I am also changing up the format of the blog for this one. Instead of producing one post per day. I will update this blog post with each day's activity, and at the end of the thirty days I will have one blog post that covers the entire experience.
Ici je vais (Here I go)!
Day 1 - November 21
I don't want to pay for a French program or classes so I decided to try searching iTunes for free podcasts. I don't know why I never though of these before, as I am an avid podcast listener. There is a bunch of free content out there! I chose two to subscribe to and listen to. Coffee Break French and News in Slow French I also downloaded two podcasts that of the story "Cinderella" in French, they were from a podcast called "French Fairy Tails" which I think has additional stories for sale.
During my workout today I listened to 4 lessons in Coffee Break French, and latter listened to one of the Cinderella stories. I remembered (almost) everything that was covered in the lessons, but understood very little of the story. I figure that listening to it anyway will help me with pronunciation and french cadence and conversation flow.
Day 2 - November 22nd
Today I listened to one more episode of Coffee Break French. I was also inspired by my success finding free podcast that I searched for free apps for my phone. I found a bunch of learn french apps and downloaded a few to try. The first one I tried ended up only being free for about 10 clicks and then insisted that I buy something. So I deleted it. The other two I downloaded involved complicated typing and french spelling that I didn't want to do on my phone. Ultimately, I ended up with one app that I liked called "Ling Ling Learns French". There is a lot of free content, although they do try to sell extra words. I played it a couple times today, and it is fun and easy to catch on to. The general gist is that it gives you a word in English and you choose the french word that matches it. It's a fun little game that can be played anytime and I really ended up liking it.
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Day 3 - November 22nd
Today I was a little strapped for time so they only real work I did at reviewing my French was to play some Ling Ling games. I got some new words today, and am pretty good at recognizing all of them so far. I also happened to spot a french language section at the local used book store so I picked up a used copy of Le Petite Prince. I've read the book before in french and am planning to make my way through it again translating as a study aid. (I did spend money on this one, but it was only a few dollars, and I really love this book anyway.)
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| This picture contains maybe one of my favorite quotes ever, and it just happens to be from the book. It says "We are responsible for those we tame." I think it is very true, and very important to remember. |
Day 4 - November 24th
I played more Ling Ling today. It's very convenient to pull out my phone and play anytime I find some extra time during the day. In addition to playing the game, I downloaded some french songs on iTunes. I had remembered having a french CD by Celine Dion that I use to really enjoy so dug up that CD and loaded it on my iPod. I also found another singer, Annie Villeneuve, who's music is similar and in french. I bought her CD on iTunes. Now I have 1.5 hours of soothing french music to play in the background wail I am working. I put one of Celien's song on repeat until I knew it pretty well and was singing along (even though I had very little idea what was being sung) then looked up the lyrics in french, and their translations in English and followed a long a couple times. The experience was incredibly educational, and I really enjoyed it. I have downloaded all the lyrics in both french and English for the rest of the CD and will continue following along occasionally.
Here are the album covers for the two CD's I am using to help me learn french.
Today I listened to more french music, and played more Ling Ling. I also did some searches for more free french apps, and found an app on Google Chrome that is called Duolingo. Duolingo is a program to lean french for free. It's really good, but relies heavily on the ability to spell in french, which I am not at all good at. I'm pretty bad at spelling in English so I think my inner speller is just kind of broke. I'm coupling Duolingo with Google Translate to help me nail the spelling part of the program.
Day 6 - November 26th
Today I explored the availability of french language programs on youtube.
I really liked that! I will be watching a lot more over the rest of my 30 days!
Day 7 - November 27th
Today I found a youtube video of Le Petite Prince. I was able to read along in the book I bought a couple days ago and listen to the book being read in french. The English subtitles are a bonus to help me figure out what is going on!
Day 8 - November 28th
It's Thanksgiving and I didn't have a lot of extra time, so the only progress I made on improving mt French today was to playing the Ling Ling app. I picked up my phone whenever I had a chance so I got a lot of practice in today.
Day 9 - November 29th
Today is the Oregon State / University of Oregon Civil War game and at the last minute I got tickets to go! It was a good game but ensured that the day was pretty full so for the second day in a row I the only practice I got was the Ling Ling game. But I got a lot of new words so there is still a lot to learn there!
Day 10 - November 30th
Today I downloaded two more french apps to my phone since I have been having so much fun with the Ling Ling app. It's hard finding much free content or even apps with trial content that I think looks good. But I settled for two with high ratings. They were ETeacher French and This French Phrasebook both have free content that is pretty fun. I've played them both day and really enjoy them.
Day 11 - December 1st
Joyeux Décembre! There is a whole youtube channel that has episodes of Le Petit Prince! Javieraa10113a.
Today I watched this episode: Le Petit Prince et la Planet du Temps
Day 12 - December 2nd
Today I bought CD's and burned on some french music and french lessons from Coffee Break French to listen to during a long road trip. I made it through many more lessons in the podcast, they go pretty fast since each are only 15ish minutes long.
Day 13 - December 3rd
Today I watched Le petit prince et la planet du Geant
Day 14 - December 4th
Today I watched more fairy tails, since I generally know the stories already and they are easier to understand than the shows where I don't know what is going on.
Day 15 - December 5th
Since I have been enjoying learning words with the Ling Ling app so much I devoted today to really exploring and spending time on some of the other apps I downloaded and used. Of the two apps I previously mentioned (ETeacher French and This French Phrasebook ) ETeacher is by far my favorite. It has a lot of similarities to Ling Link in the way that you match things, but in Ling Ling you are matching French words to their English counterparts, and in ETeach you are matching French words to pictures. It also has sections where you construct sentences using French words, it has practice and test choices and multiple difficulty levels to choose (not all are free). The French Phrasebook is helpful but I found the access to free content very limited. I also started testing out a new app called Speak Oasis. It has multiple English phrases that you choose, you can then hear them in French and repeat them in French into your phone's microphone and the app will grade your French pronunciation. That was quite a lot of a day.
Day 16 - December 6th
Today ended up being a snow day so I had lots of time to sit around and do stuff and some of that stuff was learning French! I watched the Youtube La Petite Prince again. And followed along in the paperback that I acquired.
Day 17 - December 7th
Today there is still a lot of snow on the ground and I'm not going much of anywhere. I decided to challenge myself today and so some reading\translating of a book that I had no experience with.
Day 18 - December 8th
Today I did the same as yesterday and made my way through more Le Petite Nicolas.
Day 19 - December 9th
I got distracted grading papers today and forget to learn French until right before bed. I played Ling Ling for a few minutes before falling asleep. It was a pretty lame effort.
Day 20 - December 10th
Today I played more Ling Ling, and ETeacher along with a bit of Speak Oasis. I was really enjoying ETeacher today so that's what I did with the majority of my time. I enjoy the two apps (Link Link and ETeacher) that don't require verbal impute or audio so that I can play them in public and without annoying my roommate or her cats too much. Mostly the cats, since when I make a lot of noise they think it means it's time to get fed.
Day 21-30
For the remaining 10 days I simply played the LingLing app. I really liked it and it was easy to just bring out my phone and play when I didn't have anything else to do. I don't know if it is a good way to actually learn french, but it is helping with my work recognition and vocabulary.
I didn't end up liking this method for blogging my 30 days of activity. I don't think updating one blog entry works well since it ends up getting long, and updating the thing everyday gets annoying. I am going to change the format again. I will make two big changes. 1. I'm going to stick to individual updates during the 30 day period and 2.) I will not necessarily up date everyday, but occasionally with updates on how its been going.
