Last year, Duolingo introduces Clubs: a feature that allows users to create groups and invite friends and family to learn along with them within the app. teachers, friends, family) was so important when it came to putting in the practice in order to master the language. Even as a kid learning French, the social support (e.g.

Although part of this is definitely due to my short attention span, another part is the fact that I’ve never had anyone to learn with. I’ve used the app on-and-off for years now but have had a difficult time seeing a course through. You earn points, level up, and unlock new challenges as you progress throughout the lessons. If you’ve never heard of Duolingo, it’s an amazing app that gamifies learning a language. That said, I’m ready for a new challenge and I’d love to invite you to join me as I take it on. My experience learning French left me with a deeper interest and confidence for learning languages. Heck, I’d even go as far to say that learning a second language has helped me live a better life! In so many ways, speaking an additional language has helped me build better relationships with my students. I love surprising my students by switching to French when I visit them in French class or during Francophonie week. Suddenly, thanks to my bilingualism, I was able to apply to twice as many school boards as my single-language peers (not that that mattered, I didn’t get hired anyway!) Since then, I’ve taught PE in both French and English schools.

I never really appreciated my parents’ early brilliance until I graduated University and started looking for a job. I became more confident, was able to lose most of my Anglo accent, and found myself excelling in French (as a first language) even when my classmates struggled. I remember being so confused and scared for most of those early years, not to mention the fact that I was constantly picked on for being different (especially in 1995). My parents, believing that it was essential for me to learn the language since we lived on the south shore of Montreal, sent me to the French school that was down the road from our house. It’s summer time which means that – as teachers – we all have a little more time to unwind, rest up, and catch up on things we’ve been meaning to do all year.įor years now, I’ve been wanting to learn a new language.

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