French Language Software

Posts Tagged ‘Tips’

I just transferred to a new school and for an extra credit class in high school I want to take french.
I know that french is a romance language that is similar to spanish and italian.
I know a few words and phrases in french.
What other kinds of things should I know about the french language before I sign up for that class?

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Tokyo: What are your tips for making the most out of life in Tokyo as a foreign resident?
Jonathan GasparTeacher, 28 (American)You need to be aware that the Japanese have different expectations of you than people back home, and learning the language is so important. I came here five years ago but have been learning Japanese for nine years. Joy WallerEditor, 29 (Canadian)Talk to local Japanese people in bars. In bars, people tend to be more relaxed and open. You can find out all sorts …

Read more on The Japan Times

Learning English Online: Spend Time Learning Not Searching! Try a different approach. Tips And resources for second-language learners who want to better their English using the Internet. French version now also available.
77 Tips To Better English Using the Internet

Learning a foreign language can be really easy if you have a good teacher. I travel a lot, and I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of people spend years in a foreign countries. However, they weren’t able to speak correctly.

To learn a secondary language, you need the proper method. Believe me, one of my coaches told me that he had a friend who was able to learn the basics of any language in only three days.

This is the secret! Once you have the basics right, everything become easier..

1. Communication with a native

This is the first thing you need to do. If you want to learn French, you need to speak to someone on a weekly basis.

You have different methods to do this, and the Internet made this even easier.

You can use skype, Yahoo or msn messenger. It’s much cheaper than the traditional telephone, and hence, you will be able to speak more often and longer.

It is even better if you have a native speaker in your neighborhood, but it’s not frequent.

2. Get a grammar manual

You need to have a manual that explain all the basics of the language. It will be your guide.

Whenever you have a problem, you will come back to this manual. It can be a book, or even a software. Today, there are a lot of good software out there, and you can easily find them on the Internet.

3. Memorize Everything

Yes, I said learn everything.

Every single day, write a minimum of fifteen words on a piece of paper, put this on your pocket and memorize them.

Think about it, after one week you will already know ninety words. After two months, you will have a lot of vocabulary.

I learned the traditional Arabic language in only three months because I applied the two tips above, plus this one.

I speak fluently, and whenever I travel in an Arabic country, people think that Arab is my native tongue, they don’t even see the difference.

Your computer can be used as a creative tool in your quest to learn a foreign language. Some innovative ideas can turn your language education into an entertaining, truly memorable experience.

Audio Modification

Many companies produce software packages that enable you to transform your voice (or someone else’s). You can make your voice feminine, masculine, or robotic. It can be raised to a high pitch or lowered to bass tones.

So how does this help you learn a new language?

Many foreign languages (French and German, for example) assign gender to nouns. When learning new vocabulary, why not record feminine nouns in a female voice, masculine nouns in a male voice, and neuter nouns in a robotic voice? This approach can also be used with other types of vocabulary learning. Perhaps you could record a list of German dative verbs in a woman’s voice and a list of German accusative verbs in a male voice. You can even take audio files that have been recorded by other people and make them more interesting by morphing voices or adding sound effects.

An internet search for ‘voice cloaking’ or ‘voice modification software’ will provide numerous resources to choose from.

Don’t Just Print

If you own a color printer you can spice up your vocabulary lists with bursts of color – perhaps feminine nouns in red, masculine nouns in blue, and neuter in dark grey. You might want to highlight irregular verbs in another color – or perhaps apply bold or italics to make them stand out on the page. Experiment with various fonts and weights.

Websites and Online Sources

Every language student should have at least one online dictionary bookmarked (preferably several). Each dictionary will work a little differently. Some provide audio clips. Others will allow users to submit new words and expressions. (Be aware that not all user submissions will be 100% accurate.) The best dictionaries will clearly indicate ‘verified’ user submissions and will mark colloquial and dialect expressions appropriately.

Are you a poet? Help is as close as your computer. Online language resources include helpful rhyming dictionaries. An internet search for ‘rhyming dictionary French’, ‘rhyming dictionary German’, ‘rhyming dictionary Spanish’ etc. will give you good results.

Try to rely on accredited educational sites (domains ending in .edu) when doing grammar research. For instance, if you are looking for Hungarian verb conjugations, try a search like ‘Hungarian verb conjugations site:.edu’. Although at the time of writing the previous search doesn’t work at MSN, it does work at Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and many others. The ‘site:edu’ portion of the search restricts results to domains ending in ‘.edu’ – which are usually universities and other similar educational institutions.

Online Chatting and Video Conferencing

Video-cams, VOIP, microphones . . . put them all together and talk with foreign friends from all over the world. Using a language in conversation is probably the quickest way to learn.

Whatever you do, remember that the more senses you stimulate during the learning process, the more firmly imprinted the learning becomes. Turn your language education into a fun-filled sensory experience and you will probably stick with it. If it becomes monotonous, you may lose interest.

©Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author’s note below (with active links) are included.

As an English speaker, learning French is one of the most difficult things you will do in your entire life. If you are a native Spanish speaker, it will be much easier though.

French is the second most difficult language in the world after Arabic, and if you want to become fluent, you need to plan ahead and arm yourself with courage, patience and determination.

If you are doing it for fun or because you love the language of romance, it will become easy after a while since you are doing something you are dreaming about.

On the other hand, if you are doing it because your boss told you, it’s another story.

Do you need to travel to Paris to learn French?

Nope. Today, with the Internet and the birth of online education, you can learn anything without moving from your sweet home.

The truth is that you don’t need to travel to Paris to learn French. Obviously, there is no difference when you speak with someone over the phone or if you speak with him ‘in direct’.

