Je Parle, Tu Parles

I've been spending some of my down time on the weekends brushing up on my French. Once upon a time, I was pretty good. I even went through a period where I dreamed en français. Of course, that was years ago. Our weekend at the New College 50th Anniversary celebration in 2011 (another thing I failed to make note of here) brought home just how long ago it really was.

I periodically get a bee in my bonnet about how sadly lapsed my French skills are, usually when we've been for a visit up north and I've been caught out at a cash register by a french speaking cashier. I tried podcasts and iTunes University and the BBC free language tutorials. Nothing quite hit what I needed.

The Mr. came across Duolingo a few months ago in his internet travels and pointed me to it. It's still in Beta, but you can request an account and it's free and really quite good! It's been amazing to me how much I actually remember and how quickly it comes back. I'm still much better at reading/listening I am at writing/speaking, but the Duolingo method feels sustainable so I think it will be a big help.