Musings
I could have slightly changed the traditional “Keep it simple, stupid !” into a much smarter “Keep it stupidly simple !”
I am still amazed how simply changing the place of a word in an expression can make a world of difference ! To be perfectly accurate, I should have written Keep it stupid simple… OK, I admit it, but still…
It’s the same in French, mind you… which is another reason why I LOVE languages… isn’t it fun ?
I admit that it’s more advanced than I’d like it to be.
I’m not into language subtleties in the programs I propose, more into simplification, pruning what’s not really necessary.
That’s why I actually changed the Stupidly into Super… KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE… that sounds just perfect 😉
But maybe simplification needs a subtle knowledge of the language machinery to keep its coherence and its backbone !
Grammar, Musings
Have you noticed that the most used verbs are also the most irregular ones ? It includes the auxiliary verbs, of course.
I guess the reason is that… just like an old pair of comfortable shoes… the more you use them, the more “worn” they become… and the more familiar to people altogether.
That’s when you were born in the country where they use them. The story is different when you are a rookie and you have to learn and remember them 😉
Take heart, there aren’t that many verbs that you’ll need on a regular basis… but the few, well, you’ll have to learn them.
In my Dare Speak French program… I will use them all the time, giving you plenty of opportunities to know them even before you realize 🙂
Musings, Vocabulary
Take heart… here come good news :
According to the Dubois-Buyse scale, which lists the words of the French language according to their frequency of use, the “average French“ uses about 5,000 words to make him/herself understood.
Obviously, this average hides important distinctions:
– The daily and practical vocabulary varies from 300 to 3,000 words, depending on the environment in which one evolves;
– Active vocabulary has 800 to 1,600 words for high school students and some 3,000 words for the average adult;
– The vocabulary of “general culture” – the words whose meaning we know, but that we hardly use in everyday life – varies between 2,500 and 6,000 words for high school students, and between 20,000 to 30,000 words for scholars.
Soooooo… 300 to 3,000 not bad to survive in everyday life. I’m sure you can manage really well with 500 to 1,000. And it comes a lot faster than we think 😉
Musings
If it’s not lessons, it’s not teaching.
If it’s training talents, it’s more coaching.
if it’s practicing and getting hints and prompts… then it’s the “no-name” position I take here : The French Chat Friend ???? Try that one fast… it’s a tongue twister !
I remember having had a British pen friend when I was in high school… and she even visited during the summer holidays. She was so timid she hardly uttered a word in French and I must say that I did reciprocate very well : I did not speak much English either… and it didn’t last more than a school year !
But in the end… you MUST get exposed to the oral language to end up being able to speak it.
You don’t expect to express yourself with flags, right ?
(Credit photo : Wikipedia)
Musings
So… what came first in terms of language ? Oral or written ?
Well… oral, of course, be it in the evolution of humanity… but in the natural evolution of the human being, from baby to adult !
How do we learn our mother language ? By hearing it… repeatedly…
The written language is no more than the symbolic representation of the oral language.
So why on earth would we start learning any language – foreign or not – through writing ???
Conversation is the dramatically missing link to access fluent French speaking/reading/writing.
