Do you feel that you are/will become fluent at the end of your language course?

[Rosalina]

Hello.

 

I am asking this question as I genuinely want to learn French for my career. However, I've taken French since I've been 9 and have been assessed at a B1 level. Despite this, I feel 0 confidence in my ability to speak or write french due to gaps in vocabulary and verbs. Also, I really don't think memorizing grammar rules (which I've been doing since I've been 11...) can contribute a lot to my french speaking level. It certainly doesn't help my confidence that majority of my classmates were in French immersion and go on about easy it is to learn. So...I was wondering if anyone had the same case as me but still managed to somewhat master the language.

 

Also, in case I'm not successful in becoming fluent in French in HS, do any of you have any suggestions or options as to how I may go about accomplishing this?

 

Thank you.

[CkyBlue]

This was more or less how I felt in French B. I'm still taking the language in university now, and hopefully I'll be passably bilingual when I graduate. I was in a very similar situation to yourself, but if you have any worries about not doing well in the course, it's really not too bad C: You should be able to get a lot of practice throughout the year and your teacher will probably assign some homework so you don't lose all your French over the summer. I didn't have any confidence in communicating orally but my French teacher always told me: "have faith in your ability to communicate, and you will be understood". It didn't make me feel better at the time, because French was something that I personally struggled with throughout highschool. The liasons make phrases sound like one really long sentence, which was a constant discombobulation Put that on top of the lack of French knowledge I had, I feel like I'm in(and still am) in your shoes.

 

As far as becoming fluent goes, you're not going to be fluent by the end of the course if all you're doing in spending an hour and a half everyday learning about the language for two years. Your proficiency in language comes from immersing yourself in it,- that is, speaking it and trying it whenever you can. All of that is up to you and how much of an effort you put in learning the French language. 

 

Hope this helps =)

[Siddhakshi]

I'm in French B and have problems with my orals as well... My teacher even told me that the only reason I could possibly drop from a 6 to a 5 is because of poor performance in orals. But I've improved a LOT by watching French cartoons. It sounds childish, but trust me, it genuinely helps. (not to mention, who doesn't want to watch cartoons while studying?) 

 

You can watch here : http://www.tivi5mondeplus.com/

 

I know it's helped my confidence and my fluency a lot. Hope this helps!

[happymelons]

I feel as if I most certainly won't, but that's because I take Spanish Ab Initio I used to learn French from a very young age too, but my school stopped teaching it for a while, then I switched to another school that didn't teach French at all.

 

Though you may not be fluent, I know for a fact that your skills are a lot better than you think they may be, like what @Global Moderator said, "have faith..." I knew almost no Spanish when I started last school year—well, except from the little tidbits I picked up from popular culture and Dora the Explorer, but now I can read a lot more than I actually could have imagined. During my mocks I had recently, I had to stop and remind myself how far I'd come whenever I thought I couldn't do it anymore.

 

The fact that you're taking a language at a non-ab initio level gets props from me but if you're worried about fluency, you could always challenge yourself with a French B HL or French A SL if you're really determined.

 

Using supporting materials that immerse you into the language is a great way as well. I know friends (and teachers) that change the display language of their phones or computers into the language they are set on learning. Some friends use Anki, Memrise, or other flashcard-like methods to learn conjugations or characters (in Asian language script). Try changing the language of your social networking sites or other sites you log on to a lot into French. If you don't want to go that far, subscribe to personalities, newspapers, instagrammers (for that colloquial touch), etc. that post in French.

 

I hope I've helped out a bit, and if not, encouraged you!

Best of luck

[Blackcurrant]

Hi Rosalina,

 

I see you're from Canada.  Then you've got access to those summer French Immersion Programmes. From what I've heard, they're really good. You get six intensive weeks of solid French right there, round-the-clock (except those times you secretly speak English to friends in dormitories...)

 

Or is that wonderful govt-sponsored initiative from the 1970s all in the past? .... with all the recent claims of "public sector improvements" or "austerity measures" ...?

 

(...which, btw, is nuts considering that the Canadian govt under Harper was sinking billions into developing the tar sands and other batty ventures favouring private sector.

All this in emulation of your neighbours down south, also busily stripping the public sector, while wasting trillions waging war for the benefit of private corporations!  

