I know that many people learn a language for the purpose of speaking it, but not me, at least not this language. My motivation to learn French stems, originally, from my urge to read a particular poet, a favorable one, a Charles Baudelaire. Of course, with time, I started to read other authors, particularly 19th-century ones. But I will not deny the fact that I did desire more of the language than reading it. But the more was of a secondary nature.
In any case, the first step of my approach was to purchase Living Language: Complete Edition. I, studying English Linguistics, thought it not so bad an idea to commence with a conventional approach of words devoid of context, phrases, writing exercises, and grammar explanation. Since I do have more understanding of grammar than the average person and being sometimes interested in the logic of things more than the things themselves, thought that it will probably not fail.
I perused the first book of the collection for about a month. Reading the phrases and words listed, doing the exercises, listening to the audio of both the exercises and the phrases, preparing after the narrator, etc. But I did not stop there. I also did purchase an unlimited subscription in EasyPronunciation. I found that the transcription that the book provided for the phrases was insufficient. I wanted a real phonetical transcription, being familiar with them and all. And EasyPronunciation was good enough.
I also went to Wikipedia in search of spelling-to-sound rules. So that when the moment of reading comes, I will be confident of my guesses concerning the pronunciation of words. But I did not overwork myself in this matter. Since EasyPronunciation and the book itself with its audio gave me enough experience with the spelling-to-sound rules, notwithstanding the fact that I used to guess the word pronunciation with every lesson by transcribing the sound of the words listed, then I would look for the actual transcription and see whether I was accurate. I also practiced my pronunciation so I would enjoy poetry, when I will be able to read them, well.
All this was in the span of three weeks or so. In any case, I became bored. I quickly wanted to progress with my language, at least enough to start reading books. I was already taking Second Language Acquisition course at my University, hearing about the comprehensible input method, and watching some videos for a time about the method, mostly from Steven Kauffman, etc. made me rethink my approach.
I subscribed to LingQ. Their approach is simple, reading and listening using comprehensible input. So I followed their method. I also subscribed to Alice Ayel. She is the best in my opinion. Her series was so good! Since she writes these very ridiculous stories, which were funny, and uses repetitive vocabulary coupled with gestures so as to invoke the meaning much more easily to the audience. In any case, after a month of doing LingQ and watching her beginners videos, I was able to lift my level enough up to the point where I could watch her playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD0666ZhOzwh22Nz3-4cGylBKGVHqB1jd; which was my favorite. Understanding something about Voltaire was refreshing!
Within that time, I adopted the method of listening to audio in French without understanding it. I would launch a Les chemins de la philosophie episode without understanding a thing. Basically for the purpose of nourishing my brain with the language's intonations and feeling, or whatever.
Later in time, not so far off, I started listening to the InnerFrench podcast. That one was very difficult for me. But, I thought that I may as well start. The audio accompanying the transcription made it feasible. And the topics discussed there were not banal in nature, on the contrary, they were made as if it was a real podcast.
Now, almost two months and a half, maybe three, learning the language, I thought that I should buy a book. I did. I bought two. Le petit prince and Le spleen de Paris. The latter was a collection of poems on prose by Charles Baudelaire, a 19th-century author; the man responsible for me deciding to learn the language.
Of course reading Baudelaire was not a walk in the park, nor was the Little Prince for that matter. But, evidently, the former was of greater difficulty than the latter. But I found myself reading the former more, since it was so exuberating to finally read the impeccable poet, that I could not care wasting a half-hour decoding his paragraph. All the same, I enjoyed both works. The Peitit Prince exceeded my expectations.
My approach to the little prince was, to read the chapter, listen and read at once again, then reread it again. The first stage involved looking up the definition of the words. I followed that method with Baudelaire's work too.
I should not fail to mention that I did most of my reading on LingQ. Since it facilitated the looking-up for words and all. Even though I had a physical copy, I only enjoyed them on my third reread stage.
In any case, after maybe two more months of reading easy material, difficult material like the books aforementioned, listening to InnerFrench, etc. My French started to improve. And by the time of my finals at the University, I found it more difficult to read. Thus, I started to listen to a podcast that I found to be much easier than InnerFrench, i.e., I could listen to it without transcription and understand a great part of it. It was Podcast Francais Authetique. I used to listen to one hour every day for probably a month. I also included another podcast, Journal en Francias Facile. I did that for a month at least.
After that I started to read another 19th century French author. Now I did try to read modern literature, but I am not a fan of modern literature in general. They are too fast for my taste. In any case, they were the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. I did my reading thereafter from my kindle instead of LingQ.
4 months in, I started to read Balzac. A terrible idea, I think. lol. He was very difficult.
8 months in, I started to read other materials, including Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal.
I must admit it here. The period of learning and the things I did, if I were to look deeply into them, especially after the first two months, I would probably find them to be anachronistic. But I know that I commenced my learning at around the 19th of Decemebr, 2020; this is 100% definite.
And, now 1 year and 2 months in, I could almost read anything. I mean I am reading Victor Hugo, Rimbaud, Zola, Alphonse de Lamartine, J.J. Rousseau, etc.
