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...

French Is Alive and Well (and living in Africa)

Ah, mon petit blog mon pauvre petit blog français!  Comme je t'ai négligé! 

I see from my stats that this blog gets more views than either of my other two--though not a single one is coming from France.  Hmmm.  My negligence, I suppose, is the result of over-extending my blogging resources and trying to maintain and update three separate blogs regularly.  I shall see what I can do to make amends.

As I've mentioned before, French is the language I'm most confident with, though sadly I have lost some of the enthusiasm I had when I was a college student majoring in it.  Blame that on Italian.  Still, if there is one language (other than English, of course) with which I might consider carrying on a conversation with a native speaker, it would most definitely be French.  I know more vocabulary; I know the grammar reasonably well (even the simpler subjunctive mood tenses); and I'm more adept at the most difficult aspect of speaking in a foreign language: putting the words in the right order to form sentences that won't sound weird to a native.  

Too bad about French, isn't it?  There is considerable evidence that, though it is still a formidable player in the language game, according to this article, Top Ten Most Used Languages it no longer places in the top ten most used tongues of the world.  This is distressing news since, though the musical tones and nuances of Italian and the practicality of Spanish has distracted me lately, it is a lovely language with a long and distinguished history.  

Indeed, my French pen-pal says that almost all contemporary pop singers in France sing in English and struggle to get concert gigs in the United States.  Quel dommage!  French sounds very musical and one only needs to listen to Edith Piaf or Jacques Brel to appreciate its beauty and power.  

So, let's hope French can hold its own as Chinese, English, and Spanish all have their day in international dominance.  There are still plenty of people who insist that it's the most beautiful tongue in the world and it seems unlikely that it will decline precipitously.  Ce serait impensable.

Yet, there may be hope on the horizon. Check out this USA Today article about the future of French and how Africa plays a significant role in its promise for the future: The Future of French

The cats on the pew purr, plus meow

J'ai un peu de peur des rues françaises .  If I didn't complete botch it up, that means 'I'm a little afraid of French streets.  French has so many 'unEnglish' sounds.  I've already mentioned the travails of trying to pronounce the French word for 'street,' rue, which is double-trouble.  First, you have to deal with the throaty 'r' sound and then with one of the many possible pronunciations of  'u.'  So, a neophyte has to avoid the tendency to anglicize the word and pronounce it 'roo,' which is wrong on two counts.  Then there's the problem of the 'u' sound in a word like peu (a little or a little bit).  If you were to pronounce it like the English word 'pew,' you'd be close enough that you just might be understood by a Frenchwoman, if she takes the word in the context of the rest of your sentence.  But that's not quite right.  To me it sounds as though you're starting to say 'pew' but sort of chop it off at the end.  It always sounds like it has an almost imperceptible 'r' sound in there somewhere, sort of like the British often tack on a faint 'r' sound to some words ending in 'a' (though they would rigorously deny that they are doing such a thing).  But if you put too much of an 'r' sound on the word peu, it would sound dangerously like peur, the French word for 'fear.'  Damned if you do; damned if you don't.  And then there's also the word plus to deal with.  What it takes to get this right is listening and repeating the correct sounds ad infinitum. Here's a little video that deals with some of these problems: 

Well let's switch gears for a moment.  All this talk of the subtleties of French pronunciation is giving me un peu de peur.  Fortunately my local library carries copies of the CD's for Pimsleur's French.  I believe they have levels from beginner to advanced.  The problem is that it appears that there is no way to change the format of the CD materials to mp3's that I could save them on the device I use to listen to French when I do my daily exercise.  Presumably, that's technically illegal anyhow.  So, I do have a portable CD player, but the issue is that it seems to require a huge amount of battery energy, and I'm forced to replace the batteries so often that it gets to be rather expensive.  I suppose I need to start buying rechargeable batteries, since I think I do have a charger somewhere.  Anyway, the Pimslear CD's are very good, I think.  native speakers introduce a series of conversational type dialogues, so that you learn the right pronunciation in small, manageable chunks.  I also like the way it makes you participate in the dialogue.  Nothing but listen-and-repeat can be counterproductive.  One needs to be ready with a quick, unforced response to typical conversational questions.  I can't afford to buy the CDs, though I do think they are worth the price for serious language learners.

A la prochaine...