can read the great French literature anytime you want.