Last week, I was living La vie en rose—learning French through songs, Duolingo, and a touch of Taylor Swift chaos.

This week, pedal-to-the-metal, Taylor Swift chaos hit full throttle as her new album The Life of a Showgirl dropped. It’s honestly wild that our resident tortured poet shifted gears to delivering pure summer-drive bops. And apparently, I’ve picked up her habit of using way too many car metaphors and imagery. I call it my august era (remember when I pulled up and said, “get in the car“).

But sadly, my French learning took a bit of a backseat.

Well… almost. Because even when Taylor’s blaring through my headphones, my sticky notes were right there staring me down. Last week I promised to share what happened when I decided to label things in my apartment with Post-it notes.

📝The Labelling Launch

So…I went on a mini labelling spree. I already knew some words like le frigo (the fridge), le placard (the cupboard/closet), le lit (the bed), la table (the table), la porte (the door), l’étagère (the shelf), la fenêtre (the window)…

It seems I didn’t know much. So I went ahead and learnt these:

un balcon (balcony),

un sous-sol (basement),

un réveil (alarm clock),

un oreiller (pillow)—the Post-it unfortunately didn’t remain stuck for long 😢,

une commode (dresser)—I laughed out loud as I used to think this meant a toilet even in French,

une moquette (carpet) and un tapis (rug)—I used to think both carpet and rug were called tapis. Foolish me! But I must also give myself grace as I had never seen carpet-covered floors before coming to Canada. Apparently, a carpet is immovable and stuck to the floor. Thanks Linguno for clearing my confusion. I might give this platform a proper try soon.

Note: These are only some examples. I wanted to add photos but decided against it as there would be too many. Also, shout out to this handy list from the Lawless French website.

Soon, my apartment looked less like a cozy living space and more like a French kindergarten classroom. But I loved it. Every time I walked around, I was surrounded by vocabulary. I didn’t even realize I was learning; it just started to stick (pun 100% intended).

I caught myself saying things like je vais au frigo instead of “I’m going to the fridge.” It was such a small moment, but that’s when I realized the sticky notes were doing their magic: I was thinking in French.

Then, in true Taylor Swift poetic fashion—as she looks in people’s windows—I was sitting by my own window writing, and thought I’d try to describe it in French: je regarde dans la fenêtre. Turns out… I used the wrong preposition. It should be je regarde par la fenêtre (“I’m looking through the window”). One little word, and suddenly I was learning that par expresses movement or passage—like looking through the window—whereas dans would have meant I was looking inside the window frame itself (which is nonsensical).

That’s when I realized, once again, French had to remind me who’s boss. French prepositions are sneaky…

🟡The Preposition Plot Twist

Everything was going great, until I got stuck on where things were.
It started when I labelled my lamp. Should I say la lampe est sur la table or la lampe est au-dessus de la table?

Cue my confusion.

To my English-speaking brain, both mean “the lamp is on the table,” right?

Wrong.

Here’s what I learned (and re-learned, and muttered to myself multiple times around my apartment):

• sur = on (touching), e.g. → Le livre est sur la table. (The book is on the table.)

• sous = under, e.g. → Le chat est sous la table. (The cat is under the table.)

• au-dessus de = above (not touching), e.g. → La lampe est au-dessus de la table. (The lamp is above the table.)

See the difference? Sur is for contact. Au-dessus is when something hovers, floats, or sits just out of reach—like that one cookie jar you swore you’d hide from yourself.

It’s subtle, but these little distinctions make French feel alive to me. There’s a kind of precision in how it describes space—like the language is encouraging you to look more closely at how the world is arranged.

🟢The Bigger Lesson Behind the Sticky Notes

This sticky note project started as a way to memorize vocabulary, but it turned into something way deeper. It made me realize (again) that learning French isn’t about memorizing words in isolation—it’s about understanding how they live in a sentence, in a space, and in your daily life.

Also, turns out prepositions are sneaky little devils. They seem harmless until you realize that dans, sur, sous, entre, derrière, and au-dessus all play by their own rules. I even caught myself muttering, “No, the mug isn’t sur the counter. It’s dans the cupboard!”

I think my sticky notes are laughing at me.

💬Community Corners & Duolingo Discoveries

Even though my apartment looked like a fluorescent French jungle this week, I didn’t ignore my trusty sidekick—Duolingo. I couldn’t quite level up my score from 83 to 84, but I did make progress: I finished 5 out of the 10 units needed to move up. Slow and steady (and slightly stubborn) wins the race, right?

This is because a lot of my practice this week focused on listening exercises, and they don’t count toward course progress (they just add XP points). I keep getting tripped up by similar sounding verb conjugations, e.g., the difference between ils deviendraient (“they would become”) and il deviendrait (“he would become”). The truth is—they sound almost identical when spoken quickly. Context is the only thing that gives it away, which made me feel a little better about mixing them up!

Then I stumbled on a Reddit post that made me feel seen. The original poster shared that Duolingo marked their answer wrong for writing en général, elle se couche très tard instead of en général, elles se couchent très tard. Commenters pointed out that both could technically be right—it just depends on context. Reading through that thread reminded me that sometimes, when I think I’m “hearing wrong,” I’m actually understanding correctly, just not in the way the app expects.

Speaking of Duolingo, there’s been some drama in the community lately. Another post I came across talked about how Duolingo is changing course structures—splitting larger units into many smaller ones. For example, Section 6 (where I currently am) has 49 units on Android and the web version, but a whopping 245 units on iOS! Since I use both devices, I can actually see the difference: the iOS version feels a bit “watered down,” with smaller bite-sized units.

Here’s screenshots as proof!

As you can see, it says I am on Section 6 Unit 7 now (and there’s only 49 units). But on my iPhone:

Section 6 has ballooned to 245 units!

The Reddit discussion suggested that these changes might be Duolingo’s way of “stretching” progress—more units mean more time, more ads, and more temptation to go premium. The OP even said it feels like the company “hopes you never actually finish a language.” That’s a bit harsh, but it did make me think about how gamified learning sometimes walks a fine line between motivating and manipulating.

Still, one user summed it up perfectly:

Duolingo has made questionable decisions when it comes to making language learning less accessible to those who are unable to afford it. However, Duolingo literally adding content (new words and phrases 🤯) is not part of the issue.

I liked that perspective. It reminded me that even when apps change, the real power of learning lies in consistency, not design tweaks. Personally, I actually prefer the smaller units on the iPhone version. The shorter lessons mean I get more repetition on a tighter set of words and phrases—and that’s way more effective for really drilling concepts in.

And as I start to explore more “real” French beyond the apps, I’m turning toward YouTube for context and culture. This week, I discovered a channel called Roya. She makes videos about the French language and culture, especially how it compares to English. Her videos are fun, conversational, and honest, and I’m planning to dive into more of her content next week as part of my learning routine.

I will also be revealing some trade secrets…

✨ Sneak Peek: What’s Coming Next Week

Next week, I’ll reveal some secrets to why Duolingo actually works for me (and why I don’t hate the “grind” as much as Reddit seems to). But for that, you’ll have to stay tuned…

Spoiler: I… Just kidding! 🤣

It’s a weird mix of chaos and immersion — and next week, I’ll share how that’s turning my daily scrolling habits into surprise French lessons.

👋🏼Bye for now

My apartment may be 80% covered in fluorescent paper right now, but my French is definitely brighter for it. Next up, I’m planning to experiment with French YouTube channels and podcasts to see how much real conversation I can understand (and how long it takes before my brain melts).

Until then, I’ll keep my sticky notes where they are—quietly teaching me prepositions one object at a time.

Living my grammatically precise French learning era,
Dishant