FranceInfo Books

An international vocabulary learning method

PREFACE
WHAT IS THE GIMMICK?
Perhaps I should begin with what the Gimmick is not. It
is not a serious scholarly book. It is the answer to your
problems in speaking and understanding French - a
method of acquiring an international vocabulary. There IS
a basic vocabulary of words and expressions which is the
same in any language. If I go abroad tomorrow, I shall
want to use just such material as IS found in the French,
German and Spanish Gimmicks. Wherever I am, I need to
be able to say: 'In jail', 'it's now or never', 'he drinks like
a fish', 'a cop', etc. The Gimmicks are expressly designed
to supply exactly these essentials, and an internationally
valid method of learning them - hence, their great
success in every country In which they have appeared.
This method depends on the arrangement of the material
in progressive order of difficulty, and on the grouping of
words, for ~t has been proved that it is far easier to learn
three, four or five associated words at once than to learn
them singly. So, I have grouped words which logically go
together, including among them colloquial-slang expressions
which are the vital element in natural everyday
speech. It IS up to you which word you prefer to use, and
all are important for comprehension, but if you want to
speak the language 'like a native', I suggest you concentrate
on the colloquial usage, which is marked by *.
Learning a language as it is actually spoken is of the
utmost importance in the modern language scene. Once it
used to be enough to know a few elementary sentences to
enable you to get by in a simple exchange with a shopkeeper
or hotelier, but nowadays more and more people
from both Britain and America are finding themselves in
social situations when they go abroad. Their vocabulary is
just not adequate. They are entirely at sea when it comes
to conversing in the 'relaxed' idiom of the country. The
dictionaries can't help them, seldom being up-to-date and
always ignoring in their formal approach the dynamics
that make a modern language 'tick'. An executive can
more or less cope in business meetings limited to the
technical language of his subject, but flounders helplessly
in the simplest social context 'after hours'. Several years
of academic study of French will have resulted in his
speaking the language only 'too well.'. to native speakers
he will ~ also und much too stiff, too yesterday, and much of
what they say will pass him by.

The solution is simple: make good use of the Glmmick,
which can serve as exercise books (with or without a
teacher), class books or reference books, and are intended
for students of intermediate level with a vocabulary range
of 5 000 + words.

For the student When using this book to teach yourself, choose your own
pace, but stick to it till you reach the end - 50+ new
words and phrases a week IS a suitable amount. I have
included 11 heavy grammatical explanations to give an
informal, relaxed approach. The * indicates only that the
word or expression is colloquial or slangy, the really
colorful ones are grouped at the back of the book In a
special section. As I have mentioned this book is untended
for students of intermediate level, and the fact that you
may initially find it hard going just indicates how how
antiquated the present system of language teaching is.
Don't be discouraged, fluency will rapidly come if you
persist, simply because what you are learning is what you
need to use and to understand. Students sometimes think
their failure to understand the spoken language occurs
because the French speak 'too quickly'. My answer is that
a French girl can say 'il m'a posé un lapin' as slowly as
you like, but if you don't know the idiomatic meaning
(he stood me up), you will never understand. The
Gimmicks are an organized approach to this problem of
vocabulary, both in speaking and understanding.