A Fluenz Story...
I am a native Spanish and near native English speaker, born in Latin America and raised in the United States. I always thought being bilingual was enough, and didn't see a need to learn a third language. I took French 101 Freshman year in college and barely got by, I thought I could use Spanish (another romance language) to avoid studying.
Fast forward to Senior year, I took a couple of courses in Japanese. While I was a much more serious student at that point, I still did not learn as much as I would have hoped. Then in 2008 I started graduate school (an MBA with an international focus). I decide I had to give language learning another shot. My ultimate choice was to go back to French, because of similarity to Spanish and loan words found in English. I started studying in December.
Summer came and I progressed little, I finally bit the bullet and bought Fluenz French 1, I had finished about two thirds of lessons just in time for my trip to Quebec. I got by, everything I learned was relevant. As I was about to finish French 1 immediately bought French 2. In the 3 months it took me to finish French 1& 2 I learned more French than I did in French 101 and my first few months of self study.
Fluenz didn't make me Fluent per say, but it got me off the ground. The structure of the course gave me the confidence to continue language learning. The program thought me not only French, but how I learn languages.
I finished French 1 & 2 about eight months ago. Since there was no French 3 at the time, I found an excellent alternative to continued my studies (I would have loved French 3 though). Today I may not pass for a native Parisian, but I'm probably at a high level B2 (European framework for languages). I'm still studying, and I plan to take the DALF C1 level, next summer at the Alliance Francais.
As I mentioned earlier, working with Fluenz taught me about how I learned and gave me confidence (though I had some extra motivations). As a result of last September I started studying Russian as well, and I'm progressing nicely. The language is a bit "harder" so I wish I had Fluenz to come along for the ride. But hey...the program was there when I needed it and who knows someday I might want to pick up some Mandarin Chinese (or perhaps some future Fluenz language) and I'll know exactly where to look for a thorough introduction.
Status:
Open Jan 25, 2011 - 04:55 PM