We are making good headway towards the enchanted city of Language Competency. After failing to find a French tutor in the last week, I ran back to Schoenhof's in a panic. I thought I would be able to find a CD-ROM for French instruction, but apparently they only stock those products for "rare" languages. "Rare"? I remember seeing one for Kazakh, and many languages which I didn't recognize, but they had one for Cantonese too (which I purchased). Cantonese isn't rare; but perhaps in this neck of the woods it is.
So no French CD-ROM. However, they had a few regular CD products for audio listening, and I jumped at the Barron's "Mastering French". Thirteen CDs!! Unbelievable. I can keep myself busy for weeks with this. I bought it and cracked it open that very night.
As it turns out, it starts off very basic, which is fine. I like the fact that they can speak, and you can repeat what they say; this way practices comprehension and speaking. I once heard that the best way to perfect speaking was to speak along with a native speaker, and for this, a tape or CD is actually much more effective than a person. So I sit here, headphones on, listening to phrase after phrase, speaking along with the French man and then with the French woman. It's paradise.
Tech note: I am running Windows XP, and using its Media Player to listen to the material. Since my laptop, a Dell C400 (how I adore my laptop!), has an external CD-ROM, it's a drag to have to pack the external unit and cable everywhere. But behold the "Copy From CD" button. With two clicks, the entire CD is on my hard drive. I love technology.
Today, I also contacted the administrators for the DELF and DELE exams. I registered for the DELF (which, at $46 per unit, came to $176) and spoke with a woman to get the application for the DELE. She said that she needed a copy of my passport, which I found odd. She never did email the application to me, but it's ok, because her name is Belén, and I'll visit her in her office next week when I'm back in NYC.
10:21:32 PM 
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