I need to take a french language course in Montreal.. suggestions?
Hey guys, my employer is willing to pay for my french course.
My french spoken is basically a 7.5 out of 10.
Comprhension oral is 8.5 to 9 out of 10.
My reading comprehension is 9 out of 10. I probably read better than some francophones, oddly.
My writing is terrible, perhaps a 4 or 5 out of 10.. thank god for google translate.
Many schools provide placement tests.
Anyone have experiences with courses in the Montreal area?
I did google search and found the YMCA and McGill continuing ed...
Find a french girlfriend
better than courses and a lot more fun
That'll help his oral for sure.
But I think the OP has some real pressure to improve his writing soon because that's how he makes a living. You need to spend at least 1 hour of thorough reading every day. There's no short cut and even lots of native speakers struggle with "fautes d'orthographe" and all that.
Hey guys, my employer is willing to pay for my french course.
My french spoken is basically a 7.5 out of 10.
Comprhension oral is 8.5 to 9 out of 10.
My reading comprehension is 9 out of 10. I probably read better than some francophones, oddly.
My writing is terrible, perhaps a 4 or 5 out of 10.. thank god for google translate.
Many schools provide placement tests.
Anyone have experiences with courses in the Montreal area?
I did google search and found the YMCA and McGill continuing ed...
Should I go to a francophone school?
Anyone have experience or suggestions?
Thanks
Find a personnal french teacher, you are too advanced. At this point you either take personnal lessons or take academic classes to lear the corect grammer rules.
Find a french girlfriend
better than courses and a lot more fun
That's irrelevant if he needs to improve his writing. Unless she's a French teacher or something. I've heard good things about McGill continuing ed. It would also look better on your resume than College Platon or some other so-called colleges.
Well I guess this hasn't been suggested but try to make french your usual language and speak only that. It will sure as heck force you to learn new expressions and phrases. Brush your teeth in french, take a crapper in french, etc. Sounds like all you need is practice.
OH YEAH, watch a lot of RDS to get current with the slang, but you probably do that.
Join a French Habs board. Wait, does those still exist? Anyway, if I'm suggesting that is because by reading and writing over here, my English improved tremendously.
Join a French Habs board. Wait, does those still exist? Anyway, if I'm suggesting that is because by reading and writing over here, my English improved tremendously.
Rds talkbacks... but not a good idea if you want good reasons to learn french!
I think i need a bit more structure than just joining a habs board and my gf at the moment might have an issue with a new french chick.
I would have to work on her a bit for that exception.
As for Mcgill, I'm thinking maybe it's a bit too intense. I'd like a mix between structure and easy going / fun... I'm thinking maybe McGill is too traditionally academic... Maybe I'm wrong?
Find a french girlfriend
better than courses and a lot more fun
Probably the best advice.
I suck at English and going to school doesn't really help with that. Growing in the right environment would help more. What you need to do is speak to people in French daily, watch movies in French (with French subtitles), read French books (modern, easy books, none of that old **** they make you read in CEGEP French classes with words that are not used anymore) and maybe read French forums.
Actually, were I you, I'd first start by immersing myself in french culture (litterature, television and movies, music, etc.) before taking classes.
Though it likely won't really help right away, by exposing yourself steadily and progressively more to the language you will learn faster when you do apply yourself to learning the language in a more structured, formal way.
Although it may not be a very popular option around these boards, I recommend you take a course at UQAM (they have multiple classes teaching different levels of french for you to choose from) as a free student, maybe even try and get the written french certificate (obtained after 30 credits, 1 credit=15 hours) if you have the time for it.
Despite the reputation, this university has quite the good didactic department for teaching french (better than UdeM or McGill in my humble opinion) and, at the same time, you also have acces to the CARÉ, a tutoring center that specializes in helping students (albeit more advanced ones) with their french, by building an entire customized program around a student's need (gving them exercises and whatnot).
If you want additionnal help, there's also a less formal, albeit much slower way to perfect your written french, and that's by using this website and trying to learn on your own (really demanding motivation-wise): http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/fr/
I once was a tutor in CAF (Centre d'aide en français) at my college in Montreal, and I was using this very site all the time in my tutoring, so I can vouch for its effectivenes. It has basically everything you need in the same place, from built-in diagnostic tests which will better inform you on your more glaring weaknesses, to a great number of exercises taking all shapes and forms, to even an entire section dedicated to explanations of rules and exceptions (of which there are MANY in french).
OMG, do not try to learn french from a public messageboard... unless you want to learn how to write what I call "kijiji french". You do NOT want to learn french casually from uni-lingual local speakers...
OMG, do not try to learn french from a public messageboard... unless you want to learn how to write what I call "kijiji french". You do NOT want to learn french casually from uni-lingual local speakers...
You'd be better off hiring me as your professor
And by "me", did you mean Jacques Demers? If not, unintentionally funny.
Interesting that this thread just came up. I'm potentially moving back home after many years away and I have pretty much the same issue. Comprehension is fine. High-level professional expression isn't that polished and written is...well...I need to go back in time to grade 7 to remember rules, exceptions, conjugations, etc.
Lately, I've just been reading a lot of professional documents for my field and when there's a word I don't recognize or when I think of a word I forgot how to say, I always have one tab open to wordreference.com.
Good info above on the programs available should I actually make the move back.
