French+grammar+pdf+exercises

Polyglot's Babbel Live review after 3 months

2024.02.21 08:32 SirPonsembyII Polyglot's Babbel Live review after 3 months

I've been using Babbel Live for Spanish, German and Italian for the past 3 months and I thought it might be worth sharing my experience with people who are hesitant about the price or teaching model.
So I am a dual British & French citizen so I speak both lanuages fluently, on top of that, I have a B2 level in Spanish, B1/B2 in German and A2 in Italian (along with A1 Arabic and Russian).
I have been using Babbel Live since November last year when I tried two classes before signing up for a year subscription during black Friday when it cost just 300€. Since then I have completed 57 classes split as such:
16 Spanish B1, 16 German B1 and 25 Italian A1/A2 classes. The reason I picked classes a level below my actual level is because of how the classes unfold:
The lesson is limited to 6 people per Zoom class. A PDF is provided to prepare the class, this PDF is what the teacher will base hehimself on during the lesson. It's usually always the same: Page 1 "let's talk about...", page 2 "Vocabulary to do with...", page 3 grammar rules, page 4 Exercises to apply grammar rules... Now, that may sound boring but the teachers always ask follow up questions, branching off away from the exercises allowing for more freedom so it's not a case of reading a PDF together but rather just more or less following a path set out by the PDF. It is a lot of speaking practice so be sure to have a little book for taking notes during the lesson.
So to book a class, you pick your class by level (A1, A2...) and subject of the lesson (Talking about jobs, counting to 100...), and Babbel also recommend the order in which you should follow the lessons.
The main issue, and it's not really an issue when you are prepared, is that the teachers enter the class kind of assuming you already know some vocabulary about the day's lesson. So I had no issue turning up to the B1 German & Spanish classes unprepared if I didn't have time to at least go over the PDF because, being nearer the B2 level, I knew a lot of vocab or could find a way around not knowing a specific word and still benefit from working on the subject of the lesson.
However, I started Italian classes as a complete beginner, meaning when I turned up to my first few Italian lessons unprepared, I quickly understood that I needed to prepare the classes and get the vocab I would need beforehand because otherwise I was screwed.
Now, again, this isn't an issue if you take 10 minutes to Google the vocab you think you may need and to quickly gloss over the PDF but it is a little warning for those who are looking to start a language at an A1.1 level. I also tend to have my phone open with google translate next to me in order to Google a word during the class if I know it's soon my turn to speak and I'm missing a specific word.

What about the teachers?
I have tried many teachers (mainly due to a busy schedule, I've picked whatever class is available rather than filtering by teacher, which is something you can do if you like) and overall, I'd say 95% of them have been kind, patient and very motivating. Their classes have been structured, speaking time has been equally distributed and it's been a real pleasure to learn with them. So all in all, the teachers are brilliant. Teachers on Babbel live are all certified teachers contrary to platforms such as Preply or iTalki.

Is it worth it?
100% ! No joke, it's unbeatable value for money, I'm just 3 months in and I've already done 57 classes (remember I paid 300€ for the year) so that's brought the cost of a lesson down to just 5€ per class already. The classes are good fun and the progress, although progress is specific to each individual, is the fastest I've experienced in language learning. After 20 Italian classes, I already moved onto the first A2 classes without too much trouble (reminder: there are about 30-35 classes per level so quite a full curriculum and you can redo the same lessons as many times as you like) and that's solely using Babbel Live, no real practice or revision on the side. The last major advantage is that you can play around with 4 languages (French, Spanish, German and Italian) at no extra cost. For someone like me, or just anyone interested in languages, it's the full package for a fraction of the price of individual tutors for each language.

So to be honest even if I subscribed monthly and without any sale on, priced at 100€ per month, I would still consider it worth it.

I hope this review has helped some people learn a little more about what it's actually like and if it actually works !

Cheers

submitted by SirPonsembyII to languagelearning [link] [comments]

2023.09.17 14:56 MuttonDelmonico Why is Assimil Effective?

I've seen many glowing reviews of Assimil. I checked out a PDF of an older edition and some preview pages of the new one (French with Ease), and I gotta say I am very surprised at how lean the program appears to be.
Each chapter is a dialogue (audio & textual) with translation and some brief grammar notes. There are translation exercises, and fill in the blanks. And ... that's it? Seems pretty scanty, and a lot of it relies on English explanations and translations, techniques that are occasionally frowned upon in this community.
Can someone explain why this is so effective? I'm not skeptical, I'm intrigued.

(I realize that some people develop their own more rigorous approaches to the book - listening to the dialogue many times, repeating, shadowing, plugging phrases into Anki, etc, to make it more intensive.)

submitted by MuttonDelmonico to languagelearning [link] [comments]

2023.08.09 11:31 Party_Entrepreneur72 My own Duolingo without overengineering

Hi, my name is Mikhail Emelyanov, I’m a Python programmer and I would like to show you my pet project — Flywheel, a micro-platform for learning foreign languages, a mixture of Duolingo and Anki, an application that can teach you to properly write in Spanish (or any other language you’re studying). Flywheel’s source code is available on GitHub.

https://preview.redd.it/6vupnx6x02hb1.png?width=946&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc7193033427b40b644c344ea2cb0d69ec98cd63
As you may know, generalized knowledge of a foreign language can be broken down into four relatively independent components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Unfortunately, training one of these abilities has no direct effect on the other components, so, for example, by developing our reading skills, the effect on our writing skills is quite indirect. Flywheel is a ‘sharpener’ specifically for written Spanish.
If you’ve ever used Duolingo, you should have some idea of the format in which you’ll be studying. The formula is simple: here’s a phrase, translate it into the other language; the app will remember the last time you translated a phrase and how successful you were at it; and depending on the accuracy of your answer, it will determine when you should do the same phrase again. In my opinion, Duolingo and its approach are brilliant. However... There are certain aspects that somewhat spoil the learning experience, and Flywheel was specifically designed to address them.

Wish List

First and most importantly, I want all translation assignments to be English to Spanish only. I only want to see English phrases that I need to translate into Spanish. I don’t want to translate from Spanish to English. I’m not studying to be a translator; I want to learn a foreign language! And in my opinion, the way to do that is to not write anything in English at all while I’m studying. There’s a little lifehack for Duolingo — you can switch from learning Spanish for English speakers to learning English for Spanish speakers (this, in part, explains the large number of students in this course) so that the course will contain more English-to-Spanish assignments, although the amount of Spanish-to-English translations will still be very large. Whereas I want 100 % of the lesson time to be written in Spanish!
Second, I’m an adult, and I don’t need the studying process to be gamified at all. All those little people cheerfully winking, encouraging and advising me is one giant, irrelevant and annoying pain. There are even browser extensions that try to cut out all of these unnecessary functions, reducing the website’s visuals to the necessary level of minimalism.
Third, I’m an adult (yes, I’m repeating myself) and sometimes I don’t have the time for a full-sized lesson. While Duolingo has fairly short ones, the breakdown of the learning process into set lessons containing an XX amount of questions is primarily convenient for the learning platform, not the learner. I want to be able to repeat not twenty phrases, but, say, five or three, or even one. I want to be able to interrupt the studying process at any moment without losing progress! After all, I sometimes am only able to practice on rare breaks of undetermined duration between my main activities over tea and cookies, or during breaks between spending time with the kids. If I have only a literal spare minute, I want to do a couple of sets and maintain my progress.
Fourth, I want to be able to add new phrases at any stage of my study! After hearing or reading something new, useful or just interesting, I want to add the phrase to the list, letting the app ensure that this phrase will remain in my memory forever.
Fifth, but also no less important consideration — I want the program to indicate the wrong parts of the translation. Sometimes the entered text contains small mistakes or typos, catching which is difficult with a naked eye. I want the program to show the difference between my translation and the correct version, so that I can focus on learning Spanish, and not on the game of finding the wrong letter in a long phrase in a foreign language.
This is my wish list — I want Duolingo, but only with English-to-Spanish tasks, without gamification, saving progress after each task, with the ability to add new phrases and with the visualization of the errors made, even minor ones.
I think that’s where the preface can end and we can get to the heart of the matter. If you simply want to start learning Spanish, go to the next section, ‘Usage.’ If you want to see the app’s inner workings, go to the ‘How It Works’ section (near the end of the article).

Usage

Using Flywheel is extremely simple. At the start, you have just one file, phrases.txt (the file that comes with the application contains about two thousand phrases). Inside are many pairs of phrases, separated with a double vertical line, e.g.:
I love you Te quiero
If the English phrase can be correctly translated into several different Spanish phrases, a single vertical line is used to separate them:
I know Lo se Ya se Yo sé
If there are two English phrases that can also have multiple equivalent translations, a single vertical line is also used to separate them.
Of course, you can and should add your own phrase pairs to phrases.txt. This is the essence of Flywheel — you don’t have to memorize the dictionary, it’s just a template. Adjust the content of the lessons to suit your level of proficiency; move the phrase pairs you find most useful higher up in the dictionary; add pairs related to your job. Needless to say, the shell doesn’t care what language you’re learning. If you wish to learn French, bien accueillir! Want to learn Aleutian? No problem. Need to learn Aleutian as a native French speaker? Easy as pie!
Please don’t add single words to the dictionary! Sure, technically it’s possible, but it’s not particularly worthwhile from the perspective of language learning efficiency. Try adding phrases specifically, and if you want to add a specific new word to your vernacular it’s better to pick up a phrase which uses it in a specific context. This way you’ll not only remember the word better, but you’ll more easily move it from the passive phase to the active phase, as you won’t simply recognize it in a text or in speech, but will actually start applying it in writing and in speaking.
Next, simply run flywheel.py. Two more files will be added to your application folder — repetitions.json (this will record your progress and memorization of all completed phrase pairs) and user_statistics.txt (this will record the total number of exercises you have completed and will generate a general list of words you have managed to learn).

How It Works

If you are a beginner Python developer and want to try your hand at something simple but not useless, give Flywheel a whirl. Maybe you’ll be able to add some hot new features to it, and improve your Spanish while debugging it as well. Naturally, most of the methods used in the application don’t need a lot of describing, so I’ll focus only on the general approach and the key functions that are directly related to the analysis of user progress.
Recently I have been practicing the following method: I write a template main as if all of the application’s methods have already been developed and I just need to call them. This gives you sort of a bird’s-eye view of the code (even if it’s more like a penguin’s rather than an eagle’s :) and a rough estimate of the level of effort required. This is what I ended up with:

phrases_file_name = "phrases.txt" repetitions_file_name = "repetitions.json" if __name__ == "__main__": phrases_file_path = find_or_create_file(phrases_file_name) repetitions_file_path = find_or_create_file(repetitions_file_name) phrases = read_phrases(phrases_file_path) repetitions = read_repetitions(repetitions_file_path) can_work, error_message = data_assessment(phrases, repetitions) if can_work: message = merge(repetitions, phrases) print(message) while True: current_phrase = determine_current_phrase(repetitions) user_result = user_session(current_phrase) update_repetitions(repetitions, current_phrase, user_result) save_repetitions(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) else: print(error_message) exit()

The operating logic is roughly thus:
• we look for phrases.txt in the project directories (lots of phrase pairs separated by a dual vertical line, see the ‘Usage’ section for details); if we can’t find it, we create a blank file for future editing by the user;
• similarly, we look for repetitions.json (progress records and memorization degrees of all complete phrase pairs); if not found, we create an empty file;
• we create data structures from the information taken from phrases.txt and repetitions.json, and then evaluate whether we can work with given combination. If phrases.txt is not empty, then okay, we can convert phrase pairs to our internal format and transfer that information to repetitions.json. If repetitions.json is not empty, then also okay, we can work with the information we’ve already accumulated. Both phrases.txt and repetitions.json being empty is not okay, we have nowhere to draw the information we need to work, so we complain about this fact to the user, let them create phrases.txt with at least some minimal content;
• during the loop, we feed a new task to the user, picking the most relevant phrase we need at the moment from the phrase dictionary. If there are phrases that require repetition, we pick them first; if all completed tasks don’t require a refresher right now, we start mixing in new phrases.
• after each task, we update the data in repetitions.json and the user’s statistics, regardless of the quality of the answer.
In the process of writing the code, I divided all the functionality into data_level (sort of the essence of the language practice itself), system_level (functionality that depends on the operating system) and ui_level (methods that determine how to interact with the user), also adding a statistics file showing the total number of attempts made by the user and containing all the Spanish and English words that they learned. The final version turned out to be about the same as the original blueprint, if only a little more spread out:

from data_level import DataOperations as dop from system_level import FileOperations as fop from ui_level import UiOperations as uop phrases_file_name: str = 'phrases.txt' repetitions_file_name: str = 'repetitions.json' statistics_file_name: str = 'user_statistics.txt' if __name__ == '__main__': phrases_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(phrases_file_name) repetitions_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(repetitions_file_name) user_statistics_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(statistics_file_name) phrases: dict = fop.read_phrases(phrases_file_path) repetitions: dict = fop.read_json_from_file(repetitions_file_path) can_work, assesment_error_message = dop.data_assessment(phrases, repetitions) statistics: dict = fop.read_json_from_file(user_statistics_file_path) if can_work: is_merged, merge_message = dop.merge(phrases, repetitions) print(merge_message) if is_merged: fop.save_json_to_file(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) while True: current_phrase: str = dop.determine_next_phrase(repetitions) user_result, best_translation = uop.user_session(current_phrase, repetitions[current_phrase]) dop.update_repetitions(repetitions, current_phrase, user_result) fop.save_json_to_file(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) statistics = dop.update_statistics(statistics, current_phrase, best_translation) fop.save_json_to_file(statistics_file_name, statistics) else: print(assesment_error_message) exit()

First we need to determine whether the user answered the given question correctly, allowing for the possible existence of several correct versions of the translation.

# import jellyfish def find_max_string_similarity(user_input: str, translations: str List[str]) -> (float, str): """Compares user_input against each string in translations""" max_distance: float = 0 if isinstance(translations, str): translations = [translations] best_translation: str = translations[0] # Cleanup and 'compactify' user input ('I don't know!!!😀' -> 'i dont know') user_input = DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower()) # 'Compactify' translations translations = [(t, DataOperations._compact(t.lower())) for t in translations] for translation, compact_translation in translations: current_distance = jellyfish.jaro_distance(user_input, compact_translation) if current_distance > max_distance: max_distance = current_distance best_translation = translation return max_distance, best_translation def _compact(input_string: str) -> str: """Restrict use of all special characters and allow letters and numbers only""" return ''.join(ch for ch in input_string if ch.isalnum() or ch == ' ')

Inside the husk engaged in data transfer, you can see the Jaro distance calculation:

current_distance = jellyfish.jaro_distance()

Accordingly, there is an estimate of the accuracy of the user’s answer:

level_excellent: float = 0.99 level_good: float = 0.97 level_mediocre: float = 0.65

Come to think of it, maybe the Levenshtein distance would be more appropriate here?
By the way, try turning this:

user_input = DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower())

into something like this (I don't mean dropping DataOperations, but rather arranging a pipe for methods like string):

user_input = user_input.lower().cleanup().compact()

Unfortunately, adding your own methods to those provided by Python requires either using subclasses or reinventing something like forbiddenfruit (bit dead already) / fishhook (still a little raw). Meanwhile, C# provides this feature out of the box, curses!
The interval repetition algorithm, which, depending on the quality of the answer, decides when a completed phrase will be offered to the user next time, is based on SuperMemo-2:

def _supermemo2(repetition: dict, user_result: float) -> dict: """Update next attempt time based on user result""" if user_result >= DataOperations.level_good: # Correct response if repetition['repetition_number'] == 0: # + 1 day repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=1)).strftime(datetime_format) elif repetition['repetition_number'] == 1: # + 6 days repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=6)).strftime(datetime_format) else: # + (6 * easiness_factor) days repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=6 * repetition['easiness_factor'])).strftime(datetime_format) repetition['repetition_number'] += 1 else: # Incorrect response repetition['repetition_number'] = 0 repetition['easiness_factor'] = repetition['easiness_factor'] + ( 0.1 - (5 - 5 * user_result) * (0.08 + (5 - 5 * user_result) * 0.02)) repetition['easiness_factor'] = max(repetition['easiness_factor'], 1.3) return repetition

The SuperMemo family of algorithms has more recent implementations, up to SuperMemo-18. You can move over to using them, repetitions.json stores the last few user attempts specifically for this purpose.

max_attempts_len: int = 10 # Limit for 'Attempts' list

While you’re at it, try to figure out why, despite the fact that SuperMemo-18 exists, SuperMemo-2 is still actively used, and even the most adventurous developers don’t venture beyond SuperMemo-5 or, at most, a simplified SuperMemo-8. Have a look at A Trainable Spaced Repetition Model for Language Learning, an algorithm published by the developers of Duolingo, which attempts to address the shortcomings of previous approaches. Try to replicate Duolingo’s key functionality, it’s quite feasible.
Next comes the saving of the results; I think there’s no need to dwell on the implementation of this function.
Now that the user’s answer has been weighed and accounted for, we need to show the student not only the correct option, but also the specifics that will help them identify the mistakes. To do this, we will first form a data structure containing information on the difference between the desired and the actual result.

