hape, the Assimil isn't what I had in mind; it is only similar to a grammar-translation course in comparison to LingQ, which is even more removed. I had in mind something like the _old_ Teach Yourself series, which is discussed in this You Tube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW4T2XPzjfs&feat... W/ Assimil one "assimilates," whereas w/ the traditional methods one grinds.

The book I used was _Teach Yourself French_, by Adams, revised by N. S. Wilson. (Note that this is not a new TY book. Those are completely different and for modern languages generally can only be recommended for their recordings, if that.) It worked for me; although it is isn't really complete, it gave enough of the rudiments to get me reading. I supplemented it w/ chapters from _Read, Write, Speak French_, by Mendor Brunetti, which looks even better.

Assimil is good, but it is different.

(hape, weren't you the tiger? That pic was awesome; I've been meaning to tell you that for months. The new one is good too.)

Imyirteshem, Concentrating on the French for awhile should do the trick. And it's worth it.

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I have come to the realization that I don't find any of the series really that enjoyable. Assimil is has great content, but I hate how everything is so disorganized. I have been working through the French one and it's quite annoying to be flipping through the pages to be reminded of something.

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Like I said the context is good. The text. But, It is not that difficult to get content. We use Lingq.

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@Imyirtseshem: "The vocabulary is just never ending!!!"

Ooh yeah.

I'm on 49 000 Russian words. I figure at about 100 000 words I'll have a good vocabulary :-(

Imyrteshem, Not the new series of TY books, the ones that are trade paperback size (larger) w/ the bright, parti-colored covers. The old series is what I mean, which are smaller books with plain covers and no recordings. They work well for those who can stomach the grind of the method, which is generally quite boring. Prof. A. discusses the differences in the video clip, I think.

Is the French Assimil course you have the one that starts out with the really dumb tourist giving directions? À Paris / Pardon, Madame. Où est le métro Saint-Michel ?

Helen, LingQ shows up a higher count for Russian than for French for the same amount of words (dictionary entries) because of the noun inflections in Rus. Maybe 3 times as many? I don't know. But I'm w/ you: Rus. vocab. was/is much harder for me than French. French has so many words (most of them not faux amis) that we already know in English, and Rus. doesn't, so much.

Not that French vocab. is at all easy. Good luck, Imyirtseshem! It gets easier. Check out an _old_ TY book, if you haven't already.

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Maybe you should try to transcript something you listen to in your native (a movie a serie or an interview of people from the street or from the country side).
Soon you will see that you do not understand each and every words you listen to even in your native - even words you know.

You could test your french vocabulary with frequency lists and read stats about how many words are needed to understand 50, 60, 70, 80 or more %

To increase your understanding of spoken french - it is not important to listen to new words.

Don't forget that many people do speak very badly - I think it is not possible to understand people who speak badly.

I can't probably offer much help to an English speaker learning French. However, French doesn't seem to me the best gateway language into the Romance family. That is IF you're planning to learn any of the other languages in the group.

Of course all of this I'm writing is pointless since you've already started learning the language.

I personally began learning French with FSI French Basic. http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?pag...

Then I began doing Goldlists based on a 10,000-words frequency list along with that. Pretty soon I moved to native material. For listening comprehension, I find that audiobooks are a great choice after you've amassed an intermediate vocabulary. http://www.litteratureaudio.com is excellent.

Vocabulary is somewhat easy for a Portuguese speaker like myself, though of course it takes lots of time and dedication to reach an advanced level (which I have yet to achieve).

What is it exactly that is causing you trouble Imyirtseshem? Structures and idioms or just words that you fail to recognize?

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Who are you to say so ?
How do you know it will not help others ?

Ever thought of doing the listening-reading method? I'm seriously considering doing my next language from scratch like that, or at least using the method to improve the languages I'm already learning.

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Yes, I agree getting the resources ready appears to be actually the most daunting part of the process. It seems that a few HTAL have put together a few bilingual books, although I don't remember seeing any in a language I'm currently studying. I wonder if doing it in a simpler less strict way doesn't give one more bang for the buck. I have for example books in L1 and L2 with corresponding audio, but the translations are not as direct as desired, and I have never bothered to try and make a single file with each version facing the other. Worth a shot I suppose.