Greetings readers!
I just wanted to begin this 9th learning project post with a little pat on the back for myself as I have officially completed 10 weeks of French training on DuoLingo. I definitely intend to continue using this app even after I have completed my learning project.
This brings me to my subject for this week’s blog: How I intend to continue with my learning after the course.
The nice thing about DuoLingo is that it familiarizes the user with the written form of the language. I’m not sure about other languages, but for French, being able to read the language doesn’t really equate to being able to coherently understand the language when it is spoken to you.
Moving forward, I will continue learning with DuoLingo but more importantly I will be looking to incorporate the use of speech into my learning. I have been finding resources online which help to explain how I can better start to understand French speech as it is spoken, as I have become fairly confident in deciphering written French I feel that this is the next step.
This video that I found on YouTube helps to explain why French can be such a difficult language to understand when it is spoken. The creator of the video explains that the French language is often spoken very fast – so fast that it is common for many words to be contracted. There are many examples provided, and the creator of the video illustrates the auditory differences between the written and spoken versions of the language.
Videos like this are overwhelming in the sense that I find it is very difficult to understand a lot of the speech being said to me, and that while I have a good grip on the written form of the language, I think that is going to be a lot easier than learning the nuances that accompany the spoken form of the French language.
Having subtitles on these videos is pretty much mandatory for me. I’ve found it helpful to flip between French and English subtitles when watching videos such as the one linked above.
As someone who’s taken French, I definitely agree that deciphering the written language is a lot easier than deciphering the spoken language. Especially when native French speakers speak so fast! One thing that may help is watching little interview videos in French based on a certain topic, for example, if you’ve learned about words for weather, watch a video where people answer how the weather is that day. It may be hard to find, but my French textbook included these videos and te=hey were very helpful. We also watched many videos by https://www.youtube.com/@learnfrenchwithalexa that gave a quick overview of different French language terms and rules. Check her out!