# from dataclasses import dataclass # from difflib import SequenceMatcher def find_user_mistakes(user_input: str, reference: str) -> list: """Dig for user errors and typos""" @dataclass class ComplexPhrase: phrase_without_punctuation: List[str] transformation_matrix: List[int] user_input = DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower() reference = reference.lower() correction_map: list[bool] = [True] * len(reference) complex_reference: ComplexPhrase = ComplexPhrase(phrase_without_punctuation=[], transformation_matrix=[]) # 'Minify' reference phrase and remember transformation shifts for i, ch in enumerate(reference): if ch.isalnum() or ch == ' ': complex_reference.phrase_without_punctuation.append(ch) complex_reference.transformation_matrix.append(i) minified_reference: str = ''.join(complex_reference.phrase_without_punctuation) corr_map: list[bool] = [False] * len(minified_reference) # Compare cleaned user input and 'minified' reference seq = SequenceMatcher(lambda ch: not (ch.isalnum() or ch == ' '), user_input, minified_reference) blocks = seq.get_matching_blocks() blocks = blocks[:-1] # Last element is a dummy for _, i, n in blocks: if n >= 3: # Don't show to the user too short groups of correct letters, perhaps he entered a completely different phrase for x in range(i, i + n): corr_map[x] = True # 'Unminify' reference phrase and restore transformation shifts for i, corr in enumerate(corr_map): if corr is False: correction_map[complex_reference.transformation_matrix[i]] = False return correction_map

A bit complicated? At a glance, we could have taken a shorter route by directly applying SequenceMatcher to the user’s response and reference phrase, like this.

def find_user_mistakes(user_input: str, reference: str) -> list: """Display of user errors""" seq = SequenceMatcher(None, "".join(DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower())), DataOperations._compact(reference.lower())) blocks = seq.get_matching_blocks() blocks = blocks[:-1] # Last element is a dummy corr_map: list = [False] * len(reference) for _, i, n in blocks: if n >= 3: # Don't show to the user too short groups of correct letters, perhaps he entered a completely different word for x in range(i, i + n): corr_map[x] = True return corr_map

Instead, we wrap and then unwrap some additional data structure that does not store all the characters from the source text, but remembers which characters are shifted where. What for?
The thing is, one of Duolingo’s key features is that it ignores punctuation and the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, it’s perfectly acceptable to type ‘hello my name is kitty’ instead of ‘Hello! My name is Kitty,’ and that’s pretty cool. After all, we’re primarily studying the grammar of a foreign language, having already learned the general rules of writing names and punctuation (although Spanish has its own peculiarities), and getting a fail for spelling the name Michael with a lowercase letter would certainly be a huge drawback for the whole user experience.
This is the kind of goodie I wanted to implement in Flywheel as well. That’s why the reference phrase and the user’s answer are first converted into plain text without punctuation and capital letters, then compared, ending with the reference phrase once again unfolded into a full response and shown to the user.
Next, to clearly show the mistakes and typos to the user, we form a full-colour user output, a phrase in which the colour of the character will depend on the correctness of its spelling:

def _print_colored_diff(correction, reference) -> None: """Visualisation of user errors""" for i, ch in enumerate(reference): if correction[i]: print(Fore.GREEN + ch, end='') else: if ch != ' ': print(Fore.RED + ch, end='') # Just a letter else: if i - 1 >= 0 and i + 1 < len(reference): # Emphasise the space between correct but sticky characters if correction[i - 1] and correction[i + 1]: print(Fore.RED + '_', end='') else: print(Fore.RED + ' ', end='')

This ends the life cycle of the question in the console application.
Want something like that, but more sophisticated (because making the user quit the application using Ctrl-C is kind of gross), with a web interface, database, ORM, API, and voice prompts? Have a look in the flywheel/Legacy folder. It contains some working code that differs from the latest micro-version described in this article by having a less consistent data_level (in particular, not knowing about SuperMemo, I tried to invent my own algorithm of interval repetitions), but it has all of the aforementioned goodies. Perhaps you’ll hear the quiet one-handed clap calling you back to the console later... Meanwhile, you can try to make your own startup, building a potential rival to Duolingo, Cerego, Course Hero or Memrise.

Outro

Well, that’s about it for now. From now until the end of your current lifecycle, you can spend as much time on learning a foreign language as you like, add new phrases or add to existing translations and keep up with your progress even after minuscule efforts.
However, keep in mind that:
• first of all, miracles are not real, and you will have to spend a considerable amount of time (approximate estimates) to learn the language in any case;
• and, secondly, as aptly noted by Ilya Frank, ‘Language is akin to an icy hill — you have got to move fast if you want to get to the top of it,’ that is, in other words, if you don’t dedicate enough time to language learning, and keep to a fairly tight schedule, you will not be able to reach a new equilibrium point, and your acquired knowledge will slowly but surely fade away.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. As a reminder, Flywheel’s source code is available on GitHub and is updated and corrected whenever possible. If this rather simple but, in my opinion, very effective method of learning Spanish grabbed your attention, please create repository forks, make corrections both to code (project is written in Python and contains only about four hundred lines) and to the list of translated phrases. If you could leave a star on GitHub, that would be great.
You know what I like most about this method? After a few days of using the app, my Spanish obviously didn’t improve much. However! I gained a distinct feeling of control over the process of learning a foreign language! Previously, when using Duolingo, I had this feeling of passivity, like a passenger in a bumper car welded to the base of an amusement park ride: the car would move, then suddenly jerk to the right, then make a gentle left turn... Perhaps the trajectory was fairly good, and scientifically sound, but my issue was that it didn’t consider my previous knowledge and individual preferences. Now that both data and methods of their processing are in my hands, I feel that my little car is more or less obeying the steering wheel and is going in the direction I need.

submitted by Party_Entrepreneur72 to Python [link] [comments]

2023.08.07 01:37 aimlesskr The Biggest IB Notes Compilation Ever (Part 3)

For more subject-specific exemplars and tips from students, visit the IBO Discord server and the revision session site. For pirated resources, visit the pirateIB Discord server.
This is Part 3 of the compilation. See also Part 1 and Part 2.
Note:

Links without a title are meant to be general notes about the subject.
If a subject suddenly "disappears", it may have moved to another Part.

____________________________________________________________________
General

OFFICIAL IA EXEMPLARS & TEACHER SUPPORT MATERIALS (Username: shared / Password: IBDocs1234)
Official IBO Extended Essay Assessed student work
MYP Notes: https://znotes.org/ib/middle-years-program/
https://ib-academy.nl/free-resources
https://znotes.org/ib/diploma-programme/
https://www.blitznotes.org/ib/
https://ibdone1.wordpress.com/
https://ibrevision.wordpress.com/
https://sites.google.com/view/https-ib-resources/home
https://www.classlancer.com/ibresources
https://quester.io/t/iPOKWUoNVVF/ (change subjects on the left menu)

French B & ab initio

Discord resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15dBVLy15W0leuOMLFmN_dRyBn4nN_-C1?usp=share_link
External websites:
Exam tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10IZ5GF2FtlXnRsHs9wf_E6dcj0EsjPQCNB8EnJU_to8/edit?usp=sharing
French B SL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uJBMfUjbb9WbU8MaaJIT0M7MnHsS38jS?usp=sharing
http://www.tremplinfle.com/interview.html
Text types and prompts (2016): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncatjkm0OdcopKBWjWue0KLHuInUfK2J?usp=sharing
Text types: https://emilyvanderark.wixsite.com/education/text-types
French B HL oral 29/30 (la petite fille de monsieur linh): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ihQhjHayQsQUjBMFDW7mhp8a7qFLGvxM/view?usp=sharing
Interview example: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c2FsZW0uazEyLnZhLnVzfGZyYXUtbW1lLXJpY2V8Z3g6MzYwZDlkYjY2MzMxODlkMw
Vocabulary Quizlets:
Conjugations:
More Grammar:
- https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammay-adverbial-pronoun/
- http://laits.utexas.edu/tex/gadj3.html

Spanish B & ab initio

Discord resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1txlzfaRYqKcCXtIC2__CCeaC_aMlY9T7?usp=share_link
Spanish Verb Tenses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ecwwcltZIIdoIChfRYbXAyOD2enuND_3TP0ckNLOjBA/edit#gid=875061247
Spanish B HL Tips & Tricks: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wBXVHUvK-ttnf2um9Vzf7HQd8io2sn0QMj137Ei_zoE/edit?usp=sharing
Rules for Spanish Accent Marks: https://catalog.ldc.upenn.edu/docs/LDC2019S07/Rules_for_Spanish_Accent_Marks.pdf
https://studyspanish.com/grammar
Spanish Ab Initio Vocab: https://quizlet.com/search?query=Spanish-Ab-Initio&type=sets
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/spanish-tenses/
https://ibyourwayout.wordpress.com/spanish-b-sl/text-types/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rm6Y3C2CeMBSNKXtCdIh9ljAMtbHC7NNoKwH46b2yuo/edit?usp=sharing
LangB Reading Comp & Orals tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_8A8aR5V2QSd6Prvm0cXUwEvLkVYywAhYpYvU5phNJY/edit?usp=sharing
Ab Initio Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/join/ND6QYeJFF
Text types: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsze3ihzr1mok8f/Text%20Types.docx?dl=0
http://www.spanishcentral.com/flashcards/list/sentence-connectors
https://quizlet.com/216900588/ib-spanish-vocabulary-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/202993064/spanish-ib-exam-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/300503284/final-exam-2018-spanish-ib-flash-cards/
Useful Phrases + Basics + Transition Words: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dgSMMSziU6dV94un3wJt12l98JIzqboh57xYZG-UR-o/edit?usp=sharing
Ab Initio Writing Formats: https://fliphtml5.com/iaaw/vvhw/basic
Listening practice:

Chinese B & ab initio

Discord resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dC08Ks_bg9JOcEJnPe5NS6T2cO163zN6?usp=share_link
Chinese B SL Oral Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k7Umx8RdRS9kyTOZ89y4lBc4kvY-NCy6gE3E2LITvZc/edit?usp=sharing
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammaMain_Page
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC_fdR7zZ_5SU--xuOrEdKw
Text types: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19LO80dpug07CgepoBlEan2pbVKHwTc0ZCZS9AiFrIpI/edit
Idioms dictionary: https://www.purpleculture.net/dictionary-details/?word=%E6%84%8F%E5%A4%96
Idioms list: https://mandarinhq.com/2019/01/chinese-idioms-chengyu/
https://slideplayer.com/slide/8197748/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CSiTvzswTTpGXh-MUxBeCnaPNLxIj2-BEfPvMIFl02g/edit
Mandarin B SL - Conjunctions: https://quizlet.com/474568428/chn5-ib-mandarin-b-sl-conjunctions-%E8%BF%9E%E8%AF%8D-flash-cards/?i=2p322h&x=1jqY

ITGS

Global Politics

Discord resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pU7-5oflka3Gk-Po1_RtF2DYv8FFcKMG?usp=share_link
https://glopoib.wordpress.com/
https://sites.google.com/cdnis.edu.hk/globalpolitics/
Unit 1 Case Study Review: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13vBy9pYZrVApAB0jrRriFJ9ilTtr64eK0Kd4BKlg2U8/edit?usp=sharing

Design & Technology

Visual Arts

https://meganchurchart.com/

Sport, Exercise & Health Science

https://ibsportsscience.wixsite.com/home

submitted by aimlesskr to pirateIB [link] [comments]

2023.07.16 21:54 Menathraas Learning Through Input - 500 Hours Report

Hello,
I've been learning French since the 1st of January this year, using a method which is almost entirely based on Comprehensible Input. I made an initial post when I hit the 140ish hour mark that you can read here (https://www.reddit.com/French/comments/110sq8s/learning_through_input_140_hours_report/) if you want. This post is an update to that one, as I've just passed the 500 hour mark this weekend.
Background Info.
First though, a little about me. I decided to start learning French as I'm off to France with my best friend in September for the Rugby World Cup. My goal is to get a level of at least B1 by then - I basically want to be able to hold a basic conversation with people in the cities we'll be staying in and visiting. I felt like this is doable as I've spent the last year and a half learning Spanish, and during that time I've really refined what works for me and sorted out the useful materials from the less useful. According to my tutor - my Spanish is a strong B2 level. I'm also a teacher of English as a foreign language and the knowledge I have of English grammar and the English language really helped me to understand Spanish grammar - especially when terminology starts to get thrown around! So I figured this would be an advantage when it came to learning Frech as well.
The Method/Materials
I had a really unfocused first 6 months learning Spanish and tried every app and gimmick under the sun, but nothing really worked for me. It wasn't until last April that I properly decided to give Dreaming Spanish a go, and I discovered the power of Comprehensible Input. A few months after that, I decided to give Olly Richard's Short Stories in Simple Spanish a go and found it really helpful, so I decided to buy his Story Learning courses and they did wonders for my Spanish. So I knew that the core of my French learning would be CI and Olly Richard's Story Learning French Uncovered course. I also picked up a copy of Le Francais Par La Methode Nature from Ayan Academy and also took full advantage of the audios of the book on their Youtube channel too. In addition I also bought the Assimil French course, and found some other useful CI sources - namely the French Comprehensible Input YouTube channel and Alice Ayel's YouTube channel and webpage. I also took inspiration from PolyglotALot's video for learning Arabic in a year and got a tutor to give me CI sessions once a week on italki.
Changes Since the Last Post
- I completed the Assimil book in April. I have to say I didn't really "get" how this resource was supposed to work. I didn't get the production phase part and using the book really started to feel like a chore. By the end I was just using it as more CI at the start of my study sessions.
- Le Francais Par La Methode Nature chapter. I'm still going through the book and I'm almost finished, but I changed from listening to each chapter 3x a day for 4 days to 2x on the 1st day and then 1x on days 2 and 3, before doing the writing exercise at the end of the chapter on day 3. I still think it's a great resource but the way I was using it quickly became a drag when the audios for the chapters started to go above 10 mins. To get the book for free you can find the PDF on Ayan Academy's Patreon here (https://www.patreon.com/ayanacademy) I thoroughly recommend using their accompanying audios on YouTube.
- Story Learning French Uncovered. I finished the Uncovered Beginner and Pre-Intermediate Chapters and have moved on to their Uncovered Intermediate. This is a useful resource although I found the beginner and pre-intermediate worksheets a chore and I'm glad they're not in the intermediate level.
- Alice Ayel (https://www.aliceayel.com/). This is quite possibly one of the best resources for learning French if you like CI in my opinion. I've completed the Stage videos all the way up to the most recent "Adult Stage" videos and have read and listening to all of the "Baby, Infant and Teen" Stories and I'm working my way through the "Adult" stuff. The way she encourages students to write in the "Teen Stage" was something I found incredibly useful. For something like £5 a month, I think it's excellent value for money.
Current Routine
My daily routine is something like this:
At night after my work I go through in this order.
- Le Francais Par La Methode Nature Chapter. I listen and read 2x if it's a new chapter and just 1x otherwise. On the 3rd day of a chapter I do the writing exercises and then move onto a new chapter the next day.
- Story Learning Uncovered Intermediate. I listen to and read the chapter 2-4x and then work through the accompanying videos throughout the week.
- Inner French Build A Strong Core Course. This is something that was recommended to me on my last post and I think it's been incredibly useful. Some great explanations of tricky grammar points alongside some really interesting cultural French lessons.
- Alice Ayel. One of the stage videos if they've been released, if not I just read and listen to some of the stories for 15+ minutes depending on how late it is.
- Olly Richards' graded readers. About 3 weeks ago when I moved onto more of an intermediate level, I started reading his Short Stories in Simple French and working through the 30 Day Mastery series. I find these invaluable and I listen to the audiobooks as I read along.
Throughout my day I also do:
- Inner French Podcast - I try to fit in 1 episode a day when I can. I actually started listening to these around the 225 hour mark when I would have rated my level as A1/A2 and I was surprised with how much I could understand.
- Speakly - Just 5 minutes to get my brain in "French mode"
- Memrise - 30 minutes. Both Memrise and Speakly I just use to reinforce and introduce words into my mind.
I also have at least 1 1.5 hour lesson with a tutor on iTalki, although I have just found another tutor and I think I might up my amount to 2 1.5 hour lessons per week before I go to France in September. These lessons are just general conversation, where we chat about different things and I can ask them any questions I might have about grammar.
In total I'll do anywhere from 2-5 hours of French a day! Although I'm making an effort before September and really pushing myself.
Thoughts and Progress
All in all I've been very happy with how it's going. I had my first lesson with the aforementioned new tutor and after our initial lesson her assessment of my level was that I was a lower B2 speaker, which I was over the moon with! I had a wee dip too where I didn't study much in March and April as I burnt myself out a bit and then was on holiday in Spain. So to have reached a B2 level in essentially 6 months has been an absolutely huge boost to my confidence and has me really fired up to go fully intensive until September. We've been practicing in some lessons with DELF B2 speaking topics and I'm finding the lessons really, really fun.
You can see the breakdown of my hours studied here (https://imgur.com/a/NN5HTmb). All in all I'm really enjoying the learning journey and I'm looking forward to going to France in September to really put my skills to the test! As my initial goal was a B1 level, I'm just going to keep pushing and get as far as I can with my current level.
The only "issue" I woud say I have is there simply aren't enough hours in the day! I could easily do an extra 1-2 hours on top of what I do but with work, also practicing Spanish for 1-2 hours a day and other real life stuff, it just simply isn't possible.
Future Plans
I plan on continuing with my current routine and completing the resources I'm using and I have my eye on a few more Story Learning and other resources to add once I get to a certain point. One thing I have to say is that I think by also continually working on my Spanish, the 2 have really strengthened each other, and I'll often catch myself thinking "how would I say this in the other language"
I hope that you found this useful and can maybe get some use out of the recommended resources. Feel free to ask any questions!

submitted by Menathraas to languagelearning [link] [comments]

2023.07.16 21:53 Menathraas Learning Through Input - 500 Hours Report

submitted by Menathraas to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2023.07.16 21:52 Menathraas Learning Through Input - 500 Hours Report

submitted by Menathraas to French [link] [comments]

2023.06.26 13:01 Party_Entrepreneur72 Your own Duolingo without overengineering

Hi, my name is Mikhail Emelyanov, I’m a Python programmer and I would like to show you my pet project — Flywheel, a micro-platform for learning foreign languages, a mixture of Duolingo and Anki, an application that can teach you to properly write in Spanish (or any other language you’re studying). Flywheel’s source code is available on GitHub.

https://preview.redd.it/qyq8iu3kfc8b1.png?width=946&format=png&auto=webp&s=a52b50122bf694bf1bda6c260f8f9fd935a84421
As you may know, generalized knowledge of a foreign language can be broken down into four relatively independent components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Unfortunately, training one of these abilities has no direct effect on the other components, so, for example, by developing our reading skills, the effect on our writing skills is quite indirect. Flywheel is a ‘sharpener’ specifically for written Spanish.
If you’ve ever used Duolingo, you should have some idea of the format in which you’ll be studying. The formula is simple: here’s a phrase, translate it into the other language; the app will remember the last time you translated a phrase and how successful you were at it; and depending on the accuracy of your answer, it will determine when you should do the same phrase again. In my opinion, Duolingo and its approach are brilliant. However... There are certain aspects that somewhat spoil the learning experience, and Flywheel was specifically designed to address them.

