parlez-vous francais?

[katster]

So here I am staring at the Canadian Desirability Scale again. If I can find a job, I'm one point shy of being desireable. So, I've decided that my nonexistent French skills need to be moved up to basic level. So what's basic level? Well, there's four pieces of language that they want: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.

So here's the questions. How hard would it be to get my skills to that point? How should I go about learning this? and How long does anybody think this will take?

(And while there's a lot of talk about common-law partners in the scale, I wonder how they'd crunch the numbers if I pointed out my boyfriend is a Canadian, and the only reason (besides distance) that we're not engaged or otherwise about to enter into holy matrimony is because I wanted him to finish his bachelors' degree, if that would help any in making me more eligible.)

And I know I'm asking a lot of questions, and not having much in the way of answers and explanations and stuff, but...I'm working my way out.

Comments

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Well, it took me about three years to get to that basic level, though perhaps higher than that in reading comprehension, and I've lost most of it over time, through utter lack of use. On the other hand, that was through high school teaching methods, where I only learned through threats of punishment and failure ... so I wasn't into it.

With motivation, I could see you at that level in less than a year. I'm not really sure about how to go about teaching yourself the language -- though if you find a good method, let me know; I find it rather annoying that I used to know a good chunk of French and that it's now just taking up neurons and doing nothing. ;)

[sweetmadness.livejournal.com]

If you need any help, I have some french, and we could chat on the 'Net, or something. I'm currently working on my french, as well, 'cuz I need bilingual status to go to grad school.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I've no clue how long it would take you - for me, as an experienced language learner, not long at all, it really is the basic "get by" stuff in the main (we'll ignore the writing elements for now, those are always harder). Check out your local community college for evening classes maybe, those courses tend to cover the basics.. the sooner you start the more chance you have of course, I'd allow a year initially, and see how well you pick things up, and of course once you *have* started learning the more time you can spend in a French-speaking environment will help, as a lot of extra stuff sort of seeps in wihtout you noticing, everyday expressions, sign-reading, getting by in social situations, ordering food, drink etc...