by James | Apr 29, 2020 | Exploration I
How many languages should be taught or learned? Every member should strive to be bi-lingual or better. To speak another language is to learn another culture, to speak properly is to understand the mindset of a people and the no doubt necessary time abroad to master all this will be a life changing experience. Also this helps in translating the studies, lessons and content of the community and would increase the ability of the community to spread to other countries without massive language barrier issues. The type and diversity of languages that be learned are immense. English, Chinese, Russian and Spanish are 4 of the most important. Especially a high level of English because, for the moment at least, it is incredibly widely spoken as the worlds second language in science, engineering and software development.
by James | Jul 5, 2012 | Life, Writing
So I have a test in 13 days for my French. Which has put me immediately into panic mode. I think perhaps I should have skipped this one as my level isn’t to a standard where I can truly benefit from the grade I’ll receive.
However, it’s a good exercise in desperation. If I can revise an hour every week day evening (including tonight) and 2 or 3 hours every weekend that will give me around 17-20 hours of preparation time. Also I’d expect with that much work to substantially improve my French.
As part of that exercise I’m going to write a paragraph each day into my Blog. If you’re French or you speak better French than I do, which isn’t too difficult, please correct me. I’ll owe you one!
This amount of study on top of work and projects I am in the middle of will probably be a challenge but I’m actually really looking forward to setting myself something difficult. Here’s to me getting a B1 level in two weeks time!
Oh on that note I thought I’d mention some good websites I have found for studying French
- www.lyricstraining.com
- A fun site where you listen to music in French, Spanish, German etc. Then you have to fill in the blanks appearing in the subtitles as you listen to the song. Very good for improving your listening skills
- www.duolingo.com
- www.tresbienfrench.com
- Far from perfect but with lots of good repetitive exercises that clearly reinforce your ability to remember conjugations and vocabulary. Well worth the very small charge for a subscription (also available in Spanish, German etc).
