Yourself and others

Abstract

A great deal of success in language learning depends on resisting the temptation to panic or despair when you are faced with a torrent of words you don’t know, either in speech or in writing. If you keep your nerve and listen/look out for the words you do know, and then make some intelligent guesses, you may be surprised at how much of the gist you can understand. This is one reason why it is important to listen to the conversations the first time without looking at the book: it is a chance to practise this valuable skill of listening out for words you know. Similarly, there will be two reading exercises in this unit which are based on newspaper advertisements and announcements. You are not expected to understand all the words in them – you’re only on Unit 2, after all! – but the practice of looking through them to pick out words you know or words which resemble English ones will be invaluable in preparing you for coping with the French documents which may come your way in real life.