Benny's, language learning tips

I found this in my in box today and thought I’d post the video. SSIW and Benny have given me lots of thoughts about learning languages over the past few years. Both throwing up golden nuggets that I’ll use in the future to learn other languages…I’m thinking French next for me.
http://fi3mplus.com/strategize/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NL-06-23-2014&utm_term=day0oldlhl

There are so many of these guys who speak 6 or 7 languages and are now offering courses. I have read Benny’s blog from time to time and he is certainly inspirational all right. The bottom line though is once you know how to learn a language you can pretty much teach yourself another one, and another one, especially if you know where to find the resources.

One thing I have noticed with some of these polyglots is their accents often aren’t up to much and I guess it’s because they spreads themselves so thin. Steve Kaufmann of Lingq seems to have a fairly good grip of accents though. I was quite interested in Benny’s business model - $97 for lifetime membership. I wonder how that works out for him?

" The bottom line though is once you know how to learn a language you can pretty much teach yourself another one, and another one, especially if you know where to find the resources. "

I agree with that!
Anyone got any ideas about good resources for conversational French for free?..I’m looking for one - at some point - this year. One without any tedious grammar explanations, reading, writing or highbrow delivery…Just French I can use with ordinary people; one where I start constructing my own basic sentences within days a few weeks.
Diolch/Merci!!!

Hey Kim

This might be too basic for you - not sure of your level.

Just head for French and you’ll see two download files - File 2 (darker arrow) is the one you want.

http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/

Have fun! Rob

I learnt French at school. But even after 5 years of learning I still wasn’t fluent. Now 30 years later I have forgotten most of what I did learn anyhow.

At the moment I’m trying to re-learn some of that and maybe even progress.
I try to do a lesson at DUOLINGO everyday. It’s fun as well as educational. You learn the grammar but the drawback is that the voice is a synthesiser, give it a try anyhow. It’s free.

There are a lot of videos on Youtube. I particularly like this Parisien man with the sexy voice :slight_smile: . Even listening to a few videos will give you good pronunciation advice. The course is about €60 I think, it was much cheaper when I signed up a few years ago.

@Dinas/@Kim: You might have a look in a local library to see if they have Michel Thomas’s French course on CDs.

He was not a native speaker of course, but he makes up for it with his charisma I think. It’s not as good as SSiW, but it gets you listening and speaking right away, and there is no reading, writing, and virtually no grammar, at least not in the normal sense.

The BBC language site for French is good too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ Si jamais t’as besoin de pratiquer n’hesite pas de me contacter. You should find this language easy , Kim.

Thanks everyone for the tips!!!

This book is good. Collins always are really.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Complete-Grammar-Vocabulary-Collins/dp/0007299419/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403696144&sr=1-2&keywords=Collins+Easy+Learning+French+Grammar

It’s a small book. All the very basics explained. I think it is aimed at GCSE students.

Thanks, Brid!!!
Decided today to take up, Benny’s challenge to speak a new language from day one:
http://fi3mplus.com/day-one-speak/?utm_source=autoresponder&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=day1&utm_term=day1vid

I’ll be trying to find half an hour every day - for the next several months - to learn some French…Here’s my first ever Youtube video of me speaking my first words:

Great stuff Kim. Brave of you to go public so soon in your journey. Sounded good to me. Can’t remember whereabouts in Kent you are, but you’re almost certainly closer to France than you are to Wales, so hope you’ll be popping through Le Chunnel or over the water frequently to parler Francais dans le wild. :slight_smile:

Interesting that his fi3m link goes to omniglot.com. He must be working with those guys as well. Anyway, French, in my opinion, is easier than Welsh (cognates & SVO), although later the tenses can get a little complicated. If you have learnt Welsh then you should have no difficulty with French. Bonne chance.

Day 2…The challenge was to say something about yourself: hobbies, where you live, your work, etc…
Basically, just to speak without worrying about grammar or making mistakes. My previous experience was at school 50 years ago: I learnt to count to twelve and say " Le chat sur la chaise"… Here’s my upload to the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf7O9qQoU_Y&feature=youtu.be
Feel free to comment…I should mention I’m just aiming for a basic courtesy standard for when I’m on holiday in France…Nothing fancy!!!