Today, I dropped back down to two lessons, though I had initially planned to do three. What happened? Directions happened. After continually confusing droite and droit (and really, who could blame me?), I thought it best to take a break instead of going for the gold. I did learn some new and interesting ways to maximize my learning with the game, however, which I will happily share.
But first, accomplishments! After completing my first lesson today, which was on that other use of aller, I finally completed the entire first tier of lessons, which was 1-16! For a moment, I felt elated. Then I realized that, for all my efforts, it meant I had only really gone through a few lessons. That took the wind out of my sails a bit. Tier two goes from 17 through 37, so it looks like there are probably more than the 50 lessons I assumed. That's good news, at least.
Over the weekend, I am going to try to roll through as many as I can do without killing myself (or others), so we'll see if I can make it to tier three and take a guess at just how deep this particular rabbit hole goes. Maybe I'll even get better at pronunciation by then! Right now, I must admit that actual French speakers would probably look at me in horror if I dared utter a single word in their presence. Okay, I take that back. I can at least say simple things, like gauche or hôtel, both of which turned up in lessons today. I even got a little better at bureau d'accueil, which according to one of yesterday's commenters, I would probably never use. But what the hell -- let's master it anyway, right?
The first lesson was not so bad, likely because so many of the words within were cognates and thus easy to remember. If you can say "restaurant" in English, you can probably manage to make yourself understand in a number of countries, after all. And that's good, because food? Important. Considering the ease of this section, My French Coach took the opportunity to bring in another concept, one that, while it isn't very difficult, is very important for anyone learning the language.
So you would never say, Je vais a le coin for "I go to the corner," but rather, Je vais au coin. It's nice, too, because when you are trying to pick out the differences in spoken French -- a language in which, to my ignorant ear, many, many things sound very similar -- this convention makes it a little easier to pick out masculine and feminine and to differentiate between similar words.
The second lesson, as mentioned, was much more difficult, because I kept mixing things up. With all the cognates in the first, I got very accustomed to translating things per what they were similar to in English, so for some reason, I kept associating escalier with "elevator," rather than "stairs." I also mentioned my troubles with "right" and "straight" as well.
While this made the lesson much more difficult for me than it should have been, the differences between these two efforts today did teach me something very useful -- there is a very, very good reason for the various levels of difficulty in the games. Since I wasn't having much trouble with the words for locations, I set everything on hard and breezed through as quickly as possible. Really, I can remember that poste is the post office. But on the second lesson, I kept everything on easy and did the mini-games over and over again, racking up my mastery points as slowly as possible, so I could continue to drill. By the time I finally finished, I felt comfortable with the words I was mixing up. It's really nice that you can tailor various things like this to your needs at the time. In fact, there are so many little details, like the difficulty levels and the recording features that really make the title shine as a language trainer, and I hope that these folks get started one some other tongues as soon as possible!
Overall, I felt very good about my progress today, even though I didn't get through as much of the game as yesterday. I really feel like the vocabulary is sticking with me, and when older words come up in the mini-games, I don't even flinch. My French Coach is doing a much better job of drilling me in language than some teachers I've had in the past ... but don't tell them I said that.
The first lesson was not so bad, likely because so many of the words within were cognates and thus easy to remember. If you can say "restaurant" in English, you can probably manage to make yourself understand in a number of countries, after all. And that's good, because food? Important. Considering the ease of this section, My French Coach took the opportunity to bring in another concept, one that, while it isn't very difficult, is very important for anyone learning the language.
So you would never say, Je vais a le coin for "I go to the corner," but rather, Je vais au coin. It's nice, too, because when you are trying to pick out the differences in spoken French -- a language in which, to my ignorant ear, many, many things sound very similar -- this convention makes it a little easier to pick out masculine and feminine and to differentiate between similar words.
The second lesson, as mentioned, was much more difficult, because I kept mixing things up. With all the cognates in the first, I got very accustomed to translating things per what they were similar to in English, so for some reason, I kept associating escalier with "elevator," rather than "stairs." I also mentioned my troubles with "right" and "straight" as well.
