I've been teaching myself French for the last couple of years. These are a few of the resources I have found helpful.
I started with the Assimil Method intro to French. There may be other commercial language instruction courses that are equally good, but this is the best I have found. It has a pretty high learning curve - it starts very slow, but picks up complexity quickly. It is all in French, but does require some reading to go with the audio - so I can't just do it with my IPod.
The first podcast I spent time with was the Easy French Poetry podcast, from Camille Chevalier at http://www.learnfrenchinboston.com/. She reads the poems and then explains them, sometimes word by word, all in French. It is amazing how much you can understand this way. The poems are interesting in themselves, but make a perfect lesson as well.
The other podcasts I have been listening to are One Thing in a French Day (http://www.onethinginafrenchday.com/) and Cultivate Your French (http://laetitia.podbean.com/) both by Laetitia Perraut. These are quite wonderful short essays about mostly pleasant things in life - "I looked out the window and there were two birds (swans?), later I looked and there were two red balloons in the same part of the sky". She has an interesting voice and light comic touch.
One last podcast I have to mention. Michael Edwards lectures on Shakespeare from the Collage de France. He has such a pleasant voice, and if nothing else I can understand his direct quotes.
My deepest thanks to you all.. someday perhaps I will really understand what you are saying.
I have just started looking for learning french resources (mainly the ones at the public library) so it's great to see your list. I will delve further.
Posted by: Margaret Szedenits | 08/16/2009 at 07:55 PM