My French houseamte has offered to teach me his language; how should we proceed?

Question

I am English and live in a shared house in Bristol. My neighbour is French and is living in England as he is on a work placement.

I expressed an interest in learning his language after not doing too well in it when I was at school- he agreed with enthusiasm.

Neither of us have any experience of teaching languages- he is an engineer and I am a typist.

How should we proceed? Thanks!

Answer 1

goto livemocha.com, and get reference how they begin language course

Answer 2

well the place to startis the basics.. hello, how are you       my name is...    

numbers 1- 10 etc.

Answer 3

You should start with the basics first.  Like My name is, How are you, Can you point me out to the railway station, etc.  

Answer 4

Start with the vowels and consonants and the alphabet so you get the pronunciation.

Start learning the auxiliary verbs (to be and to have)

Learn the singular and plural (le/la les) and remember to use it a lot!Then learn pro-nouns I/you/she/he/they. The other things we use everyday, to me/you with me/you, myself/yourself/himself...you get the idea.

Learn all the irregular verbs first (if there are any which I think there are) and then just learn the rule for the verbs, there will be one (usually the ending changes for example in Portuguese To sing is Cantar and to think is Pensar he sings becomes CantA and he thinks becomes PensA). learn what the equivalent is for ing/ly/ed endings. You can start with 5 verbs a day and some nouns.

Get a little book that you can write down what you learn and also read some kids books, you can move onto newspapers which you should be able to get in Bristol. Try to talk as much as possible with him and don't try to be perfect.

It is hard if you are not in the actual country because you don't have the added incentive, but just give it a go. I am no expert on the official route but this worked for me.

Answer 5

One requirement would be ambition and you seem to have that! Check!

First of all, I might invest in some books or search through the internet for some good learning materials. Depending on your time put it and level, I propose the following,

As you have taken a bit of French before, you might want to focus on utilising the time with him for interactive comprehension and speaking. Have dinner and go out to the pub and have a chat about the food. use past tense and describe the last time you went to a restaurant. This might be a good start. Feel comfortable just speaking French to your friend and from there it will grow. The trick is also to get used to speaking it with your friend.

Things to have handy

- a notebook

- a pen

- NOT a dictionary. It is better if he describes a word to you in either French or English. Direct translation sometimes doesn't stick.

On your own time, use books and online resources to focus on expanding your grammar, vocabulary, and listening comprehension. If you have questions, bring them up to him when you see him again. Write them down in the notebook.

Bon courage!!

Answer 6

grab paper & a pen and go through the house and have him write out things like chair, stove, cup, window, door etc...  easy things first

then start doing the short sentences  My name is, how do I get to, where can I buy

Answer 7

start with the basic stuff; colours animal and days and months, then work on making sentences and saying stuff to introduce your self like my name is... I'm... years old and my birthday is on.....

hope this helps!  

Answer 8

Don't worry about the mistake. Merde happens!

There should be something in it for him too, so a reciprocal arrangement is more likely to last.

You could start learning poetry, such a Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs Du Mal". The rhythms of the lines make reading out loud easier and he can correct your pronunciation. Try to develop a French Accent, as I would be laughed out of College for speaking French like Edward Heath. (Tony Blair did quite a good job on that actually.) Each poem is a bite-size project, which you can learn, if you want to. Then if someone says, Go on, speak some French, you can recite some lines, rather than "Err, deux pressions, s'il vous plait." Goes down a storm, even if no-one knows what on earth you're on about.

Get him to read out loud some newspaper articles, again correcting pronunciation and where the stress lies in English words. You can then explain in French who Jade Goody is exactly, as it's all very well reading about current affairs, but if you don't know who the personalities are and what they stand for, you won't really understand what's going on.