Problem
How do you keep up a foreign language. (In my case French.)
Answers
1 THINK IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
As you look up from your desk, or around you on a bus or train or plane, describe the scene in the language you need to practise.
2 READ LABELS
Read the labels on goods and food. When you see the foreign language, read it aloud, slowly then faster.
3 SPEAK FRENCH TO ACQUAINTANCES
When you speak to friends and strangers, tell them that you speak French (or other languages). If they are a native speaker or speak that language, immediately start speaking in that language.
4 KEEP A LANGUAGE NOTEBOOK
Do what I did to expand my vocabulary when I was learning French at grammar school for A level. I bought a small notebook. I folded the pages in half vertically. On the left I headed the column English. The right hand column was headed French.
Every time I came across a new word in French I noted it down with the translation, or I looked up the translation later. When I thought of an English word and didn't know the translation, I added the English word and looked up the translation later.
5 TRANSLATE TRAVEL PAGES & WEBSITES
Look for the French version of websites. Start with the French, and note the words you don't recognise. Then read the English. Then go back to the French. For example, when reading about the bull fight and fair in Dax, France (described in my previous posts) I went onto the website for Dax, which was in French, started reading the French, got tired, looked for the English, then went back to the French.
I thought I spoke French pretty fluently. However, I had a hard job at first telling the difference between a matador and a picador and a toreador in English, never mind the Spanish and French.
Sometimes I can't find the translation symbol on a website. I think to myself, there's no flag showing either their country or mine, but it's a tourist website, so they must have the translate symbol somewhere. I started clicking on all the tiny double letters. Eventually I found that English appeared when I clicked on the letters EN. (I had been looking for UK or GB.) After I read the English, at least skim read it to get the gist of each paragraph, I was encouraged to go back and try reading the French again.
I also read several paragraphs in Spanish, although my knowledge of Spanish is minimal, so many words are similar to English. However, some sentences made no sense because I missed just one word, the subject! Miss that one word and the ten word sentence is incomprehensible. Translate or learn that one word and you can translate a whole sentence, or have the courage to continue reading an entire paragraph.
6 START A BLOG IN FRENCH
Blogger is blogueur.
Story
This week I was in a sauna and spoke to three women who spoke English as a second language. They were initially speaking to each other in Arabic. One was from Egypt, another from Iraq, a third from Morocco. I addressed them in English and they replied in English. When I was left alone with the woman from Morocco, we discovered that we both spoke French as a second language and both wanted to keep up our French. So we started talking in French.
I told her about Duolingo. That free internet language learning website currently has about 12 other languages for speakers of English. I use Duolingo to learn languages other than English and French. But she could use Duolingo to improve her English and French or learn Spanish.
TIPS
www.duolingo.com
https://offqc.com/2013/05/09/clear-up-doubts-about-words-related-to-blogging-in-french-602/ (A French Canadian site)
Author
Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Auteur
Angela Lansbury.
I was going to translate only the signature.
Google translate gave me:
Écrivain et photographe de voyage, auteur et conférencier.
I can translate the whole post.
Here is what I got from Google Translate
How do you keep up a foreign language. (In my case French.)
Answers
1 THINK IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
As you look up from your desk, or around you on a bus or train or plane, describe the scene in the language you need to practise.
2 READ LABELS
Read the labels on goods and food. When you see the foreign language, read it aloud, slowly then faster.
3 SPEAK FRENCH TO ACQUAINTANCES
When you speak to friends and strangers, tell them that you speak French (or other languages). If they are a native speaker or speak that language, immediately start speaking in that language.
4 KEEP A LANGUAGE NOTEBOOK
Do what I did to expand my vocabulary when I was learning French at grammar school for A level. I bought a small notebook. I folded the pages in half vertically. On the left I headed the column English. The right hand column was headed French.
Every time I came across a new word in French I noted it down with the translation, or I looked up the translation later. When I thought of an English word and didn't know the translation, I added the English word and looked up the translation later.
5 TRANSLATE TRAVEL PAGES & WEBSITES
Look for the French version of websites. Start with the French, and note the words you don't recognise. Then read the English. Then go back to the French. For example, when reading about the bull fight and fair in Dax, France (described in my previous posts) I went onto the website for Dax, which was in French, started reading the French, got tired, looked for the English, then went back to the French.
I thought I spoke French pretty fluently. However, I had a hard job at first telling the difference between a matador and a picador and a toreador in English, never mind the Spanish and French.
Sometimes I can't find the translation symbol on a website. I think to myself, there's no flag showing either their country or mine, but it's a tourist website, so they must have the translate symbol somewhere. I started clicking on all the tiny double letters. Eventually I found that English appeared when I clicked on the letters EN. (I had been looking for UK or GB.) After I read the English, at least skim read it to get the gist of each paragraph, I was encouraged to go back and try reading the French again.
I also read several paragraphs in Spanish, although my knowledge of Spanish is minimal, so many words are similar to English. However, some sentences made no sense because I missed just one word, the subject! Miss that one word and the ten word sentence is incomprehensible. Translate or learn that one word and you can translate a whole sentence, or have the courage to continue reading an entire paragraph.
6 START A BLOG IN FRENCH
Blogger is blogueur.
Story
This week I was in a sauna and spoke to three women who spoke English as a second language. They were initially speaking to each other in Arabic. One was from Egypt, another from Iraq, a third from Morocco. I addressed them in English and they replied in English. When I was left alone with the woman from Morocco, we discovered that we both spoke French as a second language and both wanted to keep up our French. So we started talking in French.
I told her about Duolingo. That free internet language learning website currently has about 12 other languages for speakers of English. I use Duolingo to learn languages other than English and French. But she could use Duolingo to improve her English and French or learn Spanish.
TIPS
www.duolingo.com
https://offqc.com/2013/05/09/clear-up-doubts-about-words-related-to-blogging-in-french-602/ (A French Canadian site)
Author
Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Auteur
Angela Lansbury.
I was going to translate only the signature.
Google translate gave me:
Écrivain et photographe de voyage, auteur et conférencier.
I can translate the whole post.
Here is what I got from Google Translate
Problème
Comment maintenez-vous une langue étrangère. (Dans mon cas français).
Réponses
1 PENSEZ EN LANGUE ÉTRANGÈRE
Lorsque vous regardez de votre bureau, ou autour de vous sur un bus, un train ou un avion, décrivez la scène dans la langue que vous devez pratiquer.
2 LIRE LES ETIQUETTES
Lisez les étiquettes sur les produits et les aliments. Lorsque vous voyez la langue étrangère, lisez-la à haute voix, lentement et plus vite.
3 FALER LE FRANÇAIS À DES ACQUISTIVITÉS
Lorsque vous parlez à des amis et à des étrangers, dites-leur que vous parlez français (ou d'autres langues). S'ils sont un locuteur natif ou parlent cette langue, commencez immédiatement à parler dans cette langue.
No comments:
Post a Comment