Tag: clozemaster

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A French Revelation

Back in February, I explored the possibility of learning a second language, posing the question of whether to choose French, German or Spanish. On account of its widespread use across Europe, I was already leaning towards French, and then I saw a part-time university course to learn it: five classes of two hours per week, beginning on the last Thursday of May.

Once I signed up, I discovered I knew one of the other attendees. If I believed in omens, this was a good one.

Although the course was aimed at beginners, I wanted to make a head start with some groundwork. I initially turned to Clozemaster, which I’d used to grasp Swedish and later Dutch. This displays a sentence in the target language with one word missing; below that is a complete English translation. As the name suggests, the challenge is to cloze the gap by selecting or typing the correct word.

The main problem is that the eye latches onto the English phrase, rather than allowing you the opportunity to infer the meaning from the context. After a while, you’ll learn by rote that a sentence is correct without being able to identify the underlying pattern. Additionally, there are no oral practice activities, so learning is limited to written exercises only.

As such, I closed my Clozemaster account and instead began listening to Le Français Facile, which is updated every day with world news in simple French. It’s presented by real reporters, and there’s a transcript in the target language to follow along like a karaoke track, which can be translated by the Firefox browser. This is great for teaching pleasantries, set phrases, and up-to-date terminology.

Along with other support and resources, I thought this would give me a good enough basis, and that the first week would be spent going over similar ground. However, the advertised class for beginners had attracted more of a mixed-ability crowd, with 16 registered students.

I received a feedback form yesterday, and I won’t hesitate to give this a mixed review, as below.

One couple, for instance, had previously lived in the country for years, while another had moved back from Canada, although I never established whether this was Quebec. The tutor also seemed surprised when I mentioned this was my first foray into the language.

It felt for much of the time that she was trying to teach two classes simultaneously. For instance, the formal tone of Do you read books? (Est-ce que vous lisez des livres ?) was most useful for beginners, while the informal (Lisez-vous des livres ?) was aimed at the experienced learners.

This disparity was only properly addressed in the fifth and final week when she split the class into two and guided the folks like me. We asked and answered questions as a round robin, which helped enormously.

That’s not to say I picked up nothing useful from the other four weeks. The tutor clearly knew her subject, talking us through matters of etiquette in shops and cafés, and slang we might use with friends. It was useful to know the English and French words that look similar but don’t map onto each other, such as l’addition referring to a restaurant bill rather than a mathematical operation.

At the suggestion of one classmate, I’ve now purchased a BBC Active Languages set with three books and four audio CDs, though I’ve yet to start these. I’ve also followed relevant creators on YouTube, as suggested by another classmate, one of whom uses a lot of gestures. Gestures are such an underrated way of learning.

Furthermore, I follow a few poets on Instagram who regularly post short updates in French. They’re from Quebec, so their sentences may occasionally feature distinctive grammar. I’m led to believe while that the differences may be a little jarring, they’re not difficult to decipher.

Now the classes are over, I will continue with my learning. I still make a point of choosing and saying out loud at least one sentence per day from La Françis Facile, or another relevant source, then writing it down in a dedicated notebook with a translation.

All of which is to ask two basic, but opposite, questions. It’s aimed at any of my followers who have learnt a foreign language, whether that’s French, English or otherwise:

What's the one activity, exercise, drill, &c, that you believe (a) helped your learning the most and/or (b) simply wasted your time?

Merci d’avance !

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Navigating Sweden with Basic Language Skills

From Thursday to yesterday, I was on a trip to Sweden with a pal, staying at a hotel in Stockholm. While we largely stuck to that city, we took a trip to the city of Malmö on Saturday, primarily to see the bridge featured in the drama series The Bridge and to explore the area in general.

I was advised before visiting the country that English is widely spoken there as a second language. Conversely, it tends to be the norm in the English-speaking world that we don’t learn supplemental languages, with the possible exception of French in Canada. Still, I was determined to break away from the typical tourist stereotype, so I embarked on learning some useful phrases.

My first purchase was a Berlitz phrase book from Oxfam, which was originally published around 1990 and has an accompanying cassette. It’s great as a pocket reference guide, and it sometimes proved to be the quickest and most authoritative way to find the right phrase. Amusingly, some sections haven’t aged well, including how to ask for an ashtray and giving advice about where to have photos developed.

I’ve also employed more modern resources. For one, there’s an app called Clozemaster. This presents sentences with one word blanked out, and – as the name suggests – you need to close the gap. Additionally, Microsoft Translator offers free but powerful interpreting, including optical character recognition for printed text, and speech-to-text for parroting an overheard phrase.

