I am so excited to flare up a passion I put on the back burner for a long time- learning French!
I love languages, and as a person that grew up with multilingual parents (I am fluent in Hebrew and English but all my family is fluent is at least 3-4 languages) I decided it’s time to pick up my French skills. I can use it in multilingual schools when teaching eventually, hopefully. I stated learning French about a decade ago for 1 year and then again about 3 years ago for a few months, though it never sticks because I do not practice it regularly enough. I was able to understand the basic, speak the very basic, and forgot so much of that little I knew.
I think the benefit of an online learning app is that instead of driving 20 minutes for a 2 hours class once a week/ month, I can simply practice a little every day. I can still get the same amount of vocabulary and grammar learned, but it will become a daily habit and maybe this time it will stick.
I’m lucky my Israeli accent can be mistaken for French accent, so I hope pronunciation will be a good start!
My Goals:
- Practice: my plan is to have the Doulingo app and practice for 5-10 min 5 times a week. It is a small enough step that does not feel intimidating, yet will make it a habit on the weekdays and bring impact one practice at a time. Small steps.
- Enjoy: have a delicious cup (or two) of coffee when practicing. Coffee breaks!
- Celebrate small success: have the weekly blog here to record my progress as small or big as it is
- Motivate: have a written/ spoken piece at the end to show what I’ve learned and be my motivation to aim at.
Lesson 1:
Conjugating the verb “etre” – “to be” in present tense. I’m using TalkingFrench to learn the basics in reading. Than I’m going to practice listening in youtube:
Than I’m using Doulingo to speak it and write it (the active forms of learning). It helps me first listen and read, an d only than speak and write. Passive before active. This also brings me audio and visual ways to learn, and more senses = more learning! I know the video looks like it’s super simple and repetitive, but it helps me so simplify and remember I’m allowing myself to be a beginner and simplify.
We got this! What is your project? Feel free to share and I’ll be cheering for ya!
To finish here is one of my favorite musicians in French, from Quebec (which I discovered by accident through a friend of a friend of a friend) because music is a great way to start learning even if I only get every 20th word! 😉
Colorfully yours,
Maya
