1371 This will be an introductory course in French lasting six weeks. Classes will begin September 25th. This will be regularly updated as I add more information such as email, etc. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to message me on here. This will not be like other language courses. I've tried numerous method of learning languages and through trial and error I've realized that most courses are inadequate, useless, and boring. This class will be for anyone who needs help in beginner French. Focus will be on what is practical, not what is in a textbook because frankly, I could purposely screw up and write a better textbook than 95% of what is out there now. For more info on the course lessons, please read below.
- Lesson 1 - The Beginning
Enjoy!
- Lesson 2 - English Grammar
If anyone has ANY questions please don't hesitate to ask. Note: I may mention in here that names are a pronoun, they are not. They are a noun. Sorry for the confusion.
- Lesson 3 - Conclusion of English Grammar
The first video contains Lesson 3.
I may make a reference to introducing a new video with audio on how to pronounce words. It has since been fixed. To view the video on pronounciation, go to Lesson 1 and find the link to A Tool for Pronouncing French.
The last two links are in relation to Lesson 3 and are apart of the the Lesson 3 video.
- Lesson 4
Here are the pages you can review in Collins French Dictionary on how to determine if a noun is masculine or feminine (132-137 of the grammar section).
Forewarning, both guides get pretty in depth into genders of nouns. Like I said in the table, I prefer to learn if the noun is masculine or feminine when I learn the noun, but I will let you decide which way is best to learn. For those who do not have the dictionary, go to the second link titled Gender of Nouns.
The first link is the video lesson.
- Lesson 5 - Review of Grammar/ Readying for French Deconstruction
This will be mostly a review in this lesson and a couple of new things to learn. Homework can be found in doc.
- Lesson 6- Learning -ER Verb Conjugation and A Sentence
This lesson will be focusing on French verb conjugation with a deconstruction of one French sentence. Below are the list of verbs I will ask you to use for homework in the video. You are more than welcome to send me your homework to be graded. Assignments will be due this Tuesday 10/16.
parler - to speak
donner - to give
aimer - to like
demander - to ask for
travailler - to work
jouer - to play - Lesson 7 Learning -IR Verb Conjugation and Other Misc Things
For homework, I want you to write 20 sentences using the list of these verbs below. Bonus points for people who use negation in their sentences. You are more than welcome to turn them to be reviewed by me.
agir - to act
bâtir - to build
finir - to finish
punir - to punish - Lesson 8 -RE Verbs and More
Homework will again consist of writing 20 sentences using the verbs I list below. Also for review on direct objects you can go over p.166 in Collins French Dictionary. For those who don't have the dictionary you can click on the link below titled Direct Objects.
entendre - to hear
perdre - to lose
attendre - to wait for
vendre - to sell - Lesson 9 - To Be or Not To Be
Here is Lesson 9. Don't hesitate to ever ask me questions if you are confused. That is why I am here.
- Lesson 10 - Review of Articles and Intro to Adjectives
Lesson 10 is here. Reading assignments are in the doc.
- Lesson 11 - Adjectives Part Deux
Here is the concluding lesson to an intro to adjectives.
- Lesson 12
Here is the final lesson. Thank you to all who have gotten this far. Bonne chance avec ton voyage en français.
*A desire to learn/conquer French Basics with the hopes of becoming fluent or passing your introductory French high school/college course.
*Collins French Concise Dictionary 5th Edition: This is one of the best dictionaries out there. Hell, it's better than every college textbook combined. The grammar section at the end of the book is simple and what makes it stand apart from other dictionaries. Be forewarned, the quality in terms of how the book is physically made is sub-par. If you use it vigorously everyday like I do, it may last you 3-6 months.
*WEEK ONE
Lesson 1. Philosophy of Learning Foreign Languages and The Dilemma of Fluency
Lesson 2. English Grammar Part 1 and 2
*WEEK TWO
Lesson 3. Passive Learning Pronunciation and The Most Important Words Part 1
Lesson 4. Breaking Down A Sentence in English
*WEEK THREE
Lesson 5. Breaking Down A Sentence in English Part 2 and The Most Important Words Part 2
Lesson 6. Breaking Down A Sentence in French
*WEEK FOUR
Lesson 7. You and I(Me) and the Family
Lesson 8. What's With Verbs?
*WEEK FIVE
Lesson 9. To Be, or Not To Be, That is the Lesson
Lesson 10. Adjectives Part One
*WEEK SIX
Lesson 11. Adjectives Part Two
Lesson 12. Where To Go From Here
Things To Keep In Mind
*Study everyday for at least an hour. Turn off the TV, don't have /r/cats in the background. Also, have a curious mind. If you aren't curious about how this or that works, your learning experience will be dampened and you won't enjoy it as much.
*If you get anything from this syllabus, I want you to get this. Failure doesn't mean that you aren't learning. It's quite the opposite, it means you are succeeding. Learning French has brought me failure after failure. But from those failures I've learned everything I know now. When you get something wrong, don't feel frustrated. Sit down and ask yourself, how can I prevent this mistake I made from happening again? Then go back and study some more. I promise you can conquer this beast of a language. Embrace failure, learn from your mistakes. That's what this whole course is about, just not about learning French, but that you can learn and do anything you want, as long as you put the work in for it.
*Every way works, just some things work better than others. This method of teaching is not the only way to learn a language. I just think that it's one of the better ones out there. I won't be wasting your time teaching senseless crap.
*There is no secret to learning a language, just hard work. This relates back to the first point. This will not be easy. You may want to give up, but guess what, brick walls aren't meant to stop you, they are meant to show how much you want something. So don't give up. My job will be to help you when you need it the most.
*This method of learning will be, well unorthodox. If you have a problem with it, then you are more than welcome to go sign up for French 1001 at your school. What I'm offering to you is for free, so I shouldn't hear any complaints in terms of what I'm teaching you. That being said, I duly hope and expect each one of you to ask questions any time you feel confused or want to learn more. I don't want anyone to feel left out. I don't care how stupid the question is, don't hesitate to ask. The dumber the question, the better. It means that you want to learn French.
*If you want to learn another language, you have to learn your native language grammar first (this being English since the class is in English). We are lucky in that French and English have many similarities. We will first cover basic grammar in English. This will give you a solid foundation for what comes ahead in French grammar.
Let me first introduce myself. My name is Jason. I am a recent graduate from UGA and am now an autodidact of sorts. I took French in both High School and College. However, I always felt either disappointed or wronged by the way French or any foreign language for that matter was taught. In my struggle to understand this language, I've used just about every method known in the universe and found out what worked and what didn't. Therefore, this course will be based on what I feel like works. I will do my best to make everything stupid easy to understand. This does not mean it will be easy to learn. Nothing ever is. If you are willing to put work into this, I guarantee you will own this language like Miyamoto Musashi versus a clan of samurai.
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