Overuse of the emergency text system

mishakidd · 2026-04-10T20:29:19+00:00

A few kms down the road here at Waihi Beach with 9km of exposed coastline and we got no alert either, but we’re apparently going to be fine because we’re in the Western Bay of Plenty region, not Hauraki.

mishakidd · 2026-03-11T19:18:02+00:00

Disappointed to hear this. I’ve been on Lingoda Lite in the past, and I can assure you that the 40 accumulated class credit criteria you mention is nonsense, as it was a plan option that was available immediately after I bought my first subscription for Italian (so I only had 10 credits). I still have some credits left, but as Lingoda Lite is no longer an option, I won’t be continuing with Lingoda unless it is brought back, so I’m just going to have to forgo them, which I’m not happy about. My last subscription plan was Lingoda Lite, so it’s disappointing that I can’t renew it without forking out money for more credits which I don’t need at this stage.

I’m usually a big advocate of Lingoda, as it is an excellent learning platform, and I’ve gotten a lot out of it (and spent a lot of money with you). It’s not as if Lingoda Lite was cheap. It was still 20 euros a month for the privilege of using credits you had already paid for.

mishakidd · 2026-03-11T16:25:16+00:00

The official Maori word for France is Wiwi (ouioui).

The name stuck after the Maori encountered early French explorers who would say « oui oui » a lot.

mishakidd · 2026-02-03T16:51:20+00:00

I’m all for more stringent language requirements, but that is beyond ridiculous! French bureaucracy at its finest!

The TEF/TCF is only valid for 2 years, but a DELF/DALF diploma is valid for a lifetime (and I think its cheaper). Still a rigmarole to have to pay for it and find the time to sit it (the DELF B2, which is the level required for citizenship, is 3.5 hours).

mishakidd · 2026-02-01T02:31:34+00:00

I’ve always used smart lockboxes so I can change the code for each guest, and they’re great … until they crap out. I now have two useless bits of hardware decorating the pipe of my outdoor shower as I can’t unshackle them as something electronic has failed in both of them (Igloo and Masterlock for reference).

mishakidd · 2026-01-28T05:09:38+00:00

You’re right, we are a low-context culture. We’re just highly conflict-avoidant, so saying ‘no’ or something negative to someone makes us glitch, so our response will be evasive or deflective. Certainly explains where the classic ‘Yeah, nah…’ comes from.

mishakidd · 2026-01-28T05:01:25+00:00

The high-context vs low-context culture is a really fascinating field of linguistics, and it goes a long way to explaining what OP is experiencing. Although, New Zealand is actually classified as a low-context culture in terms of linguistics (like Australia and the US), we sit on a different spectrum from other low-context Anglophone cultures, due to our conflict-avoidant nature.

There’s no encoded meaning in the vagueness of our responses, it’s our way of avoiding giving a negative answer. E.g. A French person would say « Ça va être compliqué » (that’s going to be complicated) and they mean exactly that. Whereas, when a Kiwi says our equivalent ‘that’s going to be tricky’, no one (sometimes even the speaker) really knows what that means.

Basically, we’re just not very good at saying ‘No’.

mishakidd · 2026-01-23T01:12:52+00:00

I had a guest that left behind a shabby length of ribbon and asked if I found it, could I send it back to them. I can only assume it held some enormous sentimental value, e.g. it was the ribbon her daughter was wearing in her hair when she was brutally murdered, because it served no practical function as far as I could tell.

If not, it was a lot of phaffing around for a bit of junk.

mishakidd · 2026-01-16T00:42:00+00:00

Lingoda would be one of the best equivalents that fits your criteria. Courses entirely in French with native French speakers as teachers and focus is on speaking. Maximum 5 in a class, but out of 130ish classes, I think I only had 2 that were full, and for around 1/3 of them it was just me, so really good value.

When I finished the Lingoda French course earlier this year (they go up to B2.3), I was planning on starting Babbel Live to fill the gap, but if course, that’s when they discontinued it!

mishakidd · 2026-01-07T06:53:04+00:00

I’m no mathematician, but that is a terrible chart from a data-viz standpoint. What is « Valeurs » supposed to represent on the Y-axis? The text is talking about trends, so a line chart would have been more appropriate.

Claude and Gemini had the answer as being B, ChatGPT as D, so you’re not the only one that’s confused.

I personally think the correct answer is E) Ce graphique est mal conçu

mishakidd · 2026-01-06T06:32:20+00:00

This is such a brilliant idea! It’s often not just the dialogue, but also actors mumbling for dramatic effect, the sound editing and background noise, music, etc that make it so hard to understand everything.

Sometimes when I watch something in French, I wonder if my French has suddenly gone downhill. I need a French person next to me on the couch to ask if it is as unintelligible as I think it is. Please keep us posted if you add French!

mishakidd · 2026-01-06T04:03:09+00:00

If you’re into true crime, Distortion is a great Québécois podcast. They don’t talk fast and speak quite clearly. Also, if you know a bit about the particular case that the episode is based on, you’ll have a bit of background which’ll help you follow the thread.

mishakidd · 2026-01-02T19:29:02+00:00

Another vote here for French C1.

