New French (beta) course

I’ve recently started trying to speak some of my very very very very VERY VERY weak French skills with a workmate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, so discovering that French is now available was a very pleasing coincidence.

I’m very impressed with it. And hope enough other people join it to make it worthwhile keeping it going.

since it’s beta there seem to be a few very minor issues:

“Je veux” sounds like “Je veuxb” on sound file and the text occasionally seems slightly out of sync; changing a bit slower or a bit faster than the audio at times
(but knowing Aran I half suspect that it might actually be intentional since it kind of helped to be ever so slightly confused about what was happening exactly and to notice the difference slightly similar phrases :thinking::joy:)

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Glad you’re enjoying it @chriscastle!

Oui, it’s still in Beta, so we’re still testing it and finding things we need to tweak, but it’s getting there and will give you an impressive amount of French to surprise your workmate with :slight_smile:

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Falch iawn bod ti’n trio fo! Edrych ymlaen at glywed sut eith o i ti :slightly_smiling_face:

No, I’m not quite wily enough for that to be deliberate - there are fixes in the pipeline :slightly_smiling_face::slightly_smiling_face:

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I am already B2 in French, although was curious to try the app (downloaded on Friday, Android, Samsung S22). I selected French, then it took a while to load, then played the Welsh version. I restarted and in worked in French. The skip button didn’t seem to do anything. I was in the car and it stopped playing at one point (when I parked the car, I realised this was because I got a Yellow belt). So it’s not going to work for me as a replacement for the weekly recordings, hyd yn hyn.

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Hi @brian-ballantyne

Thanjs for the update - we are still working on getting the last few gremlins out - it is very new and there has been a lot of change under the surface - and all feedback is useful.

Did you register with the App or log on? (Log on I imagine) - we will have a quick check on that workflow - I’m wondering whether you chose French before logging in and then it defaulted to Welsh post log in - do you think that might be possible?.

Hopefully that’s just a one time thing - we’ll take a look.

The belts announcements are designed to carry on after a short delay - I’d imagine we’re talking Android versions here - do you know what version you are on?

However, there is an ‘are you still listening’ type of pop up - something that checks whether you’ve left your phone in the corner when you answered the door ( to discover later you’ve reached black belt!:grin:). Did you see that at all?

It’s in our To-do list to allow that to be turned off in your settings (e.g. If you know you going to be listening continually for a long time).

How was the course?

Thanks for your help

Rich :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m not going to press for this sooner, because I don’t know what else is on the list that’s more urgent, but in due course that’s going to be a must for anyone who uses it when driving on their own. Good to know it’s in the pipeline.

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Hi

I’ve been trying the computer app today but have had constant issues with the course “freezing” after a few sentences. I either have to reload the app to get it to start again or sometime skipping forward will restart it. But sometimes it just stays frozen.
Been getting an “Error Fetching course, please try again” message at the bottom of the screen too sometimes although not every time that it freezes.

Dai

Sounds like you’re on top of the bug fixing and roadmap. Good luck!

Hi @daiwilliams

The server ran into a bit of a working apace problem last night - a little bit of a victim of our own success as more and more people are logging on - it has had a few settings changed and been beafed up considerably.

Hopefully that is solved now Dai - could you let me know if you.still get anything like this?

Thanks for help

Rich :slightly_smiling_face:

Hi

It has been working fine for me today

Dai

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Excellent. Thanks for letting me know.

Rich :slightly_smiling_face:

@rich @deb

Bore da both.

I had a quick go of the French and skipped forward. Now when I click ‘revisit’ it only goes back as far as ‘I want to speak French with you now’ and no further. I would like to go back to the start to use it properly but it is stuck.

I can’t see a way to restart unless I’m being a bit twp :grinning:…alla ti helpu fi please?

Helo pawb,
I’m so pleased the French course is there. Could anyone direct me to a video or provide tips on how to pronounce the 'r sound please?
Diolch yn fawr!

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Shwmae

Efallai bod hyn yn helpu

How to pronounce R in French from Learn French With Alexa - YouTube

Dai

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DIolch.

I found this useful (and fun) but it wasn’t quite there. But I read this and I think this helped further:

lemur918

3y ago

I learned to pronounce French R from a YouTube video that I can’t find yet, but the tip was this.

  1. Make a English “K” sound, but before releasing the sound keep your mouth in that shape for “K” sound.
  2. Make a “H” sound. Release air like you’re saying “Ha”
  3. The sound that comes out should be a French “R”. If it doesn’t work, tighten your “K” shape in back of mouth even further and try the “H” sound again.

Which made me think, is the french ‘r’ basically the ‘ch’ sound in Welsh? If so, I should be fine (as I learnt Welsh at home as a young child).

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I can remember my French teacher getting us to practice this by repeating; le réverbère rouge refleté dans la rue
(Hopefully thats nearly correct)

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I’ve checked with the Tech Team and they tell me that you should be able to move backwards through the course using Revisit, so in theory, you should be able to get back to the material that makes up the first complete sentence. I’ve been doing some testing of this, so if you’d like to click Revisit and record the sentence you’re given, then click it again and do the same - a few times - and send me a PM with that information, I’ll compare it to what I’m getting. I suspect something isn’t quite working as it should, but I’m having trouble pinning it down.

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I would say the French ‘r’ is far less guttural than the Welsh ‘ch’. It sounds softer.

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I’ve been hoping for this course for a decade, so getting the email was super exciting. I’m a B1 reading level in French but listening in particular I find extremely challenging and am only a solid low level A1. This course with the accompanying liaison will help to address that. Not sure how much content is on there, but I’m belting through it and will keep going with whatever is put on.

With regards to technical issues others I’ve had it so occasionally in the car, but the belt announcements are followed by a continuation of the cost usually m I’ve only had it stop once.

I do wonder when I’ve stopped for a break though whether it is always coming back to the same place. I had one where it jumped straight from a question into a belt award without giving me chance to respond.

Overall though, this is awesome as this method works better than any other I have come across - even though I am an incompetent when it comes to the discipline to push through tough times.

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