Stressed Out

It occurred to me today, while watching 'Inspecteur Barnaby' (The Midsomer Murders) in dubbed French, that it's not just vocabulary and pronunciation of words that deter me from understanding all the dialogue in these programs.  A whole lot of it has to do with stress--and I don't mean the kind you have to take a tranquilizer for.  Every now and then I can isolate a word or phrase that I didn't grasp at first because, even though often the words are cognates of English, such as the 'tion' words, the stress on a syllable was not what I'd expect.

As you know, French syllables are for the most part stressed evenly, with a slight emphasis on the last syllable, at least most of the time.  This peculiarity often involves a word that, if I were to see in writing, I'd recognize immediately, but because of the rhythm the stress creates, the word or phrase seems 'foreign.'

Now, what to do about this problem?  It seems that, as with so many things in learning a new language, the only remedy is to listen, listen, and the listen again.  I suppose that finally recognizing and acknowledging this issue is a major breakthrough.  As seems to be so often the case, French instructors often fail to point out this difference in spoken French and instead focus more on reproducing French vowel sounds and other phonetic matters.  Understanding how French is accented is crucial in learning to comprehend spoken French, because the rhythm that the stress creates in a sentence affects the way individual words are heard by English speakers.  Often the stress at the end of one word will merge with the beginning of the next word, so that both words sound completely different than they are written. 

So, I've got a lot of tuning up to do on my ears.  Back to the drawing board; or rather, back to the Inspecteur.

A la prochaine...

Suddenly It Stays

I'm convinced more and more that the key to speaking a language you're learning is selective repetition.  Notice I've used the word 'selective' there.  I'm on lesson 27 in the Pimsleur all-audio course for French.  One of the methods of that learning program is to present common words and phrases to the learner and repeat them not only in the lesson in which they are introduced, but to re-introduce them in subsequent lessons.  I've found that after dozens of these repetitions, some phrases just come naturally and I no longer have to retrieve the grammar rules and vocabulary, which is painstakingly slow and unnatural sounding, but the words and grammar just seem to arise in my mind before I even have time to think.  The narrator on the program will often ask for a specific response to a question posed in French and expects an immediate reaction from the listener, also in French.  When I first began to learn the phrases, I had to pause the recording and rack my brain for the proper grammar sequence and vocabulary. 

This is why it seems to me that the only way to improve one's French speaking skills is to get at least a medium-sized cache of the most used words and phrases of the language.  These items should be drilled until they just come right to the tip of the tongue; that's what happens when we speak in our own language.  I suppose for someone with a photographic memory and instant retrieval could get by creating thoughts and expressions as she goes, but for most of us it's a matter of drilling it into our brains. 

Of course this is not as important if you're only interested in reading, writing, or listening to the language.  In those situations, you usually have time to get your thoughts together.  When you're having a conversation, long pauses are usually very uncomfortable and make for very unsatisfying results. 

It is very gratifying to me when I'm able to answer the Pimsleur narrator's questions and respond to his scenarios without having to pause to plan what I want to say.  I can only imagine what it's like when this ability becomes so dominant that you almost feel that you've found he holy grail of language learning: fluency. 

A la prochaine...

The Message is the Medium

I've been watching the American TV hit 'The Mentalist' dubbed in French with French subtitles.  I've decided that watching with French subtitles first is definitely the way to go.  I watched the show first with the subtitles on (only French subs--no English), trying to simultaneously pay attention to the spoken French.  This is not an easy task, because sometimes (a lot of the time, actually) the subtitles don't quite match the French dialogue.  I presume that this is because the dubbed audio has to be adjusted so that it matches the movement of the actors' mouths.

Still, I found that when I viewed the video a second time, with the subtitles turned off, I was able to grasp much, much more of the spoken French.

Another thing I learned was that one reason it's so difficult to comprehend the spoken French of these shows is that there are quite a few words and idiomatic expressions being used that I simply don't know.  Even seeing the dialogue in subtitles won't fix this problem.  Obviously, this barrier can only be overcome by religiously pausing the video and looking up the words/phrases in a dictionary.  My French pen-pal, Denis, actually sent me a very good link for understanding French idioms and slang expressions.  It's not easy to use because it's from the French version of the Internet and everything, phrases and their definitions, is all in French.  But I find that I know enough vocabulary that this does not pose a major problem.

I enjoyed the two episodes of 'The Mentalist' I watched.  Though the series is aired on network and cable TV in the U.S., NetFlix US does not offer the series, opting instead for the heart-throb Simon Baker's earlier hit show, The Guardian--not nearly as interesting, I'd say.  It's just interesting enough to make one want to watch it all the way through, but not so interesting that you can't concentrate on the language while you're watching. 

Un Village français

I'd been wanting to see it for some time.  Luckily, I know about Hola, which is an add-on that allows one to 'unblock' foreign websites.  The idea is to 'fool' the system into thinking the user is accessing the Internet in a country of your choice.  If you can achieve this little trick,  you can access that service in the country you're unblocking, if you have a NetFlix account, and watch the movies and TV shows that are offered by NetFlix specifically for that audience. 

Thus, I was able to access the entire first several seasons of Un village français, an intense and very well directed and acted dramatic series from France.  And I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a good old-fashioned epic of war-torn France--set in the fictional village of Villeneuve.  I had planned to just watch for a few seconds to see if it's something worth coming back to, but I ended up sitting at my laptop for almost an hour, totally mesmerized.  It's fast moving and very emotional and intense. 

Because of copyright protections, the series is not available on YouTube, but there are some trailers and samples there.  Here's one:

Hey, You Talkin' ta ME?

Though I really like the Pimsleur all-audio method for learning a language, I frankly don't see how it can work with less phonetic oriented languages like German and French.  I listened to a sample lesson of Pimsleur German and discovered that I could very easily pick up incorrect pronunciation if I relied solely on the listen/repeat style of the program.  There were many words and phrases that I strongly sensed I was way off in my pronunciation.  In my forays into French, Italian, and Spanish, I never began listening and speaking before I had at least a brief peak into the written form of the language.  And there are many French words that I don't see how I could even begin to pronounce correctly if I didn't know what they looked like spelled out.

Now, except for this one flaw, I feel that I have tremendously benefited from Pimsleur for all three languages that I am studying right now.  It's great to hear the phrases repeated multiple times and to try to mimic the pronunciations of the natives who are speaking on the recordings.  Also the program requires you to speak, so that you don't get lazy and just listen.  Another very valuable feature is that I am asked to respond to questions and comments made by the native speakers, so that I get the feel of a real conversation.  It is also very helpful that previously learned material is re-presented frequently in subsequent lessons.  It's easy to forget what one has learned if you only hear it once and you never run into it again.

I wish that I had understood back when I first began to study French, many years ago, how important it is not to get too comfortable with merely reading and writing it.  Language is meant to be spoken and you can never learn the rhythms and tones of the language unless you listen and attempt to speak frequently and determinedly.  It's very frustrating when I think of all the time and money I spent studying French at a university, only to end up unable to carry on even a simple conversation or to understand the French in the easiest children's TV cartoon.  Now, hopefully, I can make up for lost time.

 A plutard...