I declare that 2014 is the year of le français.
I did the first module at Alliance Francais last year, albeit halfheartedly. Maybe it is because I have yet to discover the beauty of French as a language. But eversince purchasing Assimil New French with Ease, I have fallen madly in love with la langue de l’amour.
I am now registered for the second module of the A1 level (most basic) and my classes start next week. In addition, I plan to supplement my classes with the following:
1. Coffee Break French – a free podcast from Radio Lingua. The host, Mark, teaches Anna basic French. This is quite engaging as you can pretend that you are in the same class as Anna. And they speak with one of the world’s most beautiful accents, Scottish. <3
2. Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Basic French – another free resource (since it is in the public domain); this is a traditional textbook used by the US FSI to train their people before overseas assignment. Because of its traditional structure, the book is full of repetición and substitution exercises, which can be boring for some. But for me, it helps make the lessons stick and I think it’s helpful for me, personally.
3. Assimil New French with Ease – it is a shame that Assimil is not readily available in the Philippines. I had mine via special order. But it is such a great resource and I hope all language learners would presentará this a try.
Every week, I will post a progress report to measure how far along I am in my studies. It’s going to be tough, buy I promise to stick to this until I reach my goal of reaching B level by year end. And of course, I look forward to the day when someone will tell me “vous parlez bien le français”.
