Cielosur

Amélie! And I'm so glad I watched it because it was the film that made me fall in love with French .

I love that movie.  It is so beautiful visually.  I agree that Amelie is a movie that can easily make you fall in love with all things French.  It certainly rekindled my love for the French language. 

The only place I can think of that offers free e-books in French is Project Gutenberg, but they are classics in the public domain.  I believe they have some translations of Jane Austen's Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility.  They also have several novels be Honore de Balzac and much more to choose from. 

I read a lot of books in Spanish.  Most recently, I read a translation to Spanish of Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac.  I also love the work of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and I highly recommend his books. 

Taking a foreign language was required in high school.  I was already fluent in Spanish because I came from a Spanish speaking household so I chose French and I took it for four years.  When I enrolled in college, I took two more semesters of French as part of the basic coursework but since it was considered an elective, I did not continue beyond that. 

Me gusta el ciclismo, es una de las cosas que me gustan hacer en mi tiempo liebre. Me gusta jugar el Xbox, comiendo, escuchando músicas y aprendiendo idiomas.

Algunas correcciones  : gusta instead of gustan (the n is not necessary in this case).  Libre instead of liebre (liebre means hare).  Also, it should be "comer, escuchar música y aprender idiomas".

I love the short stories written by Shirley Jackson:  The Lottery, Charles, and The Possibility of Evil. The first Shirley Jackson story I read was The Lottery.  I read it in high school and I never forgot it. 

En cuanto a las series españolas, en estos momentos estoy obsesionada con Isabel pero solo he podido ver la primera temporada y creo que ya van en la tercera.  También me gustó mucho El Secreto de Puente Viejo pero no la he podido ver toda porque no tengo acceso a todos los capítulos y tengo entendido que la serie es muy larga.    También disfruto mucho ver las repeticiones de los programas de Chespirito como El Chavo del Ocho y El Chapulín Colorado.  Es un humor muy lindo y muy sano.

I want to get a good French/English dictionary.  I think it would help me very much to build my vocabulary.  I know that I can look up definitions and translate words online but I much prefer having an actual dictionary.  What would you recommend? 

My biggest weakness without a doubt has to be the accents.  I speak it fluently and I have no problem expressing my thoughts but if I have to write (or type) something in Spanish I get overwhelmed.  I am constantly second guessing myself and consulting the dictionary to make sure I am getting the accents correctly.  Needless to say, it takes me quite a while to write something in Spanish. 

I am going to go back in time to the 80s and recommend some of the bands that spearheaded the Rock En Tu Idioma movement.  This was a campaign from one of the record labels to promote rock music in Spanish.  The bands were primarily from Spain, Argentina, and Mexico

Soda Stereo

Enanitos Verdes

Miguel Mateos

Charly Garcia

Miguel Rios

La Union

La Trinca

Hombres G

Nacha Pop

Duncan Dhu

Los Caifanes

Maldita Vecindad

I would also add Cafe Tacuba, La Ley and Mecano although these are more from the 90s. 

Me gusta mucho leer y también me gusta tejer con ganchillo.  Otro pasatiempo que disfruto mucho es salir a caminar aunque ahora el calor esta insoportable así que me impide salir tan seguido como quisiera.  Otra cosa que no puede faltar es la música.  Paso horas enteras escuchando todo tipo de música. 

-Oye, pues mi hijo en su nuevo trabajo se siente como pez en el agua.

-¿Qué hace?

-Nada.

**********

nada = nothing

and also

nada = to swim

The first French movie I ever saw was La Mariee Etait En Noir (The Bride Wore Black).  It is about a woman who takes revenge on the men who killed her husband on their wedding day.  The way the movie was filmed is very reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock movies. 

Espectaculo = spectacle or show, show business

Es un espectaculo deplorable.  (It is a deplorable spectacle.)

Me gusta seguir las noticias del mundo del espectaculo.  (I like to follow show business news.)

When I was in high school, I took French for four years and I was very good at it.  I took another two semesters of French in college but then I stopped.  As time went by, I forgot most of what I knew.  Now, I want to relearn/refresh my skills so that I can enjoy French movies without subtitles and maybe one day visit France. 

