Ok, in April 16 I am taking early retirement and moving to France. Property purchase is progressing nicely (fingers-crossed), local cycle club located and contact made. So the only thing left to do now is learn to speak the language.

I have set myself a target of being able to learn basic conversational french and to be able to read at a basic level too. So, how do i do it? Anyone done this recently have any advice? I do like the idea of podcast as I spend quite a bit of time driving and walking so could utilise this time. Anyone know of good podcasts to get me started?

Any help/advice appreciated.

Ian

*shrugs*

I have no advice for you but I’d just like to say good luck and fair play to you!

LOL at GrahamS

Podcasts will be good. You need to get used to hearing it spoken.
Whether you understand it or not is irrelevant right now.
Find a local french speaker – the best thing you will ever do – as how its spoken, affectations, facial expressions, inflections, etc are so important.
Lastly – stop worrying about getting it wrong – they’ll correct you! Trust me on that!
The biggest thing though will be when you stop translating it in your head.I guarantee you will will translate the english to french and then try and say it – STOP!!
Just think it and say it – that’ll be the trigger point.

According to a mate of mine who did similar “shagging French birds” is the best way to pick up the lingo…

Duolingo

Michel Thomas CDs are the best things I’ve tried. JonEdwards’ method sounds better though.

Thanks everyone.

Very funny, GrahamS.

Thanks HammyUK, I know of a local cafe/deli where they speak French one afternoon. I’ll go along and see how welcoming they are for a novice. It’ll be worth it for the price of a coffee.

Anyone have any ideas for specific podcasts?

Can’t help on those – my Spanish came from living there and getting stuck in.
There’s only so many times you can go to the ferreteria and point at something… 😆

Look at memrise on Android for vocab

Take lessons. I’ve tried books with cds, podcasts, websites and lessons and the one that had made the biggest difference each time is lessons as you are forced to speak. Books with cds worked second best as they were well structured and organised. Podcasts were amusing but didn’t do anything

And listen to French radio from your region on the internet to get used to the accent

Enjoy, it’s great fun

Memrise is very good on iphone and android.
Michel Thomas is good too.

Apart from that I managed to work for two years in Belgium and I’m the worlds worst learner of French.

Where’s your property?

Chapeau grahams!

Thanks again everyone. I think I might look at lessens as well.

PePPeR, the property is near Bellac in the Haute Vienne region.

The Spanish version of the Say Something In… is worth a look:
https://www.saysomethingin.com/

Ive found the Welsh version to be ace, just about the only thing that has worked for me.

It just gets you to immediately start saying and building sentences. All podcast based so you can listen in car/bed. Relaxing as well.

Thanks Copa, will try that too.

Good luck on your move, looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere.

Which is nice.

I’ve a mate who moved to Xonpet Langomer in the Vosges, best thing he ever did. He just got stuck in when he moved over, been there 9 years now and you’d struggle to believe he came from the East End.
He just took a CD for the basics then made a point of asking what the French words were for things when he got there. He didn’t go through any formal training, just conversation building. He’s not very good at writing though, more piecemeal but he gets by.

If you absorb yourself into the culture and stop thinking English, most languages are easy to learn conversation wise IMO.

If you are starting form the very beginning I would recommend some basic vocab books and also speaking to people in person so your cafe thing sounds like a good bet!

I moved out to France to do my masters at university in Grenoble two years back thinking I had an OK level of french from school which turned out to be not as good a level as I thought however, despite that things rapidly improved once here, point being actually speaking with french people helps so much and people were/still are really patient with me, they appreciate you making an effort a lot.

Good luck with the move and nice one for going for it!

B-B – if you have any problems with the conveyance, drop me a line, I have a very very good English solicitor who is ace at french conveyancing for overseas buyers.

Good luck – be prepared for it taking a while. A few tips from the couple of years we spent amongst the French:
> +1 for Michel Thomas as a starting point.
> have French radio on in the background all the time (helps get the ear in)
> watch French TV for something youre really interested in (for me it was F1 back then) so you can link the pictures to what your hearing (note – porn doesn’t count)
> incorporate the French word for things into your conversations with partner -eg boite instead of box, portable instead of mobile etc etc..
> resist the urge to spend leisure time with other ex-pats- go out and meet French people.

Best of luck – wish I was going

Thanks Copa, will try that too.

Ach, I got the wrong language. They don’t seem to do a French version,
If you speak quickly, I don’t think anyone would notice.

I find reading parismatch.com is good. There’s a lot of current affairs stuff that you will be au fait (geddit?) with that will give you help with your vocabulary.

Rich.

