Welcome to Day 20 of the French Revolution: One man's quest to teach himself as much French as possible in an hour or two a day for 30 days! Today is the two-thirds mark, and I've made a lot of progress, but there's still a lot of progress to be made. I've been learning so much about language and language-acquisition in general, by doing this 30 day challenge.
PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE
I'm using audio flashcards, created in the flashcard program Anki. One side has a French word or sentence, the other has an audio file, and I try to read the word/sentence and match the audio file as close as I can. Today there were 54 audio cards scheduled for review. I reviewed them in about 15 minutes (didn't time it exactly).
WHAT'S HARDER, FRENCH PRONUNCIATION OR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION?
I'm starting to really see the logic in the French spelling system. There are only a few things, mostly having to do with whether a final consonant is read or mute, which seem to be irregular and hard to predict. Assuming you can actually duplicate all the sounds in the French language, actually turning text into sound is easier than English. Bear in mind that in English, spelling is entirely illogical, and we basically have to memorize the pronunciation of every single word (compare "through", "trough", and "though").
On the other hand, actually learning all those French sounds is hard. There are a lot of French sounds that aren't in English. Learning the French sounds is harder than learning the English sounds, mechanically. But, once you have the sounds, French spelling is a lot more logical.
REVIEWING SENTENCE CARDS
I had around 200 sentence flashcards to review. It took about 35 minutes to review them all.
For some reason, I'm feeling really drowsy, so that's it for today. See you all tomorrow at the three-week mark!
Previous Day in the French Revolution: Day 19
Next Day in the French Revolution: Day 21
You can also go to the French Revolution Table Of Contents...
...or to the French Revolution Introduction.
Here are some other articles I wrote.
What I Gained By Traveling
Leadership In Relationships
Five Reasons To Study A Foreign Language
The Relationship Between Happiness And Material Success
Soft Power And Hard Power
PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE
I'm using audio flashcards, created in the flashcard program Anki. One side has a French word or sentence, the other has an audio file, and I try to read the word/sentence and match the audio file as close as I can. Today there were 54 audio cards scheduled for review. I reviewed them in about 15 minutes (didn't time it exactly).
WHAT'S HARDER, FRENCH PRONUNCIATION OR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION?
I'm starting to really see the logic in the French spelling system. There are only a few things, mostly having to do with whether a final consonant is read or mute, which seem to be irregular and hard to predict. Assuming you can actually duplicate all the sounds in the French language, actually turning text into sound is easier than English. Bear in mind that in English, spelling is entirely illogical, and we basically have to memorize the pronunciation of every single word (compare "through", "trough", and "though").
On the other hand, actually learning all those French sounds is hard. There are a lot of French sounds that aren't in English. Learning the French sounds is harder than learning the English sounds, mechanically. But, once you have the sounds, French spelling is a lot more logical.
REVIEWING SENTENCE CARDS
I had around 200 sentence flashcards to review. It took about 35 minutes to review them all.
For some reason, I'm feeling really drowsy, so that's it for today. See you all tomorrow at the three-week mark!
Previous Day in the French Revolution: Day 19
Next Day in the French Revolution: Day 21
You can also go to the French Revolution Table Of Contents...
...or to the French Revolution Introduction.
Here are some other articles I wrote.
What I Gained By Traveling
Leadership In Relationships
Five Reasons To Study A Foreign Language
The Relationship Between Happiness And Material Success
Soft Power And Hard Power
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1 comments:
The final consonant before the next word's initial vowel run-on is a real pain but sounds amazing. It's like making whole new pronunciations for some words.
C'est amusant.
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