I would like to learn:

1.  French

2.  Italian

3.  Portuguese

4.  Japanese

5.  Greek

Here are two tongue twisters in Spanish that I remember from my childhood. 

Cuando cuentas

cuentos nunca

cuentas cuantos

cuentos cuentas

Pablito clavó un clavito,

¿qué clavito clavó Pablito?,

el clavito que Pablito clavó,

era el clavito de Pablito.

I think that Don Quixote might be too much for a beginner.  Plus, the book is very long and it might seem like a daunting task  .  I'm not sure how far along your friend is in their studies but you might consider some contemporary authors.  One book I really enjoyed is La Sombra del Viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  If your friend likes magical realism, you can't go wrong with books by Carlos Fuentes (Aura is a personal favorite), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel or Isabel Allende. 

I like the word "tournesol".  It means sunflower. 

My favorite poems is Cantares by Antonio Machado.  It was set to music by Joan Manuel Serrat in the late 60s and it became one of his iconic songs.  He added more verses to the poem.  It truly is beautiful. 

Here are the verses written by Antonio Machado:

XLIV

Todo pasa y todo queda,

pero lo nuestro es pasar,

pasar haciendo caminos,

caminos sobre la mar.

I

Nunca perseguí la gloria,

ni dejar en la memoria

de los hombres mi canción;

yo amo los mundos sutiles,

ingrávidos y gentiles

como pompas de jabón.

Me gusta verlos pintarse

de sol y grana, volar

bajo el cielo azul, temblar

súbitamente y quebrarse.

Nunca perseguí la gloria.

XXIX

Caminante, son tus huellas

el camino, y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino,

se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino,

y al volver la vista atrás

se ve la senda que nunca

se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante, no hay camino,

sino estelas en la mar.

----------------------------------------------------

And these are the verses added by Joan Manuel Serrat:

Hace algún tiempo, en ese lugar

donde hoy los bosques se visten de espinos,

se oyó la voz de un poeta gritar:

caminante, no hay camino,

se hace camino al andar,

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

Murió el poeta lejos del hogar,

le cubre el polvo de un país vecino.

Al alejarse le vieron llorar,

caminante, no hay camino,

se hace camino al andar,

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar,

cuando el poeta es un peregrino,

cuando de nada nos sirve rezar,

caminante, no hay camino,

se hace camino al andar,

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

http://youtu.be/Lj-W6D2LSlo

My favorite Mexican slang word is "chingar".  It is so versatile. 

It can be a noun:  Pasame la chingadera esa.  Hand me that damn thing. 

It can be a verb:  Como chingas.  You bother me.

It can be a destination:  Vete a la chingada.  Go to hell.

It can mean a really good beating:  Me dieron una chinga. Te dieron una chinga.

It can mean getting screwed over by someone:  Me chingaron.  Te chingaron.

And of course there is the ultimate "chinga tu madre" which involves someone's mother. 

If James Lipton ever asks me what is my favorite cuss word, I will have no qualms answering that is hands down "chingar".

I'm fluent in Spanish but I still want to play

contribuir- to contribute

compartir- to share

Me da gusto contribuir a esta noble causa. 

I am happy to contribute to this noble cause.

Me gusta compartir. 

I like to share.

I use Duolingo as well.  I share your situation.  I took four years of French in high school and one year in college.  That was many, many moons ago and I forgot most of what I learned. 

I am glad I found the app and I enjoy using it very much.  It is certainly more productive than most of the game apps out there.  I find Duolingo to be a great refresher for me but I agree that it does not help much with fluency.  As a matter of fact, when I try to watch a movie in French without the subtitles, I find that I cannot pick up most of the words. 

Hi everyone,

My name is Nidia and I am from Texas.  I speak English and Spanish fluently.  As a matter of fact, I consider both of them my native tongues since I grew up speaking both.  When I was in high school, I took French for four years and in college I took two more years of French.  But, as they say, use it or lose it and unfortunately, I had no one to practice with so I forgot most of what I learned.  I am trying to re-learn French.  I am glad that I found this forum and I look forward to learning and sharing.