Intensive French

Intensive French Courses at Focus Language

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:05:59 +0000

Focus Language, located in Phoenix Arizona, offers highly effective and enjoyable Intensive French courses year-round. Our programs can be custom-designed but normally last for eight days (for all levels). Jean-Paul Setlak teaches all the intensives. He is a native Frenchman and a master linguist who speaks and teaches seven languages. In our Intensive French program, you will be closely guided so that you improve your pronunciation, your capacity to express yourself comfortably in French and your ability to understand normal spoken French. You will learn powerful vocabulary expansion strategies. You will also learn how to move quickly and competently through new grammar.

You will receive clear and specific methods to continue improving your French long after you have finished the Intensive French course. Eight days is indeed a short time but you will learn far more than you can imagine. You will acquire sophisticated learning strategies that will allow you to absorb languages the way gifted learners do. You will learn far more than a few words and grammar patterns. You will actually learn how to learn brilliantly. You simply need to come relaxed and motivated and be willing to learn new ways of approaching a language.

The advantage of an Intensive French course comes from the fact that – for a short time – most daily distractions disappear. Your full attention is on the task at hand: learning French. The conscious and the unconscious mind automatically focus much more, the flow of information is much more direct. The impact is therefore far stronger – reinforced as it is by the level of motivation.

If you come between October and May, you will be able to hike and even receive part of your classes in the wonderful Phoenix Mountain Preserve, located one mile from our school. Please feel free to contact us with any questions about our programs. Intensive French at Focus Language

Technorati Tags: French immersion, french immersion program, French intensive courses, french language course, french language immersion, intensive french, intensive french course, Intensive French courses, learn french language, programs

Intensive French: How to Improve your Pronunciation

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:22:59 +0000

French and English have much in common, especially on the level of vocabulary. They are more distant when it comes to pronunciation. English is fundamentally a Germanic language, and its sound system reflects it. French comes almost completely from Latin, though, on the level of pronunciation, it was also influenced by the Germanic tribes which invaded Gaul (France) in the early Middle Ages. (Remember that the Franks who gave France its name came from Germany.) The famous French “R”, “EU and “U” are really Germanic sounds.

So how can you maximally improve your pronunciation in French? The following ideas are meant for beginners, but they can really be applied at any level.

Immerse yourself in the sound and sounds of the language. Listen to French the way you listen to music you enjoy. Relax, feel it, let it wash over you. There is no need to try to understand. Let it create an internal echo as you allow your physical body to acclimate to it and absorb it.
To do this, listen to the radio, watch French television and movies, find podcasts and Youtube videos. You can even let them play in the background while you drive, clean or hike. The more the merrier.
Get a decent book which actually explains how to produce French sounds. You will learn a lot that way, and you will be alerted to new sounds such as “U”, “EU”, “AIN” etc. It’s even much better if you have a recording demonstrating the different sounds.
When you listen, you can also begin to repeat individual sounds, words or phrases – just to practice speaking the language. You don’t need to even care about what it means.
Learn words, phrases and simple expressions from recordings. Memorize them and really familiarize yourself with them. Listen to the recordings that contain them often. Let them become second nature for you. You will later learn how to pronounce many new words by associating them to the sounds of these first few words and expressions.
If there is a difficult sound, memorize one or two words that contain it. Learn it from a recording and imitate the native speaker as much as you can.
When you practice, always relax and breathe. At first, only say words that you have just heard. You want the imprint to be fresh.
Forget about any logic related to English in the way words are written in French. “OI” is pronounced “WA”. That is simply the way it is. Like English, French has evolved over hundreds of years, and it may not always seem very logical.
Songs are a fantastic way of getting the new sounds to go deep into your memory.

These are simple suggestions, but they will definitely help you create a French pronunciation”data base” in your brain and mind. Remember that nothing can take the place of exposure. Make sure you enjoy the materials you expose yourself to.

You can also visit our other sites:

www.FocusLanguage.com. Teach Yourself.

