Any French speakers interested in conversing with a colombiana?

[whitey]

A relative of my wife is looking for someone to practise conversational French with her. 

She’s been studying French for the last couple years, and is having problems passing the tests required for the Quebec Skilled Worker Visa she is applying for.  She’s pretty good with reading/writing as she studies hard, but her weaknesses are  hearing/speaking as she has little opportunity to practice.  She is a native Spanish speaker (with some English as well), mid 30’s, lives in Colombia, has a university degree in Marketing, and is working at a major bank.  Nice person and easy to talk to.  She’s studied French at a language institute in Colombia, and has just enrolled in university French courses, so she’s serious about learning.

If anyone is interested/willing to spend an hour or two per week of conversational French– Spanish via Skype with her, could you please let me know?  Nothing structured (unless you both would want that) … just conversation about whatever happens to interest you both.


Thanks ... Whitey

[Elexpatriado]

What for, shell just end up in Alberta after she gets in like everyone else..if she wants to work.

[gumble555]

Whitey, I will ask around.


Anyway, good luck to her, learning french is not easy !

[whitey]

What for, shell just end up in Alberta after she gets in like everyone else..if she wants to work.

Yeah, she may end up in Alberta at some point, but first she'll have to pass the requirements for the Quebec visa.

[whitey]

Whitey, I will ask around.

Anyway, good luck to her, learning french is not easy !

Thanks gumble ... hopefully someone knows someone. 


French is a lot easier for me to read now that I know Spanish, but I think what really throws off the Spanish speakers is the pronunciation ...

[utopiacowboy]

Exactly right. They can read and write it easily enough but speaking it and listening to it seems to be very difficult. So much in French pronunciation is silent but it makes for a very beautiful language. My wife can readily understand Italian and Portuguese but French stumps her. I tell her that I wish we were speaking French to each other instead of Spanish. The funny thing is I learned French as a child growing up in Montreal so that French people from France always tell me that I speak French like a Quebecois. Yet after more than a decade of speaking Spanish, I still sound like a gringo! I will never shake that accent even if I speak Spanish for another couple of decades but I will always speak French like a native Quebecois. Quel dommage!

[whitey]

Hey UC ... glad you popped your head back in the forum.  I was just thinking about you a few days ago, wondering how you were ... and here you are!


Hope all is well with you and your family ...

[utopiacowboy]

Hey UC ... glad you popped your head back in the forum.  I was just thinking about you a few days ago, wondering how you were ... and here you are!


Hope all is well with you and your family ...

All is well, Monsieur - the last child is in college so we moved to a condo downtown. That is a nice pic of you and your wife - I just wish it was bigger!

[whitey]

All is well, Monsieur - the last child is in college so we moved to a condo downtown. That is a nice pic of you and your wife - I just wish it was bigger!

OK, I can't resist ... that's what she said ...


Glad things are going well for you.  My daughter is going to school in Toronto, Nazly and I moved into a condo about a year ago ... I'm loving being lazy and not having to worry about repairs, yard work, and shovelling snow.


Cuidate ... Whitey

[Ricardo1]

Thanks gumble ... hopefully someone knows someone. 


French is a lot easier for me to read now that I know Spanish, but I think what really throws off the Spanish speakers is the pronunciation ...

Yes, I agree the pronunciation will be a challenge, but the grammar should be much easier to learn.  I didn't have much trouble with spanish pronunciation or the grammar as i already spoke french when I started studying spanish in 2001.  You could try passing on some french music to her and she could get accustomed to the pronunciation.  Specifically, that was one on my best tools - listening to various spanish singers when i was in the initial stages of studying spanish.  Does she intend to settle/live in Quebec?
 
 

[Elexpatriado]

I am going to stick my neck out and say she will be like my immigrant friends who came in through Montreal because it is easiest and then moved to Alberta  and she is just trying to find anyway to get into the country then go where she can get a job (like a few  Colombians I know here would be interested in doing)...but I may be wrong and she is truly interested in the Quebec culture and is enamoured with "La Belle Provence". Other possibility is she has family and Friends in Quebec

Yes, I agree the pronunciation will be a challenge, but the grammar should be much easier to learn.  I didn't have much trouble with spanish pronunciation or the grammar as i already spoke french when I started studying spanish in 2001.  You could try passing on some french music to her and she could get accustomed to the pronunciation.  Specifically, that was one on my best tools - listening to various spanish singers when i was in the initial stages of studying spanish.  Does she intend to settle/live in Quebec?