This should get you started…

* “Gid Moaning” for “Good Morning” (his catchphrase)
* “I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty.” for “I was passing by the door, when I heard two shots. You are holding in your hand a smoking gun; you are clearly the guilty party.”
* “Do you have the long-distance dick?” for “Do you have the long-distance duck?”
* “And who is peeing for the ponsoir?” for “And who is paying for the pissoire?” after it was damaged by an overriding tank.
* “It is a dick night” for “It is a dark night”
* “Half pissed sox” for “Half past six”
* “Will you please stop bonging the bill” for “Will you please stop banging the bell”
* “I have good nose” for “I have good news”
* “I will go out the bock pissage” for “I will go out the back passage”
* “I thonk it would be woose if we all left tin” for “I think it would be wise if we all left town”
* “Too loot, the bummer is already on the wee” for “Too late, the bomber is already on the way”
* “I have a mop if you would like to take a leak” for “I have a map if you would like to take a look”
* “I have the two British earmen in the sill at the poloce station, I will return them to you as soon as pissable” for “I have the two British airmen in the prison at the police station, I will return them to you as soon as possible”
* “Do not weary, Ronnie” for “Do not worry, René”
* “I have come to collect my bersicle, (Ren? asks “What bersicle?”) “The bersicle that produces the electrocity for the roodio when you piddle in your wife’s mothers’ bedroom” for “I have come to collect my bicycle. The bicycle that produces the electricity for the radio when you pedal in your wife’s mothers’ bedroom”
* She’s as possed as a newt” meaning “She’s as pissed as a newt” Refering to Renae’s Mother-In-Law.
* “They will take this spinner (spanner) and unscrew their nuts.”
* “I was wonking at you!” for “I was winking at you!”
* “The British Air Farce have dropped their bums on the water works..They have scored a direct hot on the pimps” for “…a direct hit on the pumps”
* “You must get your hands on some girls’ knockers”…knickers, they needed silk.
* “There’s obviously no piss for the wicked”
good moaning.
i am officer crabtree. i wark for British Ontelligence bot I have disgeezed maseelf as a poloceman so I am oble to move aboot with complate frodom.

Sounds an awesome plan – best of luck – have fun! Hoping to do similar in a few years. On a recent trip to France we got talking to a couple of blokes in a bar, one ex-pat, one French, who had become good friends and used the opportunity to learn each other’s language by the French guy only speaking English to his British friend and vice-versa.

when learning German getting hold of films and watching them in German with German subtitles helped. preferably films i had already seen so that i knew the gist of what was going on. preferably films in the target language as watching a dubbed film was too confusing. cartoons are pointless.

also magazines covering subjects i was interested in helped too…. read through and mark words you are unsure of, only looking them up when you are finished with the article.

getting drunk and talking with locals.

‘You can’t beat talking to the natives’.

True.
It improved my Klingon no end.

Oh best thing I ever did was turn my sat nav voice over to the sexy French girl.

Damm well helps knowing basic directions when you’re lost 🙂

When a colleague was gearing up for a secondment in mainland Europe they were doing online courses for an hour or so every day for about three months before, possibly Rosetta Stone

Get some french bike or car or gardening or whatever you’re interested in magazines and its probably not that hard to get a copy of Le Monde or one of the other French papers if you’re near a half decent sized city.

For learning conversational French quickly, I cannot recommend Pimsleurs method highly enough.

I myself, for a number of reasons, have an inherent and abiding interest in language.

In light of this, I have used many programmes at different times, and Pimsleurs has been the best. It will not teach you how to write, but it will have you confidently speaking in a matter of weeks if you are faithful with it.

Beyond that, I think you are doing an admirable thing, so enjoy France and your new life!

[video]https://youtu.be/A8yjNbcKkNY[/video]

Tricolore.

Bonjour! I have downloaded 4 seasons of podcasts by Coffee Break French, and the app MemRise.

Did the first two podcasts this morning whilst walking the dog. Tres bien.

Thanks again everyone, for both the advice and the positive wishes.

Ian

Bumping this thread because you don’t only need to learn the language, you need to learn this as well…
(careful now, it gets a bit sweary in places)
[video]https://youtu.be/T-VWbV6TJxU[/video]

I find little kids TV is helpful for practising languages…

Glossy magazines of subjects that interest you (like cycling) are good. Usually written in a simple style and with lots of words you will already (or quickly) understand. It is incredibly easy to fill in the bits in between and before long you will be “reading” and understanding. And if you join a club there will be loads of opportunity to practice. Then, get yourself along to some local evening classes after you’ve been there a few months and you will rapidly progress.

Well that is how I learnt German when I lived there 🙂

Duolingo +1

Good for learning vocab.

My advice….just keep chugging away, never easy, but if you do a lesson a week, it slowly sinks in and forces you to at least sit down once a week and learn something.

To be fair, French isn’t too tricky, I’d say the hardest part of learning any language is understanding what people are telling you…..natural speakers tend speak too quickly for a learner…you get buffer overflow.

Also, check out websites. I know for German you can listen to the daily news read slowly.

One good piece of advice I saw was to make using French part of your every-day life right away. Switch your phone and even your PC to French. Have French radio on all the time. Read French books (kids books are great to start with – Roald Dahl, etc. – a lot of “real” French kids books such as “Le Petit Prince” are written in an obscure tense called the past-historic which is almost never used in daily life and is distinctly different from the usual tenses).

French TV is a step too far. Nobody should have to watch French TV (although to be fair, I’ve recently started watching The Returned / Les Revenants which is pretty cool).

The hardest thing about French is the pronunciation, so take every opportunity to speak the language. Top tip – if you think you are doing the most ridiculous, over-done Edith Piaf / Allo Allo accent, then you might actually be getting close. You can’t over-do the accent!

Congrats OP- it’s our dream plan to do very similar (not sure if it will come off particularly as youngest is planning on going to Imperial now)

For me reading French isn’t too bad it’s the listening and speaking that’s the problem.

My brother in law and family moved to France last year and there’s lots of information about the whole process, including learning the language, on his blog