Hi!
I%26#39;ll be in Paris for 3-4 days in Late July this year with my sister (we%26#39;re both college aged) and our Aunt and Uncle.
I%26#39;m scared to death because my sister and I both took Spanish in high school/college (it%26#39;s the only useful language in Texas), and we don%26#39;t want to get into a sticky situations.
I know the basics, Bon Jour, Madame, Sil vous plais, etc., but beyond that I have no clue.
Where is a good place (internet site?) to pick up the basics? A place that has audio pronounciation would be helpful, because I don%26#39;t want to sound like to much of a American idiot!
PS--is it true that people in France get a kick out of tourists from Texas? Sounds like a load of crock to me, but what do you Parisians have to say?
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Michel Thomas Speak French for Beginners cd%26#39;s are a very good intro to the language. There are internet sites, but I haven%26#39;t found any as good.
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Try Tex%26#39;s French Grammar from UT Austin (what better place to learn French):
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/
For pronunciation help:
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php#top
Great on line courses:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
oculture.com/weblog/…itunes_learn_fo.html
www.learner.org/resources/series83.html
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I spent 2 days in Paris last month and 2 days there back in december. I got along really good just knowing the few basics that you know. I found about 80% of the people over there who I asked questions of and who knew a little bit of english and could understand my Boston accent were more than helpful and very freindly. Once in a while you%26#39;ll get a snob but I found that is the exception. I think the best advice I could give you is to try and learn the words that you%26#39;ll see on a french menu because getting something as simple to us as bacon and eggs can be quite an ordeal over there. Numerous restaurants have menus in both french and english but if your luck is like mine, you%26#39;ll wind up in the few that dont.
Good Luck!
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Go to travlang.com, hit foreign language for travelers, and select the french flag from the 105 language choices. It will pronounce phrases from categories of shopping, dining, directions, social situations, etc. I practiced a lot and then wrote the phrases out phonetically to take along. I even gave directions in French to a French woman, not from Paris, to the musee d%26#39;orsay from the La Tour Eiffel. Even with my KS accent she understood. Amazing! Another great site to learn the pronounciation of all the the gardens, avenues, museuems,and sights is www.learnfrenchinboston.com. Explore around the site in the free areas and you%26#39;ll find it. BBC.com is where you can learn how to insult and curse in French, among other things. Worth it to fend off the gypsies around the Eiffel Tower.
Learn the basics and you will be warmly received by Parisians, not necesarily the gypsies around the ET.
Learning the language, even the simple phrases, will work wonders. You will have a great time. All y%26#39;all from Dallas will be mistaken for a Parisian with a little practice.
oprah44
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Wow, all those are great--thanks!
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I just thought of a way you might enjoy picking up some french. About a year ago I found out about a young french singer called Alizée. She has a couple of songs that she has both a french and english versions of. They%26#39;re on youtube and a few other sites. The first one is called J%26#39;en ai marre and the english version is called I%26#39;m fed up. The other song is called J%26#39;ai pas vingt ans and the english version is called I%26#39;m not twenty. I made up a cd where one of these songs would play in english, then the french version would play. It really helped pick up some french and the best part was i could learn while i drove.
If you decide to go that route. Look for the J%26#39;en ai marre song that is 4:18 long, the I%26#39;m fed up video that is 4:06 long, the J%26#39;ai pas vingt ans video that is 4:39 long and the I%26#39;m not twenty video that is 4:36 minutes long. The reason I tell you this is because some people have done remixes with her songs then posted them to youtube and this is the best way to weed them out.
I took several of her videos for songs she sings in only french and added french and english subtitles to them and made up my own dvd%26#39;s to help me learn the french language.It really helped and if you enjoy her music too, c%26#39;est tres magnifique!
Good Luck!
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This suggestion helpful hope so
Buy Elizabeth Smith course [use mateacrawler.com search engine]or one bythe late Mr Thomas.You learn the really important phrasesnot the pencil belonging to my Aunt Frederica is in the lounge
Good luck quick learn
Regmaiche
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Dear TX,
I learned my French by listening to language tapes in my car. You can now get CDs, too. My favorite purveyer of tapes is Living Language. What I like about them is they give you phrases for common travel situations. They say the phrase in English, then followed in French. There is a pause so you can try the phrase yourself, and then it is repeated in French, so you can check yourself. I listened to these tapes many times over. The trick is to not get frustrated, but hang in there!
Hope you have a great time.
Bonne chance and bon voyage.
BT
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Another great site is livemocha.com. The lessons aren%26#39;t specifically travel phrases, but I found them most helpful with pronunciation. In addition to hearing the phrases, there are written tips to help with pronunciation. FYI they have lessons in Hindi and Cantonese!
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I learned how to speak Thai with a tape, so its definitely possible with French. Only spent a month of about an hour every few days, and 10 years later, I still remember...
The Berlitz series that made my Thai tape doesnt seem to exist anymore, but the Fodor%26#39;s ones I%26#39;ve used for Spanish are pretty good.
My French childhood au pair%26#39;s family was fascinated with Texas. The cowboy hat I brought the father when I went to live there was a big hit - but this was well before the word Bush entered their consciousness.
But whatever you do, you%26#39;ll sound American, whether or not you have the Texas twang. My father is pretty fluent, lives on a French island, and the minute he answers any Metro French visitor%26#39;s questions in French - they switch to English.
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