Technorati Tags: French immersion programs, french intensive, intensive french, Intensive French courses

Intensive French: Following the Bouncing Ball

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:25:59 +0000

One of the most crucial and yet elusive tasks at hand when you are learning a Foreign Language is to develop your comprehension in a systematic way. Just exposing yourself to the language will not do it, or we would all learn French simply by walking around the streets of Paris. Yet, you originally learned English without knowing any other language. What made it possible? Well, for one thing, you had nothing but time on your hands laying in your crib or screaming in your playpen. You also had a good staff (Mom and Dad) taking care of your basic needs and wants, allowing you to focus on understanding what was going on around you, and learning communicate with the locals. It still took you a few years to get the language part, although, it must be stated in your defense, that you also had to deal with other significant challenges: learning how to walk and use a potty chair, eating mud etc. Is there any way to reproduce this blissful state as an adult language student, now that the staff is long gone and you have a busy schedule yourself? The answer, fortunately, is yes.

I want to outline a simple procedure which will help you massively increase your comprehension of your new language, without you having to leave your house or engage in frightening exchanges with natives who seem to have drunk 15 or 16 triple espressos very recently.

Step One: Gather several 10 to 20 minute long recordings or podcasts of native speakers engaged in conversations or reading informal texts in French. You can find many on the internet – quite often for free. Try French Lingq.com or French pod.com. You want at least 10 of them. You can also get native friends of yours to record them. Always choose topics you are somewhat interested in.

Step Two: You must obtain a transcription in French and a translation in English of the full text. This is critical unless you want to spend five years trying to guess what things might mean (as you had to do as a baby). Now you have a way to penetrate into the meaning of the recording directly. If you have the text in French, just copy and paste it into the Google translation tool (free) http://translate.google.com/translate_t# . It will not be perfect but absolutely sufficient to understand the gist of the text. These are all the materials you need.

Step Three: Read the English translation of the text so you have a good idea of the topic.

Step Four: Go through the French text and make sure you understand it fairly well. Look up all new words. Write them into a notebook in the order that they occur in the text. Read it in French two or three times so it feels familiar.

Step Five: Listen to the recording while following with the English translation. Also listen to it while following with the French text. Alternate. You should be able to hear and understand the gist of what is going on.

Step Six: Listen to the French recording by itself. Notice where you get lost so you can better prepare later. Listen to the text several times for several days in a row.

Step Seven: Go back to steps two through Five as needed.

Step Eight: When you feel comfortable with one text, move on to the next one. But, keep alternating with previously mastered ones. Keep them current until they really become trivial.

Most important instructions about how to listen.

Keep track of the “bouncing ball”!. Listen to every word as it is spoken. Simply relax, breathe and listen! Do not in any way translate, correlate, analyze, backtrack or talk to yourself. Just listen. Stay with the flow of speech. You will probably miss certain words, phrases, even sentences at first. But do not stop! Keep listening to the words as they are being uttered. That is all you need to do. You will notice your comprehension of the individual texts radically increasing. Even more exciting, you will notice your overall comprehension of French gradually improving. You somehow begin to hear French. The key as you continue doing this is to realize that you can now automatically track French without having to do anything special (except listening attentively). It is an art, but a simple one to acquire. This is all it will take. Once you hit a certain level you can watch movies – always keeping track with the subtitles. You may also listen to live conversations if you can. Just focus and listen. Remember to have fun with it.

You can access the site for my Language School in Phoenix, Arizona at www.FocusLanguage.com. or visit Teach Yourself. Cheers and good luck in your studies.

How to Improve Your Comprehension in a French Intensive

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:39:59 +0000

Once you are past the tasks of learning basic French sounds, as well as some basic vocabulary and grammar, two new tasks appear before you in a French Intensive course. The first is to speak, the second is to understand. They are both challenging and call on completely different skills. Comprehension, our topic here, lies at the very core of acquiring a new language. What then, are the steps which can facilitate and accelerate your progress in understanding French natives? It is useful to recognize the various levels we go through as we move from absolute non-understanding to full knowledge and command of a language.

First you hear a wall of unfamiliar and absolutely incomprehensible sounds. As your familiarity increases, you begin to hear individual syllables and words. You can imitate them, but they have no meaning for you. Next you begin to hear a small percentage of individual words which you do understand. You still have no idea what the overall conversation is about. Next you hear enough words and phrases to piece the basic meaning of what you hear. This is probably the most exciting stage: you have pierced the sound matrix and your brain is turning it into meaningful communication. In the next stage, you are able to hear all the words and you clearly understand the conversation. Finally, you not only catch the basic meaning, but also understand the humor, the subtelties and the implied meaning of the speakers.