[Elexpatriado]

Interesting story- I had a friend here (could have been more than that, but I wasn't at all interested, not just for the reason below) a costena living in Medellin, who had a sister in Vancouver, who was supposedly "abandoned" by her well off  Dual US/ Canadian husband with their small baby, This women was so interested in getting into  Canada, she was an accountant, but is/was taking a nursing course., because she heard nurses were in demand in Canada (as if she would get a job in metro Vancouver right off even if she got in without any experience).
Once she came out and even offered me 12 million peso of here savings if I married here and got her in the country, How ridiculous. I said , that doesn't even barely cover the costs of the Fees CIC charges, and I wouldn't try t go through this massive horrible head ache for even a woman I was married to and truly loved, because I wannalive in Colombia, and would only ever sponsor a woman for a tourist visa and only someone I really, really trusted. I said if I had no values and morals, was unemployed, broke, and had a family to feed, I might consider doing it for $100,000. not a measly $7,000.

I am going to stick my neck out and say she will be like my immigrant friends who came in through Montreal because it is easiest and then moved to Alberta  and she is just trying to find anyway to get into the country then go where she can get a job (like a few  Colombians I know here would be interested in doing)...but I may be wrong and she is truly interested in the Quebec culture and is enamoured with "La Belle Provence". Other possibility is she has family and Friends in Quebec

[whitey]

I am going to stick my neck out and say she will be like my immigrant friends who came in through Montreal because it is easiest and then moved to Alberta  and she is just trying to find anyway to get into the country then go where she can get a job (like a few  Colombians I know here would be interested in doing)...but I may be wrong and she is truly interested in the Quebec culture and is enamoured with "La Belle Provence". Other possibility is she has family and Friends in Quebec

She had a novio in Montreal, but that didn't work out.  She's invested at least 3 years of time studying French, during which time her English has suffered, so I think she'll try to make a go of it in Montreal.  It's also a great city from what I hear, if you can stand the cold.


But a girl's got to eat, so if she can't find work, she may end up eventually in Alberta as you say.

[whitey]

Yes, I agree the pronunciation will be a challenge, but the grammar should be much easier to learn.  I didn't have much trouble with spanish pronunciation or the grammar as i already spoke french when I started studying spanish in 2001.  You could try passing on some french music to her and she could get accustomed to the pronunciation.  Specifically, that was one on my best tools - listening to various spanish singers when i was in the initial stages of studying spanish.  Does she intend to settle/live in Quebec?

As far as I know, she plans on making a go of it in Quebec.


She listens to the CBC in French, so I imagine that's a pretty good resource for learning the music, news, and culture of Quebec.


I've always been dubious about music as a way of developing one's comprehension and speaking skills in another language.  I can barely understand the lyrics of most songs in English, and a lot of bad grammar is used, sounds are changed to rhyme, vowels can be drawn out or accents changed on words to suit the music, etc.


Still, I guess it can't hurt, and hopefully can make learning more fun if you like the music ... I love listening to latin music ... 

[utopiacowboy]

As far as I know, she plans on making a go of it in Quebec.


She listens to the CBC in French, so I imagine that's a pretty good resource for learning the music, news, and culture of Quebec.


I've always been dubious about music as a way of developing one's comprehension and speaking skills in another language.  I can barely understand the lyrics of most songs in English, and a lot of bad grammar is used, sounds are changed to rhyme, vowels can be drawn out or accents changed on words to suit the music, etc.


Still, I guess it can't hurt, and hopefully can make learning more fun if you like the music ... I love listening to latin music ...

You got that right. My oldest stepson used to ask me about the lyrics to English rock songs when he was learning English. I would listen and then I would tell him, dude, dammed if I know what they're singing.