Category Archives: French

Yabla – Foreign Language Videos With Subtitles and Translations

I recently learned about a website called Yabla, which offers Spanish and French videos complete with transcripts and translations: Only Yabla language immersion sites give you authentic television, music videos, drama, interviews, travel, and Yabla exclusive shoots from throughout the … Continue reading

Posted in All Entries, French, Resources, Spanish, Tools, Videos | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Language Geek New Year Intentions

I know, I know – you expected to see “resolutions” in the title. I decided to copy Geoff’s lead, by using intentions rather than resolutions. Every New Year resolution I’ve ever made, I’ve failed miserably at; and as Einstein said, … Continue reading

Posted in All Entries, French, German, Language Journal, Russian | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Assimil French with Ease Progress

I’m now up to lesson 56 in Assimil’s French with Ease, and, having done about a week’s worth of the “active wave”, I wanted to comment on it. As I’ve mentioned before, Assimil’s approach consists of a passive wave and … Continue reading

Posted in French, Language Journal, Language Learning | 9 Comments

Throttling Russian

I’ve recently throttled back on studying Russian, largely because I feel that I just don’t have enough time to continue enlarging my German vocabulary, learn the basics of French with my Assimil course, and learn the basics of Russian. I’ve … Continue reading

Posted in French, Language Journal, Language Learning, Russian | 8 Comments

A grammar quote from Rivarol

I was rereading through the introduction to New French with Ease earlier this evening, and came across this gem of a quote from Rivarol: Grammar is the art of lifting the difficulties out of a language; the lever must not … Continue reading

Posted in French, Grammar, Language Learning | 5 Comments

What am I doing, language-wise?

I’ve not posted about how my language learning is going for a while now, so here’s the obligatory update. My German is going extremely well. It’s mostly just an activity of vocabulary acquisition at this point. I’m familiar with all … Continue reading

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The meaning of the French phrase “bête noire”

I just recently started reading A History of India for a course I’m taking at the university. I came across the expression bête noire in the book, in this sentence: In this connexion there was another bête noire which cast its … Continue reading

Posted in French | 3 Comments