In a French class, students are always at different levels of French proficiency. On one end of the spectrum, you have those who excel at everything, show cultural interest, and participate until you want to tape their hand to the desk. Ahem, that only happened to me once. On the other hand, you have those who cower from questions, never volunteer to read, and have poor speaking, writing, and listening skills.
The funny part is that when our teacher assigns a take-home writing assignment, the entire class is amazed when a French zero instantly becomes the next French J.K Rowling. It’s a little obvious, you’re not fooling anyone.
How do the teachers know?
From my experience with translators… they don’t provide me with reliable French sentences. Although you may get away with Google translating simple sentences, it really isn’t worth the trouble of copying down a wrong sentence? Plus, do you really learn anything from typing into a translator? If you didn’t speak French at all, and Google translated a sentence, you have no idea what you’re saying! Now, a Google Translation may help a little if you translated from French to English (then you try to decipher the broken English).
What’s the best way to translate a French sentence? Use common sentence constructions and try to use words that you know would work in a certain context. If you’re at a loss for a word (or maybe even a set of words), then use a French to English dictionary or try Word Reference. I find that the process of searching for the word allows me to better remember the word for future reference (more effort = more results). Right after you use the word, you should write it down on a piece of paper a few times with the definition to solidify it in your memory a little more. If you’re reading a French text and come across an unfamiliar word, try to guess it from the sentence’s context, then confirm your assumption with a dictionary.
By looking up words and avoiding Google Translate, you will actually learn new French words and produce nicer French sentences. So, what’s your experience with Google Translate?
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Okay, so maybe I’m only a self-taught French student of four months, but I think Google translate is one of my most important tools in learning this language. As I’m watching French cartoons, or reading an article, I usually come across idomatic-like phrases that I would never be able to figure out for myself. Google translate helps me with those. Google also has this great synonym feature. With my limited vocabulary, I usually find myself stretching the meaning of a word a little farther than I should to try and say something. Google translate helps me find the right word for that context. When I’m trying to say something in French, I usually translate it myself, AND THEN type it into Google Translate. Google usually comes back with a slightly different translation than I had made, and sometimes this leads to further inquiry about sentence constructions I previously had not known about (and had been using incorrectly). I also have recently been playing around with the voice input for Google translate. It think that feature is going to be the thing that finally offers me a way to practice any French speaking (I had previously only been mumbling half-right french phrases to myself with no access to external criticism and critique). Now, of course just typing who passages into Google Translate will do you no good, but for the hobby student, its that awesome 24/7 tutor that I could never have. And of course you need to be studying French on all fronts, and Google can’t just be your only tool (I go for the podcasts, the about.com, native youtube videos, cartoons, French music, newspapers to get it all). Just my thoughts. -Mike