While this made the lesson much more difficult for me than it should have been, the differences between these two efforts today did teach me something very useful -- there is a very, very good reason for the various levels of difficulty in the games. Since I wasn't having much trouble with the words for locations, I set everything on hard and breezed through as quickly as possible. Really, I can remember that poste is the post office. But on the second lesson, I kept everything on easy and did the mini-games over and over again, racking up my mastery points as slowly as possible, so I could continue to drill. By the time I finally finished, I felt comfortable with the words I was mixing up. It's really nice that you can tailor various things like this to your needs at the time. In fact, there are so many little details, like the difficulty levels and the recording features that really make the title shine as a language trainer, and I hope that these folks get started one some other tongues as soon as possible!
Overall, I felt very good about my progress today, even though I didn't get through as much of the game as yesterday. I really feel like the vocabulary is sticking with me, and when older words come up in the mini-games, I don't even flinch. My French Coach is doing a much better job of drilling me in language than some teachers I've had in the past ... but don't tell them I said that.
See also: The My French Coach series in its entirety
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-16-2007 @ 12:25PM
TheCoats said...
I have loved reading this everyday.....so much that i went and bought it wednesday along with contra 4 (even though mortal Kombat was right there and wifiable).....i have had alot of success with this product also......i knew very little french but i really feel this title works.....but hey ive only had it for a few days!!
Thanks Again
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11-16-2007 @ 1:13PM
Doug Kaplan said...
Seriously, if they make My Japanese Coach I am buying it ASAP. Save me a lot of money and use that instead of the insanely priced Rosetta Stone software!
Reply
11-16-2007 @ 1:24PM
amelinda said...
I hope they are working on My German Coach . . .
Reply
11-16-2007 @ 1:37PM
joe17171 said...
I also worked on the game. I wrote a few of the minigames and did various other things throughout the game. To be honest, when I was working on it, I didn't think it would be as big a hit as it's turning out to be. I could point you toward some cool features and answer any questions you have. (Don't forget to check out the dictionary.)
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11-16-2007 @ 2:06PM
TheCoats said...
the dicionary is by far an awsome feature.....i was playing with it last night and thinking how convienent it would be to take with me to france next time i go......i wont even look like a dumb turist with it!!
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11-16-2007 @ 2:28PM
Sam said...
From Amazon:
"There are 1000 interactive lessons designed with French teachers, 10,000 words and 400 phrases, including pronunciation tests using the built-in DS microphone."
Maybe it's a typo and there are only 100. If not, good luck
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11-16-2007 @ 2:33PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
I've never hoped more for a typo in my entire life!
Reply
11-16-2007 @ 2:40PM
daveteee said...
Sorry for making this comment too long but I feel I need to explain to Doug and anyone else wishing for a Japanese learning version of this. I'm currently doing a degree in Japanese and Chinese and I think I can confidently say that it's not likely to be made.
I think the main problem with east asian languages for English speakers is that they use a totally different writing system. Japanese uses 3 different writing scripts.
I think a "game" like this on the DS would probably be able to teach hiragana and katakana effectively but they're not very useful just on their own. Kanji is a totally different matter since even the simplest words like "bike" are written using 3 different kanji and are much more complex than the other 2 scripts.
If they make more of these they'll probably just stick to European languages since there isn't a fast way to start learning Japanese like French since you can't read the system they use. Of course they could just leave all of reading and writing out and just teach how to speak it but I'm sure many people wouldn't just want that.
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11-16-2007 @ 4:59PM
Glenn said...
I'm wondering how deep the lessons are supposed to go, like what would be the equivalent for university courses or going to a language school? It would be interesting to try out "My Spanish Coach" but I already know a little Spanish, and when I look at the stuff they covered up to this point in French, it doesn't look like it would actually get that deep. But I guess we'll find out.
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11-16-2007 @ 5:53PM
TheCoats said...
Glenn- alisha state din the first day and i have played it myself now.......when you first turn it on there is a placement test to show how much you already know........alisha got to start on level 8 (out of 100??....) I kind of thought there where 200?!?!.......anyway you dont have to play through what you pass on the placement test......hope that helps glenn
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11-16-2007 @ 8:20PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
@#8 -- my husband has been studying Japanese for years using a variety of methods, and some of the most popular (and most useful) are entirely based on the spoken language. When it comes to learning the written languages, he's relied mostly on flash cards he's made himself. Most of the very good resources, from the less expensive (like a website called, I think, JapanesePod? maybe?) are based on the spoken language, and the very expensive and highly recommended Pimsleur sets on CD are spoken. I think they also come with a book (at least, I think his does, but he has SO much stuff), but 90% of the focus is on spoken training. That seems far for the course for most language training avenues available to people outside of a university setting.