Wish List

Usage

How It Works

phrases_file_name = "phrases.txt" repetitions_file_name = "repetitions.json" if __name__ == "__main__": phrases_file_path = find_or_create_file(phrases_file_name) repetitions_file_path = find_or_create_file(repetitions_file_name) phrases = read_phrases(phrases_file_path) repetitions = read_repetitions(repetitions_file_path) can_work, error_message = data_assessment(phrases, repetitions) if can_work: message = merge(repetitions, phrases) print(message) while True: current_phrase = determine_current_phrase(repetitions) user_result = user_session(current_phrase) update_repetitions(repetitions, current_phrase, user_result) save_repetitions(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) else: print(error_message) exit()

The operating logic is roughly thus:
• we look for phrases.txt in the project directories (lots of phrase pairs separated by a dual vertical line, see the ‘Usage’ section for details); if we can’t find it, we create a blank file for future editing by the user;• similarly, we look for repetitions.json (progress records and memorization degrees of all complete phrase pairs); if not found, we create an empty file;
• we create data structures from the information taken from phrases.txt and repetitions.json, and then evaluate whether we can work with given combination. If phrases.txt is not empty, then okay, we can convert phrase pairs to our internal format and transfer that information to repetitions.json. If repetitions.json is not empty, then also okay, we can work with the information we’ve already accumulated. Both phrases.txt and repetitions.json being empty is not okay, we have nowhere to draw the information we need to work, so we complain about this fact to the user, let them create phrases.txt with at least some minimal content;
• during the loop, we feed a new task to the user, picking the most relevant phrase we need at the moment from the phrase dictionary. If there are phrases that require repetition, we pick them first; if all completed tasks don’t require a refresher right now, we start mixing in new phrases.
• after each task, we update the data in repetitions.json and the user’s statistics, regardless of the quality of the answer.
In the process of writing the code, I divided all the functionality into data_level (sort of the essence of the language practice itself), system_level (functionality that depends on the operating system) and ui_level (methods that determine how to interact with the user), also adding a statistics file showing the total number of attempts made by the user and containing all the Spanish and English words that they learned. The final version turned out to be about the same as the original blueprint, if only a little more spread out:

from data_level import DataOperations as dop from system_level import FileOperations as fop from ui_level import UiOperations as uop phrases_file_name: str = 'phrases.txt' repetitions_file_name: str = 'repetitions.json' statistics_file_name: str = 'user_statistics.txt' if __name__ == '__main__': phrases_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(phrases_file_name) repetitions_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(repetitions_file_name) user_statistics_file_path = fop.find_or_create_file(statistics_file_name) phrases: dict = fop.read_phrases(phrases_file_path) repetitions: dict = fop.read_json_from_file(repetitions_file_path) can_work, assesment_error_message = dop.data_assessment(phrases, repetitions) statistics: dict = fop.read_json_from_file(user_statistics_file_path) if can_work: is_merged, merge_message = dop.merge(phrases, repetitions) print(merge_message) if is_merged: fop.save_json_to_file(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) while True: current_phrase: str = dop.determine_next_phrase(repetitions) user_result, best_translation = uop.user_session(current_phrase, repetitions[current_phrase]) dop.update_repetitions(repetitions, current_phrase, user_result) fop.save_json_to_file(repetitions_file_path, repetitions) statistics = dop.update_statistics(statistics, current_phrase, best_translation) fop.save_json_to_file(statistics_file_name, statistics) else: print(assesment_error_message) exit()

First we need to determine whether the user answered the given question correctly, allowing for the possible existence of several correct versions of the translation.

# import jellyfish def find_max_string_similarity(user_input: str, translations: str List[str]) -> (float, str): """Compares user_input against each string in translations""" max_distance: float = 0 if isinstance(translations, str): translations = [translations] best_translation: str = translations[0] # Cleanup and 'compactify' user input ('I don't know!!!😀' -> 'i dont know') user_input = DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower()) # 'Compactify' translations translations = [(t, DataOperations._compact(t.lower())) for t in translations] for translation, compact_translation in translations: current_distance = jellyfish.jaro_distance(user_input, compact_translation) if current_distance > max_distance: max_distance = current_distance best_translation = translation return max_distance, best_translation def _compact(input_string: str) -> str: """Restrict use of all special characters and allow letters and numbers only""" return ''.join(ch for ch in input_string if ch.isalnum() or ch == ' ')

Inside the husk engaged in data transfer, you can see the Jaro distance calculation:

current_distance = jellyfish.jaro_distance()

Accordingly, there is an estimate of the accuracy of the user’s answer:

level_excellent: float = 0.99 level_good: float = 0.97 level_mediocre: float = 0.65

Come to think of it, maybe the Levenshtein distance would be more appropriate here?
By the way, try turning this:

user_input = DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower())

into something like this (I don't mean dropping DataOperations, but rather arranging a pipe for methods like string):

user_input = user_input.lower().cleanup().compact()

def _supermemo2(repetition: dict, user_result: float) -> dict: """Update next attempt time based on user result""" if user_result >= DataOperations.level_good: # Correct response if repetition['repetition_number'] == 0: # + 1 day repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=1)).strftime(datetime_format) elif repetition['repetition_number'] == 1: # + 6 days repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=6)).strftime(datetime_format) else: # + (6 * easiness_factor) days repetition['time_to_repeat'] = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=6 * repetition['easiness_factor'])).strftime(datetime_format) repetition['repetition_number'] += 1 else: # Incorrect response repetition['repetition_number'] = 0 repetition['easiness_factor'] = repetition['easiness_factor'] + ( 0.1 - (5 - 5 * user_result) * (0.08 + (5 - 5 * user_result) * 0.02)) repetition['easiness_factor'] = max(repetition['easiness_factor'], 1.3) return repetition

max_attempts_len: int = 10 # Limit for 'Attempts' list

# from dataclasses import dataclass # from difflib import SequenceMatcher def find_user_mistakes(user_input: str, reference: str) -> list: """Dig for user errors and typos""" @dataclass class ComplexPhrase: phrase_without_punctuation: List[str] transformation_matrix: List[int] user_input = DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower() reference = reference.lower() correction_map: list[bool] = [True] * len(reference) complex_reference: ComplexPhrase = ComplexPhrase(phrase_without_punctuation=[], transformation_matrix=[]) # 'Minify' reference phrase and remember transformation shifts for i, ch in enumerate(reference): if ch.isalnum() or ch == ' ': complex_reference.phrase_without_punctuation.append(ch) complex_reference.transformation_matrix.append(i) minified_reference: str = ''.join(complex_reference.phrase_without_punctuation) corr_map: list[bool] = [False] * len(minified_reference) # Compare cleaned user input and 'minified' reference seq = SequenceMatcher(lambda ch: not (ch.isalnum() or ch == ' '), user_input, minified_reference) blocks = seq.get_matching_blocks() blocks = blocks[:-1] # Last element is a dummy for _, i, n in blocks: if n >= 3: # Don't show to the user too short groups of correct letters, perhaps he entered a completely different phrase for x in range(i, i + n): corr_map[x] = True # 'Unminify' reference phrase and restore transformation shifts for i, corr in enumerate(corr_map): if corr is False: correction_map[complex_reference.transformation_matrix[i]] = False return correction_map

A bit complicated? At a glance, we could have taken a shorter route by directly applying SequenceMatcher to the user’s response and reference phrase, like this.

def find_user_mistakes(user_input: str, reference: str) -> list: """Display of user errors""" seq = SequenceMatcher(None, "".join(DataOperations._compact(DataOperations._cleanup_user_input(user_input).lower())), DataOperations._compact(reference.lower())) blocks = seq.get_matching_blocks() blocks = blocks[:-1] # Last element is a dummy corr_map: list = [False] * len(reference) for _, i, n in blocks: if n >= 3: # Don't show to the user too short groups of correct letters, perhaps he entered a completely different word for x in range(i, i + n): corr_map[x] = True return corr_map

def _print_colored_diff(correction, reference) -> None: """Visualisation of user errors""" for i, ch in enumerate(reference): if correction[i]: print(Fore.GREEN + ch, end='') else: if ch != ' ': print(Fore.RED + ch, end='') # Just a letter else: if i - 1 >= 0 and i + 1 < len(reference): # Emphasise the space between correct but sticky characters if correction[i - 1] and correction[i + 1]: print(Fore.RED + '_', end='') else: print(Fore.RED + ' ', end='')

Outro

Well, that’s about it for now. From now until the end of your current lifecycle, you can spend as much time on learning a foreign language as you like, add new phrases or add to existing translations and keep up with your progress even after minuscule efforts.
However, keep in mind that: • first of all, miracles are not real, and you will have to spend a considerable amount of time (approximate estimates) to learn the language in any case;• and, secondly, as aptly noted by Ilya Frank, ‘Language is akin to an icy hill — you have got to move fast if you want to get to the top of it,’ that is, in other words, if you don’t dedicate enough time to language learning, and keep to a fairly tight schedule, you will not be able to reach a new equilibrium point, and your acquired knowledge will slowly but surely fade away.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. As a reminder, Flywheel’s source code is available on GitHub and is updated and corrected whenever possible. If this rather simple but, in my opinion, very effective method of learning Spanish grabbed your attention, please create repository forks, make corrections both to code (project is written in Python and contains only about four hundred lines) and to the list of translated phrases. If you could leave a star on GitHub, that would be great.
You know what I like most about this method? After a few days of using the app, my Spanish obviously didn’t improve much. However! I gained a distinct feeling of control over the process of learning a foreign language! Previously, when using Duolingo, I had this feeling of passivity, like a passenger in a bumper car welded to the base of an amusement park ride: the car would move, then suddenly jerk to the right, then make a gentle left turn... Perhaps the trajectory was fairly good, and scientifically sound, but my issue was that it didn’t consider my previous knowledge and individual preferences. Now that both data and methods of their processing are in my hands, I feel that my little car is more or less obeying the steering wheel and is going in the direction I need.

submitted by Party_Entrepreneur72 to languagelearning [link] [comments]

2023.03.22 02:49 Perdu7 Anyone else find it surprisingly easy so far to learn?

I began "learning" by doing one chapter of 'easy croatian' pdf each day, and I am loving it so much and having a lot of fun. The pronunciation is very easy in my opinion, as well as some of the starting grammar rules.
I find it a lot easy in terms of pronunciation and grammar than when I started french last year in a fransication class 😂. Is it just me?
And should I do more than easy croatian?
I plan to watch movies with subs, croatianfilm website as well as vocab exercises on memrise and mondly/drops each day (and reviewing all previous chapters of easy croatian each day before i start a new one). I will also speak to my cousin and aunt sometimes (although I do not know how well they speak it, my cousin said she can and self taught but Idk if she was just bragging hahaha).

Anyway thanks, I am really enjoying it 😁. I would not have began with croatian if my cousin and her fam weren't Croats tho, it was not my first pic for a slavic language but still fun!

submitted by Perdu7 to croatian [link] [comments]

2022.10.02 12:44 Derpost A comprehensive master list of resources that will take you from A1 to B2 (no prior knowledge required) (including mostly unknown resources)

The comprehensive list I am about to provide will only include some of the best resources I have known and not all, so that the learner may not succumb to a so-called decision fatigue.
#1 By far the most comprehensive and most diligently prepared book for learning French is Le français par la méthode nature (audio here). It requires no knowledge at all of the French language to start learning with this book since it is thoroughly prepared to be self-interpretive with the help of marginal notes, context and pictures, which means that ideally the entire book can be read through itself without the aid of anything external. Thus, it is a true source of comprehensible input and by the time you are finished with the second volume, that is, Initiation à la littérature française, you are now ready to consume original French fluently. This second volume is available in hard-cover as well here. In short, French by the nature method by Jensen is a novella in French that you can pick up and read now, even if you are an absolute beginner. Beacuse of this reason, the further you get with the book, the more fun it becomes.
#2 Another similar source of comprehensible input for French is Étude Progressive de La Langue Française (physical copy can be obtained here.) Although smallar in size, this book of Stern is great to use in conjunction with the book above.
#3 Books similar to these first books were written earlier by our famous James Henry Worman. Since they are similar in design instead of expanding on them I will just give a list of Worman's books for French. (you can soon get your physical copies of Worman's book here.)
First French book after natural method (Cours de français d'aprés la méthode naturelle)
The French echo (L'écho de Paris)
Grammaire Française Pratique à L'usage Des Américains
#4 Different in design to the first three recommendations is French for Reading by Sandberg. It designed for college students to prepare them to reading academic papers in French, and I can tell byexperience, it works. It makes great use of cognates to show you that you already know A LOT OF French. Another great thing about this book is that almost each sentence is given parallely in English. Technically, French for Reading by Sandberg is a very well graded parallel text in English-French with grammatical explanations and tips given in the beginning of each chapter. It is intentionally made to be repetitive that you actually acquire the language. Even if you forget what you learned earlier, the parallel English translation comes to the rescue.
#5 For more practical conversations Linguaphone French Course is god-given(physical copies can be obtained here.) It consists of 4 volumes, course book containing conversations, handbook containing grammatical explanation and vocabulary of each conversation, oral exercises and written exercises.
#6 Similar to the Linguaphone course is assimil's widely known courses. Since they are quite popular suffice it to just share their names here.
French without toil (you can obtain a physical copy here.)
French with ease (you can obtain a physical copy here.)
#7 Cortina French is very similar to the last two courses. It is available for free here.
#8 French in action is an amazing video course. It works pretty much the same way as the #1-#3, in that, each video builds on what is taught in the preceeding one. This way, you are taught French via French with no other language being used.
To these seven recommendations can be added readers.
#9 Graded French Reader is fun to work through since it gives examples from French classics like Count of Monte Cristo.
#10 Whole French Language (Interlinear+Bilingual Text and Practical Exercises)
#11 The Gospel of Saint John in French with interlinear English translation
#12 Perrin's fables in French with interlinear English translation (adapted to hamiltonian system)
Here are some of the best grammar and exercise books for French. These ones are recommended to be stuied after you expose yourself to the books given above. Then using the exercises given in these books, you will be prepared to, now, produce in French.
#13 Ollendorff's New Method of Learning to Read, Write, and Speak the French Language
#14 Madrigal's Magic Key to French
#15 Heaths New Practical French Grammar
#16 Grammaire Progressive Du Francais (several editions available for various levels.)
French is a rather easy language to learn for speakers of Romance and Germanic languages. Provided that a combination of these books are studied attentively, fluency in reading will come quite soon. Then, the rest is up to how actively you use and expose yourself to French.
Let me know if any great course is missing in my list.
Edit: Le Français Par La Méthode Nature pdf link.
The links to all the pdf files are given in tbe description boxes on YouTube. I will edit the post again tomorrow to add them here.

submitted by Derpost to u/Derpost [link] [comments]

2022.07.27 18:49 SchinTeth My guide to help you start learning European Portuguese

