# Bonjour et Cava?



## B1ondini (Mar 19, 2007)

Hi all,
We have been 'over the water' for the past three years running, and covered bits of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and Andorra on our travels (makes us sound like explorers, but its easy to do when you get over there isnt it?).

So far we have managed to eat, sleep and even get our vehicle repaired on a couple of occasions (2 punctures and a flat battery) by the use of arm waving, pictures and our collection of good old Collins dictionaries.

Between us, we speak a small amount of French, and are learning more each time we go out there. I was considering taking a proper French course due to the number of times we seem to be there (we're off again in two weeks - hooray!)

What we were wondering was how you lot get on out there - the same as us? or are you all fluent in many exotic languages?

Hopefully, many of you are in the same boat as us, and we are not alone on this one.

Cheers.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Bonsoir*

Bonsoir,

et Ca Va!

We get by mainly in English.

However, I speak conversational French, some German (mainly technical) and a little Valencian. Ann-Marie speaks a little French.

Contrary to popular belief, French people (in Particular Parisians) speak and understand more English than they let on. Indeed many Parisians actually converse a lot in l'anglais.

Any country we visit, we always learn the Basic Hello, Please thankyou and goodbye.

If you are considering a French course try ebay for Linguaphone or similar. They realy are a great help. On from that is your Local college or Alliance Francais (expensive). Immerse yourself in the Language as much as you can. Try tuning to TV5 on Sky, watch subtitled French films and the way I learn the most, I buy Camping Car Monde Magazine when in France and read it front to back. Reading any French literature, magazines and newspapers helps me a lot.

Hope this helps?

Bonne Route, a la Prochaine

Trev.


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## takeaflight (May 9, 2005)

Often wondered if there any French campsites that run French courses !

May be an oppotunity for someone if they read this.

Roy


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Le Camping*



takeaflight said:


> Often wondered if there any French campsites that run French courses !
> 
> May be an oppotunity for someone if they read this.
> 
> Roy


I think I did see somewhere, Language Lessons in Normandy and Languedoc on Campsites. Courses from 2 - 26 weeks.

Anyone else seen these?

Trev


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Do a google on "Michel Thomas French" and try and get hold of his CD's or tapes. He's left this mortal existence now but his way of teaching is SOOOPerb. I am (reasonably) fluent in French (modest :lol: ) but used his material to learn German. It's an unusual;method but you should be able to get hold of his stuff on Ebay

No Grammar (not much anyway)no writing-just conversation by building up sentences


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## smithies (Jul 1, 2007)

Blondini,
I second all that telbell says about the Michel Thomas way of learning languages...before we retired, 3 years ago , Gordon & I both tried the linguaphone route to no avail...in fact it actually had us believing we would NEVER get any better than school girl(or boy!) French. During our 1st year away, whilst in Spain, an english couple loaned us an introductory disc of Spanish(all on cd's these days) to listen to whilst we ate our evening meal. We found it so illuminating that we bought the whole set once we got back to blighty, and the French one as well...we still listen to a cd or 2 as we are travelling around, we find it gives us a bit of confidence to try the language on the locals. We bought our double set on ebay....quell exellence, Rodney !!

jenny


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Languages*

Hi

I am OK with French and better at Italian.

You could use the "Teach Yourself" series - very good as Grammar is not the priority.

Russell


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## B1ondini (Mar 19, 2007)

TelBell, that sounds like my sort of learning - I keep getting out phrase books and the like but seem to go round in circles. I've already searched eBay and got my eye on a few.

Cheers for all of your help.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Hi;

Were ok with German and can get by with French. Our Italian was pretty poor but we found the bbc website handy to learn a few phrases and words before our recent holiday there, best of all its free...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

pete


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## wilse (Aug 10, 2007)

I can also vouch for the michel thomas Cd's, I'm not fluent... although in my mind I am! 
But these CD's do help.
I keep going back to them, and it's surprising how much you do remember when you have a jolt.

w


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