[man2525]

Well, anecdotally, liaisons. Prior to a trip to the French part of Switzerland last year, I practiced my French pronunciations instead of learning word banks. I was able to hear much more than during my four semesters of college level French a decade ago. But, those sentences where you leave the consonant sound off the end of a word? Got me every time. I imagined that the word was different, not the pronunciation. My friend I was visiting, on the other hand, took the train to another city to participate in a French language course with other foreigners learning French as a prerequisite to employment. Immersion: Given that, his family speaking French fluently, living in a country where French is spoken slowly, and seeing Italians and Germans make mistakes in French, he could suss out the words much faster. I didn't feel outclassed, just outpracticed.