To gain a feel for the language in general, I’ve been tuning into a speech radio station called SR P1, which is similar to BBC Radio 4 in its mixture of news, documentaries and occasionally comedy.

After three months of preparation, how did this work out ‘in the wild’? Well, the results are mixed.

For meeting people in enclosed spaces like shops or trains, it’s been useful to have a few stock words on hand, including: hej (hello), tack (thank you) and förlåt (sorry). Transactional conversations can usually be conducted with phrases such as Jag vill… (I want…) and Det har (This here) while pointing in the right direction.

In the last case, there are grammatical rules about genders and plurals that I’ve yet to master, but these weren’t a hindrance for such short conversations. Besides, people rarely speak in full sentences except for formal contexts.

I knew before I arrived, however, that my listening skills were limited. When I’m tuned into the radio, it takes a few minutes to figure out the topic of conversation, with most of the words bypassing me.

There were a couple of conversations where I opened with Talar du engelska? (Do you speak English?) because I knew my question would be too complex to explain in Swedish. The one time I should have deployed this was when the security scanners at Stockholm Arlanda airport started beeping at me. In my defence, it’s hard to think what to say in any language when uniformed personnel are telling you something at 100mph – or 160kph for my European readers.

By contrast, my pal hadn’t been learning the language and always initiated conversations in English. I was consistently impressed by the ability of the other party to switch immediately.

The learning was most useful for reading signs and directions. The larger transport hubs contained bilingual signage, and some staff even greeted us in English. However, self-service tills and kiosks are quite common in Sweden, and not all of them have a language selection button. In these cases, it’s been useful to know words like inte to indicate a negative and avbryt to cancel an action.

It’s been doubly helpful that Swedish has a similar word order to English. Some phrases even map word-for-word, and I’ve found it harder to grasp when they break away from that format.

The big question is whether to keep up the learning after the need for it has passed. At the moment, I’m considering keeping it up.

Figures aren’t readily available for how many native Anglophones have Swedish in their back pockets, suggesting the figure is low or negligible. Maybe it’s because around three-quarters of Swedes have some level of English proficiency, so there’s little practical need, but I would find it appealing to be one of this assumed minority.

One reason I chose Clozemaster over the more popular Duolingo is that it doesn’t pressure you to maintain a streak, even though I have actually maintained one by consistently completing sets each morning. The free version offers up to 30 sentences per day, up to ten of which can be listening practice.

And I reckon listening will be key to progress, as well as nailing the prepositions, conjunctions and genders. Speaking with a native regularly would help me move forward, but the closest I can find right now is the aforementioned SR P1.

One unexpected discovery is a programme on the station called Tolvslaget. This is broadcast at 12pm Swedish time, which is 11am in the UK, and features a recording of a church clock striking 12, followed by a different poem every day. On the days when I’m working from home, this sets me up perfectly for morning break.

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Answering the Prompt ‘Morning Rituals’

Many weeks ago, my laptop charger stopped working. While I acquired a replacement, I instead used the Jetpack app on my phone, which suggests a different prompt every day. I decided to keep that one handy for a slow week. That slow week has now arrived, so here’s the prompt:

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

I won’t go through everything I do in the morning, as much of it is keeping up-to-date with pals, but let’s look at some highlights.

For the past seven years, I’ve updated Instagram nearly every day with a themed picture. I decide on a different theme each month. We’re just coming out of April Angles, featuring pictures that contain adjoining or intersecting straight lines, including wall buttresses, a railway signal and a set of swings.

I also tackle two puzzles. The first is the classic Wordle, and I’m pleased to report I’ve now retrospectively caught up with all the puzzles. You need a paid subscription for this, and it’s now cancelled. The second is the seven-letter Full Rainbow anagram. Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to catch up with missed puzzles, but it’s a lot of fun.

Thirdly, I’m off to Sweden with a pal at the end of next month. It’s only for a long weekend, and I hear English is widely spoken as a second language, but I’d like to learn a few handy phrases for emergencies. Another pal recommended Clozemaster, which shows sentences with one word blanked out, and you close the gap by clicking on the correct option or – for advanced users – typing it in. The free option offers up to 30 sentences per day. Later on, I intermittently listen to a Swedish talk radio station for extra listening practice.

However, I rarely write prose or poetry in the morning. One piece of writing wisdom you’ll likely hear is to keep a pencil and paper by your bedside for ideas that strike during the night. This simply doesn’t produce work for me. I need to be up and about before ideas start to emerge.