I'm trying to finish up a major after having taken some time off from school. I am in a new area and am changing schools.
The school I've been accepted into differs from my previous school in that it requires four years of foreign language. I was surprised to find out that this really amounts to a requirement of fluency in two languages. If I can pass an exam of sorts, hosted by the foreign language department, I will meet the criteria without having to take four years at the university.
I've been studying on my own for some time now, but I don't think it is going very well. I learn a lot of new phrases syntactic conventions but as I do not have people to speak French with, it has basically become a matter of memorization. I feel like the information is not sinking in. To be sure, I go over things dozens and dozens of times a day, constantly repeating rules and phrases to myself but it is simply too much to remember.
What is the best way to go about this? I'm sure it would help 1000x to have someone fluent in French to speak with but I do not have access to this. I don't have money to pay for a tutor or a program. There is plenty of free stuff online but I'm not sure how to get around the simple memorization. Or is this always the method? I find as I continually learn new phrases and conventions, I'm forgetting the old ones. And then as I spend time remembering and reciting the old material, the new knowledge wanes, until I'm left with a pool of notions and vocabulary so large it is unmanageable. Somehow I do not have this problem at all in English. I've been learning a new word almost religiously daily for a year or more and I can almost always remember them with little difficulty even after months of no use.
anyway, just looking for tips
This post was edited by hoipolloi on Jul 12 2016 08:08pm