Source: WikipediaToday is the last day of my French class at the Alliance Française. I have been taking classes there since January. 3 months straight, 9-12:30 everyday Monday through Friday. I have enjoyed my classes and meeting all the people but I am burning out. The levels of the people in the same class are beginning to vary too much for me and I feel I am learning more outside of class than in it. I started using Rosetta Stone again and I find I really like it. So for now I am going work on my own.
The benefits of going to a class are easy to see. You get an instant community of people to share your experiences and practice the language with. It is harder to blow off doing classwork. The teacher is watching. You make a financial commitment and you feel obliged to continue. You have a live teacher so your mistakes can be corrected immediately etc. You can build a social life and learn about wonderful things happening in your city. ETC ETC ETC.
I like Rosetta Stone because it is quite dynamic. There is a listening, reading, speaking, and writing component to each and every lesson. Actually multiple ones for each lesson. You can use it extensively or just a little bit, it is really self paced. I find the dictation and typing part the most helpful. It helps me understand when I am being spoken to. It helps me learn the French keyboard. It helps me learn how to spell as well as learning gender, subject verb agreement (in French this is hard because many verb tenses have the same sound but are spelled differently so you need to examine the context), d’accord with the passe composé, and many more things.
The speaking part is interesting. You plug a USB mic to your computer. You do the lesson for a particular skill. The speaking part will show you a sound wave. It will speak the phrase to you and you see the sound wave. Next you speak into your mic and it records your voice and shows you the sound wave your voice made. You can listen to what you said and what Rosetta Stone said. You can also see how your sound wave compares to the model sound wave. It is very interesting. I did this more in the US but now that I live in France it is easy to practice with real live people so I don’t use it as much.
So we’ll see how it goes. The class gave me a quick jump start and a solid foundation but now I am ready to direct my own learning. Try the Alliance Française if you have the chance but for less than the cost of only one month of classes you can purchase Rosetta Stone and have the equivalent of all 9 levels. You can also try it out online to see if you like it. A mix of the 2 is probably best anyway.
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That sounds interesting.
Back in the stone age (pun intended), I was at the Alliance in Paris. But it was a year abroad program so I wasn’t really on my own the way you are. I, too, liked that it was live, with a teacher, and a bunch of people from all different places. I’m not a good student when left to my own devices.
Of course, some of it was a pain, especially if the teacher wasn’t particularly interesting, but that’s just what school is like.
I like the live thing too but now I am ready to go back to Rosetta Stone. I didn’t realize what a computer geek I had become, I can really spend a couple of hours doing Rosetta Stone. Maybe it isn’t as directed as a class but I definitely learned a bunch from it. I started the AF at level 2 instead of 1 and I never took French classes before.
My big problem with my classes and I have been told this is true of most language classes in France is that there is not fun to them. We played no games, did almost no role playing, we barely read dialogs, etc. It was grammar all the time. I know there is a lot to French grammar but as a former teacher of 10 years I also know about learning theory and this is not how people learn a language. We know what works, we should use it.
As an example, we often learned new ways of saying something and before any of us had any experience using the expressions we learned all the grammar rules related to it. We did not hear it a bunch of times in context, we did not say it a bunch of times out of context and then in context, we did not read it in a bunch of different contexts, we had no experience with it and then we learned the rules. Of course it made little sense to us. It would be like learning to drive by reading about how to drive, you could do it but you really need the experience to do it well.
If they played more games and made it more fun it would compensate for a less than interesting teacher or subject matter, but no we all must suffer. The masses of humanity have always had to suffer. That and almost no vocabulary development exercises. Writing the occasional vocabulary word on the board when it is used is not a directed vocabulary development activity. When I mentioned this the response was that the best way to learn vocabulary is to read. I agreed with them but also said that it was no excuse for not having vocab development activities in class. Oh well, I’m sure I will be fine and I am pretty good with self directed learning, on avance.