Hello,
So before we start with the guide, here is a short overview of me and my learning experience, since I feel like it’s important that you know a bit about me in order to understand where I’m coming from.
I am learning European Portuguese since about a year, and I feel like I understand most podcasts, videos and finished reading my first Portuguese book (Filho da mae by Hugo Goncalves) written by a Portuguese native and not meant for children or learners. Although I didn’t understand everything, I could follow the story enough to know what’s happening and be moved by it. I had no experience with Portuguese beforehand, but I know French (I’m not a native in French, but I feel like my knowledge in french helped). I am a teacher in primary school, so I have a background in teaching and learning. All that said, in my guide I will try to give you advice and tips based on my learning experience with European Portuguese. Ok, then lets get to the thing you’re here for:
Introduction
It is important that you are aware from the start, that there are several variants of Portuguese, and even though they are similar, there are important differences in grammar and pronunciation. Something I didn’t know when I started. You find lots of Brazilian Portuguese online and a lot of apps that you find to learn teach you Brazilian Portuguese (and the difference isn’t apparent in a lot of them). I started with Duolingo and then went to Babbel, both of which teach you Brazilian Portuguese, just like lots of references to online material are often Brazilian. The most obvious difference to me is the pronunciation of the D which sounds more like a kinda DJ as compared to the D pronunciation in European Portuguese.
Another important thing to know, most tools I will recommend are paid, that is because the quality of the paid courses or tools is just superior in a lot of cases. You can get by without spending money but if you’re serious about learning, I recommend you consider the paid options at least for a while to get you up to speed. I am not paid or affiliated with any of the tools I recommend. Now that you’re aware, let’s get to how to get started.
What tools to use to get started:
First and foremost, it is important to learn vocabulary and the pronunciation of sounds and words in the language. I tried using books, but in my own experience I find the apps much more helpful, nonetheless, I will also recommend a few books, in case you prefer using those (since I didn’t use exercise books, I won’t recommend any of those) Here I have a few recommendations:
Practice Portuguese (App/Website)
If you want to start and have a more guided experience, the app or website of Practice Portuguese (https://www.practiceportuguese.com/) are a good start. I found them after I had already established a learning routine, but I still use their app and website. They have a course that starts you off right at the beginning with basically all you need, there are explanations, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Their full course is a paid membership (quite a bit cheaper if join on the website and then log into the app compared to paying in the app) and as I said I discovered it too late so I m not using the app but I did the free courses. Just by tying out those and watching their podcasts I feel like you can see that it’s a well organized learning tool.
They also have a youtube channel where all their videos have subtitles so you can get used to listening and speaking the language. Subtitles are very important because they help you for shadowing (speaking along out loud while listening in order to practice pronunciation) and a lot of youtube videos don’t have them or they have mistakes since they are translated by a machine. The paid membership also gives you access to translation and the entire transcript of the videos in the app or the website.
Memrise (App/Website)
Memrise (www.memrise.com) is the app I’m using, it’s the one I found before I came across Practice Portuguese and it’s a great app. Memrise is also paid, but if you look around there might be promotions on some websites or youtube channels; I found one on a youtube video so I got the first year for cheaper. They have a premade course that teaches you vocabulary and pronunciation. The app starts by using words and then put them in small phrases or expressions which accomplishes two things: * You learn the words and experience them in a context * The fact that you learn them in a sentence helps you remember more easily (chunking)
The vocabulary is spoken by natives and so you immediately hear the correct pronunciation and can practice along. Memrise on itself isn’t enough to learn Portuguese because it doesn’t teach you grammar or syntax (sentence structure) but it’s a good place to start. If you use the website, you find a lot of user made courses too, which can help you focus on practicing specific things but be aware that there might be mistakes in those so I only recommend those after you feel like you have grasp of the language. Note: If you added a user made course from the website, it then also appears in the app.
Memorion (App)
Memorion is a free app, that you can use to train vocabulary or expressions using spaced repetition with a flashcard system. Why not Anki? I tried Anki and while it has user made decks (these are sets of flashcards) with pronunciation, I don’t like that the premade decks are huge files and that I have to learn what someone else deems important and other than that, I feel like a lot of them teach me stuff that I find useless. Memorion allows to import Excel sheets so I can easily make my own flashcards, import them and learn what I find important.
I started by finding the most used words in European Portuguese online (I used https://www.portuguesewithleo.com/resources) and put them in Excel lists, one for each category, meaning Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs etc and started learning them using Memorion. This helps getting started, and even though you only get the AI pronunciation of the words, you can start learning them and recognizing them whenever you hear them in videos or other spoken occasions. Additionally I like writing down words that I learn and find useful, so I can make my own Excel sheet with my own vocabulary and learn it with Memorion.
The App also has a Quiz gaming feature, where you can practice what you ve learned outside of the spaced repetition.
Tandem (App Website)
Tandem is a language exchange app where you can find a partner and learn by talking to them. They have a paid option, but you dont need it at all, I actually recommend you use the free one. I’started using it after I felt like I can express myself at a basic A2 level and am practicing writing with a Portuguese native. I don’t recommend the app if you just start since its likely to be overwhelming but after you feel like you have a grasp on the language its important to put it into practice and start making mistakes.
A few tips when looking for language partners:

Ask yourself what you want to learn (talk, write, understand etc)
Ask yourself how you want to learn and how often (so you can find a partner that fits your needs)
Write into your profile what you want to learn, be as clear as you can
Make sure you find a partner that speaks European Portuguese (I had a lot of Brazilians asking me to talk to them, some tried convincing me that Brazilian is the same as European Portuguese, which it is not; note, they were all friendly and very eager to help, its just not what I needed so I m not complaining about them, this is just to make you aware)
Try to only talk to your tandem partner in Portuguese or the language they wanna learn from you (best find a way to get both in, some people just wanna teach so in that case try to stick to Portuguese as much as you can)
Make sure your partner corrects your mistakes because that’s the only way to learn

Apart from providing a way to practice the language, a partner is great to help you with questions, correct your mistakes. It can be frustrating if you get corrected a lot so its important to talk about how you like being corrected to your partner. Talk it out and talking about the way you learn, the learning practice is as important as the language study.
Deepl/Linguee (App Website)
Both are good tools you help you check for words you need to understand or if you re looking for a word. Deepl is a great translator and Lingue is a dictionary. Deepl isn’t always the best translation but its better than google translate in my experience.
Essential Portuguese Grammar (Book)
Essential Portuguese Grammar by Alexander Da R. Prista is a grammar book where the essentials of Portuguese grammar are explained. You ll find chapters about the use or nouns and articles, adjectives, pronouns and conjugations of essential verbs. The book is great at getting to the point and limiting itself to what is considered essential grammar for everyday use.
If you want to only get one book, I suggest this one because it really helped me and still is of use. There are no exercises, it’s just explanations and rules but everything explained in a simple to understand way.
Verbs & Essentials of Grammar Second Edition (Book)
Verbs & Essentials of Grammar by Sue Tyson-Ward is, similar to the Essential Portuguese Grammar book, a condensed version of essential grammar in European Portuguese but it is a bit more focused on verbs. The book also serves to give you an overview of grammar and verbs for daily usage but I honestly found the tips and explanations in Essential Portuguese Grammar a bit better. This book however isn’t bad by any means and surely contains a lot of helpful information.
Portuguese short stories: 11 Simple stories for beginners who want to learn Portuguese in less time while also having fun (Book)
Portuguese short stories by daily language learning is, as the name implies a book with short stories that are supposed to help you learn Portuguese. Every story has a translation into English which follows every Portuguese paragraph, a list with important vocabulary as well as a few questions to check your understanding of the story.
If you like learning by using stories, this book can be helpful but I read through it once, wrote down some of the vocabulary, answered the questions and I don’t feel like it helped me a lot. That said, if you really get into each story and use each one as a lesson where you go through it multiple times, learn the vocabulary (kinda like you would in school) then the stories are a great way to learn because they contain a lot of useful vocabulary, and the language feels very natural. If that is not your style, I recommend you look for regular children’s stories, short stories or the news online and use that.
Um Pequeno Olhar por Portugal (Book)
Um pequeno olhar por Portugal by Ines Almeida is a book with 15 short stories that are designed to help you learn and improve your Portuguese. The stories are also chosen because in some way they are showing off Portuguese culture, meaning they are European stories, talk about important people in Portugal or take place in famous places in Portugal. There are no translations and no vocabulary and the stories, even though digestible are not necessarily for total beginners.
I think I read it about 4 to 6 months into learning and I looked up a lot of words. It is, as the previous book a good book to support your learning if you don’t mind reading and not understanding every word. Looking up words and trying to read and re-read the stories a few times can definitely be a good way to help your understanding. If you are also interested in Portuguese culture, the book definitely has something else going for it. As before, I don’t find this a necessity though and you can also find short stories online.
Podcasts:
PracticePortuguese on youtube and on spotify
Mia Esmeriz Academy - Learn Portuguese Online Youtube and spotify
Portuguese With Leo youtube and spotify ** Portuguese With Carla** youtube and spotify
100 legendas em portugues spotify
These podcasts are all made for Learners and I like all of them, so just find what you like and use those.
How to actually learn
Ok, now that we have talked about the tools, how do we now go about the actual learning? In the following I will try to give you a few tips and talk about how I learned. But I will also talk about what I did wrong and what I wish I had done. Before we start, it is important to remember that learning styles are different, as well as your time scheduled for learning. The purpose you are trying to learn, and your learning context are also very important in how you approach your own learning path.
Why? How long? How intense?
It is important to figure out why you want to learn and how much time you want to dedicate to it every day. The reason it is important to figure all of this out at the start is because a regular learning schedule is the basis for improving and the motivation is what keeps you going when you feel like you don’t want to do it anymore.
The time you dedicate to your learning and the learning style you choose matter when deciding what learning tools you want to use. Memrise and Flashcard apps like Memorion are great if you want to spent some time learning but don’t have the time to sit down for a few hours and really dig into it, however I really suggest you do it every day, finish your lessons because consistency is key. The practice Portuguese app is good if you like more organized courses where you learn in a more guided way and start with grammar right away too. It probably works best If you sit down and take a bit of time to really try to digest each lesson and regularly train and review.
Books are a great way to practice grammar or follow a more school like approach, where you sit down and learn. It’s up to you to review and check if you remember what you ve learned; good practice books can help you here but make sure they have included the corrections.
There are lots of videos on how to learn a new language on youtube, so I won’t go too much into that but I want to stress that consistency is key and don’t give up.
Whatever you decide, try to keep it fun, do it regularly and every now and then evaluate your progress, so you can see if you might have to make some adjustments. Talking to other learners (in tandem or watching videos of language learners on youtube for example) might help you figure out learning strategies that fit your needs. Preparing for the learning isn’t learning, so don’t spend all your time on adapting learning tools and strategies.
Another thing to note when learning a new language is that at first progress is quick, you learn new vocabulary and feel good about it. But then there usually comes a time, sooner or later, where it can feel like you’re making a lot of mistakes and it can feel frustrating. This is normal. Remember that it’s a new language and besides vocabulary there is sentence structure and grammar which might be very different from what you know. Here making mistakes is normal because you get more confident or try to make more elaborate sentences and so of course you ll make more mistakes or find that you are still missing a lot of words you need. Don’t get demotivated and I d suggest trying to see it as a checkpoint where you ve made enough progress to where you want to talk. I had and actually am at a point where I feel like I can talk decently to my tandem partner, so I try expressing more complex thoughts in Portuguese and naturally make a lot of mistakes. Naturally because I m not just sticking to saying my cat is in the car or David is a boy and he has long hair. Write down vocabulary you feel you want to know, things that seem important in your regular vocabulary, a good tip here is if you never use the word in your native language, its unlikely you ll use it in Portuguese (unless you need Portuguese for work and never talk about work in your native language for example, since they are different contexts and need different vocabulary).
How to practice
Concerning Grammar
Grammar is important, but I suggest you don’t spend too much time reading grammar books. Verb tenses are important, and so are sentence structure but a lot of that comes when you learn by reading, listening and shadowing. As kids or babies, we learn language naturally and so I feel like that’s the most fun way to learn it also is how most of the tools I gave you are working. In practice there are lots of verb tenses and actual words we rarely ever need in regular day to day conversation. However, grammar is still important, so I recommend you don’t neglect it, if there are things you don’t understand then look them up but don’t focus on grammar or drilling verb conjugations (unless you really love that).
I tried drilling verb conjugations because I felt like its important for a while, and verbs are but the drilling practice didn’t help me much. You need to know the basics or regular and the frequent irregular verbs, sure. Its not a bad idea to also drill those to a degree in the most frequent verb tenses. Which, if reduced to minimum are: Indicativo Presente/ Preterito Perfeito/ Preterito Imperfeito/Futuro do Presente/Subjuntivo do Presente/ Subjuntivo Futuro / Condicional Futuro do Pretérito Simples and Imperativo.
You might find you need other tenses more but in my experience, those are the ones most used in regular conversation. You ll get by at first with the first three but I suggest if you encounter verbs or tenses regularly you ll have a look at them. You will notice that in regular conversation a lot of verbs and tenses repeat so just by listening, reading, talking and writing you ll learn the most frequent verbs and verb forms to a degree that additional practice is often just a way to help you remember the ones you don’t encounter that often but still use frequently or difficult ones.
Concerning Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the start of language learning, and it can be overwhelming. But in everyday conversation we don’t use that many words (according to the internet about 1000 to 2000 words), which is still a lot but more manageable. Therefore, I feel like looking up the most used words in Portuguese can be a good start and then I suggest starting with the nouns and the verbs because those are the most important components of our language. If you understand the verb and/or the noun in a sentence, a lot of times you can guess the rest. Depending on the time you want to dedicate to learning, I suggest you learn between 1 or 5 new words every day and make sure to regularly repeat the words from before (that’s why spaced repetition apps are great). Don’t overwhelm yourself, remember slow and steady wins the race. When practicing, always say the words out loud. I didn’t do that, and it was a mistake, it helps you with pronunciation (if you have the correct one) and it makes it easier to remember. Try not get used to wrong pronunciations because those can be hard to get rid of later.
There is no use in learning a bunch of vocabulary and then not use it in talk or writing. You might even remember it in your flashcards but when it comes to it in a conversation you suddenly can’t find the word. Why is that? Because the brain remembers it in the learning context but is not used to you actually using the word in context, it has to become active in your brain. This is why self-talk or a conversation partner are so important, so that you get used to using the words; note that writing also plays a very important role in this. So try using new vocabulary by making sentences with it which you can either say out loud to yourself whenever you can or write them down or just use them in conversations.
Concerning Pronunciation
Videos or Apps like Memrise are a good way to practice correct pronunciation because you can repeat out loud after the native speakers (which you should do). You can also use transcripts of videos or other spoken material and try to read it out loud while recording yourself and then later compare to the original to find what you have to work on. Don’t get used to wrong pronunciation because it’s hard to get rid of. If videos are too fast for you, remember you can slow them down a bit or find videos with native talkers that are speaking in a way that is easier for you to follow. I suggest not using videos with multiple speakers because they are much harder to follow.
Listening/talking and reading/writing
We learn by listening and it is normal for our understanding of a language to be better than our production (speaking or writing). Get used to the sounds of Portuguese as soon as you can and when you learn new vocabulary try to listen for it in the things you hear. For what you learn to become useful, meaning your brain can access it when you need it, it is important to practice and try using the words you learn; you can do this by talking to yourself trying to use the words or when you learn a word try making a few sentences with it. Like a muscle, the more you use a word or expression, the better your brain will remember it.
Don’t worry if you listen to something and you don’t understand half of it, or more. Its ok, remember you re learning a new language and that takes time. But still, try to not let if wash over you like a wave but engage, listen for words you know or find interesting, try to figure out sentence structures. If it’s too difficult go for something easier but you learn best if what you listen to is a bit too difficult for you (to the point where you can follow but it takes you some effort). Music can be a great started because you get used to the sounds of a language and can try to listen for words that you know while you’re doing something fun. Learning is an active process, so be active.
Podcasts that are meant for learning Portuguese are a great way to practice because they pronounce clearly and don’t talk very fast. If you feel more comfortable you can also try to look for regular Portuguese podcast with native speakers or listen to the news.
Reading is another way to get familiar with the language, while it doesn’t teach you pronunciation, it does help you learn and practice vocabulary and familiarize with the sentence structure. Reading also gives you the chance to re-read, look up vocabulary. You see words in a context, a sentence and so you also learn how the words you learn, or new ones are used in the language. Reading books is difficult when you start out, but you can try to look for short texts and then move to childrens books. See what works for you and what you enjoy.
Writing is also a good way to practice a language but it is important to have someone that can correct it so you don’t write on your own and repeat the same mistakes over and over. This is counterproductive, so finding someone that can check is a good way to do it, or find audio with transcript, where you try to write what you hear and then check the transcript for correction (make sure the transcript is correct, the ones auto-generated by youtube are often times not correct, especially If the talking isn’t clear).
Music
Music is a good way to get used to the sound of the language and most of all it’s a very fun way to learn and get a new way to access another culture. There are lots of good music playlists of Portuguese music, here too, be aware that a lot of them have Brazilian music/artists in. With music I don’t think it’s that much of a problem as long as you’re aware that’s a different variation of the language. Once you are used to the European Portuguese sounds it can be very interesting to spot the differences. I wouldn’t recommend using Music as a main way to learn though because it’s just too far removed from how people talk and since it’s a form of art the pronunciation also can very according to the needs. That doesn’t mean don’t have fun singing along with your favorite songs.
Essentially
It’s important to have your why, why do you want to learn?
It’s important to schedule in regular sessions in a way you know you can do and that’s fun.
Less is more. Don’t use 5 different tools or strategies, its ok to experiment but boil down to 2 or max 3 that work for you and stick to those. Don’t get lost in looking for material, once you have something that works stick to it and focus on the learning
Find your way of learning, I gave you a few tips and advice here but there are so many other resources online that show you how to learn a language and for sure 1000s of tools and courses so find your way. Here is a rough outline with an idea on how you could go about the different learning steps:

