Rather than just talking (and writing) about it, I made the leap and started a duolingo course on learning to speak French. I’m using the free course (naturally). So far I’ve done 2 lessons which take about 10 minutes each.
I’ve learned a few words and phrases:
- A Man
- A Woman
- A Boy
- A Girl
- A Cat
- A man and a boy
- A girl and a cat
- etc.
(It makes me think of that “Are you an idiot Mr President?” test that Trump took last year and then kept touting as proof of his genius by repeating “a man…a cat… a girl…”)
Because I’m not yet familiar with the French alphabet and pronunciation, I am following the lessons exactly as they are programmed.
I’d prefer to learn by knowing the alphabet, the pronunciation rules and basic grammar and then “sight read” to learn. That’s how I learned to read English.
But, I’ll trust that duolingo knows better than me how to teach a French to someone who has never been exposed to it.
Already I know how to say all five words, plus “a” and “and”. So I’m off to a good start for a non-presidential hopeful I suppose.
I’m not a fan of gamification apps. To me they seem childish and silly. I don’t need to be motivated by scores, hearts, badges and external goals. But again, I’m going to work through the instruction as designed and see what happens.
The app is quite simple. It’s animated and has big buttons for moving forward one step at a time. The GUI is well designed and requires no instructions whatsoever. If you cannot figure it out, I suspect you shouldn’t be trying to learn a new language.
I’m excited to be able to learn French. In addition to understanding French movies and literature, someday I will use it to whisper romantic sweet nothings into someone’s ear – like “you are a woman…with a cat…”