I too use the Rosetta Stone program but mine is for Farsi. I used to go ages ago to the Alliance Francaise in my country. Agree with everything you said about the interactivity pluses of a class environment but like you, I also like the way one can learn with the Rosetta program. As an aside, I’ll leave you with an interesting bit of info. The CEO of Rosetta stone and his wife, actually rent my Washington DC (Georgetown) home. Yep! I was so excited when they wanted to rent our home (now that we live in Houston) because I was already using his program. They are great tenants by the way.
Farsi is such a beautiful language, what makes you want to learn it? Are you Persian? A spy? You never know with people using Rosetta Stone.
If I weren’t living in France now I would probably think I would need a little more than Rosetta Stone but for me I think it is enough because I can really practice it everyday. I do like the self paced aspect to it.
Georgetown is a beautiful neighborhood, I have a friend who lives on 34th St/Ave? near Wisconsin. That is one part of the US I miss a little.
That’s funny about the CEO, if you get the chance tell him/her how much I like it, I really do.
Sorry Milena, I had you confused with another commenter so i was taken aback when you said you were learning Farsi, after visiting your blog again I can see that you are in fact from Iran and, hopefully, not a spy.
OOps, you are not Persian but your husband is, I should stop before I say more stupid things. I’ve said enough.
I started with Rosetta. I think I would have been better of to do it the way you did, the classroom experience first and then Rosetta Stone. I have to get on the Rosetta Stone only four months until I am in Paris.
4 months is plenty of time, are you coming for a visit or to live? You can get pretty far if you are diligent. Is there an Alliance Française near you? You can take an evening course that meets like 2 times per week to have more experience if you think you need it. Good Luck
I took a similar approach to yours. I had taken French language classes in both high school and college. In grad school last year, I took an intensive class that met in the summer for four hours a day, five days a week for 10 weeks. It was great and I really enjoyed interacting with other students and the instructor. But yes, as the class progresses you realize the disparity in levels and being a college requirement for some, the level of enthusiasm varied greatly. However, it was a great foundation and I I find the Rosetta Stone lessons very helpful now. I particularly appreciate the feature you describe in this post, the voice recognition aspect. It has (hopefully!) helped improve my pronunciation without having someone present to help me with such.
I too will be in Paris for the month of July and certainly plan on incorporating more French lessons into my daily life between now and then. Such a beautiful language!
Understanding spoken French has always been my problem. Add to that my inability to remember, and you have the perfect recipe for making learning difficult.
@Towards Paris
What level and lesson are you on? As you get further along the dictation part is tricky because many words sound the same but are spelled differently and have totally different meanings. Some word might sound similar but with a different accent mark they sound a little different as well so it helps hear the minute differences in sounds. I am finishing unit 6 in level one. I haven’t used it much since my classes started but since they are over I’m going to get back at it.
@Bob
Are you a retired special ed teacher? You could also subscribe to different podcasts in French. Many of which come with transcriptions and mini lessons to accompany them. That might help with understanding French better.
I have rosetta stone, but i have to stop procrastinating for it to be of any use. *groan*
So working on your blog and commenting here is not helping? I know there are plateaus and points where you are not motivated to use it but seriously just sit down and do it.
No, not a retired teacher. A retired library worker (well, that was my last job, anyway). I bought a thing called Fluent French which consists of 6 CDs of actual French conversations in both normal and slow speeds. Included is a little booklet with the conversation in French and the English translation. I’m sure a lot of people would find that extremely useful, but it hasn’t been of much help to me. The one thing I have going for me is my persistence. I won’t give up trying. Who knows, one day I may understand something after “Ça va?”
Oh an amusing anecdote: Once in Paris, we went into a restaurant to make a dinner reservation. I did the talking. Unfortunately, the guy asked me a question. I thought he had asked what time, but he had asked, “How many in your party?” I replied, “Ten.” Luckily, Robb was there to clean up my mess.
The retired teacher thing was a joke, special ed teachers have the reputation of being like their students . . .