So no, I don't think it would be too unusual or difficult to do a Japanese game along these lines, though perhaps more complicated than Spanish or French due to the complications of the language.
And in fact, in my experience, even the university programs are getting away from teaching the written language until later in the program, which I find disheartening, personally. In recent years, it just isn't popular, I guess, to teach people to write and read a language.
@#9 -- I'm really not sure how deep it's gonna go, but so far, we're just behind a semester's worth of French, in my experience, and that's with being maybe a fourth of the way through (and maybe less than that). Also, as someone suggested in an earlier post, there are other things you can pick up to go deeper. I may look into that after I finish with this, and though I know more Spanish than French, I may pick up that one just to drill and see if I can learn more and get more comfortable with the language -- but then again, one may be enough! I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. :)
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11-17-2007 @ 12:36AM
Xian B. said...
By the way, you do realize your final article in this series will have to be composed ENTIRELY IN FRENCH, right? We won't be able to understand a word, but... that's why we need to buy it.
Reply
11-17-2007 @ 2:38AM
koka said...
In my opinion, I think a Japanese language version of the game could be effective. If you're worried about the written language, they could always split the game up into Hirigana, Katakana, and Kanji versions.
I know I've been learning Japanese for a little while now, and though I don't have trouble remembering the spoken language, I always forget the kana. So maybe if they made a game focusing on that, I could remember easier!
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11-17-2007 @ 12:43PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
Oh, crap. If that's the case, Xian B., it will be very short and probably poorly conjugated! ;)
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11-17-2007 @ 1:36PM
Rebecca said...
For those of you asking about the difficulty level, the UK version of MFC is coming out on 23rd November and it has a bar saying 'beginners' where the 'learn a new language' bar is on the US version, and it also claims to be 'level 1'. Sequels will extend the difficulty perhaps?
UK cover can be seen at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/UBI-Soft-My-French-Coach/dp/B000UVNKWO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1195324501&sr=8-1
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11-17-2007 @ 4:05PM
masa said...
oh, in france we have english coach and you have french coach. so funny ;)
I don't really know if with it you are able to speack french. I mean with familiar word. I think i will go to look about my enligh coach to see a the difference.
[email protected]
cedric
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11-17-2007 @ 4:16PM
Bandology said...
I confused Droite and Droit too at first but I got it after about the 3rd try with the games. I got this game 5 days ago and it's like I never stop playing it. I've reached lesson 57 so far. I enjoy the game's little age thing where it says what age/grade you're at according to the game. It's worth buying if you want to learn French or as an addition to a class you might be taking. Geared for all ages, not just for kids like most DS games are.
I enjoy that they throw old vocab back in in some games after you have mastered some words and are working towards mastering the rest in a lesson
Sam- after lesson 50, it goes to open plan where it just goes one lesson at a time on up so they wouldn't have a ton of tabs and a really long menu. When you go into reference (the red one) after you click on your game data to open it, clicking on player status allows you to keep track of how you are doing. When you click on unlockables, where it says lesson 50 was mastered, it's really close to the top of the page so I doubt the 1000 lessons was a typo. I think the game was mane to go from simple vocab a child would use to complicated vocab an adult would use.
I'm having a blast with this game. My French teacher watches me play this game in amazement at lunch. She enjoys watching me get really into the game since I'm learning vocab I have learned in earlier levels but forgot. It's easier to remember (at least for me and many other visual and/or audio learners) when you see and/or hear a word over and over again. I wish there was the option to add in your own words to place in the mini games. It would help me a lot to study for daily vocab quizzes.
J'aime ce jeu!
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11-17-2007 @ 6:33PM
Dee Shepherd said...
Question for JOE17171 - Is there an Itialian Coach in the works? If not, please suggest. If so, please advise when it may be expected?
Reply
11-17-2007 @ 10:08PM
Maple said...
I'm curious how would this be for children learning French? - what ages, box says 3+.
And is this exclusively Parisian, or will common Canadian terms like dépanneur (for corner store) show up? -- Ubisoft is based in Montreal I think?
Wonder if there is link (wi-fi or other) with the Wii version?
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11-17-2007 @ 11:00PM
JC Fletcher said...
I think a Japanese learning program could teach kana just fine. Kanji lessons would form an aspect of the game not found in the French version, true, but there's no reasons you couldn't do kanji lessons along with the vocab and grammar. About 1000 Japanese DS training games prove that a standalone kanji game can work.
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