I will be studying abroad in Paris for six weeks of next semester. I leave for Paris on January 7th, and leave Paris on February 17th. From this point, I have approximately two months to learn as much French as possible, not unlike the two months I had for my Hebrew challenge.
I’m aiming for around the same level I aimed for in Hebrew, “tourist” level. Using the CEFR as a reference, this is somewhere around the A2 level, with some modifications to focus on the things that are most important for me to know in French. These include shopping (buying things), transportation (getting to things), and food (eating things) as well as the obvious emergency phrases (Where is the bathroom? Help me, I am in pain, and “My hovercraft is full of eels”).
I’m going to use the same methods I used for Hebrew: spaced repetition with Anki, mnemonics to remember words, and speaking as much and as early as possible. However, this time I want to be more rigorous about the content I intend to learn and about setting more definitive checkpoints.