….just been to france and now i would like to learn french,
i knew a few of the tiniest basic words but want to learn more!

im off to uni in September so when im not revising/at lectures/drinking/drinking or drinking i reckon il have plenty of spare time left over to learn!

so whats the best way to learn french then?

ipod podcast thingys any good?

For 'de-mystification' and a good, basic understanding of how the spoken language works use
French with Michel Thomas

Don't bother with the other courses about written French and the finer points of grammar to begin with.

The way to improve is to go to France/speak to French people. Listening to French radio on the www could be helpful too.

I'm certainly not fluent, but even without having done a GCSE, and limited vocab, I can get by quite well as a visitor having gone through Michel Thomas' course 2 or 3 times (and visited France a few times over the years) as it gives you the confidence to try. Eventually people will reply in French.

I found watching French TV programs on the web helped me. It's a bit easier than listening to the radio as you have a better idea of what's going on due to the obvious contexts, childrens TV programs in particular. I also subscribed to a few French mailings lists to do with computers and mountain bikes but that was really hard. The text used is so far removed from classical french that's it's very difficult to follow, made me realise how good at English the French guys we get on here are.

Not been to France for a couple of years now though and it's amazing how quickly I forget.

I speak french, although I learned from being about 8 yrs all the way up to A-Level, good practice is to watch your favorite films that you know all the lines to with in french with subtitles – it will come by drawing comparisions – read a french newspaper – I have to travel to get mine – I wouldnt recommend beginners courses – I tried mandarin and it bored me to tears as I already know some Cantonese

If you can put up with the voice-overs, watch films in french – always subtitle too!!

Watching french films is good. Betty Blue is good, just try to concentrate on the language

As I said in the past, watching french movies with the french subtitles work a treat. That's how I tend to improve my english, watching US/UK movies with english subtitles.

if you have a nintendo DS get "my french coach" think that's what it's called.
full of fun mini games to help you memorise vocab so you don't even feel like you're studying.

As above, radio and TV can really help. Try listening to the French news after you've heard the international news over here, or read about it on the interweb. That way, you'll hear stories you know, but in a different language. Can make it easier to pick things up.

Oh, and one of the best ways to really learn a language is to totally immerse yourself in a language speaker…..ie get yerself a French ladyfriend…. 😈

If you're off to university, check out what language courses they offer. I know at quite a few universities they do language courses that any student can do and it is often either very cheap, or free.

For example at Nottingham we offer a bunch of languages at pretty much any level, and I think undergraduates on any course can choose to do them.

Joe

At Uni I managed to choose to do French as my elective/option in the first year, so it counted as part of my degree. Lucked out really because I spoke it pretty well, but couldn't write for shit so they put me in the bottom group. I got really good marks for the speaking, listening and reading bits! 😆

Not French, but I learnt Spanish using the method CFH suggests, nothing like the relaxing post-shag atmosphere for picking up a foreign language 😀 (Careful with this one: I'm now living in Spain with a Spanish wife…)

More seriously, I wouldn't completely ignore grammar, it's helpful to get a basic idea of the structure of the language at the start, you'll progress much faster knowing how sentences hang together, being at least able to recognise (if not use) the tenses etc.

IMO there is only one way to learn a language, you need to live in the country for a number of years. Yes there are many ways you can learn to "get by" in a language, I know many people who claim to speak french / other languages but in realty they can just get by and for me that is not speaking a language.

I studied German through school and Uni but only learn't to speak German when I lived there.

Having never studied Italian I am now fluent having lived there for 3+ years.

However if you can't get out there now then I suggest studying the Grammer and learning ONE new word every day. Range of vocabulary is often the limiting factor and if you can make a habit of this you will have a massive head start if you can eventually get out to live there.

then I suggest studying the Grammer

Oh, teh irony! Teh irony! 😆

ingerlish grimmer is not my string pont 😀

second the Michel Thomas recommendation – really good, but you do need to make/find opportunities to practice it & it's scary how quickly you forget.

If you know a series of books really well in English (eg Harry Potter), then it's worth getting the French versions.