Back in March, I signed up for the ‘Free and Legal’ language challenge for the second time, with French as my language of choice. With just over three months left to go, I’m definitely lagging behind. Can I turn it around in time, or will I flame out of this challenge yet again?
So, hey everyone! It’s been a little while since I last posted anything here, and a lot has changed since–the most important thing being that I recently got a new job! I’m finally out of retail (which, whatever, there’s nothing wrong with working in retail but I’m glad to be cutting down my hours and getting some actual rest) and actually working in marketing for a company that makes a language learning app.
Everything’s finally lining up! 😄
Since I’ve been working at this company, I’ve seen people’s posts on their blogs and Twitter and Instagram and I’m finally feeling like I’m in a place to dive back into it all. And I thought this might be a good place to do that.
I signed up for the Free and Legal challenge way back in March, hoping that if I chose French (a language that I have studied before, but not for, like, eleven years) I wouldn’t lose interest.
It’s not gone great so far.
However, I still have a little over three months (until 13th December) to reach my A1-A2 goal, and that seems perfectly achievable, right?
Obviously (if you haven’t read about the challenge above), there are some limitations–I’m only allowed to use learning material that is free and legally accessible, so no listening to copyrighted audio on YouTube or whatever. Still, there are plenty of resources available for French, so that’s not the issue.
What I need to focus on is being consistent, and considering that I’ve studied Mandarin for at least thirty minutes every day of 2019 so far (minus one day, but I still managed eighteen minutes!), I think I can do it.
So what’s the plan?
Well, estimates vary, but it seems to take 60-80 hours to get to A1 in French and around 200 hours to get to A2.
This means I should be studying anywhere from forty minutes to around two-and-a-half hours a day, depending on the level I want to reach. They’re figures I’m going to keep in mind, but I’m not going to force myself to try and hit those because, 1) I’m still going to be studying Mandarin for thirty minutes every day and therefore, 2) I’m much more likely to give up on French if I’m forcing myself to go too hard.
I’m going to give myself a minimum study time of fifteen minutes a day. I think fifteen minutes is good–it’s short enough that even if I don’t feel like doing anything, I don’t really have an excuse, but long enough that I can kind of get into something if I do start. Plus, starting studying is usually the largest hurdle, so once I’m going I might just keep going for that forty minutes or two hours or whatever else! 🤷🏼♀️
I’ll update the blog periodically regarding this challenge, but I’m hoping to update on Instagram daily, so head over there if you want to see what I’m doing.
And, if you have any suggestions for any free and legal resources I may not have heard of, feel free to comment and let me know about them! I’m on the lookout for anything that might be useful.
A bientôt!