Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter
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En français, s’il vous plaît
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When I was a kid, if I ever said I was bored, my dad would always say, “Then go learn a language.”
He would probably be very proud with my recent personal milestone: I completed a 750-day streak on Duolingo, the language app (Hold your applause, please.)
It’s a habit that started during the pandemic, when boredom was elevated to truly monumental heights. I decided to brush up on my French, which had sadly wasted away since my university days, when I was relatively fluent. (Shout out to Prof. Meadwell, my favourite French teacher.)
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It really got me through some long, lonely weekends and I may have developed more of an attachment to the app’s characters than I otherwise would have.
If you’ve never used Duolingo, let me fill you in. Each lesson is administered by a different little cartoon avatar with a very specific voice (these caricatures are the same no matter what language you’re learning) and a backstory.
Vikram is an amateur baker who often runs into trouble at the boulangerie, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife Priti. Lily is a surly teenage goth, complete with vocal fry, who often tries to discourage the schemes of her sunny, naive friend Zari.
Oscar is a pretentious artist; his friend and co-worker Eddy is a lunk-headed gym teacher with a rapscallion son named Junior who always gets the better of him. (There is even a fan community that collects facts about the character gleaned from their storylines: “Eddy is often the chosen character to get hurt, sick or injured, as seen in ‘Oscar’s flowers,’ ‘This tastes strange,’ ‘My Leg hurts,’ ‘Call a Doctor,’ and ‘At the gym.'”)
I’m sure I’m not the only one who mimics their voices when doing oral exercises — Oscar’s plummy tones are particularly satisfying to emulate.
But the reasons I’ve stuck with Duolingo post-pandemic aren’t purely for love of language. In fact, sometimes it feels like just another digital tether, a gamified experience that ties me to my phone because my internal competitive spirit won’t let me lose a streak or drop down into the “obsidian” level from “diamond.” (These are totally meaningless categories, btw.)
Trust me, there are nights when I don’t want to “use the past tense to describe a bad vacation” or “discuss sports events and talk about chores.” But I have Duolingo as a main tile on my phone, and the app’s mascot, a bright green owl named Duo, becomes increasingly vexed as the day progresses; every time you glance at your home screen, he’s glaring out at you as if to say, “Is that episode of Girls5Eva more important than mastering the pluperfect?”
Duo is a very judgy bird. At first he’s not mad, he’s just disappointed. But by 10 p.m., he starts to lose his temper and by 11, he is incandescent with rage, with eyes as red as burning coals.
So it’s effective, and although I’m not sure how helpful “talking about chores” will be on my next trip to Paris, I am now able to read and edit the weekly French column we run in the Free Press (from La Liberté) and at a recent Cercle Molière production, I could follow the action even when the projected subtitles were blocked (though it would be easier for me if the actors spoke in Oscar’s voice and discussed various bodily injuries and how to treat them).
Are there any pandemic projects you’ve stuck with over the years?
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Jill Wilson
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What’s up this week
- The arts team’s picks for the weekend include the Home and Garden Show, Queens of the Stone Age at the arena tonight, and MAWA’s annual art auction and cupcake fundraiser.
- Ontario singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer performs at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights today at 8 p.m., with Winnipeg’s Andrina Turenne opening. It’s part of the museum’s Beyond the Beats music series. Harmer is an activist who co-founded the citizens’ organization PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land), leading the successful effort to prevent an open‐pit gravel mine in a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve on the Niagara Escarpment, and launching the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition to protect water, farmland and biodiversity. Her activism and music are featured in the exhibition Beyond the Beat: Music of Resistance and Change. Tickets are $30 at humanrights.ca.
- Virtuosi Concerts presents Cafe Music on April 7 at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew’s River Heights United Church. The concert features the Borealis Piano Trio performing works by Schoenfeld, Price, Rosenblatt and Hatzis. Tickets at virtuosiconcerts.ca
- On Saturday night, Sean Burns and Lost Country celebrate the music of the legendary Merle Haggard at Times Change(d) High & Lonesome club.
- Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Tom Hendry Warehouse is home to Toronto playwright-performer Diane Flacks’ one-woman show Guilt: A Love Story until April 20. See Jen Zoratti’s four-star review here. Tickets at royalmtc.ca.
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