Take me to Paris: An Intro to my Learning Project
I have recently been very interested in learning to speak a second language. This interest sparked when a couple of my friends started speaking to each other in French when they wanted to share a secret or a message that they didn’t want everyone to hear. I was amazed at how fluently they spoke the language without much practice. I also find it very fascinating when people tell me they can speak multiple languages and I always think about how I can only speak 1. I just recently got home from a trip where I went on 4 airplanes and they did all the safety tutorials in both French and English, which also made me think about the fact that I only know English. I hope to be fluent in French one day so that I can add this to my resume (and so that I can go to Paris one day). I would be very proud if I was able to say that I taught myself through the use of online resources.
Of course I learned a little bit of French in Elementary School as it was mandatory for us to take this course throughout grade 1-8. I also took one French course in grade 9 as well but since then (2014), I haven’t kept up with it. I know some of the colours, some of the letters and numbers, and some short phrases (as pictured below) but thats it. I would say I am at an elementary school student level of speaking french right now.
I hope to be able to speak some longer and more uncommon sentences that stray from the mainstream language that I already know by the end of this course. I also hope to be able to have some fluent conversations in French as well. I would say this would be at least at the level of a grade 12 student or a university french student. I plan to use Duolingo, YouTube videos, podcasts and the help of my French speaking friends to accomplish this.
One thought on “Take me to Paris: An Intro to my Learning Project”
Hi Brooke!
I’m Bernice, and I was born in Germany. My parents immigrated to Canada when I was around 5, and all of my extended family is still in Germany. My immediate family and I speak German at home (mostly), and alongside speaking to my extended family over the phone, that has helped me to remain a fluent German speaker. I’ve noticed that certain tools are quite helpful as I try not to lose the language and as I teach it to my boyfriend, a native English speaker.
As I see, you’re already planning to use Duolingo. In my own experience, Duolingo is an excellent learning tool for when you’re just starting out in a language! My boyfriend uses it, and I did some things on there to see how good it is. It actually surprised me by how accurate it is for something that’s free, and I trust it as a good learning tool.
In my opinion, immersion in a language is the best way to learn it. Now, that’s difficult to replicate if you’re not surrounded with native French speakers. However, I would recommend finding some French movies (preferably ones you’ve watched in English), even if you don’t understand every word that’s spoken. That could be a way to try and do that yourself. Of course, the more advanced your knowledge of the language becomes, the more useful that will be to you.
Bernice