How I learned French. Part I.

Today at the gym I had a talk with a woman who previously told me that she is from France and all of a sudden she started speaking French. To my amazement I realized that I still understand it pretty well although I can't tell much - before saying anything I need some time to taste the word.

I guess this is what makes me to write this post.

French is one huge enjoyment to learn. Though as any language it requires hours and hours of hard work. And it is very important to make it as fun as possible. One way to do that is to use Internet Polyglot games. But Internet Polyglot is not only one program in the world that can make you a polyglot.

Certainly there are others and I have some experience with some of them. Rosetta Stone is a well known product all over the world and possibly it even doesn't make sense to advertise it just another time. And it wouldn't if I didn't have a very good experience with it.

I didn't purchase the CD set but I used their lessons online. It seemed a very good bargain at that time because I got the discounted monthly price of $25/month with subscription for 6 months. At that time it looked like a good price and it was. However, retrospectively I think I should have purchased the CD set because this way I could use it again and again just to refresh my knowledge. Now if I want to do some exercises I would need to subscribe again and there is no guarantee that I get another discount.

I played with Rosetta Stone lessons for about 1 to 2 hours a day. Not because I am that assiduous but because it is really addicting. All lessons are so interesting you can't simply stop doing them. I only hope some day Internet Polyglot has the same level of quality (well, I am sure it will surpass it, hehe :) ).

It starts teaching you piece by piece practically from zero level by showing you pictures of different objects and actions and associating them with French words. From this level it brings you higher and higher until you can understand, read and write pretty complex sentences from practically all facets of life.

I didn't mention speaking though because I couldn't make it to work - somehow whenever I pronounce a French word it tells me that I do it incorrectly. My son could do it pretty easily - I guess you simply need to have a very precise musical ear. Mine is not that good but I am constantly told that my pronunciation is very good.

Another thing - you'll not be able to learn the grammar - it is not the purpose of this product. But it teaches you lots and lots of French in the way a baby learns his or her mother tongue (I guess babies don't start from grammar, do they?).

All in all I was very pleased with the product and I think some day when I have enough time from programming and building Internet Polyglot I will go and eventually buy their CD set and make my French as sharp as it was 2 years ago (oh, did I mention that I passed TEF - Test Evaluasion Francais - with a very high score, with an obvious contribution of Rosetta Stone).

Wholeheartedly recommended.