Need advice

First of all, Salut everyone. I am 40 years old and My English is Intermediate Level I think. Because of my age and my english level, I have not decided whether to order the French Premium course or not . You know while you are getting older it is hard to memorize the words. Additionaly, As the lessons are in English and there is no pdf version of the audios, sometimes I dont fully understand what Marie Claire and Paul are talking :( I dont know what to do :( But I want to learn French very much. I desperately need your advice

Good question. You're right, the lessons are definitely more geared towards learners with a good grasp of English because of the commentaries in the audio lesson. Since the vocabulary itself has a pdf transcription for each lesson, that part will still be useful to you. It's been a while since I went through the courses, but I don't remember anything really edifying in the audio commentary as far as grammar or sentence construction rules that I couldn't have researched elsewhere on my own if I were lost. That said, it's difficult to gauge your English comprehension level, since what you wrote above is perfectly fine, so you may be underestimating your English skills. :)

Salut, I agree with torusan, you might be underestimating your English skills. Certainly, your written English is quite a bit better than some posts on this site. As for your age, 40 is still young, I'm 67 and am amazed at what I've learned in French. Learning becomes more difficult as we age; that simply means we practice more. As for understanding Marie Claire and Paul: It's possible that your ear needs training for their particular accents. Paul's is British; Marie Claire is from France, but it sounds like she learned English from the British. If you ear isn't used to their accents, understanding can be a challenge. One thing about an on-line course is that we can listen to the audio as many times as we want. I agree with torusan, most descriptions of the fine points of French grammar are in written format rather than oral. It's possible you're underestimating yourself and you just may do very well at French when studied on a website aimed at an English speaking audience.

Salut, First, Thank you very much for your reply and recomandations. Diana, you are 67 and learning French ? It is amazing and you are great. How long have you been learning French with Rocket Languages ? Have you completed all the lessons ? How many hours did you study a day ? could you pls explain ? By the way, Torusan you are Gold Star French master. Have you completed all ? How was yor study plan ? Thank you in advance for your help. A bientot

I started studying with Rocket French in September 2012, but I've also worked with other programs. For me it helps to have more than one approach with my studies, and learning French doesn't come easily. My main goal is oral French. Reading also has importance, but I'm not too worried if I don't learn to fluently write it. I find the spelling to be the most difficult, and it doesn't help that I also have troubles spelling English. I'm about half way through the Premium lessons. I probably study about an hour most days. Besides this, I often listen to French in the evenings when I'm doing my hand embroidery. Good luck with your studies.

Err...my suggestion would be to follow more along the lines of Diana's study method instead of what I did because I missed a lot on my first pass through the three levels. Like her, I also worked with other programs before (Rosetta Stone 1-5), so I progressed through Premium quite rapidly (like one lesson per day/7 lessons a week). The problem was, I tried to keep close to this pace through the other two levels (around 3-4 lessons per week) because I already had plans to go to Brussels and Paris that year, so I gave myself an aggressive deadline to finish. I was studying roughly an hour each day, and I finished the three courses in ten months. Suffice it to say, I missed a lot of detail, and although I was able to get by as a tourist, I knew I wanted more competency. So now, I am working with tutors, reviewing grammar using a French grammar exercise book, and refering to the applicable RL lesson when needed.