learn french

I’m trying to make some progress towards this goal, but I feel unmotivated.

I’ve decided to watch some French movies. I started with Changing Times, which features Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu. Worth watching, and at least I recognized some words!

Last week I watched the movie Donkey Skin (Peau d’âne). A ring – une bague – plays a prominent role in the story. So here’s a question: why does “bague” mean “ring” in French but “baguette” means “stick of bread”? Are the two words related at all? Very strange. Much like the movie, which is a bit trippy.

Rotten movie, good French practice.

This evening I reviewed lesson three of Living Language – Ultimate French and took the chapter test. I got a decent 28/33 correct.

This is not an easy chapter. The sections I found particularly difficult were 5. Gender of Countries and 6. Other Prepositions.

In fact, the gender rules for countries are pretty simple. If the country name ends in e it is feminine. If it ends in any other vowel or a consonant, it is masculine. But I guess my Spanish training is overriding my learning process here, for whatever reason. I want to say La Canada not Le Canada. It doesn’t help that there’s an exception to the rule (Le Mexique instead of La Mexique).

• I am going to Germany – Je vais en Allemagne (because Allemagne is feminine).
• I am going to Luxembourg – Je vais au Luxembourg (because Luxembourg is masculine)
• I am going to the Antilles – Je vais aux Antilles (because Antilles is plural)
• I am going to Paris – Je vais à Paris (because Paris is a city, at least that is the reason given. Gender of cities is not explained, if there is such a thing.)

But, they don’t explain things in the orderly way that I’ve done above. Instead, their examples are all over the place – Elles sont au Venezuela, Nous allons aux Antilles, etc. This obfuscates what’s being differentiated in the examples. I think this is one of those cases where a systematic set of similar examples, like I have listed above, would have been more pedagogical. I understand they wanted to give a variety of examples; but they should have taken up sufficient space to do so and still remain clear.

In any case, I reviewed my errors and I think I understand the mistakes that I made. Hopefully it will go better next time I run through this leçon.

I reviewed chapter 12 of Les Portes Tordues this evening. Things are just going very slow; too busy with work.

Tonight, I reviewed chapter 3 of Living Language – Ultimate French. They introduce the prepositions de and à; I am already familiar with these from chapter 7 of Les Portes Tordues. But I still find it difficult to remember when to use a contraction (des or du, aux or au)...

I started going through chapter 12 of Les Portes Tordues this morning. Also, I finished watching Pas de repos pour les braves. I kind of enjoyed it, but it was very confusing. In summary: Rohmer on drugs.

Today I reviewed chapter 2 of Living Language – Ultimate French and took the chapter test. I did well, 18/19 correct, same as for chapter 1! I made a spelling mistake this time – “danceuse” instead of “danseuse.”

I also did a run through chapter 3, following along with the CD, and then skimming through the text of that chapter. The first thing mentioned is syllabification – “In French, syllables within a word generally end in a vowel sound.” (Compare the English pronunciation of “a-dor-able” to the French “a-do-ra-ble.”). This is just what tonytam talked about in his recent post.

On the more recreational side, I started viewing the DVDPas de repos pour les braves (No Rest for the Brave). So far, it is rather unusual, interesting.

I reviewed chapter 11 of Les Portes Tordues and took the chapter test – 18/19 correct. My one mistake – I wrote cette homme instead of cet homme, doh!

This evening, I went through chapter 11 of Les Portes Tordues, and also chapter 2 of Living Language – Ultimate French. I didn’t take the tests yet, though.