BLEH.
Today was the last day of my French class.
It was also our draft day for fantasy baseball, but I could only stay for half an hour because I had to go teach at 3:30, meaning I wasn’t able to handpick my whole team and had to let the auto-draft take over after I was able to get…five?…six? guys I wanted.
So I’m lacking enthusiasm, because who are these random-ass guys and why are they on my team?
Bleh.
FRENCH
I know nobody cares, but I signed up for French 3 like a day ago or so and we had our first class tonight. Our instructor is definitely very French, haha. It sounds like we’re really going to be focusing on listening skills a lot this semester, which is exactly what I need.
Nervous!
Duo Summo
This will be my…second full year using Duo? I think that’s right. I started in May 2022 I believe.
Anyway, end-of-year stats because I have nothing else today.
Huit cents
I’ve been doing Duolingo for 800 days, yo! That’s a long time.
I’m glad it got me into taking actual French courses. It’s pretty good for building vocabulary, but a lot of the grammatical nuances aren’t mentioned or explained. That’s where the classes have been super helpful (and I’m glad I’d done some Duo before taking that first class; I feel like the extra vocab buildup really helped make that class much easier).
Anyway.
TWO THINGS
THING THE ONE:
I took my final exam for French today and got a 95%. So not as good as my first three exams (all 100%), but two of the questions I got wrong were totally stupid mistakes and the other one was a genuine “I don’t know what this is,” so.
THING THE DEUCE:
It’s opening day for baseball! Everything is better with baseball.
Edit: oh shit the Mets lost
DUO
I’ve now been using Duo for 600 days!
That’s pretty cool.
Here are some examples of the types of sentences I can read now.
French!
My second class of French started today!
There’s a much broader range of French experience in this class compared to the first one. Some students had French immersion in school; others of us took the intro French class and that’s all we’ve had so far.
It’s intimidating! But I’m ready to learn.
Duolingo: 2023 Review
So my efforts in studying French via Duolingo fluctuated a lot this year due to fluctuations in how busy I was, but I tried to stay consistent with at least doing one lesson a day. Here’s my year-end summary:
I think the combination of the French class(es) and Duo is a really good one. Duo is great for vocab and basics; the French class(es) help with the nuances of the language.
Can’t wait to learn more!
500 Days!
Check it, I just hit 500 days on Duo!
Here are some examples of the level of French I can comprehend at this point:
I’m excited for my second French class this coming winter!
Yo Dawg, I Herd U Like French
So I put some French synonyms in your French definitions so you can learn French while you learn French.
Anyway.
This is a new type of Duolingo exercise, and I really like it. You’re getting your current knowledge of French tested at the same time you’re learning new words. I hope there are a lot more exercises like this!
I did two things today!
Well, I did other stuff too, of course, but there were two BIG things.
One: I signed up for FRE 102, the first actual factual French course in the certificate program. I’m nervous about it because we’re actually graded in this course (rather than Complete/Incomplete), so that’ll be interesting.
Two: I also officially applied for the program to get a professional Certificate in French Language and Culture – FSL Foundations. I’ll get an actual parchment if I complete the whole program!
YAYZORZ
I have acquired THINGS!
OBSERVE!
I guess technically I got these books yesterday, but today we went to Fleet Feet in Coeur d’Alene and I got new shoes plus some energy GUs that I’m going to try on my longer runs (especially as I build up to the 37-mile ultra next year).
WOO!
TWO THINGS!
Item One: I reached my year-long streak with French on DuoLingo! I’m really enjoying it. Duo definitely helped with the vocab when I took that French class last semester; hopefully it’ll help with the next one as well.
Item Two: I am now officially signed up for the 2024 Calgary Marathon’s ultra marathon!
Time to freak out, hahaha.
MATCH
One of my favorite little exercises/challenges on Duolingo is Match Madness, where you’re presented with a column of words from the language you know, a column of words from the language you’re learning, and you’ve got a time limit to match the words from each column. Like this:
There are nine levels of this where the number of matches you must make within the time limit.
At least, I thought there were only nine levels. That was until I beat the ninth level this afternoon to reveal this:
MATCH MADNESS EXTREME!
Three more levels. I can get to level 12 but I can’t get through it yet, so who knows if there is anything beyond that.
TESTING MY FRENCH!
I’d say that’s pretty good for only having one French class and using Duo for a bit less than a year.
Let’s keep improving!
Mes livres de français sont arrivés !
Yay!
One is (obviously) a French-English dictionary; the other is a book on conjugating French verbs.
Apprendre le français est agréable !
Trois Cents!
(LOL, “trois cents” rhymes with “croissants”)
I’ve hit 300 days on Duolingo learning French!
That’s pretty cool. I didn’t think I’d stick with it that long, but I’m glad I have! Now I just want to learn even more French, haha.
La fin
So today was the last day of French class. The class was super fun and very informative. We went over a lot of the little grammar nuances in French that I didn’t get from Duolingo. At the same time, the vocab bank I’d gotten from using Duo really helped me during the course, especially at the beginning.
I don’t know if I’ll take the next course in the spring, since I’ll also be teaching AND my mom will be coming up for a month or so, but if I don’t, I’ll definitely take it in the fall. I’d love to get the certificate.
WOO!
French!
I bought my textbook for FRE 100, the French class I’ll be (hopefully) taking next semester!
I’m excited. I’ve never taken a language class before so we’ll see how bad I am at it.
Frenchie
So I’m REALLY enjoying learning French, and I’ve just discovered that you can take some French classes through the U of C’s Continuing Education program. I’m seriously considering taking this one, specifically.
And then I can work on this certificate.
Wouldn’t that be super cool?
I also think that I get like one free class a year as a faculty member, so might as well take advantage of that.
FRANCH
How’s my French going? Here are a few examples of the level I’m currently at:
Not too bad for two months’ worth I guess? It’s really fun. I try to make up my own sentences when I’m running and I’ve sometimes had some French in my dreams.
WOO!
Très bien!
Holy freaking crap, Duolingo is addictive. I wasn’t sure if I’d get into it, but I’m super invested, haha.
I know it’s not exactly the same as a language class, but it’s the best I can do right now. Maybe I’ll see if there are any free university-offered intro French classes anywhere.
WOO!
D-D-D-Duo!
So I saw some bro sharing a 300-day Duolingo streak on Twitter this afternoon, and that for whatever reason sparked me to download Duolingo and get started on a language.
Turns out I’d made a Duolingo account way back in September 2016, but luckily, I could remember my login info and started things up from there.
I’m going to go for French. Three reasons why:
- It’s in the same general family as English and thus would be easier to learn than, say, Hebrew or Greek.
- It’s one of Canada’s official languages and is thus on packaging and other things up here; it would be something easy to practice and, of course, it’d be cool to know Canada’s other official language.
- (I could possibly read some original, untranslated Leibniz!!!!!)
So yeah. We’ll see how this goes. I know Duo doesn’t replace actual language courses and experience, but it’s a good start, right?
Eigenblogger 