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lecanard7

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  • Currently studying
    French
  • Native tongue
    English
  • Fluent in
    English, French (semi-fluent)

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  1. I once listened to a very interesting conversation between a group of friends and a French language fanatic we all know. Something he said that I thought was pretty neat was that a lot of English and French words are actually quite similar. I think he said maybe 60% were at least from the same roots. I started thinking about it and was quite amazed to see all the similarities. The only problem is it's hard to see some of them if you don't know French yet. I think you would notice the similarities sooner in writing because English and French sound very different. Some of the ways you can relate words are pretty abstract though. For instance je cours means I run. Cours is similar to course which is where you run a race. Some are very much the same though even down to the spelling.
  2. Yes I will absolutely understand your Parisian French. It can sound a lot clearer than Quebec French. I am proud of being a Quebecois and speaking like one but I think Parisian French is much prettier sounding. I think it's also used a lot more universally than other types of French.
  3. Just keep trying. I live in QC and have known lots of people who were trying to learn French and my advice to them was just keep talking it no matter what. You could really see the difference in those who did and those who didn't. If people make fun of you that is their problem. You are actually making an effort to learn their language and they should appreciate it! And if people want to laugh at you, you can always make them feel bad by very humbly asking them to show you what you did wrong and making a sincere effort to say it right.
  4. No, I didn't take it as seriously as I should have. I took french school. I already knew some French and I think I felt like studying it was a waste of time. Boy am I sorry now. I live in a place where they speak French all the time. My accent is good but my grammar is horrible. I have trouble understanding people as well. It makes me wish I had tried harder in school!
  5. How do you keep motivated when you are learning a language? I was using a site that emailed me every day for about a week when I stopped studying, but if I didn't check my emails I forgot about it. Even if I did see them I wouldn't always go study right away and then I would forget about it. I was supposed to study for about 5-10 minutes a day and that really isn't too much, but I would often forget about it until late in the evening. I would plan to do it the next day but somehow it would never get done. My husband is studying French too and we tried to remind each other but it still got to easy to forget to remind each other.
  6. Because I learned French as a child and then lost it through disuse I don't have some of the normal problems that people have when learning a language. I guess the hardest things for me is trying to keep up with my studying and writing. Grammar is hard for me and I often find myself struggling to put sentences together.
  7. I have done some reading in French. I find reading kid's novels, especially ones I've read before, is good practice for me and if I know the story already I don't get too lost. I also read some Sherlock Holmes stories one time and promised myself I would look up every word I didn't know. It took a lot of effort to stop and look up words when I was all involved in my book, but I was glad I did. It was a pretty good exercise for me and I felt like it helped me learn some new words.
  8. This is really confusing. I would originally have gone with ARE but when I read everything that has been said I don't know anymore. I guess it depends on the context. English can be such a confusing language and I'm a native speaker!
  9. I think that similar languages are still quite different. I knew someone who said that he had an easier time learning Portugese after he stopped considering it a bastardized version of Spanish. I understand quite a bit of French but if I listen to some of my friends from Haiti speak Creole I can have a pretty hard time understanding it. The way they are written is completely different too. An English speaker could read Creole as it is written and sound quite a bit like they knew what they were reading. If they would try to read French it would sound pretty ridiculous. I can read French and understand it quite well but Spanish is really hit and miss. I believe that just because languages share roots does not mean they are the same.
  10. That depends on a lot of things. I think poetry absolutely CAN NOT be translated. It just doesn't work. If it means exactly the same thing it might not have the same rhythm, and if it has rhythm it might not mean the same thing. Even if it has rhythm and meaning it's still not the same as it was. Literature however can be translated quite well. I really enjoy reading works from other countries and I believe if you have a good translator who has a good grasp of both languages you can get a pretty accurate translation. I guess some of it depends on how well the translator can get inside the authors head. Even when you have two people speaking the same language they can misunderstand the meaning behind what the other person is saying. I suppose you could have a very good technical translator who just wouldn't understand how the author thinks and that would result in a loss of the essence of the original work. I thought I've had on this is assuming all translations lose some of the original essecnce, is it better to have a reasonably good but still slightly imperfect translation of a book or to not have any translation at all. Personally, I would go for the imperfect translation every time. I'd rather enjoy those books than not have them at all. Besides, If I've never read the original text, I won't know I'm missing anything, right?
  11. I don't have this problem very much because I am a native English speaker. However I do wish more of Jules Verne's works were translated into English. He's a French author and his books are just a little too complicated for me to read. The translated ones I have read are really enjoyable though. Except for one that was VERY BADLY translated.
  12. I have used google translate some and find it quite helpful. My husband has used it quite a bit too and he likes it a lot. It's not always as accurate as I would like but I think some of that is because I speak Quebec French which can be a little different than International French.
  13. Hi there. Good morning - Bonjour (We don't really say good morning. Bonjour is like hello. Bon = good jour = day. Matin is the word for morning.) Good afternoon - Bonne après-midi Good evening - Bonsoir (this is how you would say it as a greeting) Bonne soirée (this is how you would say goodbye at night) Good day - Bonjour (again) How are you? - Comment allez-vous? It's nice to meet you - Enchanté (this is what you say when you have just met someone. Not an exact translation of nice to meet you.)
  14. Just wondering if anyone else here uses Duolingo. I have been using it for a while and I really like it. It teaches languages in little steps but it doesn't let you forget them. You have to keep up the things you've learned already. I find the interface quite nice and there is an app that you can download too. I haven't downloaded the app but one of my friends has and she said it was kind of like playing a game. You get rewarded for logging in every day which is another little thing I liked. Are there similar sites that you have tried and liked better? Or maybe you find Duolingo works best for you.
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