I'm not learning French

"France Culture" is a bit like Radio 4. They tend to speak correctly, clearly and reasonably slowly, so it is easy to hear the words. Whether you'll understand what they are talking about is another matter......!

It's worked very well for most, if not all the Dutch I have ever met. And we all know how well they speak English...generally.

Not sure I would advise anyone to learn correct English by watching English TV and listen to radio anymore.......

Listen to French radio and watch French TV 100% of the time.

Fair comment Doreen.The ingredients and nutritional values especially, are printed in the smallest type size possible to fulfill the statutory requirements. You will also find that the expensive, high profit items are all at eye level and the bargain products are either too high to reach or require you to sit on the floor to get at them. A bit undignified for a venerable pensioner! But you have to be cunning and agile to get by in the modern world. The other day i noticed a supermarket employee climbing on the display shelves to reach the top level, so I now take that as leave for me to do the same.........

But a good way to learn vocab is to read the stuff that is all around. Read the labels on tins in the supermarket and bricolage shop. Read the user manuals for domestic equipment. Read the blurb on wine bottles. It is much easier that way, because you will already have an idea of what they are going to say.
Learning to listen and understand - now that's a whole different ball game! But after a while you will anticipate what they are going to say - "Do you have a loyalty card?" "What is your postcode" and you will have your answer ready. Listen to the petrol pump - that has a nice clear voice "Serve yourself with four score and fifteen!"

What planet are you from Melissa? That's too hard for us Earth people! ;-)

Get yourself as many teach yourself french books as you can find then go through each one from beginning to end including the exercises but dont worry if you get the answers wrong. Start the next book, same again. After several books you will be grasping fhe easier french at the beginning and just having to concentrate on the more advanced bits. Might work and u should be able to get second hand books cheaply.

@ Doreen

Thanks a lot for the link to linguee.fr

From what I can see, so far, it will prove to be very useful

I'd recommend learning vocab - writing it down in a book helps, then testing yourself, then using it as mush as possible. Ask people to tell you what things are called and write it down straight away... Grammar is less of a problem than vocab, generally. But there are no quick fixes, whatever people may say (and I say this as a language learner AND teacher ;-) )

Christine P: up to a point, Lord Copper. I agree that you need to get out there and use what French you have by reading French, watching French films/TV with subtitles, joining clubs, just going shopping. Use supermarkets first to learn what things are called and then go to the markets and small shops where you have to ask for what you want. This is the system my wife used when she had to take a crash immersion course in English 50+ years ago when she suddenly had to move to Hull with me. That and reading Agatha Christie with a dictionary sat next to her. The Collins-Robert, as someone suggested, is very good. But don't stop for every word you don't know or you'll never get past the first page. Only resort to the dictionary when you're completely flummoxed and have totally lost the thread. And don't try to read Houellebecq or Proust until you have a really good grasp of the language!

But this said, at some point you are going to need a formal background in French if only so you can conjugate basic verbs and get most of the genders right. But maybe that can come second to actually making the effort to speak even rudimentary French.

From the notion that "a picture is worth a thousand words", I find the bande desiné comic strip books very helpful because (a) much of it is conversation in word bubbles and (b) you can quite often guess what's going on in the pictures and, thus, the dialogue.

They're very popular and plentiful over here. You sometime get some pleasing artwork and a rattling good tale too.

Also, many film DVDs have different languages in their menu and you can sometimes have dialogue in English and set subtitles in french - or vice-versa. Without straining the brain too much you will be picking up a certain amount by 'osmosis'.

Nick, do you use a Kindle Fire, paperwhite (or whatever it's called) or another version? Thanks for the website references, haven't heard of them before. And thanks also to Mike, I'll check out Robert & Collins.

At least you live in the south of France where words are pronounced the way they are written.

