70 %
Chris Biscardi

100 Days of French

Over the last 100 days I've been focused on building new habits. One of those habits is designed to increase my ability to speak French.

First 30 days

The first 30 days went well. I practiced intentionally, but didn't schedule it like I did most other things. This was a good and a bad thing. I did it really late in the day a couple times and almost messed up the streak.

I chose Duolingo for practice. I mostly needed basic conjugations, etc and it turned out to be a generally good fit for the first 30 days. 50xp is the maximum practice session and I wanted to commit to this so I chose that for better or worse.

Days 30-100

Over time I found it harder to remember to practice. the "50 points" turn into about five sections of practice (10xp each) or a slightly less of new material (with bonuses for consecutive sections). This is often accomplished in Lyfts for me on my way to play Volleyball or to the gym. I've found that doing French practice will bring me out of one flow such that I need to intentionally re-target after practice to whatever I want to be doing.

As I move further into the Duolingo process (somewhere around 64% right now) I find the various conjugation practice a bit lacking in that I don't necessarily recognize various forms of the same word or how to conjugate new words. It is useful for exposure to new word forms but I will need some "real" conversation and media to consume in French like books soon.

Fin

I should probably start scheduling practice along with everything else. It might be useful after the gym or yoga. Where I can shift from one mental state to another.