Start by learning vocabulary until you feel like you can understand basic easy sentences, also try looking for music that you like and listen to that to get used to sounds
Keep learning vocabulary. Try finding podcasts, texts or videos that you understand, if possible, use subtitles (in your native language is totally fine at this point) until you feel like you can express basic things (I d say about A2 level)
Keep learning vocabulary. Keep listening to audio material and try finding a tandem partner that helps you improve your skills. Here is also a good point to start reading some books, I used childrens books (A fada Oriana, O pequeno Principe (the little prince) are a few good ones for example. O pequeno Principe should be available for free as a PDF too)
Keep learning vocabulary, keep listening to audio material and talking to your tandem partner and try listening to news in Portuguese. At this stage, if you feel comfortable just try what you understand and go for videos without subtitles or movies (with subtitles is ok here too) are also a good choice (most movies on Netflix are Brasilian but Gloria is a good one, but difficult to understand; RTP Play is another decent source for Material or use podcasts not for learning Portuguese). Try reading books, look for what level you feel ok with here

These are just rough guidelines, I obviously can’t account for everyone and every need here so feel free to adjust to your likes and needs. Try challenging yourself to a degree where you feel like you understand most of what you hear but not get frustrated. More is less, don’t try to do everything and take your time; its better to make slow progress then none and better to make 10 minutes every day than 5 hours once a month.
So I hope this guide could help you get started, there is a lot of good material on the internet and I suggest you have a look at it. There are also obviously great tools that I didn’t mention and by all means use something else if it fits your needs better. This guide is just meant as a first starter because when I started, I didn’t find a guide like this and so I feel like maybe it might be helpful. If you have other suggestions or questions, feel free to post them of course

submitted by SchinTeth to Portuguese [link] [comments]

2022.07.08 04:49 MorinKhuur My DELF B1 Experience and Advice

I did the Delf B1 in Australia in mid-May and six weeks later I got the results. This is long but I know you all love detail. :-)
My background
I studied French about 10 years ago seriously, did it on and off for a while and then stopped completely. I restarted early last year. In April 2021 I did exercises in a DELF A2 workbook – my reading was very good, listening OK, speaking and writing non-existent. When I restarted iTalki lessons I literally could not remember how to form the passé composé. So I had an OK level of passive knowledge but a lot of gaps. Overall I would say a weak A2 in April 2021.
What I Did
My mainstays were weekly iTalki lessons with a professional teacher, Kwiziq for grammar, reading novels/nonfiction and consuming a lot of TV/film/YouTube content that interested me. I dabbled in a lot of other things on and off but those were the main ones. I don’t have a lot of heavy commitments outside of work but in February this year I got a much more demanding job that meant I basically stopped doing everything but iTalki weekly and some TV series/films until the end of March (lost a 60 something day Kwiziq streak, didn’t read French books at all during this time). Things calmed down and I started back with Kwiziq and reading but still my job makes it hard to get in a habit. So I don’t have a lot of non-work demands (notably no kids etc) but also don’t have endless free time and a volatile schedule.
I did an exam prep course at Alliance Francaise but honestly found it not very helpful, it was very general and you can learn everything in it for free on the internet. What was a big help was doing the mock exam AF ran a month before. It was an extra cost ($30 AUD) and only reading/listening but really worth it. You can set your timer etc at home but no matter how strict you are, you can't really recreate a formal exam atmosphere. The listening just flew by. So if you have an AF near you, check to see if they do mock exam sessions. I'm not doing the B2 until next year sometime but I'm going to do the mock for it in October just to see where I'm at and get that experience.
DELF B1
I got 86/100 with the following marks
Listening 22/25
Reading 21.5/25 (This one is quite disappointing as I have always gotten 25/25 on practice exercises and in the mock exam. Just goes to show on the day it can go wrong whatever your real world level. Oh well tant pis.)
Writing 24/25
Speaking 18.5/25
General advice
Reading and Listening – familiarise yourself with the exam format/requirements etc and time constraints but really the best way to prepare for these is just to improve your level in the normal language learning kind of way, I think.
There are quite a lot of Delf videos on YouTube and they really vary in quality imho. The two I found most helpful were
Le French Club https://www.youtube.com/c/LeFrenchClub
French School Tv https://www.youtube.com/c/FrenchSchoolTV
Speaking and writing. These are the hardest skills but they are also the ones you can more quickly polish up (‘hack’ if you really prefer) to add some marks on top. Either in this forum or French I recall strongly putting my opinion that writing was by far the hardest skill. I still think so, but having done the Delf I would amend that to say writing is the hardest but under exam conditions, speaking is the hardest. At least with writing you have time to plan, revise, correct and you are left alone in peace to do it. With speaking, the jury is right in front of you, it flies by so quickly and you really have no time to think. You just gotta do.
Definitely look at the marking rubic for each section. A lot (more than half from memory) of the marks are allocated to things that have nothing to do with vocab and grammar – they are about respecting the format, using correct level of politeness, understanding the task, structure, presenting an argument in a logical way. Therefore, you can get a good base just by understanding these things and producing them. Then if you make mistakes with grammavocab you will at least have a decent base score.
This is the B1 writing marking criteria http://www.delfdalf.f\_media/grille-evaluation-production-ecrite-delf-b1-tp-2.pdf
Speaking: The first thing was that I was expecting it to go – 1st part, 2nd part, 10 mins prep for 3rd part, 3rd part. But in fact we were taken in twos to a room to choose our topics for the 3rd part and did the 10 mins prep. Then we went individually into the actual exam room and did 1, 2, then 3.
So by the time the third part came around I was a bit overwhelmed, totally forgot my notes existed, and just babbled at random on my topic (something about negative effects of reality tv on children). Lol. I knew all the logical connectors and I knew I had to make my argument “logical and coherent” but in the heat of the moment I just talked, talked, talked totally without structure. So I lost those points for the structure, even thought I totally know how to do it.
In retrospect, I should’ve spent a lot more time planning my strategy for the 3rd part, how I would use my 10 mins and exactly how I would present my notes on the paper so they were easy to quickly refer to. I would strongly advise thinking about and practising this!
Be aware one of the markers will be making notes on you while you're talking - this is super distracting (or it was to me at least) but try your best to ignore it.
Writing. I got very lucky with this because I had prepared a lot for the exact type of question we got. One common scenario is a friend has an opportunity to work/study overseas but is hesitating and wants your advice. Le French Club has a model answer for this (video here) and the other kinds of writing you might be asked to do. I learned a lot of the phrases from this model answer and so was able to immediately use them. Of course 70% of it I still had to write myself and adapt to the exact question but knowing I had these rich phrases for giving advice etc gave me a great structure right off the bat and a lot of confidence. That’s why I got 24/25. Look for the model answers for the various types of writing you might be asked to do and familiarise yourself with the appropriate structures and vocab.
By the way, don’t use your own name when you sign off a letter in the exam as it has to be anonymous. Probably best to choose your own gender for the name so you don’t mess up the feminine/masculine grammar if you’re used to using one or the other when you talk about yourself.
That's basically my advice - if you're doing an exam soon, bon courage!

submitted by MorinKhuur to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2022.07.01 01:04 Kryhea consice french grammar book

So I've been learning french in a pretty lazy fashion for a few years now. I feel quite comfortable speaking it, but I've basically completely forgotten the grammar rules I learned in highschool way back when.
What's a good resource to learn this stuff in a consice way. I found this pdf which looks quite cool. It's from the 1800s but it's dense and doesn't waste whitespace with exercises. I may continue to use this but having a more modern and central resource that I can study like a textbook would be great.
As an analogy, I like to use the NRL Plasma Formulary as a reference for plasma physics. It's more useful than a plasma physics textbook because it doesn't waste space on exercises, it's just a quick and convenient resource.

submitted by Kryhea to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2022.05.19 15:34 PortiaDeLaCreme Grammar compendium

Hi everyone! Does anybody have any recommendations for a French grammar compendium? I mean a book or pdf that lists and explains most if not all French grammar concepts without anything else like exercises. The only book listed on the wiki isn't what I'm looking for.

submitted by PortiaDeLaCreme to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2022.05.14 18:02 -jacey- Can we make a master list of comprehensible input resources for beginners (all languages)?

Regardless of your opinion on language learning methods, I think most of us would agree that input (listening and reading) at your level is an important part of the learning process. For me personally, it's also the most FUN way to learn.
However, it's not always easy to find resources for input that is comprehensible for beginners. I thought it would be helpful if we could make a list of specific resources in a variety of languages, so we can save them for when we start a new language, or to share with people who are just starting their journey, or who are struggling with their listening/reading skills.
Specifically, I'm asking for resources for levels A0-B1 that use the target language to tell stories or communicate messages/information. They might use pictures, drawings, slow and simple language, etc. to make it understandable for beginners. I'm NOT looking for resources that explicitly teach grammavocab, or that heavily use translations. I am also not looking for listening/reading drills/tests/exercises.
Post your recommendations below, and I will edit them into the original post so we can have one big list. Please include a link and make your recommendation specific (instead of saying, "graded readers", include names and links to specific books that you enjoyed). Whenever possible, include the language level of the resource, the format, and whether it's free or paid.

CLICK HERE FOR A GIANT SPREADSHEET MADE BY u/Nubbikeks
Multiple Languages

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Easy Languages		Free	Interviews w/native speakers + subtitles
LingQ	Any	Some free features, $13/month	Audio + transcripts; can also upload your own content
Language Input		Free	Videos + subtitles

Spanish

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Dreaming Spanish	A1-B2	Free, optional premium $8/mo	Videos + visual aides
Spanish with Alma	A1-A2	Free	Videos + visual aides
Small Town Spanish Teacher- Simple Stories in Spanish	A2-B1	Free	Podcast + transcripts
National Geographic Readers	A1-?	$5/ea on Amazon (but check your local library)	Picture books
BookBoxInc	?	Free	Picture books + audio + subtitles
Fabulaudit	A1-A2	Free	Stories + visual aides
Spanish After Hours
How to Spanish
Linguriosa
Español Con Juan
Use Your Spanish
Español Con María
Why Not Spanish

Japanese

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Comprehensible Japanese	A1-B1	Free, with optional $5/mo Patreon	Videos + visual aides + transcripts
Nihongo~Learning	A1-B1
Japanese Tomato	A1-A2
Learn Japanese With Noriko	A1-A2
Japanese Immersion With Asami	A1-A2
Tadoku Free Books	A1-?	Free	PDF picture books (+ some audio)
Nihongo con Teppei		Free	Podcast
Bon Bon Akademie			Children's show

Italian

Link	Level	Cost	Format
The Italian Coach	A1-A2		Podcast
Italiano Bello	A1-A2
Simple Italian Podcast	A2-B1		Podcast
Una Storia ItaliAnna	A2-B1		Podcast + transcripts
Learn Italian with Lucrezia	A2-B1
Podcast Italiano	A2-B1
Teacher Stefano Show	B1
My Italian Podcast	B1
Italiano con Amore	B1
Pensiei e Parole	B1
Italiano Automatico	B1
Sonia Ognibene Books	A2-B1
Easy Italian News	A2-B1	Free	Audio + transcript
Italian According to Natural Method	A1-B1
Audio Recordings for the Natural Method	A1-B1
Leggiamo 101	A1-A2
Leggiamo 102	A2-B1
Slow Italian Fast Learning	A2-B1		Audio + transcript
Film & Clips	B2+
Smile and Learn Italiano	B2
Pokoyo	A2?	Free	Cartoon
Geronimo Stilton	B2
QVC Italia Live	B2
Aurora Arte	B2
Regional Italian TV	B2
Radio Italia TV	B2
Massimo Polodori	B2
Giochi da tavolo	B2
Ménéstrandise Audiolibri	B2

Swedish

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Swedish Short Stories for Beginners		$12	Book
Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners	A1-B1	$4	Audiobook

Norwegian

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Ett Lite Bildeglimt	A1-B1
Norwegian Teacher Karin	A1-B1
Speak Norsk	A1-B1
Simple Norwegian	A1-B1
Karense	A1-B1
Mystery of Nils	A1-B1
Norsk For Beginners	A1-B1

Mandarin

Link	Level	Format
Immersive Chinese	A1-?	App
Du Chinese		Reading via app
Mandarin Click
SyS Mandarin
LingLing Mandarin
Chinese Zero to Hero		Instagram + paid courses
Terry Waltz books

French

Link	Level	Cost	Format
Spongebob in French	A2-B1	Free	Cartoon
Little Talk in Slow French	A2-B1
innerFrench	A2-B1

submitted by -jacey- to languagelearning [link] [comments]

2022.03.16 20:45 belgianulfr2001 I seek more resources to learn this language because Duolingo is a great start but not enough imo

Hey everyone, first time posting here and certainly not the last. If you want to skip context go under the line !^{^}
For context, my 1st language is french and I learned English during school + with the help of music and all, I liked learning it this way since I felt guided by the academic side and interested by the music side.
So why learning Ukrainian now?
Since 2016, One of the music genre I listen the most is Black metal, and there's some ukrainian bands that I love very much but the sad things is that I don't understand a single word even with the lyrics in front of me. Another reason is that some french YouTubers I follow did a trip to Ukraine some years ago, I was hooked instantly and did some research about the country's history and all. I plan on going to Ukraine after the war situation get "better" so learning the language will help.
--‐-----------------------------
So here I am, I downloaded Duolingo and I'm on my 15th streak, I'm motivated in learning more. The problem is that I'd like to have some things on paper (easier for me) and more guidance about grammar which I feel like it lacks on Duo. If there's other ways of learning (more academic exercises, books or PDF/files that I can print) I'm interested! And if possible, not too expensive because I'm poor lmao. Thanks in advance, and if you have any advices I'd be glad to read them.
Take care everyone

submitted by belgianulfr2001 to Ukrainian [link] [comments]

2022.02.06 03:27 supercilioussealion French Learning Journal: Resources and Recommendations

