My Mandarin adventure I wrote about some weeks ago ended before it really came off the ground (read everything about it in this and this post). I’ve learned some good things while struggling with this completely unknown (to me at least!) language, and now I remember how frustrating it was learning a language from scratch. But hey, at least I got another lesson from it; that I’m better off learning French!
Yup, French. Not Mandarin, not German, but French/francés/Français! Now, I know what you’re going to say: “Hey dude, there’s nothing special about French after you’ve learned Spanish“. You know what? I. Don’t. CARE! I like the country, I like the culture, I love the food and some of my friends are native speakers of French. So I’ll choose French as my minor and will indeed have an easier time learning it (there’s a huge amount of words that are similar to their Spanish equivalents). And to be honest; for the first time in weeks I’m feeling really good.
With Mandarin I was in a state in which I simply thought “huh?” all the time. I didn’t understand a damn thing, I didn’t like the television shows (I mean, do all dramas need to contain love and difficult relationships? I freakin’ hate romantic movies and shows!) and I couldn’t focus entirely on the language. That doesn’t matter, I know when I’ll have time to dedicate more time to it, but that time is not now. French, on the other hand, is a language I can pick up faster, has media I actually like and I can do it as a minor (and thus spending rediculous amounts of time on it, without consequences).
Another advantage is that I can apply the same approach to French as I applied to Spanish. Of course I’ve learned a lot in the meanwhile, but the general idea is the same. Therefore I’ll also update this blog with stuff about French (only if you want, of course; please vote in the poll below). One of the first things I’ll discuss is better SRSing (will be discussed in the next post) which can be applied to Spanish as well.
Stay tuned!
Should I post regularly about my new French project on this blog?
- Yes (74%, 49 Votes)
- No (26%, 17 Votes)
Total Voters: 66
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French Project Update
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Definitely post!! I’m learning French, too (I’ve emailed you for help a few times). It is an awesome language. I’ve just gotten to the point where I can understand about 70-80% of spoken French and it’s great! So yeah, I would love to read about your French learning adventures
I would love it if you posted about French. I’m learning French right now concurrently with Russian [I'm just weird like that,
], and already knowing Spanish does make French super easy. French culture is really fascinating and I can completely relate to you wanted to delve more into that culture. It may serve you better to learn French rather than Mandarin considering your proximity to France.
Anyway, French is beautiful and I would love to read your impressions on the language as a fellow hispanohablante. ¡Buena suerte, mi amigo, y que te vaya bien!
I would love you to post on your french experiences, Im an exchange student in France right now and going ok with the language although plenty of improvement to be done… I would also be interested to see to what extent you fins it easy after Spanish as I might be doing the reverse in the future (spanish after having learnt french).
I’m a french woman learning Spanish with delight and I can help anyone learning French and needing some help.
Los consejos de este podcast me ayudan mucho para mejorar mi Español, pero es cierto que los dos idiomas tienen similitudes, y para mi es mucho más fácil aprender Español que Inglés! Sé que mi dioma no es fácil de aprender, tenemos muchas complicaciones o excepciones, y hasta para nosotros los Franceses, no es siempre sencillo expresarse bien, sobre todo para escribir bien!
I am so jealous, I want to learn French too. I hope to learn it after becoming fluent in Spanish as well. Good luck!