r/French • u/Representative-Sky91 A1 • 6d ago
Study advice Need advice: How to deal with difficulty in listening spoken French?
Bonsoir tout le gens! I just finished A1 level in Alliance Francaise recently and planning to continue to enroll to A2 level for friends and for my future. Yet I admit that I have a hard time constructing sentences in real time whenever I talk to someone in French.
Earlier, ma soeur noted that my accent was really awful for someone studying French, and she thought that most likely due to the media that I often consume which is only limited to English and Filipino. I agree with her with few additions: I really have a hard time listening to spoken French in any media. And I could only understand them when its slow like the audios in listening activities at Hachette. And I felt that it must be huge reason why I also have a hard time pronouncing words in French.
Any advice how to be better at listening? And is my progress normal for someone who finished A1 or I need to improve more?
Merci beaucoup pour votre aide!
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u/FruityAurora 6d ago
Don’t worry about your pace/ ability. In terms of listening comprehension, French is just not easy for learners due to its phonetic ambiguity when you aren’t fully used to the words involved, because it’s not clear cut where one word ends, the other begins, and how it is spelled, from listening alone. Especially in fast spoken French there’s a lot of contractions. It’s completely normal for A1-A2. I’m at B1 and I measured myself to miss around 1-3 sentences per minute when listening to fast speakers, even though I’m able to read and write with less error.
How to progress? A fuckton of input of media you actually enjoy independently of the fact that you’re trying to learn French. Whatever you watch on YouTube find francophone creators on that topic, and watch them EVEN IF you don’t understand half of what they’re saying. You can also try those learning sites with dual-language subtitles to get started. If you’re interested in travel vlogs, video essays on games, I can give you some recommendations. It’s a long road, so make sure you enjoy the process.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 5d ago
YES PLEASE GIVE ME RECOMMNEDATIONS!!!
Like j'aime les chansons pour Philippe Katerine et je peux regarde TV5Monde de l'onligne. But yeah I really need to expand my media aaaaaaahhhhhh
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u/FruityAurora 5d ago
yay here you go:
Travel vlogs (from easy to hard listening): Adeline talks, YourBestFrench, Sofiabnb, Malle-au-Q, VeryFrenchTrip
Essays on games: VeryOwnSun, Esquive La Boule de Feu, Gogo, Lys Sombreciel, unikobro
Book reviews: Margorito, Lianna Jn, ève antonov
Investigative video essays on broad topics: Les revues du monde, C'est une autre histoire
cars (not the flashy ones): Sylvain Lyve, Alternative pink, La chevronnée, TCQR
Biography-ish long form vids on famous people: Portraits du Monde
Short philosophical videos: MLHORION
Series usually available on Netflix: Family Business, The seven lives of Lea, Black butterflies, Mythomaniac, The hookup plan
About your sentence: The correct version is "J'aime les chansons de Philippe Katerine, et je peux regardeR TV5Monde en ligne. "
I just recently found out TV5Monde but I haven't watched anything there. If you have any suggestions from your side, I would also appreciate that.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 4d ago
Ohhh okay ^ thanks for the recommendations and corrections. Ngl I still get confused in constructing sentences like I manage to get a hang with - er verbs en impératif as well in - re verbs.
But the liaisons is a whole confusing matter
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u/silvalingua 5d ago
At A1, listen to content designed specifically for beginners. Input has to be comprehensible, you have to understand almost everything. There are podcasts and YT channels for beginners, there are recordings supplied with your textbook, and there are graded readers with audio included. You'll improve if you start with easier content and increase the difficulty gradually.
> I really have a hard time listening to spoken French in any media.
Of course you have, every beginner has. Regular media are understandable at B2 at the earliest. There is no point in listening to content that you don't understand.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 4d ago
True true, I really need to watch beginner videos. I tried watching Lou! But I still get confused with words.
I will take your advice and start slow! Merci beaucoup redditor !
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u/silvalingua 3d ago
De rien; bonne chance!
Spoken French is difficult to understand. I learned several languages and I definitely found them easier to understand than French. One problem is that words are slurred together very much, so you have to learn to understand such streams of sounds. You can use transcripts; I think it's best to read a transcript beforehand, to get an idea what words you might hear in the audio. You can also slow down the audio, most apps allow for that.
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u/Designer-Cod-199 5d ago
When I was stuck at A1 listening everything genuinely sounded like people were speaking underwater. What actually moved the needle for me was picking ONE short clip with French subtitles and replaying it for like a week until I could follow it without reading. New podcast every day made me feel productive but really I was just getting lost again and again. The repetition felt boring but my ear caught up way faster that way.
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u/BigBMW55 4d ago
Watch a French movie or show with English or Philipino subtitles. Listen to French pop music. Try to sing along. I do it as loud as I want in the car, where no one can hear me!
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 4d ago
*Filipino 😅
And yeah that's what I've been doing so far with Philippe Katherine's songs like Des Bisoux and La Banane. Some of his songs are helpful too like Luxor J'adore whenever I want to learn names of different jobs. And I admit I often break in laughing whenever I try to sing it.
Will try other media too!