How do you speed up this process? Obviously, the more grammar and vocabulary you know, the more likely you are to understand what is being said. So keep expanding your knowledge. But what surprises and often discourage French students is the insane speed of native speech and their own inability to understand anything. Here are suggestions to develop your comprehension systematically.

If at all possible, try to get a general idea of the topic of the conversation or recording you are about to listen to beforehand. Even ask someone if it is feasible: ” What are you/ they talking about?” This will make it much easier to know what is going on. Is the conversation about dating or about chemical disposal?
When you actually start to listen, breathe and relax. Make yourself comfortable and get ready to catch whatever words or phrases you can. Stay fully in the moment and focused. French Zen!
The key point is this. Stay with the word that is being spoken right now. Do not attempt to track, analyze, translate or talk to yourself. If you do, your concentration will break and you will not hear what is being said. So keep your attention out there. Imagine singing an old-time sing-along movie song or being at a Karaoke. Stay with the bouncing ball no matter what! Don’t think! Just relax breathe and listen. The more you do this, the more you will begin to understand, and the easier it will become to do so. So once again, stay with the words as they are being spoken and let you brain begin to put them together. The moment you stop to think or translate anything, you will lose the next sentence or three. This actually happens when you are not paying attention to someone who is speaking to you in English: “Hmmm? What did you just say?”
If possible, listen to the same conversation 3 or 4 times.
Recordings – where the natives speak at normal speed - which are accompanied by a written version of the text in French and English are really useful in developing your confidence and your comprehension.

These simple suggestions will definitely help you progress in your comprehension of French, so that your Intensive French experience can be a pleasurable and profitable one. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at info@focuslanguage.com. You can also visitmy website: www.FocusLanguage.com.

copyrignt 2009 Jean-Paul Setlak

Technorati Tags: french immersion program, French immersion programs, French intensive courses, french language course, french language immersion, intensive french, intensive french course, Intensive French courses, learn french language

How to Improve Your Capacity to Speak in an Intensive French Course

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:31:59 +0000

One of the most challenging things for most people learning French is to actually speak it. This is especially important when you are in an Intensive French course and demands are constantly made on you. So, are there ways to make this easier?

Naturally! It is first useful to remember that much of your learning integration is done when you are alone. And fortunately, there are quite a few things you can do by yourself which will gradually develop your confidence and your abilities.

Practice reading outloud. It improves your pronunciation and your confidence when you speak. This proves vital when you are trying to engage in a conversation with someone.
Make a list of 20 topics you are personally interested in. Map them out a bit: decide what you will want to discuss. It’s OK to prepare yourself in English. Get the vocabulary you will need. Organize the main points you want to make. Start small. Your biography or your hobbies are great first topics. Your first talk might consist of 3 sentences. No problem. As you keep discussing each topic – remember they are about things you are truly interested in – your fluency will develop.
Imagine an audience or someone you are speaking to.
Imagine yourself in France 6 months or a year down the line, and what you would be like as a fluent French speaker.
If you like, be an actor: pretend that you are interacting with someone. Be as dramatic as you like. No one will know.
Speak slowly. Never, ever, ever rush. Keep your body relaxed and speak in small logical units: “in the morning………I get up………..and then…………I drink a cup of tea………..After that………I step outside………and I look at the sky. Pause and hesitate as long as you want between phrases. It is wonderful training and your speed will gradually increase. Do not sacrifice pronunciation for speed. Always sound as good as you can. This deliberate flow is the great key. You can be silent for a few seconds. No need to say uh, hm, or make puppy noises. Your imaginary audience won’t mind. As I always ask: would you rather speak bad French really fast, or good French slowly? I hope you chose the second option.
Go around obstacles. If you do not know how to express something, set it aside. If you like make a quick written note of something you want to learn how to say.
Set a timer for 3 minutes, and start speaking. Do not stop till the timer rings. Gradually increase the length of time to 30 or even 60 minutes.

These simple ideas will greatly improve your speaking skills in an Intensive French course. I have used them successfully with French as a baby (my native language), with Latin, English, Spanish and German as a teenager, and with Punjabi, Hindi, Italian and Mandarin Chinese as an adult. Let me know what has worked for you, or what challenges you have encountered.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at info@focuslanguage.com, or call me at (602) 569-7526. To get more information about the Intensive French programs you can also go to my website: www.FocusLanguage.com.

What are Effective Study techniques for an Intensive French Course?