You can learn French with skype.com for pennies of the dollars. Just grab a good learn French software to complement what you learned and you are all set.

The only drawback to learning a second language over the phone is that you can’t see your tutor’s lips. In fact, you will need to provide more efforts because you will not be able to ‘cheat’.

Where you are in front of someone it’s easier to learn because if you missed something, you can try to guess what he said by watching his lips. With skype, it’s not possible.

Perhaps the hardest of the French cooking course you will find on enrolling in French cooking school is having to learn the French cooking terms. However, there is no short cut to learning these French cooking terms if you want to earn your French cooking degree. This is the foremost requirement of attending a prestigious French cooking school – learning the language!

But what do you do if you do not speak French? Well the smartest thing to do is to learn the language. You will find here some tips on how to go about learning those hard-to-pronounce French cooking terms.

1. To begin with, you should start by understanding what the French cooking term actually stands for or means. There will be times when you will be able to relate the French term to an English cooking term or word. It is best to adopt a technique to find French words you do not know and then try to find the root of the word, its origin. Many times it will help when the word is related to an English word.
2. Put in some extra time practicing the way you pronounce the word and understanding its various uses. One good way to do this is to get yourself a computer and some software that teaches French. Many people have mastered the language through this technique. A little practice pronouncing the words and remembering its meaning will have you working with the French cooking terms like a pro.
3. Make sure you use the French term as often as you can. Remember the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’? The more you hear the term the more likely you are to remember it.

Nothing can be more difficult learning a foreign language. Learning French is on of the most difficult tasks too. But when you have chosen a career where you are required to have at lease some knowledge of the language then it is only right that you learn the language when you will be dealing with people and ingredients that use French names.

The more frustrating thing about learning French terms is that most of the terms sound the same however they is a great difference in their meaning. You must get a list of French terms and names of ingredients and practice speaking them in your free time to master the use of the term. It is a good idea to give up using English terminology in class or in the kitchen. Try to use only the French terms you are supposed to master. This is sure way of you learning the terms in the shortest of time. It helps to keep the company of people with similar interests, as this will add to your practice.

Focus on your goal in learning French – maybe you are about to visit a French-speaking country on business, perhaps you need to speak to colleagues in French or have a French-speaking pen friend. Or maybe you’re just going on vacation and would like to be able to order food and ask directions.

If you have a specific goal in mind which you can focus on you should find learning much easier. Try putting a picture of whatever represents your goal – a photo of your holiday destination etc – somewhere you will see it regularly and be reminded of your goal.

I started to learn French when I travelled to fleamarkets there to buy decorative antiques for my shop – being able to speak even basic French helped me enormously in bargaining for better prices and made the whole experience more fun.

Try to find a learning package that suits your lifestyle. There are lots of different types of French course – the old-fashioned textbook-only approach has been overtaken by interactive language courses, the best of which may combine CDs, audio, software etc where you are able to listen to the language being spoken and get a chance to speak yourself.

Some of the software available really makes it fun to learn by using interactive games. If it’s difficult to find time at home you can listen to audio while on your way to work or while you’re jogging etc.

You might like to think about doing classes at a night school /adult education institute – you will be with people who are at the same level of proficiency as yourself.

Speaking French with other people will help overcome any reticence or embarrassment you might feel when you are actually trying to speak when you are abroad or with a French person. And don’t worry, everyone in the class will make mistakes and they won’t all be better at it than you!

Doing a class may also help you to meet people that you could see outside of class to try out your new language skills. Classes can be a useful addition to whatever package you are using at home, and your classmates will help your motivation and stop you from feeling isolated in your learning.

Don’t try to do several hours a day and then nothing for a week – it will be far easier to absorb what you’ve learnt if you do, say, 15 or 20 minutes once or twice a day, and far more manageable.

Learning in bite-sizes chunks doesn’t feel nearly so daunting and you’ll feel that you’ve achieved something every time you’ve completed a 15 minute session. This will help to give you the motivation to continue. You could try promising yourself a small reward or treat each time you finish a section of the course.

It is really important to keep using the skills you are acquiring – if you have no one you can speak French with, you can still say words and phrases out loud.

When you’re at home you can try to think of the French words for the pieces of furniture and household objects, clothes, food etc that you have around you, and look up those you don’t know.

You could write the French name for various things on little sticky notes and attach them to everyday items so that each time you look at that item you see the French name for it. This is a good technique to help you remember basic vocabulary.

Above all, don’t let it become a chore. Keep it fun and you’ll keep your enthusiasm for it.

French is one of the most popular international languages of the time.  This means that if you are a fluent speaker of the French language, plus you know how to read and write French, many companies would definitely hire you, a lot of people will be impressed by your linguistic skills, and you’ll definitely fit in and mingle with the French community if you intend to fly and visit the country.

But to be able to learn French online or with the help of a French tutor, you need to remember certain tips that will not only improve your knowledge in vocabulary and grammar but also your sentence structures and accent when speaking the language.  Here are some of the top tips when learning French:

Learn French Online – Tips #1

Though it is recommended to learn French online do not depend too much on the software or online program.  Train yourself to speak and memorize by using flashcards, for example, at least once or twice everyday.  Flashcards are one of the best methods of learning a language from scratch so try to set at least an hour for this.

Learn French Online – Tips #2

Do not jump immediately to the hard parts of the training sessions.  Learn and master the basics first because these lessons will be the foundation as you go up higher and higher into the advanced levels of the program.

Learn French Online – Tips #3

To learn French online or through actual reading materials, it is advisable to read aloud even if it sounds awkward and wrong.  This helps exercise what is popularly known as your “language muscle” which will not only help you improve your accent but also help you memorize the words and grammar rules that you are saying aloud.