The only way to understand fast spoken French.

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@emilybankscreative 4 ай бұрын

So true! A few days back I was watching a french video and found myself getting frustrated that I was recognising a lot more of the words than before but was still unable to understand the meaning in real time. But afterwards, I realised how far I’d come in being able to even isolate and identify so many words in a spoken sentence without subtitles. That made me more hopeful that someday soon I will be able to put it all together and that comprehension will come.

@FrenchinPlainSight 4 ай бұрын

Well done Emily!! You've encapsulated perfectly what I was trying to say about how the frustrations don't go away. They come up automatically but you can balance the scales by actively bringing into your mind reasons to be happy. It's a long and tough battle so, that appreciation of the progress is critical!

@cellospot 4 ай бұрын

It was so neat when I finally was able to understand a whole conversation in the language I was studying last year. It became less about knowing the meaning of individual words and more about getting a kind of visual in my head of what was being spoken about. Keep at it! It will happen!

@arthouston7361 3 ай бұрын

Exactly! Listening to our first language as children is how we learned before, so we can do it again.

@Steve-xl1en Ай бұрын

On my last attempt at French 10 years ago, I had a teacher who was from France and she got me to this great level, of written and reading French. I then went to France to spend 2 months at a French school full of confidence, and on the testing day I did the written test and tested into B2!! Then I did the aural test and did so badly the school thought it was a mistake and I must just be jet lagged so they put me in the B1 class. On the first day of class I could not understand a single word! it was so fast. So I asked to move to A2. Even in A2 I struggled to understand the teacher and the class!! I was so deflated and left after a few weeks. This time I am NOT going to make that same mistake. Plus we have Netflix!! As I love music and hip hop, I am watching the Apple french music show where the host interviews French artists. Its been so exhausting trying to follow them, even just a minute of conversation, but I am loving it and discovering new music.

@MissCarol-nd7ti 4 ай бұрын

Thank you. You are absolutely correct. I have taken to listening to french talk radio in the background all day. They have callers with many accents and speaking at different speeds. Just having it on has accostumed my ear to the language better.

@David-lz1rk 4 ай бұрын

Do you have any suggestions?

@jacrevald5816 4 ай бұрын

What are you using? Is it an app?

@EileenRivera-pe9lt 4 ай бұрын

Where do you get French radio?

@KhunAdam 3 ай бұрын

I split my listening into intensive, when I try to decode the meaning of every sentence, and casual, when I listen to the TV or radio and don't worry about understanding everything. As I live in France I get unpredictable situations where I have to listen without prep, and that is good too. You are right that some discomfort is OK when you realise you have learned something.

@johnheffernan2422 4 ай бұрын

I went back to learning french eleven years ago at the age of 56 after having dropped it forty years before, right after high school. I joined the local Alliance Francaise (White Plains, New York) with the expectation that in short order I’d be watching french films sans sous-titres. Wow! I couldn’t have been more wrong. In spite of having learned a ton of vocabulary, conjugations, and even getting good at the subjunctive, I still have to read english sub titles. One of the things the staff here at AF strongly recommends for adult learners is to set reasonable goals and in this they are absolutely correct. Now at the age of 67 I have to content myself with the fact that I will probably never be able to watch and fully comprehend a french movie without sub titles, but could have a reasonably good conversation with a frencman…..Si vous parlez lentement monsieur je vais vous comprendre….Thanks for another excellent video.

@jessicaflemister4825 4 ай бұрын

I used to roll my eyes, but after changing my mindset overall to look at the positives in life it has made a world of difference ! I’ll still get upset but breath and will just think « well at least… » I do this with French as well and I just passed A1 and am shocked that I can read a short dialogue and understand what it’s about! Glad to know I’m on the right track! Thanks!

@toastbread3003 4 ай бұрын

After years of learning french, i finally went last month. I mostly got by entirely in French ("they will immediately switch to english" was a lie!!) and had some rewarding longer conversations. That said, I found that once my interlocutor realised that I had decent French, they relaxed into a more natural, fluid style of speaking and I immediately had to start with the "pardon?"s after every sentence which was frustrating and a bit of a conversation killer. I love to read but since I got back, I've been spending pretty much all of my dedicated French learning time listening to Twitch streamers since they generally speak very quickly and informally and the context of whatever they're doing helps with deciphering. I think my comprehension has already improved and I've learned some slang too.

