Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
French
Copyright 2016 by Simon Schalumov
All rights reserved,
ISBN: 1544026374
ISBN-13: 978-1544026374
Acknowledgment
The ability to live in Germany, France, Russia, Israel
and Ukraine influenced my perceptions and wouldn't
been possible without my family. People I meet, talk
and learn from are the real source of information I
draw upon, books are the complement. This book is
for you, the reader, the poet, the pawn and the
French learning king. The fighter, the speaker, the
one who never gives in. The reader, the reader, the
reader, for you and thank you. Thank you.
Fluent French
1What is language
Communication
Like an Instrument
Misconception
2French Story
Yes You Can
3Time Input
You Need
Par 1
Part 2
4Motivation
5Eat Smart
Be Water my Friend
Guidelines
8
Introduction
The limits of my language means the limits
of my world
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
Born to Speak
For thought is a bird of space, that in cage
of words may indeed unfold its wings but
cannot fly
-Kahlil Gibran
1 What is Language
13
What is Language
The Cambridge English
Dictionary: A system of
communication consisting of sounds,
words, and grammar, or the system of
communication used by people in a
particular country or type of work.
Communication
Writing, the art of communicating thoughts
to the mind through the eye, is the great
invention of the world... enabling us to
converse with the dead, the absent, and the
unborn, at all distances of time and space
-Abraham Lincoln
world.
If you can't communicate, you can't help other
people and correspondingly yourself. All ideas and
thoughts and passions you have, need to be
15
Like an Instrument
There are many shapes of language.
Music is a language, film for example is a visual-
language.
Today we are going to concentrate on one particular
form, the spoken language. If we are able to
understand a language, then we are able to connect
sounds to a particular object, activity or thought.
Simply put, someone makes sounds and someone else
knows what these particular sounds mean. That's
spoken language, that's all it is. Like an instrument we
use air from lungs, mouth, tongue, larynx and so forth
in order to produce a tone. Your organs are shaping
the incoming air from the lungs to create a certain
tone.
Our brain therefore has to safe the exact positions
of each organ to produce a certain sound. Because
21
Misconception
First of all no, children do not learn a language
faster than any adult, otherwise babies could speak
any language fluently one month after birth. It won't
happen. This misconception prevents most people
from learning anything new at all, because they think
they are too old to learn anything. Learning and
willpower are like organs, they have to be used
extensively.
Actually, adults can learn languages faster than
children. Any Polyglot, including myself, will confirm
that. If you want to learn a new language mind-
blowing fast, you need to use your adult intelligence
and knowledge and focus it on learning a language.
It's easy as that.
Children do learn extremely fast, because they
simply have to learn everything there is. We as
mammals are designed to finally become independent
from our parents. Children must learn everything
25
2 French Story
28
French Story
The real voyage of discovery consists not in
seeking new landscapes, but in having new
eyes
-Marcel Proust
3 Time Input
37
Time Input
You Need
A Smartphone and the following apps:
Brainscape, Doulingo, Memrize (best)
TV, Computer, Radio
Your favorite book (one in mother tongue
and one in French)
The 1000 most used words in French
A Pen with a lot of paper
Part 1
The first week you spend with learning the sounds
of French and nothing else. Your brain can't
recognize those sounds, not yet. Before you can
understand anything, you must be able to recognize
them. Therefore, start by learning the right
pronunciation and intonation.
Part 2
Everyone has his favorite book, which means a
lot to him or her.
I want you to buy exactly this book in French. Try
to find the most exact translation available. When I
learned French I had a copy of Hermann Hesse's:
Siddhartha (in German), so I went and bought one in
French. Though my mother tongue is Russian, I knew
the book in and out and had already read it many
times.
Even if I couldn't always exactly understand the
French version word per word, I always had a feeling
of knowing what it actually meant. Especially the side
by side translation was extremely helpful regarding
the structure of thoughts and sentences in French.
49
4 Motivation
53
Motivation
Circumstances are the rulers of the weak;
they are but the instruments of the wise
-Samuel Lover
5 Eat Smart
57
Eat Smart
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently
is an art
-Franois de La Rochefoucauld
Example: Eggs
According to Swiss researchers, protein-rich food
like eggs can improve overall cognitive
performance. Eggs are full of useful Cholin, which
is a precursor to acetylcholin, a neurotransmitter
involved in the process of remembering.
61
Example: Multivitamin-Complex
Unavoidable! Your body is a system and if one cog
is missing, the other cogwheels can't work
properly. Make sure to supply yourself from A to
Z. Pay special attention to B6 and B12. If you are
further interested in this topic you should inform
yourself about the Liebig's law of the minimum.
Be Water my Friend
Guidelines
First: Use all of your senses when learning.
Imagine ridiculous vivid pictures of vocabulary you
are learning, because your brain is inherently
structured to remember emotion fueled pictures
almost instantaneous. Say it, so your ears can hear it.
Paint it, draw it, sing it.
The End
68
Books
Last but not least, I do believe in Voltaires words
when he said that books expand ones mind and
learning French is nothing else than expanding your
mind and therefore yourself. Finally, I want to share
with you some of my preferred books when it comes
to Paris. I will only suggest editions I have read myself
and consider exceptionally worthwhile. It's a short list
that can bring you to Paris with just opening one of
their pages.
As long as I go SOMEWHERE,
Alice added as an explanation