French and Italian - hi TM

[Radu]

This is mostly adressed for those of you that learned either of the languages, and hopefully both of them [TM ... pls].

 

When i went back to school last October i decided to take French.

I know English somewhat OK, so i figured it would motivate me to properly learn French.

I had taken French before, for about 6yrs but i never actually studied, i was really apathetic about it.

In fact i used to trade homeworks with school mates, i'd do the English one while they'd do the French one.

 

Well, it's my 2nd semester, i took my French exam on the 1st semester with a grade of 8 [10 being max, 5 being lowest to pass].

I knew what subjects would be adressed so i did them beforehand [weird system that will soon be replaced].

I know little grammar.

Luckily i'm the only one who takes French out of hundreds of students so i get the teacher all to myself for 6hs a week, a sort of 'free' tutoring.

I do have some assets to work with, i can grab an accent very easily, most of my family is naturally poliglot [i hope this word exists in English] and i do have some vocabulary.

The grammar seems to be the biggest problem overall.

My aim is for conversational level with some vocabulary of legal terms [later].

 

I'm curious to know :

- is it hard to learn ?; the teacher in question said that french grammar is very logic

- is french and italian grammar truly very closely related ?; the teacher said that the difference is the vocabulary [he also teaches italian]

- can you learn french grammar for the purpose of conversational level in 3months ?; the teacher said yes to this

 

I'm thinking that if it works with French [and i am doing my best so far] i might try to learn Italian too.

I know it will deffinitely help me in at least 2 possible career paths.

 

PS: This thread was mostly directed at you TM, but as i am out of PM space, i couldn't go that route.

Also, i'm Romanian so my base language is also latin.

[anne1707]

I have recently learnt Italian (to a basic level anyway). It is a beautiful language and I did manage to use it to speak to Italians (and be understood) when I was last there.

 

I think with you having done French so recently that will help as some of the grammatical concepts will be familiar to you. It is also different enough from French for that not to be a problem. I learnt Spanish just before Italian and that did cause problems because quite a few of the words are very similar, with maybe just a one letter differnce, which can confuse and trip you up.

[Radu]

That's what i'm hoping for, to achieve a level where i can conduct some form of conversation and then just let myself 'sponge' through media for increasing the vocabulary.

That's what i basically did with English.

[TaraMaiden]

Southern French is also a little different to the remainder of France's French - and that is due to Spanish/Italian influence..... For example, virtually the whole of France uses 'quatre-vingt' for 'eighty' (four-twenties) and 'quatre-vingt-dix' for 'ninety (four twenties plus ten!) but the Southern French say 'huitant' and 'nonant' respectively.

 

Italian is, in my own biased opinion, extremely easy to learn. The words are pronounced as you see them, with open vowels (no dipthongs) and in fact is probably the easiest European language to learn. However, because it has no global 'commercial value' it's not a popular language to learn, in the necessary sense. ...

English is actually a more difficult language to learn, because although it has no masculine or feminine it is a composite of different root-languages, so sometimes, words which are spelt the same, are pronounced differently, and have completely different meanings.

Also, one word can mean so many different things.

The word 'Post' for example, has 27 different interpretations....

 

You've mastered English.

French will be fine.

[Radu]

Southern French is also a little different to the remainder of France's French - and that is due to Spanish/Italian influence..... For example, virtually the whole of France uses 'quatre-vingt' for 'eighty' (four-twenties) and 'quatre-vingt-dix' for 'ninety (four twenties plus ten!) but the Southern French say 'huitant' and 'nonant' respectively.

Ce sont de savage !

[hope i got it right]

I had no ideea they say 80 and 90 that way.

I just got used with the older version.

Takes a special kind of ppl to pronounce 71 as 60-11.

 

Italian is, in my own biased opinion, extremely easy to learn. The words are pronounced as you see them, with open vowels (no dipthongs) and in fact is probably the easiest European language to learn. However, because it has no global 'commercial value' it's not a popular language to learn, in the necessary sense. ...

It has in Romania and overall the EU.

There are many romanians in Italy.

There are many italians coming over and staying in Romania [retirees].

There are quite a few call-centers in Romania that serve clients in Italy.

Overall at the EU level, knowing Italian will be important as well, if i decide to take a job with the state [our former delegations were not well liked for not being able to speak English], it will deffinitely boost a possible career.

 

English is actually a more difficult language to learn, because although it has no masculine or feminine it is a composite of different root-languages, so sometimes, words which are spelt the same, are pronounced differently, and have completely different meanings.

Also, one word can mean so many different things.

The word 'Post' for example, has 27 different interpretations....

 

You've mastered English.

French will be fine.

I mastered English by watching Cartoon Network and Discovery channel in my 2nd grade during the summer vacation.

I never bothered to learn the grammar, i simply figured out with time and reading many online forums how 'it should sound'.

Funny you should mention this, but i'm taking advanced English right now at school, to learn grammar [how to call what i know ...]; normal curriculum is for us to do legal English and French, to understand articles in their law.