[JoannaC]

I went to a French bookstore today to pick up some materials. Had a good conversation with the clerk. He had the following advice:

- Think about the way you learned your native language as a child: lots of reading and lots of listening. Not a lot of grammar drills A lot of dvd's have alternate language tracks and that can be good for adult learners.

- Reading kids books is okay for beginners, but he recommends you progress to real books as soon as possible. He said there was no reason to 'lower' myself just to learn.

- Best way to read in his veiw was to have a dictionary, a personal word book and a text. Go one page or paragraph at a time. Read once for an overview and write down any unfamiliar words in the word book. Do not stop to look them up, just note them down. Then at the end, look them up, write down a translation or explanation and try to make your own sentence. Then go back and read your page of text again. Skim over your personal word book every night and cross out words as you feel you master them.

For me, I feel like I do need a bit of a big picture grammar review before I read some more. But I do want to start reading normal texts as soon as possible. I am good with vocabulary, it is more verb tenses which give me problems