For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to learn French. Mum gave me a Michel Thomas CD course for Christmas and I took a couple of the CDs with me to France when we went snowboarding. The pack has got 8 CDs in it, and the first 2 are an introductory course. I’ve got quite into it, and am on CD 3 now. The CDs are designed to be paused when you get to a bit when you’re meant to think about how to say something, but I’ve found it quite hard to do this as it’s such a hassle. It definately works better when you do, though. For the past couple of days I’ve been listening to the CDs on the tube on the way to work in the morning, which is a really nice way to wake up your head before starting work. It’s also a good way to get out of work at the end of the day as you’ve got to focus on something else.
I’d really recommend the Michel Thomas approach as it puts a lot of emphasis on building confidence and knowledge, rather than remembering phrases. I was thinking that it would be good to get into reading French a bit too, as it’s quite hard to learn when my only French input is the CDs – it was much much easier to learn when we were in France. I was racking my brains for where I could read little bits of French and then I remembered Naked Translations! What could be better? Articles written in French and English, so I can try to understand in French and then check in English. Thank you Céline!