Hello friends and fellow learners!
I'm going to share some of the tools and input sources that I've found most useful in my French studies. There are a lot of ways to spend $100 and buy in to some over-promised program, or to simply get caught up in a dead end of subject matter and feel cut-off from your personal goals.
Whatever your reason for learning French, you must be your own teacher. This is true whether you're learning French in school or have decided to translate the works of Proust as a retirement hobby. Be encouraged that we live at a time of unparalleled access to resources, and equip your personal classroom in a way that works best for you.
Disclaimer: this is my personal, anecdotal account. I haven't tried everything, and I hope others will share their favorite tools and media in the comments.
Reference Tools
WordReference: The greatest French-English dictionary. The mobile app is essential; not only is it a wonderful translation dictionary, but it provides conjugation, pronunciation, and integrates across apps to facilitate pop-up translation.
(Advanced) La Trésor de la Langue Française Informatisé: A massive 16-volume compendium of the French language that was digitized and made available for free online in 2002. Beyond its function as a dictionary, TLF provides deep literary examples and etymological information. The website is a bit web 0.5, so I prefer to use a paid app version which is nicer to navigate. Search "TLFI" for the app; it's $2.
Barrons 501 French Verbs: Verbs are King in French, and this is the greatest reference work on the subject. I'm quite happy to have the book, but free pdfs are easy to find. The exercises and thorough explanations of tenses in the beginning are indispensable as well.
(Advanced) Le Petit Grevisse/Le Bon Usage: If you are at an upper intermediate/advanced reading level and want to go deep on grammar, Maurice Grevisse is your man. It's technical and at times philosophical, and sure to grant insights into grammar across languages.
Apps
This is often the focus of language-learning discussions, but it's important to keep your expectations realistic. The primary benefit to apps is that they encourage frequent practice and provide varied forms of exercises and exposure. They won't replace a study curriculum or native input sources, and it's easy to let paying for something replace actually learning. One downside to apps is that there's always a component of frustration, either owing to the gamified structure (you can lose!) or to errors and oversights that may make you feel discouraged.
Pimsleur, Babbel, Rosetta Stone: Great for practicing listening comprehension and speaking with a kind of non-linear, context-focused approach.
Busuu: The app is a little janky and the curriculum tops out somewhat early, but I think it could be great for beginning to lower intermediate, and the community features have potential if you're willing to put yourself out there and let native speakers evaluate your speech and writing.
Duolingo: The most annoyingly gamified, with a focus on guilt psychology. Sometimes that's what you're looking for, though. Example sentences are often bizarre, and translations can be unnatural, but there's a lot of material and you can casually dive in and practice a variety of subjects and skills.
TV5: Free exercises with a focus on listening comprehension and cultural education, tailored to your level (up to B2). There is a mobile app, but it can get a little cramped.
Ankii: The quintessential Spaced Repetition System (SRS) app. We're talking about digital flashcards. It's free (I recommend downloading on a computer and syncing with your account before downloading on mobile). There are hundreds of decks on French, but the top one (5000 most common French words), is a must.
Kwiziq: Hands-down my strongest recommendation if you're gonna spend some money. The quizzes are brilliantly structured, and the grammar reference articles are wonderfully written. There are also exercises for listening comprehension and writing that are more self-directed, but well worth doing regularly. The team is very hands-on and responds to forum questions reliably. Imo, the best grammar-learning app that only lacks a speaking practice component, but you can just do that yourself, right?
Input Recommendations
I'm not going to get too specific with media here; you should let your own interests direct what you choose as much as possible. I don't include French learning content geared toward English speakers in this category: the point is to learn about a new culture or subject, n'est-ce pas?
Localize
This is about finding opportunities to convert areas of your language life into French. If you are comfortable (or mostly comfortable), switch your phone, your search engines, Youtube, and whatever else you can think of into French. This will create extra work for your brain, but push through. Many of my daily search engine queries can be answered by French websites, and if I ever need English-language search results, I can open a private/incognito window.
The next step is to use a VPN and load a server in a Francophone country. You'll then have access to free streaming French media sites, and your existing streaming services will switch over as well.
Podcasts
Podcasts have been an incredible resource for me. Localize your podcast app to France and browse the most popular podcasts for subjects you like. Find ones with a ton of episodes and listen to them en boucle. Being able to familiarize yourself with a consistent speaker and subject is a huge boon to learning.
Radio France is a tremendous free resource for news and podcasts with a great mobile app. France Inter and France Culture are wonderful as well
Personal Favs:
La Loupe: Daily international news and economics
A Bientot de te Revoir: Relaxed culture/humor interviews with the wonderful Sophie-Marie Larrouy
Du Béton aux Nuages: A limited series about the history of French Hip-Hop and Rap
Movies/TV
French cinema is reason enough to learn the language! Without a VPN, your options will be somewhat limited, but you can still customize Netflix, for example, to run French subs on some material.
The browser extension Language Reactor (formerly known as Learn Languages with Netflix), provides bilingual subtitles for Netflix and Youtube with the ability to break up the dialogue into chunks of text. I find it a little overwrought but it could be great for a beginner who wants to get really granular.
ARTE and France TV are great resources, but you will need to run a VPN to take advantage.
Blu-Ray usually has language options (sometimes even French dubs), whereas DVDs are typically limited.
A few personal favs:
The Circle France (TV): Trash social media reality show that's great for learners because players interact through a speech-to-text app and use plenty of slang.
Family Business (TV): Breaking Bad as a silly, stupid, French comedy. Had me laughing hard.
Mon Oncle d'Amérique (film): Brilliant and beautiful psychological drama.
L'Auberge Espagnole (film): Charming coming-of-age flick that's full of nostalgia.
Après Vous (film): Daniel Auteuil in a heartfelt and hilarious comedy.
Books
Books were a crucial tool in my learning of English as a child and adolescent, and I certainly feel like a high schooler again when reading in French. I encourage you to seek out lycéen-level novels, bilingual books, and translations of books you're familiar with already. I hear great things about French Harry Potter.
Stopping to look up an unfamiliar word will break your flow and deny you the opportunity to divine its meaning through context. I encourage keeping up the pace of your reading and using a pad or notebook to write down words you'd like to look up later.
Graphic novels are a great way to learn as well, and though my experience with them has been limited, I can recommend the work of Pénélope Bagieu (whose work Culottées has recently been made into an animated series).
A few personal favs:
Petit Pays, Gaël Faye: A wonderfully written story of growing up amid ethnic violence in Burundi and Rwanda during the 90s.
Kiffe Kiffe Demain, Faïza Guène: Written when she was 19, the story of growing up an immigrant in a Parisian banlieue.
La Peste, Albert Camus: So timely! Also, despite its age, the language is rather accessible.
Video Games
If you have a console, switching it to French will automatically download the French versions of your games. This will vary on the game, sometimes with just subtitles, and sometimes you get full audio. If you don't have a console, check out what options you have on your computer or phone. Learning a language by playing games engages the mind in a unique and valuable way. I've also been surprised by how many obscure but useful words have made their way into my vocabulary thanks to video games.
A few examples:
Red Dead Redemption 2: Not a lot of French involved beyond the menus, onscreen prompts, and in-game documents, but the animal/hunting vocabulary has turned out to be oddly useful.
Ghost of Tsushima: Fully voiced in French! There is a particular tone and vocabulary employed to evoke the period, so it's a bit challenging.
Persona 5: English audio with a lot of French text. The "journal" feature allows you to go back to the dialogue transcript and play back the audio, which is an incredible learning tool.
Music
There are a lot of English-language lyrics that I can't understand. 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy? Don't expect French lyrics to be instantly intelligible either, but let them sink into your brain and they will passively inform your sense of stylistic pronunciation and poetic emphasis. Looking up lyrics and listening along is a great way to train your ear. There are music-specific channels on radio france/france intefrance culture that will introduce you to new artists, as well as great playlists available on your streaming platform.
some favs:
Feu! Chatterton
Assassin
Christine and the Queens
--
Thanks for reading! I hope you've found some of these recommendations helpful or inspiring, and if there are resources you'd like to share, please comment below!

submitted by supercilioussealion to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2021.10.28 23:01 Francetude Using Iframes to display main content

Hi,
I've created a website for people studying french language. My SEO is very bad at that point, and I'm looking at different directions to make it better. But I was wondering about that impact of Iframes on my (bad) SEO : I'm using Iframes to display my main content, which are lessons about grammar etc. I'm using Genial.ly Iframes, which are interactive and dynamic sliders, allowing me to get past those boring written rules.
But actually, how does that impact my SEO ? My pages are composed of Prerequisite links (internal links), the lessons (Iframe from Genial.ly), a button to download the grammar rule as PDF, Exercises (created with H5P) and a final link to a test page (internal). So basically, I'm afraid that if my Iframe's content is not taken into account, my page would be considered extremely empty.
Am I rightly afraid ? Do you have any advice for me ?
I'm diving into it, so my SEO knowledges are very basic (although I'm actively working on it!)

submitted by Francetude to SEO [link] [comments]

2021.09.05 10:46 honeywhite Latin By the Natural Method - by Bill Most - review and where to find it. Also: What Grammar Translation Is, and Why It Is Bunkum

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata by Hans Ørberg is the gold-standard text to learn the Latin language by the natural method (meaning, in short, any method—grammar-translation is bunkum). On that I think we can all agree (well, except the uninitiated). That said, there is a rival. Right around the time Ørberg was publishing his masterpiece, Professor William Most was writing his—and I would argue that it is every inch as good. More on this later—I'll let the man's work speak for itself first.

Elle est aussi disponible en version française, traduit par Victor Coulombe. La voici:

PART A. If you already know what the natural method is, SKIP THIS.
The natural method referenced in the title (the normal-school crowd calls it contextual induction, which I think sounds better) essentially means lots less grammar drill, much more reading than “traditional” textbooks. The drills and memory work of the “traditional” or “grammatranslation method” textbooks were popular from the 1800's into the 1930s, as Greek scholar Wm Rouse wrote:

The current method is not older than the nineteenth century. It is the offspring of German scholarship, which seeks to learn everything about something rather than the thing itself: the traditional English method, which lasted well beyond the eighteenth century, was to use the Latin language in speech.

As William Most wrote in the Teacher’s Manual:

If one wishes to make Latin primarily a means of mental discipline, then he should choose the ‘traditional’ method. If, however, one makes it his goal to teach students to read, write, and speak the language with fluency, then he will need to return to the basic principles of the method by which for literally a thousand years students were given that ability.

As John Bracey puts it:

For centuries now, the default approach to teaching Latin has been the grammar-translation approach. This approach generally consists of learning grammar rules, learning grammar terminology, memorizing paradigms, and translating Latin into English primarily to demonstrate grammatical accuracy. When you boil it down, the emphasis is on memorization and application of abstract grammatical formulae. This approach takes a language that was once spoken comfortably by people of all backgrounds, social classes, ages, etc. throughout the world and renders it into a complex linguistic jigsaw puzzle that requires an elite mathematical mind to decipher.

And don't let that fool you: what Most is really saying is that you should never, ever, ever choose the 'traditional' method. Well, there's one situation, which you'll scarcely come across, and it is this (pace Seumas Macdonald):

When I have learners who want to be equipped to deal with commentary-type material that uses grammatical meta-language. In this case, I am training learners to acquire a competency in a different area – how does one learn the explicit knowledge of language required to engage in conversations about explicit knowledge of language. To the extent that that’s a goal, that can be taught. It’s not acquisition though and it doesn’t lead to acquisition.

Finally, here's an anecdote that really hammers it home:

Our teacher emphasized the importance of grammatical terminology as well as the technical names of all noun and verb endings. We all got passing marks because we could distinguish a third-declension noun from a first-declension noun and because we could distinguish an ablative from an accusative. Not one of us could understand a sentence, though. Our job was to translate into English, not aloud, but only on paper. We were not to speak “The Ant and the Grasshopper” aloud. We were not to have a class discussion about it. We were to translate it into English, with pen and paper, in our 55-minute class time.
Though “The Ant and the Grasshopper” was the simplest Latin imaginable, we were reduced nearly to tears at our inability to make sense out of any of it. Even such a basic statement as “Tu pigra es!” elicited gales of laughter from those who attempted to force it to make sense: “You lazy es!” Unforgettable. Am I saying that I immediately understood that three-word sentence? No. It gave me enormous difficulty. As a matter of fact, all thirty or so students in the class laboured mightily over that three-word sentence. Not one of us could understand it on first reading — or even on tenth reading. “Pigra” was in the dictionary at the back. Most of us remembered that “tu” meant “you,” but nobody could find “es” in the dictionary at the back of the book. After maybe five minutes I finally remembered that “es” followed “sum” and blurted that out to everybody in my group. Ah! At long last we deciphered that sentence.
Why did it give us such difficulty? You see, we had by then been trained on nominative and accusative singular; subject; direct object; predicate noun/adjective; ablative with preposition; plural nouns; verb endings in -t and -nt; ablative/accusative with prepositions; apposition; position of adjectives; case uses; words ending in -ia, -tia/-cia, -ula; genitive case; tense; forms of sum; person; number; dative case; indirect object; dative with adjectives; masculine nouns in -a; declension I cases and case uses; first and second conjugations; infinitives; present stem/tense. Oh heavens above. No wonder nobody could get a grasp of the language.
With painstaking analysis, we could name the forms we were looking at. We could reproduce these charts in our sleep — actually, I think I did. We could hic-hæc-hoc-huius-huius-huius-huic-huic-huic-hunc-hac-hoc-hōc-hāc-hōc-hī-hæ-hæc-hōrum-hārum-hōrum-hīs-hīs-hīs-hōs-hās-hæc-hīs-hīs-hīs-ipse-ipsa-ipsum-ipsīus-ipsīus-ipsīus-ipsī-ipsī-ipsī-ipsum-ipsam-ipsum-ipsā-ipsā-ipsō-ipsī-ipsæ-ipsa-ipsōrum-ipsārum-ipsōrum-ipsīs-ipsīs-ipsīs-ipsōs-ipsās-ipsa-ipsī-ipsī-ipsī with the best of them, we could recite these charts until we turned blue in the face, but to what avail if we never practiced using the language? What would it profit foreigners in an English class to learn nothing but such chart forms as the following? INDICATIVE Present: I do, you do, he/she/it does, we do, you do, they do. Preterite: I did, you did, he/she/it did, we did, you did, they did. Present continuous: I am doing, you are doing, he/she/it is doing, we are doing, you are doing, they are doing. Present perfect: I have done, you have done, he/she/it has done, we have done, you have done, they have done. Future: I shall do, you will do, he/she/it will do, we shall do, you will do, they will do. Future perfect: I shall have done, you will have done, he/she/it will have done, we shall have done, you will have done, they will have done. Past continuous: I was doing, you were doing, he/she/it was doing, we were doing, you were doing, they were doing. Past perfect: I had done, you had done, he/she/it had done, we had done, you had done, they had done. Future continuous: I shall be doing, you will be doing, he/she/it will be doing, we shall be doing, you will be doing, they will be doing. Present perfect continuous: I have been doing, you have been doing, he/she/it has been doing, we have been doing, you have been doing, they have been doing. Past perfect continuous: I had been doing, you had been doing, he/she/it had been doing, we had been doing, you had been doing, they had been doing. Future perfect continuous: I shall have been doing, you will have been doing, he/she/it will have been doing, we shall have been doing, you will have been doing, they will have been doing.
Would a student be able to purchase groceries with such a skill? Read a book? Listen to the news? Chat over a dinner with a friend? Yes, we need to know this, but this is not the be-all and end-all of the language, and we cannot learn it by rote memorisation, but only by everyday use. No conversation. No practice. Just forms and charts and pen-on-paper mistranslations together with the occasional vocabulary tests and the requisite fill-in-the-blanks-yeah-I’ll-tell-you-what-you-can-do-with-those-blanks exercises. We had not been taught how to make sense out of any of what we had learned. We had not been taught how to put this knowledge together to express thoughts. As I said before, and as I shall say again, there was no Latin conversation.
If, instead of having us painfully decrypt “The Ant and the Grasshopper” into English, our teacher had conducted a one-hour conversation with all the students about it, entirely in Latin, using only vocabulary we already knew, asking simple questions about the story, that would have made a world of difference. We all would have understood. The thought never crossed the teacher’s mind. That’s not the way she taught. She would drill us mercilessly on paradigm charts of noun endings and verb endings, assign us to do the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank exercises with pen on paper, and then have us translate the stories into English, with pen on paper. She was satisfied when, after an hour in class, we managed torturously to translate a few sentences into English. It was not her job to teach us to understand Latin, but rather just to decrypt it and render it into English. The endless charts were the decryption keys. That, apparently, is why we needed to memorise those charts. The goal, she said, was to improve our English skills. That was the only stated goal — frustratingly incompatible with my personal goal of learning Latin. She seemed to assume that understanding followed memorisation of technical names and memorisation of charts, that the language would then be so obvious that conversation would be entirely unnecessary, and that we would somehow figure it all out for ourselves — by what form of magic I do not know.
Now, let’s think this through. When your mother took a few steps in front of you and said, “I’m walking,” and then when she held up your hands and helped you take a few steps and said, “You’re walking,” and then when she took a few steps along with you, saying, “We’re walking!” you began to learn English. Now, suppose your mother hadn’t done that. Suppose, instead, that she'd taken a few steps and said, “First-person singular present gerund of the regular intransitive ‘walk,’ ” and then held your hands up and helped you take a few steps with the explanation, “Formal second-person singular present gerund of the regular intransitive ‘walk,’ ” and then walked with you to say, “First-person plural present gerund of the regular intransitive ‘walk,’ ” you would have burst into tears and to this day you would never have learned a word of English. Evening: “Tell your daddy what we did today!” Silence. Mother gets worried and nervously prods you along: “First-person singular and plural and formal second-person singular present gerund of the regular verb ‘walk.’ Don’t you remember, dear?” Father would not have been pleased. Why couldn’t his child answer right away?
Why is a language taught without speaking? How well would we be able to swim if, without ever getting into the water, our only instruction consisted of a 500-page book on muscle movements and the correlative foot-pound pressures and pulse rates of swimmers, together with water-volume displacement, and if we were to memorise the circumference and angle of each stroke and every technical term for every physical phenomenon, upon which we would be tested during lengthy biweekly multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank tests?
This is how languages are taught, and that’s how we were taught Latin. “Pop quiz: Write an active-voice sentence using a second-declension masculine-singular nominative with past participle and plural third-declension neuter genitive with a third-conjugation third-person-plural pluperfect main verb and a perfect-tense third-person-singular intransitive fourth-conjugation auxiliary verb with plural feminine accusative in the third declension and neuter dative and masculine ablative both second declension, and be sure to emphasise the locative, while ending with a subjunctive phrase. Geraldine, what’s taking you so long? If you can’t follow such simple instructions, why don’t you drop and take an F and switch to some Mickey-Mouse class like underwater basket-weaving or something?”

PART B. Resume reading here.
¡Ay, caramba! Now... where were we again? Ah. Ørberg and Most. The differences between the two series largely boil down to presentation. While Familia Romana can be read and enjoyed on its own, some autodidacts may need additional help in their mother tongue; and you may read Roma Æterna on its own, but if you do, you won't enjoy it. To remedy this of course there is Latine Disco, and some Latin-language material for more reading practice. In effect, then, the student may need to flip through as many as five books to get the full effect, although it's fairly obvious that Ørberg did not want boys to use the vernacular as a crutch. Most evidently thought a tiny bit differently (i.e. the book and the tape is all that's necessary), but really, this is all a matter of organisation—the content is pretty much the same.
Then there's the gradient: everyone knows about the infamous jump between Familia Romana and Roma Æterna. That's where volume two of Natural Method comes in: by the time the student finishes tackling it, he'll be more than ready to take on Roma Æterna and volume three. The texts are roughly on one level, otherwise.
Finally, there's the content itself. The only real difference there, is that Orberg strives to preserve classical purity so as not to offend the great Latinists and ensure adoption of his method, while Most has no qualms about using a didactic Latin, even a "kitchen" Latin, in the name of foreign-language acquisition. It is by using hypersimplified language (but only at the absolute beginning) that a child naturally learns to speak. It is futile to want to start with Cicero's Latin; at that stage the Vulgate may be the better choice, with the Golden Age coming later (i.e. Mediaeval THEN Silver Age THEN Classical rather than the reverse).
Orberg's exercises are cloze reading exercises, where you have to fill in the blanks with Latin words, while Most offers sentences to be translated from English to Latin. Orberg's method is illustrated. Sometimes these illustrations help to understand the meaning of words. Most has no illustrations.
Conscious and unconscious biases of course creep in. Orberg mostly has stories about the adventures of a fictional Roman family, while Most's readings are rooted in history, Egyptian and Babylonian mythology, and the Old Testament. The student learns other things contemporaneously with Latin. Now, even in the first lesson there are factual inaccuracies (Columbus had money, and nobody thought the world was flat), and both the author and French translator were Catholic priests, but this is not a religious book—it is a secular book written by a religious cleric. There is a whole world of difference.
The fact of not limiting the contents of the book to the Roman world and the use of the odd mediævalism or two (don't worry, you learn the Classical form as well) betrays Most's vision of the place of Latin as a medium of general instruction (i.e. he was every inch a Living Latinist) while Ørberg's limiting the subjects to Roman themes shows him a bit of a purist who inextricably joins the language to the discipline of Classical philology.
Why did this series languish in relative obscurity, while Ørberg became the canonical Latin textbook for use with the natural method? Some people have pointed to the use of Biblical extracts, and the occasional pejoration of Communism—but that can't possibly be the whole story, or even half the story. The reason the French translation never made it big is obvious, though: there's a bit of a bias, in the Francophonie, towards books produced in France, and this was translated by a Canadian. The infamous Gallic ego would be severely wounded if a Canadian book in such a European-dominated subject was to defeat a homegrown French product. As for why it didn't make it in Canada, well... this was published in the 50's, then Maurice Duplessis' quiet revolution happened, Quebec was no longer "owned by the Catholics", and the Latin baby got thrown out with the Papist bathwater. To this day Latin is taught less in Catholic-ish Quebec than in Protestant-ish Ontario and Alberta.
Mais revenons aux notres moutons. All in all, an excellent stablemate to Ørberg and Grey and Jenkins' Latin For Today. Don't look at Henle, don't look at Wheelock. If you wonder why I say not to look at Henle or Wheelock, go find Part A and read it.

submitted by honeywhite to latin [link] [comments]

2021.06.06 16:51 BareRuinedChoirs MOOC REVIEW: Étudier en France: French Intermediate course B1-B2

I've just finished Étudier en France: French Intermediate course B1-B2, a MOOC course provided by Coursera. Here is a quick review
GENERAL THOUGHTS
The course is aimed at people who want to study in a francophone country. Some of the content and vocabulary is quite specific to this. However, I have no intention of studying abroad, and I did not find the course irrelevant.
The course comprises six weekly units. Each week has listening, reading, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing and grammar lessons. There is also a weekly optional discussion.