 

If that's gone, then live with a family in Quebec or New Brunswick.. or L'Acadie, if that is a real place somewhere in Nova Scotia...

[kristinamontinola]

Possibly. I'm trying to develop an understanding not only of the language but of the culture of it as well. I'd like to be fluent in French one day

[Rosalina]

Thank you all for your replies!

 

Sidhaski Solanki and happymelons, thanks for telling me about those resources. I've never heard of any of them before

 

 

This was more or less how I felt in French B. I'm still taking the language in university now, and hopefully I'll be passably bilingual when I graduate. I was in a very similar situation to yourself, but if you have any worries about not doing well in the course, it's really not too bad C: You should be able to get a lot of practice throughout the year and your teacher will probably assign some homework so you don't lose all your French over the summer. I didn't have any confidence in communicating orally but my French teacher always told me: "have faith in your ability to communicate, and you will be understood". It didn't make me feel better at the time, because French was something that I personally struggled with throughout highschool. The liasons make phrases sound like one really long sentence, which was a constant discombobulation Put that on top of the lack of French knowledge I had, I feel like I'm in(and still am) in your shoes.

 

As far as becoming fluent goes, you're not going to be fluent by the end of the course if all you're doing in spending an hour and a half everyday learning about the language for two years. Your proficiency in language comes from immersing yourself in it,- that is, speaking it and trying it whenever you can. All of that is up to you and how much of an effort you put in learning the French language. 

 

Hope this helps =)

 

Thank you for the suggestions! If you don't mind, can you please tell what you're studying and how you're finding french in university?

 

Hi Rosalina,

 

I see you're from Canada.  Then you've got access to those summer French Immersion Programmes.

 

I would have applied for these a long time ago. Unfortunately, these start in the middle of exams for me.

[Guest beyondtheimagine]

Sadly no. I've learning french since grade 4, and I still can't write or read or even speak in french. 

[Blackcurrant]

Hello.

 

I am asking this question as I genuinely want to learn French for my career. However, I've taken French since I've been 9 and have been assessed at a B1 level. Despite this, I feel 0 confidence in my ability to speak or write french due to gaps in vocabulary and verbs. Also, I really don't think memorizing grammar rules (which I've been doing since I've been 11...) can contribute a lot to my french speaking level. It certainly doesn't help my confidence that majority of my classmates were in French immersion and go on about easy it is to learn. So...I was wondering if anyone had the same case as me but still managed to somewhat master the language.

 

Also, in case I'm not successful in becoming fluent in French in HS, do any of you have any suggestions or options as to how I may go about accomplishing this?

 

Thank you.

I found that just a lot of casual browsing (I was already interested in French, anyway) made a big difference, even to my oral fluency... I gained confidence by using the phrases Iearnt and imagining conversations I'd like to have with french speaker. Or anyone, for that matter. SO when it came to the actual event, it all came out pretty good. And as the confidence builds up so does the learning.. and desire to learn more.

 

Have you tried this ? http://french.about.com/ 

 

It's got lots of exercises, listening, grammar... Everything!  A lot of fun at all levels, and not silly or trivial

[Blackcurrant]

Then, you have an excellent dictionary and phrase resource here to build up your vocab and pre-fabricated conversation phrases. Just browsing casually and imagining what you'd like to say is fun. And most of the phrases you could ever imagine wanting to say will be here, ready to use. You won't need to worry about the grammar because it is already all there in the phrase.

 

You'll start noticing patterns of use: the subjunctive with "il faut que..."  (one must...) "je ne crois pas que..." (I don't think that/ I doubt that...)  or "je doubte que..." "je n'imagine pas que..." (I don't imagine that...)  then later you'll learn how sometimes you can use the subjunctive in some of these phrases to express slightly different meanings.

 

You get a lot of power from expressing yourself fluently and correctly right from the get go ... And it is all at your finger tips. It's not entirely true that by listening you learn to speak. It very much depends on your level. And the level of the podcast. Often reading is a better and more efficient way than hard-core "listening" for building up your knowledge and spoken abilities. Same with speaking. Speaking just by itself doesn't necessarily lead to improved fluency or more accurate output...