本期节目话题背景

　　最近有同学问了我这样一道题，“Describe a thing you did to learn another language ”。对于很多人来说，学习一门新的语言需要花费很多时间和精力，我也不例外。之前准备去法国旅行的时候，听从了朋友的建议，花了很多时间学习法语，为我的旅行做好准备。在学习的过程中我发现了一个很适合学习语言的应用软件，到底是什么呢？我们一起来聊一聊吧！
　　我非常认真地练习了3个月，发现自己的法语水平确实提高了许多。但是当我去到法国之后，当地朋友却很礼貌地告诉我，说英语也可以，没关系。

　　本期Part 2 话题

　　Describe a thing you did to learn another language
　　You should say:
　　What language you learned
　　What you did
　　How it helped you learn the language
　　And how you felt about it

　　本期节目话题参考文本

　　I remember I had to learn French five years ago before my trip to Paris. Basically, I booked a trip to France but didn’t know anything about France. So I asked a friend because she had lived and studied there before. She told me some of the French people are a little snooty so it is a good idea to learn some basic French as you don’t want to just go up to a person in France and ask them questions in English, it is considered to be extremely rude. And also, some of the French people don’t really like Americans, so it would be a bad idea to walk around in Paris shouting in English.
　　So I took her advice because I don’t want to be embarrassed when I get there, and thought about hiring a French teacher but it was too expensive. Then I found out that there is a free language learning APP called Duolingo and a lot of people love it. So I got the App and started learning immediately. What is good about this app is that you don’t need to learn grammar and pronunciation and it starts with the basic sentence and you just listen and repeat. But what is bad about it is that there is no correction mechanism and you can’t be sure of whatever you said is correct. But I kept it up for 3 weeks and I thought my French had really improved and ready for my trip. By the time I got there, I started speaking French to the locals but most of the time, they politely told me“ sir, please speak English, it is OK.”

　　Words & expressions in this episode

　　1. snooty adj. 傲慢的；目中无人的
　　2. mechanism n. 机制；机理；技巧；途径