Learning French the Easy Way

Admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:32:56 +0000

Two years ago, I decided to learn a foreign language, and then I was puzzled, my mother tongue is English, so which language have I to learn? After I searched a lot on which one is most suitable, I decided to learn French. And before you wonder why, I’ll explain my reasonable point of view.

First of all, French is the official language in 28 countries. It is also – like English exactly- spoken in 5 continents, and considered the second global language, and it will support my career building, by allowing me to apply for a variety of positions which requires applicants to be fluent in French, both spoken and written.

Unfortunately, there were a huge problem, which is French language is not easy to learn or to speak at all, I had to learn tons of non familiar words, phrases, and pronunciations. I don’t even have a specified or structured method to learn and speak French. So you can imagine how much confused I was. In fact, difficulties in learning and speaking French made me –in the beginning steps of learning- very uncomforted, and I was about giving up.

The most difficult issue I faced, was the ‘ pronunciation’, it’s really so hard to be an English native speaker, and want to be completely fluent in French in the same time, although French is considered a musical language.

For example, the new sounds in French would make you crazy at first, as they are very confusing, the most obvious example for this, is the ‘French R’. Really it was my curse. Accents also will take efforts from you to expertise them, and to be familiar with.

In addition, you will also face difficulties in the liaisons and silent letters.

Verbs in French also were very hard to learn, each verb is changing in a different way, there’s nothing like (teach, taught, taught), or (speak, spoke, spoken), they all are like irregular verbs (go, went, gone), generally, grammar in French is not easy or clear as grammar in English.

Then it comes to understand spoken French, the best case is to have someone who deals with you in a daily base, so you could listen and speak to him frequently, otherwise, it’s really would take a lot of time and exercising from you.

From my experience in learning French, I can advise you to have your own expert guide, to facilitate the process of learning French as much as possible.

Finally, I found it very interesting as well as hard to be a ‘ French speaker’, it was really a good experience.

Online Language Tutors – Are They Efficient?

Admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:33:27 +0000

If you’ve set out to learn a new language, you’ll notice that there will be a big difference in learning speed if you try studying on your own, or with the help of a tutor. First of all, a tutor knows exactly where to start and what steps should be undertaken to learn that language correctly and he will be able to spot your weaknesses and strengths, emphasizing on what you’re lacking in and lowering the focus on what you’re already efficient in.
But getting a personal tutor is often quite hard. You’ll need to set a schedule, waste time traveling to and from the tutor (or to and from the meeting place where you’re learning the new language) and sometimes it will be hard to find someone in your proximity that can teach you. Thank God for technology and thank God for the Internet!
Now, you can hire online language tutors that will act just like a personal tutor, but you’ll take away most of the annoying details from your relationship (you still need to schedule and obviously they still cost money, although they’re usually cheaper than face-to-face personal tutors). You’ll most likely need a webcam and a good set of headphones if you want to start learning, since your sessions will take place through video conferences.
Many people wonder if this is a more efficient language learning technique than by hiring a face-to-face tutor or not. Well first of all, sometimes it may be your only option, if you can’t find the right tutor to meet around your area. Secondly, it can be more efficient from a financial point of view, although this might be situational since you’ll need a webcam, headphones and a solid Internet connection, things that may make up for the extra cost of hiring a personal tutor.
The language learning process itself is not really affected. It won’t be any different than if you would have the tutor on your screen, sitting right next to you. It will also be more convenient, since you won’t even have to move from your chair and payment is usually easy enough as to not cause additional troubles (and if one online tutor website doesn’t offer the payment method that’s most convenient for you, move on to the next – there’s plenty to choose from).
By the way, I noticed there are a couple of language learning websites out there that offer their customers “live online language training” under the form of video classes. This means that you can log on a conference, where the tutor will act as a class teacher to you and several other users logged on at that time. This may not be the best way to learn since you won’t be able to channel your tutor’s attention entirely to you, but this method is usually cheaper so you could end up with a bargain.
All in all, I’d say you should at least give it a try and see how you like it. Some people may not feel as comfortable talking to someone “virtual” and prefer their tutor to be physically there during the lessons. Others find this an advantage, so it’s all about personal preference in the end. And despite the fact that online language tutoring is still a rather new concept, it’s definitely THE main learning method of the future. Let’s face it, who will go through the trouble of physically moving to their tutor (or the tutors moving to their students) when they can handle the same lessons from miles away, through a microphone and a webcam.

Easy Language Learning » Point Of View

Learning French the Easy Way

Online Language Tutors – Are They Efficient?