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:33:59 +0000

What are some good ways to study when you when you are in an intensive French course? There are several things you can do which will increase your effectiveness as a student. Naturally, it is best to let the instructor guide you and to follow the flow of the classes. Yet, there are ways you can increase your effectiveness.

Organize a workable schedule for yourself
Use effective study techniques
Review efficiently

Organize a workable schedule for yourself.
Make sure that you rest and relax after your sessions. It is important to recuperate from the day’s mental effort. It is OK to listen to one one of your audio recordings, but in a relaxed fashion. Get a good night’s rest so you are fresh the next day.

Use effective study techniques

Stay relaxed and alert during the classes. Being present and able to respond or repeat are the most important things you can do. If you do not understand something, speak up and ask for clarification. Make mental or written notes when you want to investigate something later. Keep your mind open rather than tracking your progress and others’ performance. If the mind is open and focused, you will absorb information far better.: this is the key point. What will allow you to make this new info permanent in your memory? Efficient review.

Review efficiently

After you have gotten some relaxation in, it is good to review in the evening. Go over the day’s material: briefly (15 minutes) I find that the best way to review is to gently test your recall. Go from English to French. It is harder and lets you know if you have truly absorbed the material. Reinforce the memorization of the words or grammar you did not recall.
You can also test your recall in the morning for 10-15 minutes. This will definitely strengthen the memory imprint.

This is just an outline of some of the things you can do to be a more effective student. Experiment, develop your own methods and stay relaxed. You will have plenty of time to integrate and review after the course is over.

How to Prepare for an Intensive French Course

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:33:59 +0000

When you decide to take an Intensive French course – whether for a week or for 2 months – it is important to prepare yourself mentally and physically. An intensive program is exciting and fun but it also requires a lot of you: mentally, emotionally and physically. There are quite a few things you can do that will help optimize your experience. You do want to get the most out of the experience, before you go back to your normal life.

Before the course begins:

Preparations: Make sure you understand how the course will run. Get all the materials you might need: dictionary, books, cd’s, software, etc.). Acquaint yourself with the schedule and any course requirements. Once the course starts, you want your mind to be free and fully concentrated.
Organize your work life and personal life to run smoothly while you are in the course. Let people know when you will communicate with them: you will want your mind to be on the French intensive course not on your boss or you pets.
Personal supplies: make sure you have your vitamins, energy bars and miscellaneous supplies.
Do your best to resolve any crisis situation before you go.

During the course:

Rest and relaxation: Make sure you sleep well and long enough. When the classes are over, take time to deeply relax and have fun. Let all the work and concentration go. Cramming doesn’t work: brain fatigue will get in your way if you overwork. Take walks, swim, nap, read novels, watch baseball, meditate: whatever makes you happy and de-stresses you.
Exercise: Exercise is vital. Your body will probably be sitting way longer than it wants to. So before and after class – during the lunch break too if you can – run, walk, swim, pump iron, play tennis, do yoga. Get the circulation and the lungs going, stretch and balance out the body.
Food: Remember to eat, to eat well and to eat light during the classes. Good easy-to-digest food will support your efforts. Starving yourself or relying on sugar, junk food or excessive coffe/soda can diminish your mental capacity. Hefty meals are best eaten after class.
Communicate your needs and desires to the instructor: if there is something you really like or really don’t like, let it be known directly and immediately.
Communicate with your family and co-workers after you finish the day’s instruction. (Before if you prefer, as long as it does not interfere) Cell phones are turned off during instruction time. The world will probably survive.

I speak both as a student (of 14 languages) and as a teacher (of 7). You want to remain happy, relaxed, balanced and energized to insure you get the most out of your French Intensive Course. You are welcome to contact me if you would like information about my French Language Immersion Programs. I will be happy to share more about my methods and programs. I also teach immersion programs in Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi and English. You can access the site for my Language School in Phoenix, Arizona at www.FocusLanguage.com. or email me at info@focuslanguage.com. Cheers and good luck in your studies.
Jean-Paul Setlak

Alliance Leveling

Technorati Tags: french immersion program, french language immersion, intensive french, intensive french course

Only in French … or not?

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:23:59 +0000

The debate has been running for decades. Should an intensive French course only be taught in French… or should the teacher use English at his or her discretion? When working with children under 10 there is no question that letting nature take its course is the way. Young children will normally pick up a new language in a few months, if they are freely interacting with other children in the new language. It can still be a stressful adjustment for them.

