Learning French

With the AP French exam fast approaching, I decided to get down to work and start studying. I bought a review book over a month ago, and I looked through it, but it was hard to memorize everything in that book. The practice with the fill-ins, the listening with the CDs, it was all great, but it was hard to really take away from that kind of practice. In other words, even though I practiced a bit and I listened to the CDs, I was just not getting the answers when I practiced more. I was still confused with the grammar fill-ins and I still couldn’t discern many words when I listened. That was why I decided to take a more fun method; isn’t it better to learn and have fun at the same time?

Now, I watch a certain cartoon in French (I chose cartoons because I thought: cartoons are usually for children, so they should be easier to understand than live-action shows or the news). Well, it’s actually a Japanimation dubbed into French. The show isn’t authentic French, but I like the plot line and it’s better to watch something I’m interested in and learn along the way than to watch something really “French” and fall asleep due to lack of understanding. I’m sure many people watch this show; for the curious, this show is still ongoing from Japan and there are fan groups who continuously subtitle each episode.

When I first started watching, my head hurt because I think I strained my brain trying to comprehend the words being thrown around. But, as I watched more and more, the episodes became easier to understand. It helps that I’ve watched a few episodes of this show subtitled in English before and I know the basic story line. Still, I know watching this show is helping because when I was listening to a French dialogue just the other day, I could understand much more than before. I could discern a lot of the words. I was pretty happy. A note of caution to those who try this method as well: if you want to learn French, don’t watch shows you’ve basically memorized all the words to. For example, I thought I should watch The Little Mermaid in French, because I knew the story line and it’ll be easier to understand. That wasn’t a great idea. From watching the movie so many times when I was little, I practically knew all the words that were going to be said in English before the character said anything, and that really distracted me from taking in the French. If you want to learn another language by watching something, make sure that you still have to rely on the spoken words in order to understand; don’t know everything by heart or it’ll just be boring.

Alongside watching in French, I wanted to get into reading French stories. This time, I wanted authentic French stories–not translated versions of Harry Potter or the like. So, I went online and looked for recommended books for AP French. Google books has a section of the REA: AP French Language by Ellen Knauer on the Internet which gives a selection of short French books. I took a few of the titles and searched through my public library’s online system and found that nearby libraries actually had these books. I reserved these books and in a matter of days, the books had come into my town’s public library and I could pick them up. (I love my county’s library system: a person can basically reserve books, movies, audiotapes, etc. from any library in the county and that item will be shipped over to which public library one wishes to pick the materials up from. Once the materials are in, I receive a phone call and I can just run over to the public library and check everything out.)

Besides checking out Contes de Perrault, which was a big picture book of seven stories, I also borrowed Le petit Nicolas by Sempé-Goscinny. Contes de Perrault is just one of those giant hard covered books in which at every page turn, one page is dedicated to all the words of the story while the other page has a giant picture of what’s happening in the story. I used to love those type of books when I was little, so I was happy I could read something like this in French. I also highly recommend Le petit Nicolas because it’s a very entertaining read! I’m only two stories into the 19-story book, but each story has a lot of comedic relief that actually makes me chuckle. Plus, this book is actually a much easier read than Contes de Perrault. Even though the picture book obviously has pictures, understanding what’s happening is much tougher because each page contains many more new vocabulary for me.

I also borrowed La Chatte by Colette and Trois Contes by Gustave Flaubert. I don’t think they’ll be as enjoyable as Le petit Nicolas, but who knows? I have to remember the saying, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover (or lack thereof)!”