Thank you, this is news to me, I've been using the 'Learn French with Alexa' series on YT, plus a French dictionary and some magazines etc. I'll check it out!

Great! The nice thing is that the teachers are often French and you can make friends and practice the language at the same time.

J’aimerais bien trouver un cours en classe. J’en ai ras-le-bol de la formation sur internet. Malheureusement l’Alliance Française la plus proche est a 2h de chez moi. Je m’étais inscrit à un cours intermédiaire d’une autre organisation locale, mais il a été annulé car il n’y avait pas assez d’étudiants.

C’est trop mal.

Actually I can’t speak or write it fully, but I can understand you for the most part. I didn’t reach that B1-2 proficiency because I got hired around that time.

Probably “c’est dommage” would be more idiomatic for “it’s too bad”.

I got into relearning French during the pandemic. I did learn it at school (age 11-16) but that was well over 20 years ago.

Quel dommage ?

As-tu essayé italki ? J'utilise ça pour apprendre le japonais.

(BTW awesome French, no weird sentence structure or obvious mistake apart from the missing accent on "est à 2h")

Non, je ne l’ai pas encore essayé. Je suppose que ça devrait être ma prochaine étape, mais je n’aime pas parler en visio.

Pour l’instant, je suis content de lire des livres et d’écouter des podcasts.

>"des podcasts".

Uh oh!

"Cessez d'écouter des “podcasts”, préférez l'audio à la demande" https://actualitte.com/article/7421/distribution/cessez-d-ec...

I don't speak French but I find the official aversion to anglicisms endearing and amusing.

As a french speaking Quebecer, we use "podcast" or "Balado" (short for baladodiffusion https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/... ).

Please do not think that French is only in France. We use words here that french people won't understand and they do the same. And the aversion to anglicisms varies a lot depending on the person (ie "footing", a non-existing word in english in the sense used, is used in France to say "jogging").

I think the official language authorities are fighting a losing battle on that one!

Is there an Italian version of this?

I have looked online a little bit, but apart from some cultural centers around embassies not that I can see. They have an official cultural center, but only 80 worldwide vs 1000+ of Alliance Francaise.

Maybe just language centers or local people offering classes might be your best bet. Maybe an Italian aficionado can chip in on this one.