What about adults and teenagers?

Here the answer depends on the level of the student. The more someone knows, the easier it is to adjust to an intensive French-only environment. For absolute beginners and people who know very little I feel that a wise combination of some explanation (in English) and a lot of practice (in French) is the best solution. The mix is also dependent on the personality of the student: some people love to jump out of airplanes on a whim… others meticulously prepare an afternoon bike ride in a park. So a good teacher will be sensitive to how adventurous a student is. Is she comfortable with not knowing? Does he need to know he is right?

With French, you are dealing with a language which is a close relative of English. As Emile Zola, the 19th century novelist remarked when he started to learn English: “English is just French…. badly pronounced.” (An anecdote I heard from linguist Michel Thomas) So it is helpful to a beginner to hear that all the English words in “ tion” (nation, revolution etc.: more than a 1000 of them) are exactly the same in French as in English. And all are feminine to boot! Any hints and tricks and associations that students receive helps them absorb enough initial material to be able to start using French right away. When you are first learning, you need to be encouraged, supported and guided, since for many, the jump into a new language is stress-producing.

Briefly explaining points of grammar can save a lot of time; and it really seems to help students. It takes thirty seconds to explain that “in French we say the house white, la maison blanche… not the white house. You as a student think: aha!.. and you can proceed to let your teacher guide you through a lot of practice. Time, knowledge and confidence have been gained, not lost.

The disadvantage comes when the teacher only talks about French and doesn’t let you hear it or use it much. (Remembering her vacation in Tahiti in 1976).

The ideal then, in a good intensive French course or immersion course, is that you receive sufficient guidance (so that you don’t waste time stumbling in the dark) while simultaneously, you are continuously guided and encouraged to speak French (so you progress rapidly).

You can access the site for my Language School in Phoenix, Arizona at www.FocusLanguage.com. or email me at info@focuslanguage.com. Enjoy learning French.

Jean-Paul Setlak

Technorati Tags: french immersion program, french language course, french language immersion, intensive french, intensive french course

Intensive French: an overview

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:15:59 +0000

An Intensive French course can be an amazing and fulfilling event in someone’s life. It can also be a disappointing one. The key to the quality of experience lies in the quality and effectiveness of the instruction. The fact that your instructor is a native speaker or a professor in no way insures that you will be taught effectively and will come out speaking French acceptably and confidently.

It is very useful to understand the 5 vital tasks you will undertake when you begin a French Immersion Program.

    * You will need to develop good pronunciation so you can be understood and feel good about speaking French.
    * You will want to quickly develop your vocabulary. Fortunately French is a close cousin of English and this task is quite feasible.
    * You also need to learn and learn how to use basic French grammar. Once again, French has much in common with English, but having a skilled instructor can make the process far, far easier.
    * You will want to develop your comprehension of basic French. This is always a gradual process.
    * Finally, you will need to express yoursel in clear, simple and correct French.

I have found that there is no approach that yields such quick progress as an immersion program. Away from distractions, stimulated and challenged students are able to reach that often elusive goal: to learn to speak French.

Good programs contain some crucial aspects:

    * There is a safe, creative and enjoyable environment for learning.
    * French is presented in a practical way. (The information must be usable.)
    * Students are taught how to put all the different pieces together: vocab, grammar etc. so they can begin to communicate immediately.
    * The students are future-paced so they understand how they will continue to develop their fluency through the months.

As a native Frenchman living in the US, I am well acquainted with the English-speaking world. I have taught French – as well as English, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi, Italian and Spanish - for over 25 years. I have guided hundreds of students to fluency: beginning to advanced. I have also studied 14 languages through the years, reaching varying levels of fluency: this has taught me a clear path to fluency. I have made this process a specific and usable blue-print.

I view the process of learning French as an exciting journey, and I take responsibility as a skilled guide, to make this journey fulfilling and profitable.

Beginners, as well as beginning intermediate students, who attend my 5-day Intensive French program are able to achieve their pronunciation and communication goals, while intermediate and advanced students are guided to the next levels of fluency and confidence.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at info@focuslanguage.com, or call me at (602) 569-7526. To get more information about the Intensive French programs you can also go to my website: FocusLanguage.com.

Technorati Tags: french immersion program, french language immersion, intensive french, intensive french course