Amuse-bouche:
“We’re going to meet at dentist time.”
“What does that mean?”
“Tooth hurty.”
“What??”
“Two-thirty.”
“Oooohhhhh.”
Today’s Wonderful Word: “farouche.”
Definition: sullenly unsociable or shy.
Etymology: Farouche comes from Old French. Prior to that, farouche may come from Late Latin forāsticus, “belonging outside,” from Latin forās or forīs, “outside, out of doors,” which is the source of foreign, forest, and forfeit. Farouche was first recorded in English in the 1760s.
Example: “On their first day of high school, the students who had recently moved to the district were farouche and kept to themselves.”
Here are 6 things I’ve learned from 6 years of learning French.
- Making mistakes is okay.
- You don’t have to be perfect. You will make mistakes. Embrace them. They’re often funny. C’est la vie.
- Input and output aren’t always balanced.
- Listening and Reading – Input
- Speaking and Writing – Output
- Advice for those with heavier input: Share and test. (Share your knowledge and test yourself to see if you can use it in meaningful and efficient ways.)
- Advice for those with heavier output: Verify and broaden. (Make sure you aren’t making consistent grammatical and/or pronunciation errors. Broaden your output by learning more natural phrases from input.)
- My comprehension skills are higher than my speaking skills because I have largely focused on input rather than output. Why else do we learn languages other than to communicate?
- Due to my farouche nature, I’ve been more comfortable with vast input, but now I see that output potentially has more advantages. It seems one can learn more efficiently when output is their primary focus as long as they have someone there to correct their mistakes. In other words, conversation with a native speaker who is willing to help you in the language is (usually) far more valuable than memorizing a vocab list.
- Find what works for you.
- French has a lot of words that sound alike. It helps me to see them written.
- I am grateful to have had the opportunity to study French language and culture in an American university and in a French university. The advantage to in-class studies is real-time learning. Speaking with classmates and professors in the target language creates a space for feedback and error correction.
- Pictures worked well for me in the early stages of learning French. However, this may not be the best approach for you. Find what works by trying hundreds of approaches and exercises.
- Remember images and numbers.
- Another note on pictures. As a visual learner, it has really helped me grasp the language by seeing words and phrases paired with pictures or videos. Rosetta Stone was one of the best foundations for me for this reason.
- Watching films and videos with subtitles helps me distinguish words from sounds that can otherwise seem jumbled up and bunched together. Try watching a film in your native language with subtitles in the target language.
- For most people, memorizing numbers is easier than memorizing words. If you can find a way to see numbers in your target language, this will speed things along.
- Comparison is dangerous.
- Other people will always be better than you. It can be discouraging to hear native speakers say without difficulty the complex phrase you thought about for 25 minutes before stumbling over your words as you spoke it into errored existence.
- If you see someone with your same background excelling in the target language, it can also be discouraging. How could they be better than you if you have similar backgrounds? Maybe they’ve spent more time studying. Maybe they’ve had more relevant experience with the language. Maybe they’ve tried harder than you.
- Only compare yourself today with yourself yesterday. Otherwise, you will be hindered in your progress.
- Practice every day.
- The best improvement in a foreign language comes from daily practice. Exposure to the language and its sociolinguistic aspects will boost your learning.
- Get a streak on Duolingo, but don’t stop there. Use all your language skills for as much time as possible every day, and you will see improvement at a rapid pace.
Happy birthday to you!
Answer to Saturday’s riddle:
- Maldives
- Indonesia
- Bangladesh
- Thailand
- Seychelles
- Malaysia
- Suriname
- Slovenia
- Ukraine
- Brunei
- Madagascar
- Botswana
- Lichtenstein
- Rwanda
A+
Ça vous dit quelque chose ? 
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