trying to keep my brain alive

Hortensia

I'm retired now and worried about losing my mind! You have to keep exercising your brain to prevent dementia and similar stuff. Use it or lose it!

So, I decided to try to learn French. "Try" is the operative word. What a hard language. For one thing, I keep expecting the words to be pronounced as they would be in Spanish, because I'm much more familiar with Spanish since I grew up in San Diego. It reminds me of going to China and trying to learn Chinese. It was so different and often I'd try to say something in Chinese and a Spanish phrase would come out of my mouth.

So I got the Pimsleur tapes and I practice with them. There are thousands of "learn French" videos on youtube, and I'm watching them. I'm starting to figure some stuff out, like not pronouncing consonants at the end of a word unless the next word starts with a vowel. That explains a lot.

But I'm not getting very far very fast. I've been faithful spending some time on it every day for about a month. And of course, not a soul around here speaks French. I'm never going to have any reason to use the French I learn. But because it's hard, I think it's good for my brain and I keep trying. But when I try to watch a French newscast or French movie clip on youtube, I don't understand one word in 20.

So,

Bonjour! Je ne comprends pas la francais. Ce que vous parlez l'anglais? Ou est la rue Saint Jacques? Je veux la carte. Un cafe et l'addition, s'il vous plais.

Not even sure if I'm spelling them correctly, but it's kind of fun!

Truth seeker 674

Hortensia I am a Canadian I understand your french. But if you ever get to Montreal they won't understand most of what you say. The don't speak french they speak habitant.

Finkelstein

Have you tried Rosetta Stone language learning program ?

Its a computer software program that lets you learn by speaking into a microphone connected to your computer.

Words and sentences show up on your monitor and you are to speak out the words, you have to be at least close before

you advance to the next level.

Kind of fun actually.

Here's a link http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-french?cid=se-gg-can-brsl

Truth seeker 674

Hortensia its just like on this web site I hear a lot of englanders and I have trouble sometimes understanding what they say! The evolution of languages is just another proof of evolution.

Hortensia

I looked at Rosetta Stone, but a friend recommended Pimsleur and I was able to get the set at a pretty good price on ebay.

I never thought about Montreal -- Canada is a LOT closer than France, isn't it? I'm in northern California.

Anyway it's kind of fun, and instead of horrible songs going round and round in my head, I'm counting in French over and over. At least that's more useful!

Truth seeker 674

Yes hortensia we are your fiendly northern neighbor that you seldom hear from.

NVR2L8

Bravo Hortensia...one of the main difficulty in learning French is that every noun has a gender...le français, la lune, le soleil...it takes time to learn the gender of each noun. I'm from Montréal and I don't speak "habitant" as suggested by TS674, but French with a different accent than Parisien French. It's like English spoken in Boston differs from English spoken in Texas or New Jersey...The written language is exactly the same regardless. I'm sure if you inquire you will be able to find French speaking people in your area.

notjustyet

Also look into http://www.lumosity.com as it seems to be made to help keep the brain active.

NJY

breakfast of champions

Stick with Pimsleur, that's how I started French.

Also helpful (and I realize you may not want to do this) was listening to and reading the Watchtower in French. It was actually a big help, and expanded my vocabulary. Despite the actual content of the magazine, it worked pretty well because its written at a simple yet (somewhat) adult level, and the readers on the recordings speak clearly and have good pronunciation (from what I could tell).

After that, I moved on to Fremch podcasts from France, which speak a lot faster and use a lot of colloquialisms that can be difficult to understand.

keep up with it!

Truth seeker 674

I'm just curious "breakfast of champions" why are or were you trying to learn french?

trying to keep my brain alive

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