@toastbread3003 4 ай бұрын

Also the fact that they're generally chatting shit or playing a video game means I don't really stress if I miss a joke or only understand 90%.

@bartmulder6995 4 ай бұрын

So true. Simple tips: Consume a lot of French content, either podcasts or KZbin videos (which you can listen to with your screen off by the way). Subscribe to French news feeds. Keep Google Translate handy and look up any word you didn't get. I've had to learn French really quickly (within 2 years) and this has helped me so much. There are now days where I only consume French content instead of English. There's plenty of interesting stuff available.

@yf8996 3 ай бұрын

Hi. Thank you for this comment. You kinda assured me but can you name a few of your favorite videos/ creators or resources? So far I have only found the radio Canada website.

@bartmulder6995 3 ай бұрын

@@yf8996 Sure, there's plenty. On KZbin every morning I watch the French news on France Info, there's the Investigations et Enquêtes channel, there's the Arte channel. As soon as you start watching those, you'll get plenty of recommendations. I also love the Comme une française channel. It's in English, but she focusses specifically on daily spoken French. Note: on your phone you can also listen to KZbin, like a podcast, with the screen off. I do that a lot. I also listen to Tech podcasts, like Le rendez-vous tech, but that depends on what type of content you like.

@JeDindk 4 ай бұрын

I agree with everything you say in this video ... this method is the reason why most Danes are fairly good at speaking English. We watch A LOT of English television. Using subtitles can help a lot in the beginning and you'll still learn a lot of words, expressions, etc. First and foremost you'll learn something about sounds and rhythm, with is very important when learning a new language. I've been following your channel for ... I think it must soon be a couple of years, so I think it's funny you've now begun learning Danish. God fornøjelse med at lære dansk. 😀🇩🇰

@bartmulder6995 3 ай бұрын

@@JeDindk totally agree. The Nordic countries, incl the Netherlands where I am from, subtitle instead of overdub. This gives you automatic exposure. The Nordic countries always amaze me in terms of how good they speak English. Not only in terms of pronunciation, but especially in terms of vocabulary

@ellenbj356 3 ай бұрын

Alex, tu es l'un des meilleurs professeurs de français en ligne. Tu as tout à fait raison à ce sujet ! Il m'a fallu des années de plus que prévu pour me forcer à écouter de vrais francophones, pas seulement des podcasteurs. Merci pour ça.

@FrenchCoach 4 ай бұрын

Bonne vidéo ! I would say that if your French reading & listening level is not at an Intermediate Level yet, then you are stretching too far trying to understand "fast" spoken French. I would equivalent it to trying to run the MARATHON before you run the 5km! I have found with my own personal journey learning French and the journey of my students I help learn French, that building up a good reading & listening level BEFORE speaking French works really well. It takes the pressure of from yourself, since when you begin speaking, you ALREADY know how words are pronounced, since you have listened and read sooo much French, you already ALREADY know the accent, since you have heard sooo many different French speakers. That is what currently is working for my students, maybe it's helpful to some of you. Love this channel by the way, the community seems amazing! Thanks, Rory.

@JeDindk 4 ай бұрын

I disagree very much. I come from Denmark where everybody speaks English quite well - some are definitely better than others, but most are pretty good. The reason is that 90% of everything we watch in the television is in English. If we go back a few years - before we had a thousand channels and Internet- everybody in the south of Denmark spoke German at a pretty decent level because they watched a lot of German television. And I'm not just talking about adults - even small kids pick up a lot of words when they watch and listen. Just like Alex explains in the video, you will recognise the words you hear often and you'll be able to figure out what more and more of those words mean. Of course it helps a lot when you also learn how words are written and also some grammar. But I agree with Alex - you can learn a lot by just listening. I learned a lot in school, but watching television is what really taught me to speak and understand English, so I'm using the same method for learning French - I watch a good deal of French videos on KZbin, and there no doubt that I'm getting better and better. I'm definitely not very good, but I progress little by little. 😁

@FrenchCoach 4 ай бұрын

@@JeDindk I agree with what you are saying - I don't think we disagree at all! It's simply that for the MAJORITY of French learners, they have not grown up around French like those "kids & adults" you are talking about there. For these people (just like myself and the students I am helping), listening to "fast spoken French" is wayyy to difficult, when they can't even understand "slow spoken French" - it simply makes no sense! What we do to improve our reading & listening level is simply start at a Beginner level and then build up slowly every single day. Within 3-6 months you can be at an Intermediate Level of reading & listening and THEN you can finally understand "fast spoken French".

