So you want to break into the French Twitter-sphere? – Use the following links to keep yourself up to date on the correct vocabulary!
https://www.talkinfrench.com/french-text-slang/
https://www.talkinfrench.com/social-media-terms-french/
To practice your mastery of the language, you can follow these accounts to see French pop-up on your timeline:
Subliminal learning, the idea that you can learn a new language just by listening to an audiobook while sleeping, is probably a myth at best. However, there is some evidence that you can gain, or at least reinforce, new vocabulary by listening to something in a foreign language while asleep.
Even if subliminal learning isn’t effective, that doesn’t mean that listening to podcasts in bed isn’t a good idea! My recommendation for this week is the “Einschlafen Podcast,” which is available on Spotify, on its website, on YouTube, and on iTunes.
“Einschlafen Podcast” (German for “Falling Asleep”) is an excellent German podcast, featuring the relaxing voice of Toby Baier. Each week, Toby starts out by talking about the news, his recent life, and any other random facts, and then eventually starts reading excerpts from books in a calming, slow voice. The books range from Alice im Wunderland to Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft.
The point of “Einschlafen Podcast” is to fall asleep. For those trying to learn German, this is a great way to increase your daily input, simply by falling asleep. Although “passive learning” is still fairly controversial, I feel like I’ve benefitted from listening to a little extra German every day, especially in listening comprehension.
This masterpiece by Roberto Bolaño centers around a group of radical poets and their hungry, crazy, and romantic lives in Mexico City. It’s got lesbians, mystery suicides, schizophrenics, and a lot of jaw-dropping stories. It’s worth to struggle with the Spanish because Bolaño is a masterful wordsmith, but this book will be most enjoyable for advanced Spanish readers.
ELFE
Elementary French Exercises (or, ELFE) are French language drills to practice grammar and vocabulary. They are organized by subject, so you can easily focus in on your areas of difficulty.
The interface is sensitive so make sure to add accents and punctuation exactly as needed. Although it’s a bit old-school, the exercises are well-designed. They give corrections immediately. And it’s all free!
ELFE is accessible through Moodle.
Trésor
Trésor is a detailed online French language resource with several important applications. First, search your desired word, then toggle between tabs to see:
Morphologie – all morphologies of your word, including conjugations.
Lexicographie – traces your word to its root word and definitions, as well as common cultural usage and example sentences.
Etymologie – etymology and history of your word.
Synonymie – synonyms.
Antonymie – antonyms
Proxemie – installs an extension for your web browser.
Concordance – finds examples of your word in common books or texts
This is an extremely powerful resource, and if you install their toolbar or extension, you won’t need to navigate to the site each time.
Trésor is tout en français.
Maggie:
• I like to add a French news app on my phone to practice French in my downtime. Big carriers like LeMonde or Le Figaro offer about half their articles free, or you can look for your preferred newspaper.
• On that note, I like to set my phone language to French. My Facebook account is set in French, too. It helps switch my brain into French mode outside the classroom, and also taught me some new vocab.
Nathan:
• I like listening to Podcasts in German while cooking or driving. Some of my favorites are “Fest & Flauschig,” or “Lage der Nation.”
• German newspaper apps, like the Süddeutsche Zeitung or Spiegel,will push notifications of headlines to your phone, which gives you a number of one-sentence comprehension challenges throughout the day. I like to try to look up any words I don’t know in the headline, and make sure that I know exactly what it means.
Martha:
• My biggest thing is reading! Reading in your foreign language is a great way to see subconscious improvement in your own writing, stylistically and grammatically. Especially when I’m not in a French or German class, I’ll make sure my ‘fun’ reading is a novel in one of those languages. The library also has great databases of free online French and German literature on their website!
• When I see an advertisement with a tag-line, or a sign somewhere, I’ll practice translating it into either French or German, and then I’ll look up the way that company self-translated the same advertisement and compare! This has led me down some funny and interesting roads looking at cultural intersections.
Lucía:
• I will never be convinced that Harry Potter is not the best way to start reading a foreign language. Right now I am in chapter 2 of The Sorcerer’s Stone in Japanese, or “ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石.”
• Watching movies in a foreign language is great, but I think it is even more helpful to watch foreign language TV shows. You get used to the ways character speak and benefit from listening to their accents for many hours.
• Also, downloading flashcards on my phone and having vocab sets that I can flip through while wasting time on my phone is great.
Liliana:
• My favorite way to keep up with/learn new vocabulary is listening to music in the target language! I find that learning the lyrics and the melody help me to understand words in new contexts and in a way that I know I’ll remember.
• Writing and practicing flashcards is also my go-to classic, especially for Mandarin because of that extra writing practice!
German.net is a language-learning website with numerous exercises. Levels range from approximately A1 (beginner) to B2 (advanced). This could be a very helpful tool for those looking to brush up on German skills or trying to advance their language.
German.net has a number of grammatical exercises, including ones on verb tenses, case and declension, nouns, adjective endings, prepositions, and the passive voice. These exercises are neatly categorised and are easy to find on the website.
These textbook-like exercises require the user to fill in missing information, and the solutions give the correct answer. 
It also has “vocabulary builder,” which quizzes the user on words which grow progressively more difficult. 
Perhaps most unique to German.net, and also most useful, is the “reading” tool, which presents short texts and then quizzes the user on the content. 
German.net also features a verb conjugation tool, which is especially useful when reviewing for a test or trying to learn more irregular conjugations. 
Ma vie de courgette is a Swiss-French stop-motion film that won critical acclaim. The film was screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
It is a dramatic comedy that follows a nine year-old boy named Courgette who moves to an orphanage.
This movie is available on streaming sites like Netflix under its English name, My life as a zucchini. Audio can be set to French or English.
P.S. If voice actors are your jam, you may be interested to know that the audio cast is star-studded. This film employs the talents of Nick Offerman, Ellen Page, Will Forte, and more. Enjoy!
The Diamond Arm is likely one of the most classic — and popular — Soviet comedies of all time. Starring an array of Soviet top talent, like comedian and actor Yuri Nikulin, the movie follows of a story involving jewel heists, mistaken identities, and international travel. Great for beginning speakers. Available in the IMC.
Radio Ambulante is an award-winning podcast series which tells Latin American stories, covering a range of issues from immigration to bee-keeping. They have thousands of episodes to choose from, allowing listeners to filter by country, topic, and length. Most episodes are both in Spanish and English, which makes Radio Ambulante suitable for both beginners and advanced Spanish students.