On Learning French On The Cheap
Off and on the last ten years I have tried learning French and not gotten far - except for this time, when I might have hit upon a winning combination that, if anything else, is working for me.
First, Duolingo is an on-the-go free application that teaches Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German in a manner quite like Rosette Stone. It costs nothing and its coverage of a language is quite comprehensive. However:
- It tells you when you get something wrong but it never tells you why you got something wrong often leading to frustration.
- It never teaches you any reasons behind the grammar it introduces. It just introduces grammar complexity and laughs at you as you fail lessons.
- Sometimes the translations are colloquialisms or verb tense changes without any warning.
- It nags. Meh.
Duolingo is terrible for learning a language from scratch since it leads to frustration and confusion but it’s fantastic for vocabulary drill. Since vocabulary drill is the name of the game, it’s worth doing the minimum 10-15 minutes a day with the app - with something else.
Second, the podcast Coffee Break French is really good. It’s really good. I thought the JapanesePod 101 stuff was good but no, this is really good. Instead of drilling vocabulary I get what Duolingo doesn’t cover:
- Clear pronunciation instruction to get pronunciation correct. Man, I sound like a horrific Canadian trying to speak French. It’s sad.
- Grammar instruction and explanation. For example, Duolingo’s pronouns lessons became much easier once I heard a Coffee Break French lesson.
- Build block learning of vocabulary to build up full sentences.
- Listening practice at full speed to full conversations.
If you get super interested you can buy the supplementary materials but I have all the volcab drilling in the world from Duolingo. It can be sucked down via iTunes.
Third, I bought a cheap, used French High School Textbook off Amazon for $13 (Vis-a-Vis Beginning French 4th Edition). There comes a time, I found, when one needs to give it up and just look up the grammar rule in question and get a written explanation with examples.
The last bit is just diligence. I try to get ~20-30 minutes of French instruction shoehorned in every day.
So there you go! Try it and have fun!
Originally published at /project/multiplexer. You can comment here or there.