@LivinCindysLife 4 ай бұрын

I love the parallels you described with "the wins" of learning to play pickle ball and the tiny "wins" of understanding fast-spoken French. I learned to play golf a few years ago (a game which can never be perfected), and as they say, it's the good shots that keep you coming back and motivated for more. The same was true for me recently when I finally got up the courage to attend a local French-speaking group at our library. I was thrilled that I understood enough to know what they were discussing! Baby steps are very encouraging.

@susanhall727 3 ай бұрын

Re your YT Short on the sound 'ou': the difference between 'ou' and 'u' is not the lips, it's the tongue. Both are rounded vowels (ie lips are rounded) but 'ou' is a back vowel and 'u' is a front vowel. Try making the sound 'u' then keep everything the same but draw your tongue backwards. You will get the 'ou' sound. Use the IPA vowel chart like an instruction manual!

@AnneKuhn-bf8vi 3 ай бұрын

Vous avez tellement raison! Tes suggestions sont toujours pratiqués et très utiles. Merci Alex!

@larrypresley-ob7it 4 ай бұрын

I strongly agree with you when practicing a language you must immerse yourself in the language and the culture and a person most be honest about there efforts to learn.

@StillAliveAndKicking_ 4 ай бұрын

I wasn’t sure if I should watch this video, as there’s too many people who promote magic methods, which all too often are nonsense. Excellent video. I agree with everything you said. And yes mindset is very important. I can understand French radio and podcasts for natives, thanks to spending two hours each day listening to native level French over the course of several years. I will add a very powerful trick. Apologies if you mentioned it. Some listening can be freeform, but some should be done using the transcript. In other words, listen while reading the transcript. This trains the brain to relate sounds to words, which is so important given that real people tend to elide words together and even drop some vowels and consonants. At the beginning I could only get the gist of a podcast but not the details. Now they are fully intelligible. I still struggle with French films, sometimes I pick up most of the words, sometimes most words fly over my head. I’m sure in a year or two I will have cracked French films. And yes LingQ is very useful.

@hollish196 4 ай бұрын

This is quite helpful as I am several years into learning French and have just started to study Polish. It is a surprise when I don't remember or recognize the Polish words as I do the French ones.

@ADAMSIVES 4 ай бұрын

Yes mindset is everything. Celebrate every little victory, learn (and laugh) at every little failure

@davidboyle9549 3 ай бұрын

Merci beaucoup jai soixante cinq ans et apres presque trois ans la france parlé est encore un defi pour moi. Ilya trois ans jai eu jamais etudier une autre langue. Je suis bien d,accord avec vous Mille merci

@vizeath 4 ай бұрын

I've been taking a long break from language learning, ever since I became busier with other projects, but now I'm back! 😃 I've been learning French by myself, and so far I have no problems. My only problem is that I don't speak enough or listen enough. I almost wanted to find proper courses, I thought it'd help me better, but then I remember that courses usually focus more on teaching the grammar and introducing new vocabularies, etc. I don't need to be taught about these things again. I'm done. I just need to practice speaking and listening more. And I think I prefer doing it casually by myself without attending formal courses.

@gabysadowyj1251 4 ай бұрын

Honest to god Alex I so get what you say. My listening, even as an advanced learner, has been, and still is, my biggest challenged. Brilliant video thank you so much et bonne continuation avec Vietnamese x

@claudinehastick6637 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for this. I listen to french music and need to add films and shows as well.

