A few months ago I started taking weekly conversation classes. The last time I studied French was as an additional subject at university twelve years ago. The big difference this time around is how useful I've found new technology in helping me learn.
I've come across Radio France Internationale's (equivalent of the BBC's World Service) excellent news programme, Journal en Français Facile. It's 10 minutes of daily news in simple French and is available as a podcast. The transcript of each programme is available on the website too so you can listen and read at the same time to aid comprehension.
Secondly, Google Translate on the desktop and the app on my mobile is really handy. It's quick to look-up words, detecting the language of the word you're typing in and want to translate. I can also use my phone's camera to scan a French text and immediately see the translation of it in English. The WordReference.com website and app work better as a dictionary though, with more detail about the words you're looking up.
For years I've been emailed a French word of the day. which has been really good way of learning new words and reading a bit of French every day.
Google Translate, WordReference.com, the Journal en Français Facile podcast and the French word of the day email have really helped my learning of French.
My brother Pascal who is skilled at learning languages emailed me recently from Portugal where he's moved to:' Try to learn is an many different ways as possible: Read, listen, speak, write - get all parts of the brain working so it casts a web around the language' Great advice!
Do you know of other websites or apps that you use to improve your foreign language skills? Do comment below if so.