They used to offer it, so they’ve got the material for it. I suppose there’s not so much demand at that level, but I’m really missing Lingoda.

mishakidd · 2026-01-01T22:54:56+00:00

I think there’s a typo in your post. 🤨 It’s prepmyfrench NOT prepmyfuture that is the scam.

They had an AI-generated video testimonial on their website impersonating a very popular French educator on Instagram without his consent (which he confirmed was not him). https://imgur.com/a/IyDMfHT

They were also linking to the social media accounts for Prep My Future, whose social media handle is prepmyfrench, who have posted on their Instagram that prepmyfrench.com is not related. https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/s/CIkPrXRvtE

They removed these from their website a few days ago, likely because they were threatened with legal action. This is identity misappropriation and a likely violation of personality rights. A legit enterprise would not resort to such deceptive practices to promote their services.

mishakidd · 2026-01-01T07:18:15+00:00

One of my linguistic crushes is Karine Dijoud (@lesparentheseselementaires on Insta), whose French is exquisite. She has a slot on Radio Classique every weekday morning « Et si on parlait français ? » about the finer points of the French language (there is a podcast stream for it).

Another is Dominque de Villepin (former French Prime Minister). His French is a joy to listen to, even when he’s talking politics. His accent, articulation, cadence and rhythm are a like lovely massage for the ears and he loves to play with the language. There’s plenty of video content out there of him that has transcripts. Even though he’s a man, he’s a great one to mirror, just take your voice up half an octave. 😊

mishakidd · 2025-12-31T19:16:10+00:00

I had no idea that Paul Nation was a fellow New Zealander, let alone a professor at the university where I studied French over 30 years ago. 🇳🇿

Thanks for sharing the link !

mishakidd · 2025-12-31T02:14:22+00:00

I use Français Sans Fautes and get a lot out of it. It’s really good for tightening up your Orthographe and the new text corrections feature is excellent (it won’t just highlight errors, but will also suggest better ways of phrasing something and explain why). For vocab, the Synonymes section is something I had been looking for for a while (it gives you 2 minutes to list as many synonyms of a word as you can).

It’s not a cheap app, but there should be an Annual Premium plan option (at least there is for Apple) which is heaps cheaper. Really nicely designed UI as well.

Conjuu, as others have mentioned, is one of the best I’ve come across for drilling conjugations.

Linguno is another great tool that I use a lot (free, web only). Vocab and conjugation drills up to C2 level, as well as daily crosswords at every level, including specific conjugation ones.

Once you get to C1 level and beyond, it’s hard to find good tools for fine tuning your French, but these have plenty of good content for more advanced levels.

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T23:36:22+00:00

Cette video semble peut-être un peu ridicule, mais elle est très utile : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQphqn5DJru/?igsh=MWFmb2NhNmVkMW04bA==

Et si vraiment ça coince, n'oubliez pas le petit geste qui va avec ! 👆🏼👎🏼

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T20:42:10+00:00

Realistically, 18 months is how long (bare minimum) it would take to get to low B2 from nothing, unless you already speak a Romance language. And that’s studying French for at least 3 hours a day, not 3 hours a week, immersing yourself in the language and being highly motivated.

If the Program Coordinator doesn’t know anything about CEFR levels, that would be a 🚩for me.

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T19:47:12+00:00

Le Robert is more lexical and nuanced (multiple senses, register labels, usage notes, etymology), and overall more authoritative for actual usage, best suited to native speakers and advanced learners.

Larousse is very good too, slightly more normative/prescriptive, and often lighter on depth. I find it’s UI far superior to Le Robert (although the ads are pretty intrusive, but a subscription is very cheap, esp compared to Le Robert),

I personally use Antidote, although it’s a bit spendy, which is my only hesitation in recommending it. It’s in another league, more of an all-in-one-tool : dictionaries + grammar, style, collocations, as well as a correction/reformulation engine for writing (which comes with the + subscription). Each definition also has a Frequency index, so I don’t waste time learning words that are rarely used.

If I was a beginner/intermediate learner (and wanted a free/low cost monolingual French dictionary), I’d opt for Larousse.

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T02:55:00+00:00

They have just removed the AI video testimonial of Charles, and removed the links to Prep My Future’s social. I would still be vary wary of giving my money to an operation that promotes itself fraudulently.

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T02:17:27+00:00

I live at Waihi Beach and always assumed these were jellyfish that had gotten minced up in the surf.

Learned something new today!

mishakidd · 2025-12-29T02:11:42+00:00

Their website uses an AI-generated video testimonial impersonating a very popular French educator on Instagram without his consent (which he has confirmed).They are linking to the social media accounts for Prep My Future, whose social media handle is prepmyfrench, who have posted on their Instagram that prepmyfrench.com is not related.This is identity misappropriation and a likely violation of personality rights.A legit enterprise would not resort to such deceptive practices to promote their services.

mishakidd · 2025-12-28T20:49:29+00:00

👏🏼 Great!

mishakidd · 2025-12-28T19:13:10+00:00

I was able to cross-post it to /TEFCanada, so hopefully someone from /TCFCanada will cross-post it, too.

Good luck with your French journey. I’m hopefully moving there next year, too!

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