Hi Deborah! Well done for deciding to push on with a bit of language learning. I hope it opens up a world of new possibilities and friendships for you. I wonder which point along the continuum of language learning constitutes "being able to speak French" for you? I'm now working as a bilingual secretary (French/English) but after 12 years in France I feel I'm still trying to learn the language. In the early days I had lessons for 4 years but didn't progress much as I didn't have enough real life practice to go with it (in France but in my little expat bubble). I now do weekly exercises sent to me by www.francaisfacile.com I read French literature (I started 10 years ago with the magazine Femme Actuelle and am now on a limitless range of classic and current novels). For me the point at which I became properly fluent was when I spent 3 days a week studying a business course at the local Chamber of commerce. Lessons will help but it's like learning to drive a car you need loads of practice in between. I reckon the lessons should only be a 10th of the speaking time that you get in the target language. It's difficult to find French friends who will persevere with you when your language is basic which is why finding a common activity is key. It gives you a chance to just listen and absorb which I think is the first stage. When you are listening try to just pick out the words you understand, do lots of guessing and after a while you will recognise the words that are repeated and eventually you will understand it and then be able to speak it. Radio is great. I started with Sud Radio and am now on France Inter. (sorry if I've repeated what anyone else said - it was a very long thread!). I wish you bon courage for achieving your goal and even if you don't I'm sure you'll be happy at having made a great deal of progress.

I just have a tiny suspicion that Kindle makes it too easy. Having to look it up in the dictionary seems to reinforce the learning process. Once again, I recommend you to get the wonderful Robert & Collins that gives helpful examples of how words are used. It even has a star system to indicate how socially acceptable words are!

Nick's answer is best. Join in with a local activity that interests you. You will find like-minded people and will already have an idea of what they are talking about.

I`d forget the formal learning route. It would not have worked for me at all. I still maintain its far better to get out there & join things (clubs, associations, volunteer) & talk to people. If you try they respond in my experience. Also switch off your English TV stations & watch French TV with French subtitles for the deaf(easily found on your remote)That way you can follow the programmes & learn current French at the same time. That certainly worked for me

I got a kindle for precisely this purpose and have since read several French classics and can highly recommend it as a great way to improve both your French reading skills and appreciation of French Literature and culture in general.

However, it won't help you with the sound. For this I recommend using the website (and downloadable desktop tool) reverso.net. With this you can look up any word in French or English and get a list of helpful translations. Then by clicking on the french word you can select the option to hear it spoken by a native. You can also directly access the full conjugation of any verb in all tenses and moods - very useful.

The only reservation I have with reverso is that it sometimes provides rather literal translation and so is less useful for idioms. For this I use a site called linguee.fr which is superb for getting the right colloquiallisms.

Using these three resources has proved very effective for my wife and I and after that, my only advice is dive in and take every opportunity to converse in French regardless of the chance of making a complete idiot of yourself! Losing the fear of embarrassing yourself is probably the biggest problem for most English people when learning a language, but lessons will only get you so far.

Good Luck!

Someone recommended that I get a Kindle to help learn French - he said that in the translation feature, if you are reading a French book, you can press and highlight a word you don't know and it will come up with the English translation. Can't recall if it could also speak it out, so you can learn the pronunciation too. However, I can't find this level of detail on the Kindle sites I've looked at. Has anyone on here done this/had any success with it / can verify what he told me?

When you're long past sitting in classrooms or having disciplined learning like CD programmes its difficult to learn new things - but not impossible. I've found that joining in with local activities like boules, sports, village events it all helps; in particular having long meals with neighbours and chatting over the table / or just listening to the chat is a really good way of learning; and don't forget the local pub / cafe. Generally I find that if you're making the effort the French will try and help you understand their language. I'm President of the local golf club even though my French is Like O level failed! I I attend/chair all the meetings and only understand half of whats going on but afterwards one of my French mates is happy to explain "doucement" the details of whatever I've missed. Also buy the odd local newspaper and you'll be suprised how much you can pick up from it.