Comme une langue Étrangère

For the past three months, I’ve been spending a short time each day learning French.

Why? Well, first you have to understand why not. I don’t completely lack a background in French… like just about every British schoolkid, I learned French from the start of high school, continuing up to O Level standard. However, by that point (aged sixteen) I was more comfortable with German, so I followed a Germanic theme with an A Level in German and a BA degree in Swedish. Even with the onset of working, tax-paying adulthood (all terms used loosely) where education starts to be a pleasurable pastime rather than a necessary evil, I never revisited French. In our household, Nicola has always been The One Who Speaks French, and I’m not going to be competing with her MA in French literature in a hurry.

Earlier this year I pondered this situation. It seemed daft that my knowledge of French had atrophied to the point of virtual non-existence, given my enthusiastic consumption of so much French culture. My CD collection features music from Perotin to Boulez, along with lots of gypsy jazz, and I’ve read French authors in translation, from Zola to Perec. I stuff my belly with their food, wine and other drinks, and I’ve marvelled at their contributions to art and design. And yet my linguistic ability was on the level of “deux bières, s’il vous plaît”.

I started with the Michel Thomas courses, working through the basic and advanced packages a couple of times each. That brought back some long-forgotten vocabulary and established most of the general rules and structures in my mind. The Michel Thomas material is great for learning to formulate your thoughts in the language, but there’s very little emphasis on aural skills (and absolutely no use of the written word, such is the very nature of his teaching method).

Reading material is easy to sort out under your own steam; I’m not ready to tackle Jacques Attali just yet, but there’s a good range of children’s books and chatty lifestyle magazines for absorbing real, idiomatic French. In terms of aural skills, my long-term aim is to be able to listen to Radio France podcasts, but until then I’ve found some useful beginner/intermediate material at the iTunes Store (where the podcasts are generally free). In case you’re in the same situation as me, here’s a few recommendations…

French poetry podcast – Camille Chevalier reads, explains and explores a poem every month.

The French Pod Class – Comprehensive lessons from Sebastien, including videos, PDF texts and other teaching material.

Ecouter en Français facile – Vincent Durrenberger reads short texts on a variety of subjects.