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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY

6 days ago

I grew up on Tintin. I learned French, reading him (and Asterix).

I have since, almost entirely forgotten the language :(

My favorite Tintin fan art: https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3270528/random-cool-tinti...

6 comments

ChrisMarshallNY

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ArnoVW  6 days ago

I received 4 years of schoolboy-level French education in high-school. Totally sucked at it, and dropped it the moment I could.

I moved to France in 2007, married a French girl in 2011. I obtained French nationality beginning last year. During my first years in France it was tough, but those 4 years did come back.

A couple of years ago I also amortized 4 years of German when I had to translate our ontology into German.

My conclusion : the ROI on learning a language is better than you think. And your investment will come back to you.

If you want to top up your French, try watching Netflix in French audio, or with French subtitles (or both!). Or even better, watch some of the French shows that they now offer : Call My Agent, Lupin, etc)

  • gramie  6 days ago

    My eldest brother hated learning French in school. Hated it. He even made a deal with the French teacher that he would pass Grade 12 French if he promised not to take it in Grade 13.

    Then, in his late 20s, he was travelling the world and ended up in the French island of La Reunion (kind of like Hawaii with French food and social programs).

    He married and has two children and is only now, after more than 30 years and acquiring French citizenship, is he talking about moving back to Canada.

  • ChrisMarshallNY  6 days ago

    I tried watching HPI[0], but she talks really quickly. Maybe I should try again.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPI_(TV_series)

    • ArnoVW  6 days ago

      Yea, Spanish and French (well, Parisian) often suffer from that blight =)

      Perhaps try slowing down the video?

      Also, there is a French / German public broadcaster called Arte. They have amazing content (documentaries, concerts, etc). Generally things where the Words Per Minute rate is a lot lower.

      https://www.arte.tv/fr/

      One of my favorite shows is Karambolage. 20 minute items about French and German culture, spoken in perfect French at a leisurely speed.

      https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/RC-014034/karambolage/

projektfu  6 days ago

Try reading "French for Reading" by Karl C. Sandberg. It refreshed my French a lot, very quickly, and I was able to read young-adult-level fiction with a little help from a dictionary. Also, I can grok technical stuff pretty well. I get no practice at spoken French, unfortunately. We don't have a large population of speakers here.