Finding French Hard

[Graccie20#]

I'm Grace, a Nigerian. I've been learning the French language for 5 months now using the Edito books in a physical group class. I don't seem to be finding enough strength to carry on as I feel I'm not gaining enough. I need friends who speak the language that can help me by speaking to me as I am now planning to stop my classes and devote time to learning the language. If you also have materials or links that can be helpful, please do share them with me. I'm on B level now.

 

[arelka]

Hi Grace,
I hear you. French grammar is much more difficult than English one. To have a B-level in just 5 months... seems like you're actually rocking it! People who learnt French from 0 to beginning of B2 in 12 months are considered as super fast learners who are gifted with learning languages in general and top-notch self-discipline.

Sounds like you're on a plato right now. This is a normal stage, every learner gets to this point at least once. I was on the plato three times while learning French.

I found two wonderful speaking partners in the Tandem app. It's free. I practiced my French with them, as they are natives, they practiced English with me. The only problem with this app is that some treat is as a dating app. What I did is wrote in my info that I only look for language practice and with people of my gender. Also I uploaded a photo that is simple and modest, most of the face is not even seen. I reached out to people of my gender who are older than me. Never responded to messages from the opposite sex.

Are you learning for an exam? If yes, which one and what score do you need? What are your strengths and weaknesses now as to French?

 

[Graccie20#]

Thank you so much.
I’m struggling with the speaking and listening part at the moment, maybe how to make the vocabulary stick.

Yes, I’m learning to be proficient enough to pass the TEF exam for Canada migration.

I should steal that your tandem idea, maybe I’ll be lucky to meet friends.

 

[arelka]

For listening I suggest write dictations. This will really help you with breaking down what you hear and orthography, as many words sound similar but are written differently. Thinking of je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent, etc

Try Exercises on RFI, this is for B1 for example. Unfortunately, they have like 1 Exercise for A2.
https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/communiquer-quotidien/travailler-français-b1/

For example, here's a 2 minute audio on the topic of demographics in Europe. There's thematic vocab, a workbook and the key, transcript
https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/quotidien/20221103-présenter-une-situation-la-démographie-en-europe

How I would do it (similar to what they gave me at FraLaLand language school) – everything here is optional, do what works best for you:

1. Read the questions carefully to understand what the audio will be about.
2. Listen to the audio and try to answer the questions.
3. Listen again and change your answers if needed (you can probably listen as many times as you want, slow down or speed up the audio, because you're working on improving your listening comprehension skills, not passing the test).
4. Write a dictation.
5. Check the correct answers in the key and compare them with yours.
6. Correct the dictation using the transcript.

Alternatively, if the above is too hard, you can use your textbook audio files the same way to write dictations. There are usually transcripts there too.

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Speaking - no tricks, only speaking. My teacher used to tell me to talk to myself in French, if I didn't have anyone to practice with. Also, chatgpt app can be your speaking partner. It could be easier than a real person.

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Vocabulary - to push new words into your active vocab you need to write simple texts and/or say out loud short stories using these words.