Week 4 Update: My French Writing lessons.

Hi Everyone!

In this week’s episode of my French journey, I focused on writing. Although I know the basics of French alphabets, but it does not necessarily make me good with writing of the language. I continued with my Duolingo lessons where I had series of activities like dictations, fill in and translation activities. These activities helped me to get some of my tenses right as I am still progressing with the language. French language can be very confusing if you do not get the understanding and rules regarding the gendered nouns. In my quest to improve my writing skills and get myself familiarized with daily used French words and tenses, I added the French keyboard to both my phone and laptop, making it easy to write in a French accent.

Another resource I used this week was the HelloTalk app which enabled me to connect with French speakers. I made some friends, and we had chat in French. There are instances that I do not get the meaning of some text since I am not an advanced learner so I respond in English and the funny thing is the app is designed in a way that, you connect to people who are beginners to a different language so all the friends I have are also English beginners which I am helping them to improve on their English language.  Not only am I able to connect with French speakers on HelloTalk app, but it also has a series of French stories with visuals, audio and subtitles which makes it very easy to learn the words and follow along with the story. Notwithstanding how it gives detailed guidelines in English (French Easy Reader) on how to follow the storyline. Writing and comprehension goes hand in hand hence making the stories very helpful to me in my lessons. I liked how HelloTalk give a clue on what the story is about. This helped me to picture the whole story in mind as I get interested in listening and reading in other to get the full understanding. However, because it is a free account, you will not be able to access every story you may see as some are paid for.

One lesson I have learnt is that consistency and patience is key in learning, particularly with a new language, because the moment you skip a day or two without practice you tend to even forget everything you have learnt and that feeling is very terrible so I am always motivated to do something even if it will take just five minutes in other not to forget the little things I have learnt already.

I designed a word cloud with French words to examine myself on how I have grasp some of the daily used French words in the stories I read as well as the Duolingo lessons.