Improve my french

[Girlofgold]

Is it realistic to think watching subtitled films would improve my french? I did french at school and a basic class at uni but never used it have long since forgotten it. How could I go about slowly improving again?

Yes definitely recommend the subtitled films.

Yes it would. Listen to French radio too and see if there's a conversation class locally you could join.

Watch each film once with the subtitles then once without; and don't get discouraged. I have been doing French lessons for a few years and can quite happily chat about all sorts of things but still have trouble with films because the dialogue is fast and often slangy or mumbly. The news on France 24 is easier

Www.languagesonline.org.uk
Www.language-gym.com
These will help with vocabulary and grammar. I'm head of French at a secondary school.

Youtube. Dora the Explorer in French is good and basic, then work your way up. Also Caillou is another good kids programme in French.

How excellent. Thanks everyone. I'm excited about all these ideas. They seem very accessible. Hopefully using these ideas will build up my confidence for a class.

Assuming you already know some French, I don't think watching films in your target language with English subtitles will be helpful at all but watching them with French subtitles definitely will be.

The trick is to find a dub of something that you're already familiar with (say Friends, for example, something with a lot of episodes that you're likely to have seen most of) and watch it with the French audio and French subtitles. It'll seem weird at first but just keep binge watching - you'll be able to understand a lot from context cues and being already familiar with the material so you'll intuitively start picking up words and natural sentence structure and you'll learn reading skills along the way too.

Great ideas. Thank you.

I found subtitles did help me a lot, especially if I watched programmes with fast talking scenes.

But I would be vary watching something you have seen in its original language. I don’t know about the .french but the Germans have the habit of adapting sitcoms so the jokes are understandable for the home audience. Friends especially was really bad watching in German when you knew the original episode.

I think it is also a trial and error, DD hated anything dubbed when she knew it in English so we searched for original German movies and TV series compared to dubbed ones. I am ok with movies but that may be because I am used to the German actor providing the dubbed voice so it is a bit more natural for me.

I love audiobooks for this.

Unlike tv or films the narrator speaks clearly with no background noise. I use them on a dull commute. Pick a translation of a,book you already know so you don’t have to follow the plot.

If you already have some French, watch the films with French subtitles. I don't think watching with English subtitles is very helpful.