I did at one point made attempt at philosophy at an earlier stage, could not comprehend it, at least not those of Descartes. Unlike Montesquieu's, which were of political nature, thus more comprehensible to my young French brain. But I think If I were to read Descartes now, I would comprehend his text.
- Balancing my reading and listening:
I will admit, at first, I used to couple the two activities together at all times. Then I used to read more than I would listen and read. Then I became more of a reader than a listener. I mean at one point I just stopped listening altogether. I'm just not a fan of listening. I hate audiobooks because many of the information and details escape me. And podcasts when not understood to a great degree, I do not find them to be entertaining, notwithstanding the frustration accompanying it.
So, mostly it was reading. And it the literature was not contemporary. The language was formal at times, literary, and poetic; some words were even archaic.
- Did it affect my writing, listening, and speaking skills? If so, negatively or positively?
I would be happy to say, the other skills were affected, and positively so.
Writing:
My spelling most definitely was probably more accurate than many of those who are learning french in the span a year. And not like I was practicing that much. Sometimes I take notes while reading.
I remember at one time I transcribed poems that I already was familiar with. I would listen to audio and write what I hear. I remember that my brain made connections that were not present before. For example, c'est, se, ce, in French, all sound the same- at least to my ears. Transcribing made me comprehend the fact that in some instances it must be the one and not the other. As if by doing that I have extracted the benefits of speaking the language from transcribing. Therewith, my brain does not confound the one with the other anymore. A neat exercise.
Of course, I am only able to do so because I have read a lot. I am not saying of course that it is perfect, but it is a good starting stage if I were to decide to improve my writing to a respectable degree.
Listening:
And my listening, O God! what magic! As if I was listening for a year this entire time instead of reading. I launch podcasts and understand without any hindrance whatsoever. Audiobooks not so much. At least not Rousseau's confession. But then again, Russeau and Hugo are probably the most difficult authors for now, yet they are not unreadable. Hopefully improving my listening skills more will improve my listening skill to audiobooks. Since books pack more language, hearing complicated and long sentences being spelled out verbally is too difficult for my brain to keep up with.
Speaking:
Speaking, belive it or not, was also improved. I only speak to myself inwardly, from reading or, as it happens, an inner discourse with my other-self. But I tried an Italki talk once, about a week ago, my interlocutor was very impressed. He said that my vocabulary was very rich and that I only made 5 mistakes. Now, the last statement might be doubtful. My mistakes could have been inaudible or something. Nevertheless, my pronunciation was clear, I had a lot of words ready to be used, and was able to speak for 30 minutes straight without that much difficulty; although I felt exhausted afterward, lol.
- Things I would not do if I were to do it again:
I would skip the textbook and jump immediately at lingQ. Maybe practice some spelling-to-sound rules, maybe.
- Did I use flashcards?
I used those given in LingQ, they are done automatically. But I did not take them seriously. I do it as Steven Kauffman does. For what is the point of reviewing words that I would find again in a text environed by a context that would give it a more profound and a more memorable meaning. Especially for the most frequent words. For the life of me, I cannot understand why would anyone do flashcards of what is frequent? If it is frequent it will show up on every page and conversation. Thus, I would advise against abusive flashcarding. Reading is a form of a contextualized flashcard pack. And in my opinion is much more entertaining.
- Would I recommend this method?
Yes and no.
I would recommend it to those who love to read. And to those who are not in a hurry about speaking the language. If you are one of the many who is very eager to speak the language, I would say that you ought to incorporate reading into your learning process.
The best advice, obviously, is to do what is entertaining and is to your liking. Even if it was the conventional method.
I would like to bust the bubble of those who claim that to learn a language one must consume content that is contemporary. I believe this to be nonsense. A language is a language. Sure, they might have written with a feather and ink back then, and now they just use a pen or pencil, thus you might learn the word for the former and not the latter, but it does not really matter. Although an extreme case such as Shakespear to contemporary English, or Abu Al-Atahya to contemporary Arabic might make their point. But Gibran Khalil Gibran or Edger Allen Poe, 100 to 200 years ago, would not.
I still do not know what is barbershop in French, but I know words like songement; nor am I that eloquent in my hellos and goodbyes, but I do not think that if I were to go to France I will face that many issues. A month there and I would probably acquire the idioms used and whatever words that are necessary for my survival.
I believe that once the spirit of the language is acquired, any other element is just an addition. And the spirit does lie, in my opinion, in literature. Since it uses the language to its most extreme potentials, especially poetry. And philosophy is the greatest form of thought expression that one could learn from in life and in the target language which, consequentially, would affect your way of expressing yourself in that language.
One last point. I think that reading improves every other sphere of the language for the reason the other skills are an integral part of the reading process. Think about it. You speak inwardly while reading, You listen to yourself speak while reading, and you are consuming the spelling rules unknowingly while doing so, having said that, you also enrich yourself with the most eloquent form of the language that could be produced. I mean if you could understand Balzac, I think it would not be that difficult to understand anyone from the streets of Pairs. Since their sentences would be shorter and they would be less aggressive with their adjectives and descriptions, lol.
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