effective learning

[Francois]

I've no url at hand, but these verbs generally go like 'workt', 'askt' etc. Learning about 'glottal stop' helps somewhat. The idea is that there's a short break in words like 'break' before the final consonant. That is, they sound like 'brea/k' or 'wor/k', as though you delayed the final 'k' for a few milliseconds. As a result, there's not much emphasis on the last consonant, and you don't have to pronounce clearly the difficult 'skt' in 'asked', as you would in French. Moreover, you can blend the last consonant with the following vowels to make it easier eg. I asked her => /I ask-ter/.

FRC

 

[Taka]

I'm down with that. As for the Japanese syllabuses, I've no idea, but apparently we use a different system in France. English teachers basically have a free hand to do what they want, provided they still do a minimum of grammar etc. One year, we studied Swift for almost 7 months. This makes the quality of the course extremely dependent on teachers' skills. Incidentally, I got an E in English at the SAT French equivalent.

FRC

You got an E in English :!: :?: Man...unbelievable...

 

[Francois]

I deserved it, I was not a very good student, until college.
I think it means everybody can make it to an average standard.

FRC

 

[Taka]

I deserved it, I was not a very good student, until college.
I think it means everybody can make it to an average standard.

How come you've become such a good student now? :shock:

 

[Francois]

I can't resist girls with an accent.

FRC

 

[blacknomi]

What accent? :shock:

 

[Francois]

Well, most sound like music to my ears, but I obviously can't learn that many languages.

FRC

 

[Taka]

I can't resist girls with an accent.

FRC

What? :?: :?:

 

[Francois]

That's for the motivation. If I want to talk to English-speaking girls, I got to know som English.
I'm just kidding, actually.

FRC

 

[Taka]

That's for the motivation. If I want to talk to English-speaking girls, I got to know som English.
I'm just kidding, actually.

FRC

I kind of noticed that you meant such motivation, but I didn't understand the accent part.

 

[Francois]

However that's true that I find most accents quite cute.

FRC

 

[Taka]

I think French women are also enchanting, but I haven't felt up to studying French...Your language seems too much complicated (as Japanese :lol. Every noun has sex? Come on... :lol:

 

[Francois]

French is a bit complicated, but in everyday's conversation we use only a small subset of the grammar. Many tenses are archaic anyway. As for the gender, as long as you're not in a classroom it's not a big mistake to use the wrong one, and that contributes to the charm of the non-natives indeed

FRC

 

[blacknomi]

Is French vocabulary similar with Deutsch? I had a hard time learning Deutsch not only because of sex but something like der/dem. It's fun though. 8)

 

[Francois]

I suppose these languages are somewhat similar, in terms of difficulty.

FRC

 

[blacknomi]

I've been trying to memorize how to write a, i, u, e, o (the Fifty Sounds) in Japanese for almost a whole month! I wish I were Taka. 8)

FRC, is there any funny way to practice retroflex 'r' in your language?

 

[Francois]

Yeah, it's roughly the same sound as when you clean your throat (without water, otherwise it will make a gurgling sound).

FRC

 

[blacknomi]

I'd rather sleep now than clean my throat.

Good night(yawn)! Have a nice day there. :wink:

 

[Taka]

I've been trying to memorize how to write a, i, u, e, o (the Fifty Sounds) in Japanese for almost a whole month! I wish I were Taka. 8)

I think Chinese characters are much more difficult to remember. And I wouldn't even try to remember all those different kinds of accent of "ma" in Chinese (I don't know exactly how many kinds there are...)

 

[blacknomi]

Yeah right, Taka. Each of Chinese character has 5 different tones.

ma1==> mother
ma2==> numb
ma3==> horse
ma4==> curse
ma5==> question mark '?'

Where's the original poster?