Learning French

I've been learning French for quite some time now and I have come to a point where a typical French course doesn't really bring me any further. Yes, I can study and pass the tests, but about a month later I will have forgotten the majority of the vocabulary again and the grammar will not come as easily as I thought it would.

I'm trying various things to improve this rather sad affair with a plethora of approaches. If someone else has got any other good ideas, please feel free to use the commentary section below.

Currently, to improve my ability to talk about my specialist field (i.e. chemistry), I have been 1) reading French chemical literature (if you do not have access to it, it is rather hard to come by I am afraid) 2) Reading chemistry articles in English and explain to the world in general what is going on in the article... in French. 3) Practise presentations that I have given at some point in my life, but in French.

So far this is going well, as I learn topic-related vocabulary all the time, because I have to. With general broad French that is a problem, because I do not feel the need to look up words. If I talk about a general topic to myself, I tend to go around in circles only using the words I know without learning anything new. The problem here is that they are not new topics that I think of and I have re-visited them on occasion before.

The solution I came up with so far, is 1) read French novels and newspapers. This is for passive understanding. Unfortunately, the passive vocabulary does not readily enter my active one. As a consequence there is 2) reading articles and newspapers in English or German and again tell myself, what has been happening in these articles. In addition, there is 3) finding topics that will come up again and again, such as talking about my CV in an interview or describing one's personality and write the answers out in English. Once that is done, I do not translate word for word, but note down the words that I don't know and remember them. Afterwards, I talk about the topics I prepared.

Improving listening comprehension is the easiest one. My wife and I own several DVD box sets of TV series. Many of them have a French audio channel et voilà, practising listening comprehension has become easier.

As a consequence, I speak, listen or read French almost every single minute on my own and I get the feeling that it is improving, although I must say it is quite a lot of effort. Of course, there is also the chance to go to places where they speak French, but unfortunately these chances are few and far in between. At best, I find them to be add-ons to the core rather than a part of it, which is a pity as a language is supposed to be spoken in an interactive setting. My experience with other foreign languages has taught me, however, that speaking it in such a situation comes with confidence. I guess all I am currently doing is boosting my confidence, so that I am ready once a "real" situation rolls round.