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Linguaholic

So I had my first French class...


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French is a very fun and unique language. The professor spoke French for practically the entire class but it's interesting how gestures, tone and familiarity of words can help you understand someone. I find the words hard to say and spell compared to English and Spanish but I feel the challenge will make me like the language all the more. I'm very excited for my next class.

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Yes, the pronunciations and accent are pretty hard to master, but if you know Spanish and especially Italian, then the grammar would be relatively easy to learn and remember. It's just the phonetics and sounds of the language that make it difficult for a first-time learner.

Anyway, have fun!  :smile:

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The first (language) lessons are always the most interesting ones xD Especially when learning a new language, it is pretty easy (at least for me) to get super-excited about it, as you will learn lots of different words and every new word that you learned is like a BIG achievement. After some time, motivation will probably drop a little bit and learning new words and sentence structures are not as motivating anymore as at the very beginning--->at least this is my experience  :grin:

I did not mean to discourage you though! Hopefully you have lots of motivation to learn this beautiful and poetic language!

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Yay, great for you! Your first lesson sounds like fun!  :grin: I hope the rest of them will be too, so keep your motivation even through some nasty grammar exercises  :laugh:

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Good for you! French is such a rewarding language to learn, and a great starting point for other romance languages (even though I notice that you already speak Spanish). I know it seems quite intimidating at first, but I've always found that the more the teacher talks to you in the language you're learning, the sooner you become comfortable communicating in that language.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Once you get past the pronunciation and the idiosyncratic spelling conventions, French is closer to Spanish and Italian than it is to English. The difficulty initially would be the pronunciation, with nasal vowels and many "ü" and "oe"  sounds that also exist in German but not in Spanish and Italian (except northern Italian dialects like Milanese). The French "R" also would be difficult to people used to Spanish and English.

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Yes, trying to remember all the irregular verbs can be a pain but there is no avoiding it. I remembered a friend who asked me what "j'ai vécu" meant. I told him it was the past tense form of "je vis" or "I live". He couldn't believe that "vécu" and "vis" are all forms of "vivre". There several very common irregular verbs like this.

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  • 1 month later...

I remember it used to be so difficult when the teacher would talk all in French. I used to hate it. But slowly I realized the wisdom in it. When I began to understand, I was so excited. It was a huge accomplishment. And the best part is it (the understanding) just snuck up on me. :)

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I learned French when I was in high school. I dropped out the class because I found it was difficult for me to learn. I like how the language sounds, which is quite different from English. I might go back to learn French in the future because I still think it is a fascinating language to know. Good luck with your learning! Keep it up!

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I agree that there definitely is a bit of a challenge when you first start learning French compared to English especially. In English, mostly everything is spelled the way that it sounds. Whereas in French there are more silent sounds and odd combinations of letters at times. Glad you're enjoying the language so far!

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With French, it helps to speak and listen to as much of it as possible. You will understand it eventually when your ears learn to pick up the sounds and your vocabulary increases.

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Practice, practice, practice! The first classes are difficult, but you have to study and you'll get used to it. Try to read the classes beforehand and look up for words that you don't understand, so the day of the class you are not that lost.

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The first lessons are always the greatest! Just remember to always pay attention to your verbs because they are REALLY important!

Be sure to update us on your next french class because I would love to read it!

Good luck with French!

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