I’ve always had the desire to learn one or more languages. I guess it’s a personal thing with me, you know to challenge myself.
I had some success in spanish, so at first that was my language of choice and I even bit the bullet as they say and threw down the 600+ dollars for Rosetta Stone. I liked it at first as I flew through the units but I started to notice something. I was spending a lot of time at the computer going over the units learning new vocabulary but I was missing a crucial thing I felt I needed. Actual speaking and conversing in the language.
I guess it just wasn’t fast enough and I don’t know if it was that instant gratification that we are all looking for these days or that i had developed some kind of impatience or ADHD or something lol.
So… one day I get this e-mail about how you can learn to speak a new language in ten days.
I said to myself ya-right ten days but they had the hooks in me when I saw that you could try it for 30 days. I thought to myself why not, the worst thing that could happen is that I would wind up another statistically loser who fell for a bit of clever advertizing.
I want to document my experience and hopefully start some great conversations about my progress and share others stories with other interested people….what a great topic I thought. so here goes.
The day it arrived was exciting for me, not so much for my wife though who just gave me a disappointed shake of her head, but non the less I was excited.
It was packaged in this beautiful and quite classy pleather box. Inside was a the ten cds protected in a velvety foam cut out. I was impressed so far.
I quickly inserted the new cd and downloaded it to my iTunes so I could take it with me everywhere on my iPod.
The first lesson was amazing! I listened to a quick conversation in french and then it started breaking down the conversation so i could listen and repeat.
Each lesson is only 30 minutes long and you complete one per day.By the end of the first lesson I was able to understand the conversation and with a couple repitions of the cd I could speak as an active participant. Soo cool right!
Well I’m on lesson 21 now and I can honestly say I am so pleased with my progress. My wife who took three years of french is slightly annoyed that I am speaking french throughout the day in different situations. Its pretty cool and I have caught my wife listening in while I’m listening to a lesson trying to get a one up on me so she knows what ill be talking about next …. in french that is.
I’m going to be updating my progress and I hope to be talking with anyone interested even if they just want to weigh in or give their opinion
all encouragement is also welcome
au revoir!!!! everyone
March 29th 2012 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Ok so today after reviewing some of the lessons I decided to move onto Lesson 22
To my horror they informed me that all of the instruction would be in french with some english prompts. I was scared to say the least but on I went. The proceeded with a new voice for the instructor who is without a doubt The real McCoy of Frenchmen.
At first I couldn’t understand a word he said.
His lightning fast speech was bewildering. 
( I think his name is Pierre, but ill just call him Speedy )
It took a few tries for my brain to adjust but thank god it finally did (about half way through the lesson).
It did have the disclaimer that I might need to listen to the lesson several times, so I was fairly warned.
I was informed the instruction in french and the speed he was speaking was critical to one learning french and becoming fluent.
Eventually I made it through the whole lesson and actually started to pick it up. I suspect I’ll be on this lesson for a few days to a week lol
well, that’s all for todays guys
Au revoir!!!! jusqu’à demain
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April 16, 2012
My apologies for not updating for a while.With my seven kids, time for writing can be hard to come by, but that another blog soon to come lol.
In the few weeks since I last updated I have proudly finished French one and I am venturing into French two. I didn’t think it was possible for the instructors to speak any faster but alas, they have and attempted to bewilder me with guttural sounds and two letter words that mean five different things which they interject in different parts of their sentences. As instructed I have had to repeat each lesson several times now in order to master and continue. I have also had to resort to hitting the pause button to allow myself to practice several times before moving on to the next thing. I thought it might be better that they repeat some sentences more than once as they did in french one but then it would only take up more cd space costing me more money lol. I have to say, I do find myself speaking french here and there and every time I think there is no way I’m going to master the lesson I’m on, I manage to pull it off. There have actually been a few times I have completely surprised myself by spouting off quite long french sentences with ease. I am truly grateful for having the persistence to actually be pulling this off and for dear Mr.Pimsleur for making it possible for so many to learn this wonderful language. I am still having a blast and I would recommend this program to anyone wanting to learn French so far. I will be letting you know as we go along together. See you soon!!!! Au revoir!!!
My only son turned five years old last week. He is a handsome, articulate, energetic, intelligent, fun-loving and gentle young man. He is the apple of my eye!
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