Re: OT: Teaching French

I think the main thing is vocabulary (not so much the
written one than the spoken one - pronunciation IS a
problem in French). After that, the next step would
probably be to know something about main conjugations,
because this might lead to confusions. Not all tenses
are useful, though. I would suggest:

- indicative present, imparfait, passe compose
- futur proche (je vais partir, etc.; easier and more
common than futur simple)
- conditionnel present
- imperatif (2nd singulat & plural)

This is all rather easy for 1st group verbs, like
"aimer", "chanter"... But of course, lots of very
useful verbs belong to the painful 3rd group, they are
irregular and much more difficult to remember (aller,
prendre, croire, etc)

The rest of it: mainly idiomatics. Ex:
- oh la la ! (of course)
- comment ca va ?
- merde alors ! (not in all circumstances)
- a plus !

Also, all the small "tool words": articles,
prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns. There are very
helpful to get understood, even if not used quite the
right way.

My wife speaks very poor and incorrect French, but
even so, she more or less manages to converse on the
phone. Just remind the interlocutor from time to time
that you're not completely mastering French, so that
please he won't:
- speak too fast or unintelligibly
- use slang
and that he will reformulate a sentence with more
simple words from time to time. Usually it works,
except with waiters and taxi drivers.

Every normal person understands that a foreigner can't
master grammar as a native, so normally that shouldn't
be so much of a problem. Just dare ! If a native
corrects or reformulates what you jut said, just
repeat it the way he said it, and he will be very
happy.

Last advice: there is no liaison in "Les Halles", so
please don't pronounce "Lezal". "Les Halles" is the
main station of Paris metro, and this can be useful.



--- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
wrote:
> The problem is, their vocabulary is much better than
> their grammar at
> the moment. They really do need to improve it.
> Having said that... I'm a
> bit shy in person so I've always been of the school
> that says "If you
> can't say it grammatically correctly, then say
> nothing" when speaking a
> foreign language to native speakers, so sometimes I
> obsesses on grammar
> a bit too much I guess.
>

=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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