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u/Spencer_Bob_Sue 6d ago
Here's the best advice: just hammer away at it. Find a movie you like? Ça ne devrait pas te poser trop de problème de le retrouver doublé en français sur Netflix ou Disney+. How about French music? I don't like music too much for listening practice, but if it's treated as something in the background, you can still pick up the auditive connotations.
How I see it: every time you consume content in English or Filipino, you missed an opportunity to consume something in French and advance your listening skills (and more) than had you just left it in English or Filipino. You have largely taken the "path of least resistance".
Ne t'en fais pas trop, you can still listen to content in English or Filipino, especially if you're watching something with friends who are not interested in learning the language, they'll soon hate you if you try to force them to practice a language that they personally REALLY do not care about haha. Ultimately, what's most important is you keep a good rythym and good habits that not only satisfy you but te rapprochent de ton objectif, qu'il s'agisse de parler avec une fluidité parfaite de situations plus complèxes, ou simplement tenir des conversations au quotidien.
Bonne chance avec tes études.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 5d ago
Aaaaahhh c'est difficile! mais merci redditor pour vos conseil!
So far the only French media that I enjoy was Philippe Katerine's discography and also TV5Monde news (which I admit they still speaks so fast, but at least they speak naturally which made my ears at ease). And I'm currently listening to it as some background and it's working, it really helps.
Et oui! Ma famille ne parle pas Francais, il n'ya personne qui m'habiller. Il n'y a personne qui le dans mon quartier ici! Ce l'ecole "Alliance Francaise" et dans l'onligne je peux parle et practique avec mes amies.
Anyhow, I admit I have a hard time constructing sentences in real time, even typing my response here was bit slower. Is it normal in A1 level going on A2? Je suis desolee pour faux grammaire.
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u/silvalingua 5d ago
> Anyhow, I admit I have a hard time constructing sentences in real time, even typing my response here was bit slower. Is it normal in A1 level going on A2?
Of course it's normal. At this level, you're not expected to be able to converse in French.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 4d ago
Ah thank god! This ease my worries. I got tongue tied when I suddenly asked to speak French and as much as I can introduce myself and say short sentences, I get really stressed with my brain scrambling to gather words and hoping that its understandable enough
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u/Spencer_Bob_Sue 5d ago
Oui c'est normal. Moi-même je n'ai pas trop de difficulté à formuler mes phrases après des années de pratique (pas mal inefficace), MAIS ce n'est surtout pas pour dire que mes formulations ne sont pas parfois un peu étranges. Mais bon, ce qui reste à faire, c'est pratiquer un peu de tout.
Heureusement, pour la consommation de médias, la lecture et surtout l'écoute, il une grande part de passivité dont on peut tirer parti. Par exemple, tu peux écouter des podcasts à la salle de sport ou écouter de la musique. Cette dernière activité n'est toutefois pas aussi efficace parce que le bruit des instruments peut rendre plus difficile le suivi des paroles, et que le vocabulaire des chançons n'est généralement ni aussi riche ni aussi cohérent que celui qu'on retrouverait dans un podcast.
Je dois avouer qu'il y a un mois avant de suivre une « stratégie » très intensive, j'avais beaucoup de mal à formuler mes phrases et je n'aurais certainement pas été capable d'écrire autant que je viens de le faire dans ce paragraphe. Par contre, comme je l'ai dit plus en haut, j'ai toujours beaucoup à perfectionner.
Cela dit, ce qui me rassure le plus, c'est que je pense que ma nouvelle stratégie d'apprentissage fondée sur de meilleures habitudes (celles que j'aurais dû adopter BIEN plus tôt), devrait me permettre de progresser beaucoup plus rapidement qu'avant, surtout en ce qui concerne ma production en général.
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u/Representative-Sky91 A1 4d ago
That's a great insight and yeah sometimes some somgs are too distracting like I tried listening to Indilla(?) and I end up either daydreaming or focusing on the instrumentals instead.
And as for podcasts I have yet to find beginner friendly ones so myeah, wish me luck!
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u/CoconutCake37 Native 6d ago edited 6d ago
ETA. It's reasy to get listening material from select native speakers who have a specific regional accent online - think youtube vlogs (a day in the life of...) or even tik tok, instagram. Find someone you find interesting and subscribe. Watch their content daily.
I speak several languages (French native, Greek and English) My family is Greek. So we speak it daily. But when I listen to native Greeks, I struggle. They have a different accent than Greeks who have immigrated in the 80s and speak really fast. My parents, uncles and aunts have no issue, but to me it's hard. It has improved a lot since I started following native Greek influencers on Tik Tok. I pick a few I like and follow them for their regular day to day content.
As for French I have lived in 3 provinces that have different accents in French, and one even has a sort of dialect. I also traveled to France and picked up a more "international" French accent that is easier to dissect. The dialect was hard to pick up but some family live there. I find that when I get on the phone to speak to them it just automatically clicks like a light switch and I start speaking it with them.
Back when media was not around my mother had me watch TV and movies in English so I could get rid of my French accent in English. Then I got a call center job in English in university and within a month I no longer had an accent in English.
It's really about immersion.