Listening: typically watching a video or listening to audio and answering questions. Varies in difficult. Some of the listening I found extremely hard. Mostly taken from films and TV news -- very few interviews or natural, informal conversation.
Reading: answering questions about a short French text. The types of text varied, from news reports to creative writing.
Pronunciation: this often focused on the nuances within French pronunciation. For instance, one of the units focused on the difference between en/on/un. Was interesting and usually not so difficult.
Grammar: this was quite technical. Topics included the subjunctive, and agreement of the passé composé. The quiz questions were really hard. The instructor (Olivier Bertrand) was good though, and his videos gave an interesting overview of the etymology of various French words.
Vocabulary: tends to focus on university-related stuff
Writing: typically 100-300 words on a particular topic. Quite varied, and one of the exercises is to write a formal letter. You are required to peer-grade two other submissions. It is motivating to know that one's submission will be graded by other people.

There are three course instructors: 2 female, 1 male. All were good presenters, and spoke in a clear French accent.
PROS

Very clear structure. A six-week course with a completely linear structure meant I could get into a daily routine of working through the course.
Good coverage of different language-learning areas (as above).
Varied content, including good use of a range of media (e.g. film extracts, music videos).
There are some high-quality resources available as a PDF throughout the course.
The course is delivered by the École Polytechnique, one of the prestigious French grandes écoles. Looks good on a CV if you care about this sort of thing, though obviously it's just a MOOC.
It's free

CONS

Some of the lessons take much less time than others. Writing was often 1 hour +, pronunciation ~20 mins
I didn't mind the focus on universities and student life, but some of the listening and reading was extremely turgid, e.g. listening to a lecture of academic philosophy.
I did wonder how representative of real French life some of the content was. In one of the writing exercises, for instance, it was necessary to write a formal application letter in French. The 'correct' answers were insanely pompuous and over-written. Perhaps this is true of French academia, but perhaps not wider society.

Happy to answer any questions about the course, but overall would definitely recommend.

submitted by BareRuinedChoirs to learnfrench [link] [comments]

2021.04.27 12:40 finnagin56 My 1 year with Japanese.

So I started learning Japanese with Duolingo in mid-April last year because one of my favourite YouTubers had moved there and I became obsessed with the culture there. I started with Duolingo because I had used it for French class and found it quite fun.
At the start, I was doing like 3 or 4 hours of Duolingo a day because you know, lockdown had me bored. I maxed out the first 1 or 2 stages and then switched my attention to learning kanji. I (stupidly) stopped doing Duolingo for some reason (most likely laziness).
I started doing RTK around the start of May, and started with 10 new kanji a day, which I wrote into a book, and then did anki reviews on a pre-existing RTK deck. However, here in NZ we were only away from school for 7 weeks, so as we started heading back into school, I started to focus more on schoolwork. Because of this, for literally 3 months, the only Japanese I was doing was about 40 kanji a week. This is where I fully lose motivation.
Nearing the halfway point of RTK, I realised that this was going to take over a year at this rate and got my act together and started doing 20 a day 5 days/week to get it over and done with. I finished RTK at the start of this year.
My BIGGEST MISTAKE was literally only doing kanji for like 8 months straight. I fully lost all motivation, because I couldn't read due to my lack of vocab and grammar knowledge so I wasn't getting anything out of my time spent.
Basically, as soon as I finished RTK, I realised that I'd made no progress in actually learning Japanese. I started a Core2K deck and found a PDF Genki 1 2nd edition that I started doing, and ordered the workbook. At this point, I basically stopped my RTK reviews, because I got bored of them. This meant my 8 months spent doing RTK was essentially useless.
From the start of this year until now, I've had some motivational issues caused by a little bit of mental health issues (good ol' teenage hormones) and so for most of this time, all I've been doing is my Core 2k anki reviews, and adding 15 new words probably about 50% of days. However, on the odd occasion, I did some Genki, and recently, (approx. the last month) I've found myself enjoying doing Genki. Most nights I put about 1-2 hrs into it, and am currently about halfway through Genki 1.
My current daily routine consists of about as much Genki study as I can stomach (adding vocab and grammar points to anki cards, and doing the textbook and workbook exercises) and 15 new words a day + reviews for my core 2k. Once I get a solid handle on grammar and a better vocab base, I'll try dabbling in a bit of immersion.
It's safe to say I'm disappointed with myself and my efforts. I'm probably at about a level which someone putting 3 months of solid daily study could be at, considering I've only done about 3 months worth of solid study even though I've been 'learning' Japanese for over a year.
My absolute train-wreck of an attempt at learning Japanese has motivated me to get better, and aim to sit the N3 or N4 at the end of this year. Someone set a !RemindMe in the comments to ask me how the test went at the end of December this year.

submitted by finnagin56 to LearnJapanese [link] [comments]

2021.03.26 16:13 Woodstovia r/Neoliberal elects the British Prime Ministers - Part 18: Gordon Brown vs David Cameron vs Nick Clegg vs Lord Pearson vs Nick Griffin in 2010

Previous Results

1945 – Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal)
1950 – Clement Davies with 50% of the vote
1951 – Clement Davies with 58% of the vote
1955 – Sir Anthony Eden with 67% of the vote
1959 – Harold Macmillan with 75% of the vote
1964 – Jo Grimond with 73% of the vote
1966 – Jo Grimond with 70% of the vote
1970 - Jeremy Thorpe with 53% of the vote
1974 (Feb) - Jeremy Thorpe with 62% of the vote
1974 (Oct) - Jeremy Thorpe with 63% of the vote
1979 - David Steel with 45% of the vote
1983 - David Steel/Roy Jenkins with 47% of the vote
1987 - Margaret Thatcher with 48% of the vote
1992 - Paddy Ashdown with 48% of the vote
1997 - Tony Blair with 62% of the vote
2001 - Tony Blair with 54% of the vote
2005 - Tony Blair with 49% of the vote
Last week the results were: Tony Blair (Labour) 49%, Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat) 45%, Michael Howard (Conservative) 5%
The Con vs Lab result was, Tony Blair (Labour) 93%, Michael Howard (Conservative) 7%
The Actual results from 2005 were:
Labour: 355 seats, 35.2% of the vote
Conservative: 198 seats, 32.4% of the vote
Liberal Democrats: 62 seats, 22% of the vote

Profiles

Gordon Brown is the 59 year old Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, a post he has held since 24th June 2007
David Cameron is the 43 year old Leader of the Conservative Party, a post he has held since 6th December 2005
Nick Clegg is the 43 year old current Leader of the Liberal Democrats, a post he has held since 18th December 2007
Lord Pearson is the 67 year old Leader of the UK Independence Party, a post he has held since 27th November 2009
Nick Griffin is the 50 year old Leader of the British National Party, a post he has held since 27th September 1999

Background

2005 – The 2005 election delivered a bloody nose for Labour as their share of the vote dropped by more than 5%. In 1997 13.5 million people had voted for Labour, in 2005 it was down to 9.5 million. The Conservatives won the largest share of the votes in England, but were constrained by First Past the Post, and Labour won a majority on the smallest share of votes since the 1832 Reform Act. Blair’s share of 35.2% of the vote was hardly better than Kinnock’s in 92. The Lib Dems managed to secure their largest ever number of seats but it still fell short of the 100 they were predicted to win, and Michael Howard’s Conservatives did claw back some seats and raise their share of the vote but only by 0.7% despite Blair’s unpopularity. Many of Labour’s seats are now very close marginals. With the papers who backed Blair reporting that he “limped on” had a “bloody nose” and time was running out for Labour Blair mumbled the day after the election to an aide “We did win didn’t we?”
Cometh the Hour Cometh the Dave - After Howard’s defeat he stood down as leader of the Conservatives but announced changes to the way a Conservative Party leader is elected that would have to be debated and voted on before the next contest. This meant that unlike 1997 and 2001 where the Party launched immediately into an election contest it was given time to chew over its loss. Although some hailed Howard’s ability to win seats the small gain in vote share and the fact that the Conservatives were not trusted or liked by the public was still apparent according to pollsters. Howard decided there would be weekly meetings of all MPs, as well as data analysts, election strategists and Party staff to discuss why they lost. This was originally intended to let MPs blow off steam in private rather than run to give their hot take to the press but it also meant that Conservative MPs were battered with data on how much the party needed to change every week. The presumed frontrunner David Davis was an ardent Thatcherite and the highest profile challenger, with his status as frontrunner secured his followers began bullying and strong-arming MPs into backing him, but Davis’ right-wing views and claims that the “eternal valuers” of the Party would always stand flew in stark contrast to the data MPs were pouring over which suggested the Party needed to move to the centre, Davis was also complacent in actually securing the support of the right, some of whom still detested him over his role as a government whip in forcing through the Maastricht Treaty. Liam Fox also threw his hat into the ring but seemed even less willing than Davis to reach out to the centre, declaring “We need to break away from some of the nonsense about inclusiveness.. Ken Clarke stood again but his refusal to serve under Hague, IDS, and Howard, his unwillingness to cultivate support within his party, his lateness in actually declaring his candidacy, and his status as an employee of British American Tobacco which was currently trying to sell cigarettes to the developing world put MPs off. The last candidate was David Cameron. Cameron’s background has been described as “upper, upper middle-class”. He attended the same school as Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, performed school plays for the Queen, and then went to Eton and Oxford, securing very good grades. Cameron was then hired by the Conservative Research Department, helping John Major prepare for PMQs, and then given the responsibility of briefing Major for his press conferences. Cameron was part of the “Notting Hill Set” or “Brat Pack” of young socially liberal staffers who worked between 12 and 20 hours a day and slept within the Party’s Headquarters. Afterwards Cameron was Special Adviser to the Chancellor during Black Wednesday, and Special Adviser to the Home Secretary: Michael Howard who paid Cameron back in kind. Cameron was only elected MP in 2001 but Howard worked closely with Cameron, appointed him to organise his 2005 campaign, and the long leadership campaign induced by Howard’s move to change the Party’s leadership selection rules was seen as a way to give Cameron who had less name recognition than other candidates time to set out his stall. The 2005 Party Conference gave Cameron his opportunity: a speech delivered without notes or a teleprompter, on a stage with mood lighting, ambient music, and fruit smoothies for the guests, flanked by his pregnant wife and her similarly pregnant friends was received much more positively than Davis’ mediocre speech delivered in a very plain looking room and his tacky “DD’s for DD” campaign. After a bloodless draw in a debate between the two and a BBC special which showed test audiences reacted much better to David Cameron Cameron was elected the new Leader of the Conservative Party.
Cleggmania - In the aftermath of the 2005 election there was turmoil within the Liberal Democrats, as many within the party felt that with such a lacklustre opposition and an unpopular government the Lib Dems should have made a more significant breakthrough. Unrest began to mount after Cameron’s election which promised to move the Conservatives closer to the centre. Opinion was split within the Lib Dems on how to react and oppose the Conservatives but Kennedy’s leadership which was described as him being more of a “chairman” than a leader seemed to resolve little and lack a plan for the future. But the final straw came when Kennedy admitted to having a problem with alcoholism, and that he’d saught professional help, despite having claimed earlier that he had no problems with alcohol and then that he had but it hadn’t been serious enough for him to be seeking help. A letter of 25 Lib Dem MPs saying they had no confidence in Kennedy was delivered to him and he resigned. In the aftermath Menzies Campbell won the leadership election, a prominent Lib Dem who had served as Kennedy’s and Ashdown’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, thereby spearheading their opposition to Iraq. But Campbell was relentlessly hit with negative media coverage, focusing on his advanced age (25 years older than Cameron) and supposed lack of charisma. With poor poll ratings and speculation already mounting that he could be deposed Campbell resigns in 2007, triggering another leadership election. Clegg is a clean cut and attractive young candidate who made his ambitions clear during Campbell’s leadership and his status as Home Affairs Spokesperson gives him a more significant position than his older rival Chris Huhne who broadly agrees with Clegg. If Kennedy is from the Social Democrat wing of the party Clegg is from the Liberal wing, and much more moderate fiscally, signalling an end to the strategy of outflanking Labour on the left.
The Long Goodbye - Although the 2005 Labour manifesto had promised that Tony Blair would not contest another election there was some debate as to what this actually meant. It could mean Blair would see out the full 5 year term and then resign immediately before an election, or that he could resign early. Brown had been promised the prospect of being Prime Minister as a reward for backing Blair back in 94 and had expected him to leave sometime after the 2001 election, and was now growing more and more furious that Blair would not step down for him. Although in private Blair assured Brown he would step down in the summer of 2007 Brown refused to believe him and egged on by his “other brain” Ed Balls as well as a leaked memo which suggests Blair is planning to go out like a “rock star” leaving the crowd begging for one last encore, and aided by Ed Miliband Brown’s lieutenants began collecting letters from members of the 97 and 01 intakes who had failed to see their careers advance under Blair, demanding that Blair resign. Blair is in York on a tour of the country and struggles to organise a response with his London-based team who are spooked by the fact the letters seem not to be from just Brownites but also more moderate MPs. Blair is also worried about being dragged out by his own cabinet like Thatcher and wants to leave on a high note, so while opinion quickly changes against Camp Brown, and it becomes more apparent the coup is a bit of a paper tiger, with only 8 minor cabinet figures resigning and over 100 MPs quickly signing a letter supporting Blair the PM agrees to make a public declaration he will leave in summer 2007. Photographers catch Brown leaving a 90 minute screaming match with Blair grinning “like a shark” devouring its prey. There are some rivals to Brown, perhaps most notably the young David Miliband - one of Blair’s followers and a bright young thinker who argued that the Labour Party needed a refresh and to break with the Brown-Blair years. But Miliband is unwilling to challenge the full might of Brown’s political machine and admits to his friends in private that the idea of taking responsibility for Iraq gives him night sweats, so Brown wins the leadership uncontested.
Saving the World - Brown enjoyed a short honeymoon, for voters tired of “spin” and Blair’s personality the more blunt and straightlaced Brown proved a welcome respite. Brown was seen as taking firm action against flooding and his “big kilt” strategy of wooing Conservative and Lib Dems to his government was received positively, even if some disturbing reports of Brown completely incapable of dealing with the stresses of Prime Minister and flying into dark rages and regularly hurling office furniture at unsuspecting aids did leak out. But images of Brown wrapping his arm around Mrs. Thatcher after inviting her to Downing Street didn’t play well with Labour voters and Brown furiously backtracked, being scared off of the idea of an early election to cement his authority. This honeymoon period was interrupted by a run on British bank Northern Rock which ran out of capital when international buyers for securitised mortgages dried up. When customers learned the bank could be going under a run on the banks ensued, but the Bank of England kept the bank afloat for long enough for the British government to nationalise the bank after potential bids from private companies were unsuccessful. With an economic slowdown rolling in Brown embarked upon a stimulus plan, but his cut of VAT was slammed by the German and French press (whose governments shortly after followed suit) making the Conservative Party seem like the preferred Party internationally. With the Lehman Brothers crisis rolling into Europe British banks began failing as well and there were serious concerns ATMs would stop being able to give out cash, leading to widespread public panic. Brown organised a relief package, taking up shares in various banks in return for injections of capital. The next day in the US TARP was abruptly abandoned and capital was pumped into US banks, across the world Brown’s recovery model was followed, and a G20 summit in London organised and led by Brown saw the world coordinate its response against The Great Recession. While Brown had been a poor Prime Minister in his brief term before the crisis and Great Recession saw Brown at his best and played to his strengths - his knowledge of economics and detail, although his decision to appoint a lightweight Chancellor so he could continue to control the economy had resulted in some initial indecision. But Brown was unable to communicate his achievements properly. While Cameron talked about rising oil prices in terms of the cost of putting petrol in the car Brown mused about the effects on international oil drillers, after the G20 summit Brown enthused about the importance of the IMF Special Drawing Rights, not about how it affected the average person’s livelihood. And his claim in the House of Commons to have “saved the world” later meekly corrected as “saved the world’s banks” drew widespread ridicule. Brown is also hit on spending too much on public services and turning a budget surplus into a deficit during an economic boom, with Cameron claiming he didn’t “fix the roof while the sun was shining” leading to the UK’s perilous deficit and lending during the recession, as well as his former claims to have ended “boom and bust” during a boom and before a bust, and his role in selling the UK’s gold reserves at an all time low price. The UK’s recession is prolonged and deep, but Brown does have economic credibility due to his long and successful stint as Chancellor that Cameron doesn’t. Cameron had been focusing on shifting the Conservative platform to the centre, talking more about the environment, international aid, and his commitment to the public sector instead of tax and spending cuts. Now all people care about is tax and spending cuts and the nascent Tory modernisation project struggles between whether to convince voters it has changed, and just talking about the economy. Brown argues that Tory cuts would go too far and choke off growth, but the public seems to believe that cuts are inevitable and needed.
Expenses - Another issue is the 2009 expenses scandal. MPs are allowed to claim money due to the fact that they’re expected to have 2 homes - one in London so they can travel to Parliament and one in the Constituency they were elated to. But an investigation reveals many MPs misusing this money, eventually resulting in £500,000 of public money having to be paid back. Papers are filled with stories such as Conservative MP Viscount Hailsham claiming over £2,000 to have the moat of his mansion cleaned, as well as money for piano tuners and gardeners, Sir Peter Viggers claimed £1,645 to build a 5 foot duck house near his pond, Eric Pickles claimed money to buy a second house only 36 miles away from his first house, Keith Vaz took £75,000 to buy a second house despite his constituency being in London and his first home being both in his constituency and only 12 miles away from Westminster. Cameron reacts quickly, apologising in a speech, ordering his MPs to pay back money that was taken unreasonably and proposing reforms to the system along with Clegg, Brown however offers little more than an apology on behalf of his party polling shows some 53 percent of voters thought Cameron had handled things well, with only 17 per cent saying the same of Brown and Cameron receives plaudits for his coolness under fire. The expenses scandal however combined with the recession begins to seriously undermine trust in politicians or the establishment. UKIP and the BNP who are exploiting Cameron’s move to the centre to shore up the right of British politics see surges in support and good performances in local and European elections, although the BNP begins to struggle when Nick Griffin gives an appalling performance on Question Time where he is hit on his Holocaust denial, and claims Islam is a “wicked and viscious” faith, UKIP struggles when charismatic leader Nigel Farage resigns to focus on winning a seat in Parliament, leaving the leadership to Lord Pearson who is not a natural politician and admits in an interview not to knowing UKIP’s policies.

