Monthly Archives: October 2015

As part of my process of furthering my education I started trying to learn French again, after having taken it for years in school, and forgetting most of it. Many of us would like to learn another language, but either don’t know where to begin, or grow tired of the lessons and eventually give up. I was inspired after reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, where he recommended starting with French as a foreign language to learn.

I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made myself so much a master of the French as to be able to read the books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, who was also learning it, us’d often to tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length refus’d to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game should have a right to impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquish’d was to perform upon honour, before our next meeting. As we play’d pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language. I afterwards with a little painstaking, acquir’d as much of the Spanish as to read their books also.

I have already mention’d that I had only one year’s instruction in a Latin school, and that when very young, after which I neglected that language entirely. But, when I had attained an acquaintance with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surpris’d to find, on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met with more success, as those preceding languages had greatly smooth’d my way.

From these circumstances, I have thought that there is some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having acquir’d that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are deriv’d from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase without using the steps, you will more easily gain them in descending; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest you will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would therefore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the education of our youth, whether, since many of those who begin with the Latin quit the same after spending some years without having made any great proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not have been better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, etc.; for, tho’, after spending the same time, they should quit the study of languages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern use, might be serviceable to them in common life.

Many people take a foreign language as a class in school, and quickly forget most of what they learn. The key to learning a language is practice, if you don’t use it consistently, you’ll quickly get rusty and forget. With Duolingo, you can practice for just a few minutes a day and consistently build your vocabulary.

After I’d decided to work towards learning a foreign language, I started using Duolingo, which turns the process of learning a language into a kind of game, earning various points and levels, it helps encourage you to make progress. After a year of consistently using the site, I set a goal for myself to read The Little Prince, in French, something I was supposed to have done in school, but didn’t actually complete. I managed to do it, although with a lot of help from Google Translator.

My current goal is to finish the entire French tree on Duolingo this year, then look for other sources where I can continue practicing French. I’ll then probably move onto the Spanish language in Duolingo, while also trying to keep up my French practice there.