- image via malinky's flickr stream home

It's a day off from work and I am on the couch about to start... my homework? ...Am I nerd? Yes. A nerd obsessed with becoming fluent in French. I will leave the house eventually because I have to see Transformers, but no movies for me until I finish my assignments (sigh). I have become so responsible lately, it's quite frightening.

Inspired by my first trip to Paris, this summer I decided to take a French 101 Intensive course. My instructor is Celine Brossillon through L’Atelier Français. She is a native speaker who has been teaching French in the United States since 2001. I chose a private instructor because my work/life schedule doesn't allow me to attend classes, plus I like to work at my own pace (fast).

I will meet with Celine twice a week, and work on daily written assignments and oral excercises. My final grade (ack) for the semester course will be determined on the basis of the following point system:

* 4 written assignments

* 4 oral assignments

* 1 mid-term exam

* 1 final exam

* homework

I had my first lesson of the semester with her this past Monday, and although I was fearful that it would all be very overwhelming, she was really supportive and has made the process of managing my coursework, exercises, and study time seem achievable. We will be covering a lot of material.

My goal is to be as fluent (writing and speaking) as I possibly can be by the end of the summer, and then continue my studies on a not-so-quite intensive scale through the end of the year. By the end of 2008 I want to speak and write in French on such an advanced level that I will be able to seriously consider moving there for a temporary time to do the same work I do here - only in France. Yay!

After the jump are links and information on the 6 French podcasts I will be using to supplement my intensive course. Exclaimer: There are not Celine approved. She doesn't know I found them yet, and they were not part of her syllabus. She did encourage me to find other ways to enjoy French language and culture so this resulted in a podcast search. The French Ecole's "French For Beginners" Weekly course After many years of developing and harnessing her language-teaching skills with The French Ecole, Alexa has now created an audio treat for people who wish to learn a new language from scratch, without any pressure, in fun, relaxed and manageable chunks.Highlights of lesson 27 include: a general revision of the previous ten lessons; a great listening comprehension dialogue exercise between Alexa and a guest; a sprinkling of idioms; and all the usual bits and bobs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ French For Kids By Kids (Baton Rouge International School) Audio and video podcasts are created and uploaded to iTunes by Mr. Bruno Paquot's French class. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The French Podclass I currently live in the USA (in California, where I am a student). I am studying Education at Cabrillo College (in Aptos, CA). I have the most wonderful and beautiful girlfriend in the whole entire world. So wonderful that I followed her within France (to Bordeaux) and then out of France (to the USA). She is the prettiest, smartest girl I know and sometimes you can hear her melodious voice in conversations in the podcast. (Can you guess who wrote this section? Certainly not me!) I am also a student, in France, via distance learning. I am studying to become teacher (My dream is to open a bilingual/trilingual professional day care/preschool center). The FrenchPodClass started because I was looking to improve my Spanish. I was looking for a class or else that was available in iTunes. By curiosity I looked to see if there were any in French. As many of you know, at that time, there were none. That is when I decided to make one myself. I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with people. I assumed that there would be at least one or two people that would be interested – I never dreamed that I would have you, the 40,000 listeners that download the podcast every week! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn French By Podcast There are 68 lessons in the feed (free). You must pay for the corresponding pdf guides, however I have found I don't need them since these are just supplemental to textbooks I am already using. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn French with Daily Podcasts Learn French with free daily podcasts, brought to you by French teachers from Paris. DailyFrenchPod is an amazing effective and new way to learn French, combining daily podcast, a daily learning guide including review exercices, PDF transcript, keywords, audio and PDF vocabulary sheets, grammar tutorials, and a large community of students and experts to practice with. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ma France 12 video podcasts to learn French. From www.bbc.co.uk/languages - There are 24 videos on the website you can check out, and I guess for whatever reason they only put twelve in the podcast feed.