Thanks to a private elementary school education and the foreign language requirements in high school and college I have compiled something close to fifteen years of French, but have very little to show for it nowadays. Lately though I’ve decided to have another go at it in an attempt to find a more productive way to spend my down time at work, and also because my girlfriend is a Francophile. Okay, it’s mainly because of the latter, but having something to do at work is also nice. :D
The initial plan was a two-pronged approach which involved (i) having all future emails between my girlfriend and I be written in French, and (ii) making flashcards for new words as I went along and studying those later in my spare time. The first part worked fairly well, with me using a combination of my retained knowledge of the French language, WordReference to look up new words, About.com to help with verb conjugation, and Google Translate to make sure it actually read properly when translated back into English. The second part? Not so much. I’ve never been particularly good at studying on my own, and that habit apparently hasn’t changed with time.
And that’s when Reddit once again came to my rescue. In response to a post that I no longer recall, someone mentioned and linked to a site called DuoLingo. Duolingo is a free site that helps you learn languages (currently offering Spanish, German, French, and Protugese) through a points/rewards system found in most video game these days. Lessons are broken down into sectional quizzes which can be completed for points, which in turn level you up and open newer, more difficult lesson to conquer. The desire for rewards and perfection are an excellent motivator to go back over the lessons until you’ve got them down perfectly.
I’ve only been using it consistently for about the last week but I have to say I really enjoy the system and think it does an excellent job in teaching the language. If you’ve ever considered learning one of the aforementioned languages or just find yourself bored and looking for a way to pass the time, you could do much worse than checking out DuoLingo.
The initial plan was a two-pronged approach which involved (i) having all future emails between my girlfriend and I be written in French, and (ii) making flashcards for new words as I went along and studying those later in my spare time. The first part worked fairly well, with me using a combination of my retained knowledge of the French language, WordReference to look up new words, About.com to help with verb conjugation, and Google Translate to make sure it actually read properly when translated back into English. The second part? Not so much. I’ve never been particularly good at studying on my own, and that habit apparently hasn’t changed with time.
And that’s when Reddit once again came to my rescue. In response to a post that I no longer recall, someone mentioned and linked to a site called DuoLingo. Duolingo is a free site that helps you learn languages (currently offering Spanish, German, French, and Protugese) through a points/rewards system found in most video game these days. Lessons are broken down into sectional quizzes which can be completed for points, which in turn level you up and open newer, more difficult lesson to conquer. The desire for rewards and perfection are an excellent motivator to go back over the lessons until you’ve got them down perfectly. I’ve only been using it consistently for about the last week but I have to say I really enjoy the system and think it does an excellent job in teaching the language. If you’ve ever considered learning one of the aforementioned languages or just find yourself bored and looking for a way to pass the time, you could do much worse than checking out DuoLingo.
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