Newsdle, a brand new language learning platform (website and app) is a very different way to learn French. It’s the first news-based graded reader for students of French (and Spanish) at all levels. Each day you log in to your Newsdle account to read a selection of French articles based on your personal interests. Mine for instance are history and culture and general news.
Choose your skill level from beginner to advanced and then work through as many of the articles as you like and test yourself with reading and listening quizzes. It really is a superb way to find out more about France as you improve your French language learning. And as I’m a subscriber, I can tell you it really works.
Learn about France
I’ve done a lot of French courses, some good, some bad. What I like about Newsdle is that I can start my learning whenever I want and be totally flexible about it – but most of all, I’m genuinely interested in the topics, and that keeps me coming back each day. Sometimes I’ll read cultural articles – museum exhibitions, Josephine Baker, the auction of Marie-Antoinette’s bracelets. My interests are history and culture predominantly but I’ve found myself reading more and more different articles – travel, food, nature, and language (in a fascinating article about French astronaut Thomas Pesquet).
If you have an interest in France then this is definitely the way to learn more.
Go at your pace
You choose what level of French you’re at and open the articles. You’ll read them in French and at the end a list of key words are presented with their meanings. You then take a test – reading or/and audio. The reading test always involves word pairing to make sure that you’ve understood the words. Then there are statements and you choose whether they are true or false. Sometimes you put in the missing word in a sentence, other times you choose which word is an adverb in a sentence.
The listening test is a great way to hear French spoken properly and tends to be more challenging as you need to concentrate really hard to make sure you understand the details.
Challenge yourself
Newsdle founder Sean McGibney and his team have run a platform called The Chairman’s Bao [TCB] for the study of Chinese. TCB is used in 350+ global schools and universities, as well as by over 150,000 users worldwide. They’ve had a lot of experience in teaching languages and all of that experience has gone into Newsdle. You choose how much you want to challenge yourself. I’ve found that the articles are so interesting, I spend more time learning. And I concentrate really hard so I can do the quizzes. Instead of just reading, repeating, moving on and forgetting, the words, phrases and grammar are sinking in better than ever.
What you get
You can take a free trial of sample lessons before you sign up. As a subscriber, every day you’ll receive 3 news-based lessons from beginner to advanced levels. And you’ll have access to the entire library of articles. Each lesson has listening and reading comprehension exercises written by qualified teachers. There are in-built features such as live dictionary, keyword lists and graded spoken audio. You can study via the app or the website.
If you’re serious about learning French, this course will certainly help you with a flexible and fun way of learning – and you can get a year’s worth of learning for less than a cup of Starbucks caffe latte per month (use discount code goodlife25 for 25% off)…
Start learning French and discover more about France, take a free trial and subscribe at: newsdle.com