@MindiB 4 ай бұрын

I definitely appreciate this topic. I have high school level French. It was taught in the traditional manner-that is, mostly written drills to memorize conjugations and vocabulary. I was good at that stuff, but in the much more useful arena of speaking and understanding I am, as you might imagine, very poor. Native speech is far too rapid and fluid for me to parse it word by word, as my limited skills demand. At best, I identify a few familiar words and try to guess at what is being said by the context, which is hardly ideal. The biggest issue for me is, frankly, shame. I have had several interactions in Paris with people whose reaction to my hesitant greeting and apology about my poor French (uttered, of course, in that poor French) has been so dripping with contempt that I’ve walked away near tears. Literally, I’ve gotten eye rolls and the response, in English, “Then. Why. Don’t. We. Use. English” as if I am an infant (which, in terms of fluency, I sadly am). By no means is this always the response, but the occasions when it has been were, honestly, sort of traumatic. I very much care about being a respectful visitor in other countries and that means not expecting my monolingual self to be indulged. I know the humiliation I experience is a me problem. But it severely limits my desire to practice, as my head fills with self-reproach and embarrassment at my stupidity. I will probably never get to any sort of true fluency, but it is helpful to hear that even a highly-advanced polyglot has moments of self-doubt and frustration. Thank you for the encouragement!

@toastbread3003 4 ай бұрын

Hello I just want to say that I relate to feeling a bit stupid or shameful for not speaking fluent French. If it helps, up until about 3 years ago I had very drilled, inflexible high school french but I am much better now and I basically got here painlessly by just reading and watching (a LOT of) native things which interested me and which I could somewhat understand. People shouldn't have been nasty to you for trying though. I found that if you want people to speak french to you, it's better to be confidently half-wrong than timidly right. Easier said than done though...I definitely found myself frantically googling to find out if it's un or une brioche in the queue in a bakery in Paris 😂 Bon courage, French is a beautiful language and there are lots of lovely people who will speak it with you!

@MindiB 4 ай бұрын

@@toastbread3003 Thank you!

@chrystele-fr 4 ай бұрын

Hi, I’m very sorry about your traumatic experience trying to speak French. There are stupid people everywhere so it includes France my native country, but you have as well a lot of very nice people as well. From my long personal and professional experience, learning the basics of French pronunciation can really makes a huge difference because in a matter of 3 months you can have a very clear and understandable pronunciation in French. At least it is what I do with my students. So even being a beginner you feel your confidence boost because you see that people have no issue to understand you.

@cupidok2768 4 ай бұрын

Where can I make a lot of French friends I hope they all just flock to me and wanna be my friends forever so I can speak

@StillAliveAndKicking_ 4 ай бұрын

I had a similar experience in Canada, and another unpleasant experience in a French bookshop in London. However, you can master French, if you want to of course. You will need to consume huge amounts of input, figure out what the transcript means, listen to the audio, rinse and repeat with the next audio sample e.g. a podcast. Do this until you start to understand naturally. It takes hundreds of hours, maybe even one thousand. It’s worth it.

@michael-gs6kh 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for your advise - it makes a lot of sense!

@brentcavender4307 4 ай бұрын

Great topic .... very inspirational and right on the mark. I'm delighted to see you branching out to a few more motivational videos (but perhaps with a shirt on please :) ), because I'm convinced that my lack of a stronger mental game was what prevented me from really buckling down in Spanish and other languages when younger. It's a worthy cause that you're pursuing!!

@FrenchVideos-sv9ds 4 ай бұрын

great video Alex and valuable points. it resonates with my journey with your Confident French Speakers ….very comfortable with writing in French to the detriment of listening. I am now refocussing on audio and video content to immerse in French …..it pushes me into a new level of competency in the language

@michaelcornish2299 4 ай бұрын

I can only agree... C’est probablement la chose la plus vraie que j’ai jamais entendue. Ça fait très longtemps que je ne suis pas passé par ici et je continue d'apprendre.

@HRaz100 4 ай бұрын

Quelle coïncidence - je viens de commencer à jouer au pickleball, aussi ! You are absolutely right about French listening - thank you - love your videos :-)

@michelgolabaigne595 4 ай бұрын

Salut Alex, Une vidéo de motivation unique en son genre… :) La confiance en notre subconscient est primordiale, tu as bien raison… :) Malheureusement, nous la développons souvent uniquement en cas de réussite… Comment maintenir un état d’esprit positif ? Autrement dit, quel niveau de compréhension est suffisant ? Nous devons apprendre à profiter du processus et à ne nous souvenir que des succès… :) Merci, Alex, de nous avoir motivés !