The reason Rosetta Stone is better than that program is that there is a listening segment, a reading segment, a speaking segment, and a writing segment, and segments that blend them together. You can make it harder or easier, test yourself, give yourself time limits, there is no end to how you ca modify it to meet your needs. I have never used a system that was so complete.
In Toulouse 10 might be early to eat, 10 would be a big party. Either way it would have worked.
Congratulations on your persistence! No matter what the mode, “practice, practice, practice,” right? And, “have fun!”
And with those nuggets of unsolicited advice, I say…
Meilleurs voeux!!
For extra practice it’s also fun to exchange french lessons for english lessons. In my opinion it works well with a friend or aquaintance rather than someone you find over the internet. I started exchaging french for english a few weeks ago with one of our roommates and it’s going really well.
@BobSpencer- I understand how you feel! I was the same way for a long time and still have problems understanding. Many many hours ‘a table’ and not understanding the playwords. Hang in there! It gets better!!
That is what I think I am going to start doing, exchanging English for French lessons. I don’t want to go to school everyday anymore, I don’t need it as much. I want more tailored lessons to where I actually am.
Still I think Rosetta Stone is great, a little pricey but worth it if you can afford it.
Owen, no offense taken. My husband is from Iran (even though he was born in Cambridge, England and has lived most of his life in California) and I am, as you gathered, from Panama. Our house which the Rosetta CEO rents is on 30th and Dumbarton. I will let them know that I read a guy whose blog has highly recommended his program. Also, I’m not a spy but I can see why you’d think wanting to learn Farsi would be a handy skill to one. Nowadays, especially here in DC, Farsi speakers are in high demand. My accent is atrocious. Farsi sounds nothing like Arabic for example but all the throat generated g, gh, and ghs sounds are completely beyond my ability to recreate. Thanks for the recommendation on Marjane Satrapi. I had read both her books already and can’t wait to see the movie. As she herself was partly responsible for the animation, I can’t imagine it won’t be as superb as her books were. Milena. P.S. That restaurant in Dordogne looks divine. It looked like a caravanserai. How wonderful to discover that there was a restaurant beyond the stone facade.
I’m reading very carefully, We too lived in CA for many years, Berkeley and Oakland mostly but Jean-Jacques also lived in San Francisco a bit too.
I’m actually thinking of applying to be a Rosetta Stone affiliate and maybe make a little money selling it online. Work is sure hard to come by here, well decent paying satisfying work that is. I don’t want to work for dollars as the exchange rate is so bad right now but what can you do?
Persepolis was splendid. It was the first movie entirely in French that I understood more of less effortlessly. It was funny and sad and ironic all at once. I had a few Persian friends growing up that reminded me of the little girl.
Anyway, glad you stopped by for some comments.
I’m a little more than halfway through the first level, and really loving learning French through Rosetta Stone. I find, like you Owen, that I can go for hours where I burn out in classes.
I find also that it reveals a good deal about the _way_ in which I like to learn… I find myself trying to decipher grammar as soon as it’s presented to me (“wait, why ‘du lait’ and not ‘le lait’?). Did you find that it’s best to just acknowledge the things you don’t know and wait for them to come to you as you’re learning later?
Another thing I’ve noticed — and I’ve asked this on my website — is that often Rosetta places a space before a question mark, e.g. “Est-ce que tu as froid ?”. Is this some strange bug or a hidden French convention?
Well I had stopped Rosetta Stone for a while. Now my level is high enough that I learn lots each day just through daily interactions. I am reading the newspaper each day and listen to the news spending 95% of my day in French so my French is really coming along.
I am thinking of going back to RS because it is great for learning spelling and lots of other little incidental things. I like the dictation exercises, they are oddly calming for me.
I am also at the point where I don’t need to ask why for every question. I hear how something is said, I repeat it, and eventually I will understand why. I am trying to enter a masters program next year in France and I think my written French must improve a little.
I haven’t noticed the space before the question mark problem. I wonder if it is specific to the version of the software you are using, maybe there is an update that fixes the problem. Isn’t there a forum on RS’s website where you can ask that too.
Bon courage!
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