How I started Learning French

I’ve always been charmed by the romantic sound of the French language, and who is not!!

I’ve dreamed about speaking French and understanding its flowery accent, flowing sentences and messy spellings. Until on day last year, I’ve decided to learn the basics of French on my own. I had a clear, specific goal: Being able to introduce myself in French. 

I spent many nights searching in anything came on my way: YouTube channels, online courses websites and smartphone applications to get the input method  that fits my goal. I crossed out using the online courses I found because they were slow-paced, boring  and it would take ages to reach ” Bounjore! je m’applle Sumaia!“.

I liked the idea of using e-learning language applications since learning a language requires consistent exposure. Therefore, the close-at-hand applications enable me to spend 15 minutes of learning daily.  My plan was to learn slow but steady. So I work on one lesson each day to understand the material. Moreover, I spend 5 days in learning new lessons or doing tasks and 2 days for a revision of all the previous lessons from lesson 1. sometimes, I use my notes for a quick revision.

Why Doulingo App Didn’t Fit Me.. 

First of all,  I tried the popular e-learning-language application Doulingo. It teaches a new language through a visual dictionary in several levels and subjects, plus explaining some grammatical rules. Its exercises include pronouncing the words, translating the sentence into English or French and matching the words. I liked that I can pronounce those fancy words and the app figures, whether it is well pronounced. In addition, it shows a list of words for easier reference, and it is really strict in tracking your progress and encourages to keep strengthening the weaknesses.

However, Doulingo is more like an application for building “vocabulaire“, but it doesn’t include real-life conversations. Some of the sentences that the app makes you translate would not normally be used in a real conversation, such as: “Je suis rouge!”. Moreover, you are asked to use the words before it introduces them. Therefore, I needed to use google translator many times while using the app which is annoying and time consuming.

Personally, I found the provided topics not relevant to my objectives, I still can’t reach the Family lesson until I prove perfection in the Animals lesson. I could not tell my new French-speaking friend that I have 1 sister and 3 brothers: “J‘ai une sœur et trois frères“. I could say I have a cat: “J’ai un chat!” instead, which is not true actually! But I know that sentence anyway!

Busuu.. My New Crush!!  

I didn’t quit using Doulingo, especially after I had friends in HelloTalk, whom I kept helping with learning Arabic and I hoped they can help me with my poor French. Until one day, I read a recommendation about Busuu. This app fits my objectives perfectly, and I found its topics more relevant and its exercises more natural. 

It introduces words in sentences, implies grammatical rules, provides an authentic conversation, and requires a writing exercise after each lesson. These exercises are based on using the everyday language and corrected by native speakers. The short lessons, continuous, practical tasks and interacting with natives through the exercise enabled me to communicate with others in written.

Taadaaa! that felt awesome! I can introduce myself, talk about my career or studying, return sweet compliments and ask questions =in French!=

There are Some Buts..

However, Busuu sadly has tiny  flaws, too. The app concentrates on improving the writing, reading skills, but doesn’t provide enough exercises for the listening skills and none involves the speaking skills. There are questions about the provided conversations, but they are accompanied by a script. Therefore, I work on my listening and pronunciation on my own by repeating the provided conversations and using other ways like HelloTalk or Benny’s website of being fluent in 3 months.

Otherwise, I built a wide range of vocabulary, grammatical rules and communicative skills. I even started reading my first French book that is actually for kids. Happily, I’m still working on my French and planning to keep it up!

What are the e-learning programs you’ve used to improve your target language? Share your attempts and thoughts in the comments or Tweet me..