@claremarsland8618 4 ай бұрын

This is so true. Amazing advice as always. Love the 'puzzle pieces' analogy. I was at the end and am indeed a true fan! Please can you let me know if you have a 'buy me a coffee' page, you have given me so so much and would love to give something back. Thank you Alex. ❤

@HARUKOKATO 3 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing! I’m a new subscriber!😎✨👌🏽

@scherrieCarter 3 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@SubTroppo 4 ай бұрын

I agree about exposure. My spoken French is ungrammatical* but I listen repeatedly to hours and hours of old 'Au Coeur de l'Histoire' podcasts and it has helped me no end. However when it comes to films, the argot renders the hearing/learning experience difficult because as in English it slang is always in evolution. Subtitles do not help because usually I have no confidence in them as in many instances I can do a better translation/interpretation myself. *To me learning grammar is about the worst way to learn - maybe because I am a bad student but I have noticed that infants don't learn to speak with a grammar book.

@christophecoudret2073 3 ай бұрын

I really use your vids vin the reverse way... To learn english ! So I have a question for you : how do you translate "Si!" Is the use of "Si- clauses" in english as common as it is in French ??

@MrRezillo 4 ай бұрын

Merci pour ce vid-ci. C'est comme practiquant musique. Quand en encontre un pallage "imposible" dans la musique it faut le ataquer encore et encore et encore jus'qua un jour ca marche. Ou c'est ce que j'espere, LOL.

@rolandojorif9560 4 ай бұрын

Working hard is only determined by the result of working hard

@nicolerosen7957 3 ай бұрын

Well said! Bon chance with the pickleball!

@KMMOS1 4 ай бұрын

Hey, Gary! The Linux-related pronunciation of MATE is MAH-TAY, not something else.

@frankfrancais8262 4 ай бұрын

To clarify, are you suggesting listening to native French, French TV, films, even though you don’t understand most of it? Specifically, do you think it is more important to listen to the language as it is actually spoken than to try to find content that you understand because it is simpler and slower?

@GozuTob 4 ай бұрын

What is the platform once again? Link? Ling?

@andreabenoit3482 4 ай бұрын

LingQ

@EdwardLindon 4 ай бұрын

On a phonetic level, mass input is necessary for language learning because of the existence of allophones and idiosyncrasies: phonemes do not have a Platonic ideal that can be apprehended, so we need mass input in order to create our own abstractions from the great diversity of native pronunciation. Getting frustrated because we "can't hear" the sounds is the result of an inaccurate idea of what we are doing - the sounds you're trying to hear are not all the same: the work is too make them *sound* the same. Likewise, slurring, elision, abbreviation and mumbling are just factors we have to learn to deal with as variations. To beginners, they seem like completely different expressions. (Ever had the bizarre experience of teaching ESL students about short forms of English names? They typically hear, eg, Elizabeth, Eliza, Beth, Betty, Liz etc as totally different names.) As for the phenomenon of understanding every word but not grasping the meaning, this is simply the result of (1) our impractical, language learner's focus on the medium not the message, which is based on (2) our lack of familiarity with idiomatic expressions grounded in practical sense (ie seeing *what* someone wants/does etc, understanding purpose, intuiting reasons). The remedy for both of these is... more exposure. So the emphasis on input is dead right. The talk of "mindset", i find distracting (but that may be just me) - all you need is patience, a fact-based understanding of the learning process, and a realistic assessment of how long it takes and how much work is involved.

@artemmelnik7965 4 ай бұрын

I am pretty confident with French TV, news, podcasts, - but it is of no help when I try to watch French movies. For some reason, having the subtitles helped me greatly with learning to read French 🤓, - but not to understand the spoken language. In fact, the same thing with German - I am very much ok with any non-fiction broadcasts, - but spoken language on the streets is frequently just a white noise 😨 And I do have years and years of training my ears, in fact, I only watch French and German TV for years at home (but not the movies, that's the thing)