Breakdown
Bonjour!
Okay, I spent my weekend researching how to build my French vocabulary with different apps and reading materials. I listened to and read the story of ‘Chicken Little’ in French on TheFrenchExperiment and read some pages of ‘Practise Makes Perfect – The French Grammar’ by Annie Hemingway. I listened to and read a few lines of a French story on the ‘Beelinguapp’ app and did some of the French decks and challenges on Lingvist app.
I also made my first audio submission to an exercise on Busuu and tested the Clozemaster app – think gamified language learning. The last two apps I tested are Language Transfer (please please check it out) and Mango.
I joined a French Telegram group and in one of the lessons, the instructor mentioned the importance of memorizing the French verbs, ‘to go’, ‘to have’ and ‘to be’ and I took this seriously because I had been seeing them come up on Pimsleur lessons and Lingvist decks. To memorize them, I turned to YouTube and watched songs on the verbs and I am proud to say that I have two of the verbs memorized even though when I recall them I hear the voice of the minions from the movie ‘Despicable Me’. Yes, that was the voice used in the songs that were the easiest to memorize.
Apps I tested
- Busuu – this one is a keeper. It increased my understanding of French grammar.
- Lingvist – another keeper with a beautiful User Interface(UI), smart Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the biggest contributor to my vocabulary. Their implementation of the spaced repetition algorithm rivals Anki but it is not a replacement for Anki
- Clozemaster – the UI was confusing to me (personal opinion) and I didn’t take to it the first time I used it. I am not deleting it though.
- Beelinguapp – this app is for reading in your target language. I liked it. I’m not keen on reading right now, but consuming as many French movies and cartoons and speaking correctly. Reading may be the focus next month.
- Language Transfer – USE IT! For the French track, you listen along as a teacher guides a student and teaches him French and some little known grammar rules. I adore this app.
- Mango – this one, this one. We are not friends but there is one feature that I have not seen in any other app and it is the ability to compare the pitch of your voice when pronouncing words with that of a native speaker. It is a remarkable feature, but I will not be using this app.
YouTube Language Learning App Reviews
- 5 Best Language Learning Apps 2020 by Ikenna – a polyglot who speaks English, Japanese, Russian, French, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. He does an annual review of language learning apps and he is the inspiration for this writeup.
- 5 Best Language Learning Apps 2019 by Ikenna
- BETTER THAN DUOLINGO – Busuu Easy Language Learning App Review by Days of French ‘n’ Swedish
- Like DUOLINGO but better; LINGVIST App Review Part 1 – Language Learning App by Days of French ‘n’ Swedish
- Is It the Best Language App? – LINGVIST Review Part 2 by Days of French ‘n’ Swedish
Conclusion
I am still on the path to memorizing all the important French verbs I will use and I continue to do my Pimsleur lessons. I am backing it up with Busuu and Lingvist. I also need to consume more movies and cartoons so that I can work on my listening skills.
My major concern is memorizing the wrong pronunciation of words. The only word I have for that phenomenon is ‘Ọmọ’.