Advice for beginner, struggling with French

Oghenekevwe
Level
4
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
Native
English
Other French

Hello,


I am struggling to learn French and would be really grateful for some practical advice on what to do.


At the moment, I spend half an hour doing Duolingo, followed by half an hour of reading French for Dummies.


In the evening, I also try follow the Learn French with Alexa course on Youtube.


I would be really grateful for some advice on whether this is a good regime to stick with or whether my time could be spent with better resources.


I do not feel that I am getting that much better but maybe I am overestimating the time it takes to become any good at all with French.


Thanks.

Kevwe A.

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#1
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leosmith
Level
99
Posts1710Likes1133Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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English
Learning Italian
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

Duolingo isn't very effective imo. I'd drop it and go with Pimsleur. It's not free, but maybe you can rent it from your library or something. They have a new subscription offer at the bottom of this page, $15/month here. Not cheap, but much cheaper than it used to be. If you use it every day, you can finish in 3 months. 

Learning Italian every day!

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#2
Oghenekevwe
Level
4
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
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English
Other French

Thanks Leo, I'll look into it and see if it's something I can try

Kevwe A.

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#3
meifeng
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Chinese - Mandarin, English, Chinese - Cantonese
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Several posters also have suggestions in the Resources page on the forum, which I found useful. I have been working on TV5Monde on and off to work on my listening:


https://languagetools.io/forum/t/1972


https://languagetools.io/forum/t/1830


Bonne chance!

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#4
Oghenekevwe
Level
4
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
Native
English
Other French

meifeng wrote:

Several posters also have suggestions in the Resources page on the forum, which I found useful. I have been working on TV5Monde on and off to work on my listening:

https://languagetools.io/forum/t/1972

https://languagetools.io/forum/t/1830

Bonne chance!

Thank you!

Kevwe A.

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#5
Kaila.S
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Posts0Likes0Joined7/10/2018LocationCleveland / US
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Other French

I really dislike Duolingo for French because they don't really teach you what you're using and why, especially for verbs. If you're able to take lessons with someone whether online or in-person, do it. Like leosmith said, this website as helpful tools! 

I studied French for five years and I know I was only able to learn because of learning from someone else with vigorous repetition and practice. 

Kaila 

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#6
Oghenekevwe
Level
4
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
Native
English
Other French

Kaila.S wrote:

I really dislike Duolingo for French because they don't really teach you what you're using and why, especially for verbs. If you're able to take lessons with someone whether online or in-person, do it. Like leosmith said, this website as helpful tools!

I studied French for five years and I know I was only able to learn because of learning from someone else with vigorous repetition and practice.

Thank you, I'm definitely going to try something else. I'll probably take a class.

Kevwe A.

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#7
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