Issues

Labour:

Halve the budget deficit within four years through a mixture of spending restraint and tax increases, mainly for the higher paid.
No increase to either the basic or top rate of income tax in the next parliament, and a promise not to extend VAT to food, children's clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares. A commitment to an internationally-agreed levy on banks. UK banks in which the government holds a controlling stake will be broken up and sold off.
Prisoners to pay for the cost of their incarceration – but this will only apply to high-earning ex-offenders, who will face deductions from their earnings through the tax system. Failing police forces to be taken over by nearby successful ones. On immigration, a pledge for all public sector workers to speak English will apply only to those in contact with the public.
Patients to get legally-binding guarantees on the treatment they will receive in the NHS, including the right to cancer test results within one week of referral to a specialist. Maximum 18 weeks' wait for treatment – with the backup of an offer to be treated in the private sector. New focus on preventive care, with routine check-ups offered by GPs to the over-40s and a major expansion of diagnostic testing in GP practices. More choice for patients in where they want to be treated, one-to-one dedicate nursing for cancer patients, and more care at home.A new right to see a GP at evenings and weekends. All hospitals to become foundation trusts, with greater freedom to manage their budgets and decide their priorities. Poorly performing hospitals will be taken over by successful ones.
Every primary-school child who needs it will get one-to-one tuition. Labour will pilot a scheme to give all primary-school children free school meals. Labour aims to save £950m from increased efficiencies in education and £500m from education quangos and civil servants. The party would make parents sign up to a behaviour contract when their child started primary school.
A "toddler tax credit" worth an extra £200 a year for families earning less than £50,000 a year with children under three years old. Paid paternity leave doubled to a month. Sure Start nursery centres to be converted into children centres offering "one-stop shops, open to all families, offering excellent affordable childcare, healthcare and parenting advice".
A promise to playa leading role in Europe. No switch to the euro without a referendum. A pledge to push for budget reform and EU expansion to absorb the western Balkans and Turkey. A promise to "learn the lessons of recent experience" (an apparent reference to Afghanistan) and focus on conflict prevention as a means of curbing terrorism.
New tax powers for Scotland "as soon as possible" in the next parliament, giving the Scottish parliament the right to set separate income tax rates, control over other minor taxes and new rights to borrow money
Job or training place for young people out of work for six months but benefits cut at 10 months if they refuse a place. [Except Northern Ireland] Guarantee of work for anyone unemployed for more than two years, A right to request flexible working for older workers, ending default retirement at 65, About 40% low-carbon electricity by 2020, and 400,000 new green jobs by 2015

Conservative:

Emergency budget within 50 days of election to include immediate £6bn cut in wasteful spending and one-year freeze on public sector pay in 2011. Scrapping of planned increase in national insurance for employers and workers earnings less than £35,000. Main rate of corporation tax to be cut to 25% Pledge to match Labour's spending plans for 2010-11 in health and overseas aid. Consumer Protection Agency to address high levels of personal debt. Abolition of Financial Services Authority with supervision of the City handed back to the Bank of England
Develop schools under the Swedish "free schools" and the US "charter school" models: small, autonomous institutions run and set up by parents, teachers, universities, faith groups and voluntary groups Recreate technical schools, which vanished in the 1950s when their popularity dwindled, offering pupils aged 14 to 19 training and apprenticeships to become skilled tradespeople. More money for schools that take more than average numbers of poor pupils. But no detail on how much money will be allocated, Raise the minimum entry requirements for primary teachers. Smaller class sizes and a reading test at age six An extra 10,000 university places this year. Pay off the student loans of maths and science graduates who become teachers
Scrap waiting-list targets in healthcare. New 24/7 urgent care service and weekend access to GPs. Stop closures of A&E and maternity wards. A new cancer drug fund. Access to NHS dentistry to be extended to a million more people.
Elected police commissioners to replace police authorities; instant grounding orders for antisocial youngsters; prison sentences for carrying a knife; ban on below-cost alcohol sales; new border police force. Payment by results for prison governors and youth justice system; abstinence-based drug rehabilitation orders; prison and rehabilitation trusts to be piloted. ID cards and register and Contactpoint children's database to be scrapped; Human Rights Act to be replaced by British Bill of Rights. Annual limit on non-EU economic migrants; overseas students to pay bond on arrival; English language tests for those coming to Britain to get married
Big Society bank using unclaimed assets to fund charities and neighbourhood groups Neighbourhood groups will be able to take over failing public services. Community service for civil servants will count in staff appraisals. National Citizen Service for 16 year olds
Tax breaks to promote marriage and civil partnerships. Conservative government will freeze council tax for two years. Ending tax credits for households earning more than £50,000. Right to request flexible working to every parent with a child under the age of 18. Currently limit is 16.
Replace Trident nuclear missile system. Double operational allowance for troops in Afghanistan. Set up National Security Council "to integrate at the highest levels of government the work of our foreign, defence, energy, home and international development departments". Set up a new permanent military command for homeland defence and security. Cut MoD running costs by 25%. Make the UK "the world's first low-carbon economy", including becoming a world leader in green goods and services. Promise to stick to international reduction pledges for greenhouse gases, and Labour's domestic target of 80% by 2050. Cut central government emissions by 10% in first year. Energy mix from more renewables, nuclear and "clean coal", backed by an emissions performance standard on power stations. Ministers to make annual energy statement to parliament, and reform of energy regulator Ofgem to focus on security and low-carbon. Green deal promising £6,500-loan per household for energy measures, to be paid back through savings on bills over 25 years. White paper on protecting the natural environment would introduce "conservation credits", and protected areas to be extended. Local authorities could pay people to recycle

Liberal Democrats:

The first £10,000 people earn will be tax-free. A pledge to free 3.6 million low earners and pensioners from income tax. Pay for tax cuts by closing loopholes that benefit the wealthy and "polluting" air travel, introduce a "mansion tax" at a rate of 1% on properties worth more than £2m. Break up the banks and "get them lending again". Cut the deficit with £15bn of savings in government spending, including a £400 cap on pay rises for public sector workers, a banking levy and not renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent system. Create a Council on Financial Stability with representatives of all parties, the governor of the Bank of England and the chair of the Financial Services Authority to work on the timing and scale of a deficit reduction plan
extra £2.5bn to cut class sizes to 20 in primary schools, increase one-to-one tuition and provide catch-up classes for 160 pupils in each secondary school Workplace scheme for 800,000 pupils to give them the opportunity to gain skills and experience. 15,000 extra places on foundation degree courses, which can lead to undergraduate courses. Raise the adult learning grant from £30 to £45 a week. This grant is to encourage poorer students to return to college. The cleverest students from the lowest-achieving schools are guaranteed a degree place. Scrap university tuition fees for undergraduates by 2016. Replace academies with schools that are accountable to local authorities, but that have a charity or parent group as sponsor. Slim down the national curriculum and scale back Sats. Bring GCSEs, A-levels and vocational courses under a single diploma qualification
Prioritise the prevention of ill-health through payments to GPs and hospitals. Cut the Department of Health in half. Scrap strategic health authorities and limit managers' pay. Local health boards would work with councils to take over from primary care trusts. Patient entitlement to diagnosis and treatment on time or the right to go private. Compulsory language and competence tests for doctors working in UK
Recruit 3,000 more police officers, paid for by scrapping ID cards, electronic fingerprints on passports, the prison building programme and Whitehall plans to track all emails and internet use. Replace prison sentences of six months or less with community penalties and cancel the £800m prison-building programme. A freedom bill to regulate CCTV, end the collection of DNA from innocent citizens, scrap ID cards, the children's contact database and anti-terrorist control orders. Halt the creation of new criminal offences. Immigration: A regional points-based system to ensure migrants can only work where they are needed. An independent agency to decide asylum claims and an end to the detention of children.
There would be a full judicial inquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture and state kidnapping. The Lib Dems say it is in Britain's long-term interests to join the euro, but only after a referendum. There should be a "strong and positive" commitment to Europe
Extend shared parental leave to 18 months, allowing parents to share their allocation of maternity and paternity leave. The right to request flexible working for all, especially grandparents looking after children. 20 hours free childcare for every child from the age of 18 months. Scrap compulsory retirement ages, allowing those who wish to continue in work to do so
Work for a global deal to limit temperature rise to 1.7C, based on equalising emissions between developed and developing countries. Push the EU to adopt a 30% emissions cuts by 2020 without waiting for a global deal. Tax on aircraft to replace air passenger duty. Scrap Heathrow expansion and all south-east airport expansion. 100% clean energy for the UK by 2050, including no nuclear, and coal only if it meets the highest standards.
Change to a proportional STV voting system, cutting 150 MPs, lower the voting age to 16.

BNP

Cut public spending on immigration, asylum, EU membership and foreign aid, which the BNP claim accounts for more than £40bn Cut £18bn it says is spent on tackling global warming, which it describes as "unproved science" Raise personal tax-free allowance on earnings to £12,500 and inheritance tax threshold to £1m Work for reduction in Council Tax through the slashing of all "politically correct council functions" and "diversity" schemes. Investigate viability of voluntary local currencies and support national network of autonomous local credit unions
Halt immigration - in particular from Muslim countries - and deport illegal immigrants. Allow legally settled and law-abiding minorities to remain but review citizenship grants awarded since 1997. Deport foreigners convicted of crimes in Britain, regardless of immigration status, ban the burka and building of mosques. Deport radical Islamist preachers. Increase UK Border Agency funding, withdraw from EU, repeal Race Relations Act and scrap Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Scrap ID cards. Review the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to remove unnecessary bureaucracy from police duties. Reintroduce capital punishment for drug dealers, child murderers, multiple murderers, murderers of policemen on duty and terrorists. Reintroduce right of householders to defend themselves and their property, "using whatever means they deem necessary". Establish penal station for "extremely dangerous/violent repeat criminals", including rapists, on the British island of South Georgia
"British concepts" of civility and courteousness to be taught in schools, along with British history and English, Irish, Scots and Welsh culture and traditions. Reverse budget cuts on education and bring back "traditional syllabi and teaching methods", along with streaming and grammar schools. Free university education to students who have completed community service. Rebuild Britain's skills base through subsidies to engineering and science institutions and their students
Reallocate money designated for foreign aid to increase spending on frontline staff, while reducing bureaucracy and restricting managers' pay to £100,000 per year. Prioritise employment of people at affordable wages, halt recruitment of Third World-origin staff and end "health tourism" in UK. Cut waiting times and service difficulties by relieving immigration burden upon the NHS
Halt payment of benefits, and provision of housing, education and pensions to foreigners "who have not paid into the system". Education and training to help unemployed back into work - in return for set number of hours work per week. Those out of work for 18 months or more to participate in local work schemes in return for benefits. Aim to increase state pension to £150 per week during the parliament, link to earnings and restrict to Britons and those who have "fully paid into the system".
Devolve all powers properly capable of exercise to local level, reviving county council government. Create an English parliament, alongside a pan-British parliament to oversee policy areas currently determined by Westminster - inviting the Irish Republic to join as an equal partner, Reform the House of Lords to include non-party political experts and individuals chosen for talent and service. Introduce "citizens' initiative" referendums to force government to adhere to the will of voters on specific subjects.
End involvement of British troops in the Afghanistan conflict, withdraw forces form Germany and stop Britain becoming involved in war with Iran. Renegotiate UK presence in NATO, raise defence spending by 1% over the rate of inflation for five years

UKIP

Maintain business links to Europe through Swiss-style free-trade agreements. Raise tax-free threshold on income to £11,500, followed by a flat rate of 31% to replace current income tax and employees' National Insurance (NI). Phase out NI for employers over five years, recouping revenue through PAYE tax, corporation tax, sales tax revenue, or lower spending on welfare. Replace VAT with a Local Sales Tax, a proportion going directly to councils. Abolish inheritance tax at "earliest opportunity". Reduce public sector to 1997 size, diverting two million jobs to manufacturing and industry. Bank of England to regulate banks, which must leave deposits at central bank when lending beyond approved limits
Leave EU. Award only temporary work visas, using points-based system. Immediate five-year freeze on immigration for permanent settlement, future limit on gross immigration of 50,000. EU citizens who arrived in UK after January 2004 treated as non-EU immigrants. Non-UK citizens to have entry and exit recorded. Triple UK Border Agency staff to 30,000. Illegal immigrants automatically deported. Those given leave to stay must sign legal "undertaking of residence" which, if breached, would allow deportation. Hold asylum seekers in secure centres while applications processed. Repeal Human Rights Act and end government promotion of multiculturalism. Double number of prison places and end early release, ensure life sentences are served totally in prison and set up "boot camps" for young offenders.
Offer all parents school vouchers, useable for state, private or faith schools. Schools and colleges franchised to charities, parental co-operatives and businesses, governed by County Election Boards. Encourage new grammar and specialist schools. Introduce "Comprehensive Test" to assess merit across academic and non-academic abilities. More powers for governors and favour home education. Scrap 50% target for young people going to university. Allow universities to choose on academic merit alone and change some back to skills and vocational colleges.
NHS to remain free at point of delivery. No cuts in frontline services but waste and bureaucracy reduced. Key NHS services put out to tender, with charities and businesses taking franchises on key services with fixed budgets. Introduce Health Credit Vouchers, allowing people to opt-out of the NHS if they want private insurance. Restore free eye tests and dental check-ups
Roll current state pension, Pensions Credit and Winter Fuel Allowance into a flat-rate, non-contributory Citizen's Pension worth at least £130 a week for all people aged 65 and over. Freeze public sector pensions, bringing them "back into line with typical private sector pension provision". Benefits are only available to UK citizens or those who have lived here for at least 5 years
Hold referendum where 5% of local or national electorate demand one. Retain national assemblies but replace representatives with Westminster MPs from those areas; MPs to spend one week a month on devolved business and rest of time at Westminster; English MPs meet in Westminster for English-only days. Public right to recall MPs in exceptional circumstances, such as abuse of expenses. Introduce "Alternative Vote Plus", with 450 MPs elected after earning at least 50% of constituency preferences, with 200 MPs elected by PR system

Read the full manifestos here:

Labour
Conservatives
Liberal Democrats
BNP
UKIP

Media

2010 Election coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO1Pu8CzSAo
For the first time we have debates! - 1 2 3
Labour broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTN7xxE0yiU
Conservative Party broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LtKSQD-jD8
Liberal Democrat broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTLR8R9JXz4
BNP broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb9retGNn3s
UKIP broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-6ftI0VGhk

Vote here (All Parties): https://rankit.vote/vote/PHLiIHLBOvEsWLqexNu9

Vote here (Labour vs Conservative): https://rankit.vote/vote/S4jOJ16RGNd2ME4WlrBB

Please try to vote as if you are a British citizen in 2010 without knowledge of what will happen after the election.

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