Jack Edwards #2

Jack: *signs up for intensive French classes*
Classes are hard work
Jack: *shocked pikachu face*

I'm pretty surprised he didn't do any French at secondary school at all. I also find it ironic that he's so angry about the French numbering system and yet chose to learn it, presumably knowing that almost all languages have their own quirks? A language other than English =/= English translated into that language. Some things you just have to accept Jack.

I don't know if he has any experience of learning a foreign language. But i guess not (at least in a serious way) because otherwise he would have guessed that the foundations of the language (alphabet, pronounciations, grammar structure etc.) is established in first level. He will regret his decision big time because, as he progresses in French the lack of knowledge on the basics will haunt him.

Larancia said:

I don't know if he has any experience of learning a foreign language. But i guess not (at least in a serious way) because otherwise he would have guessed that the foundations of the language (alphabet, pronounciations, grammar structure etc.) is established in first level. He will regret his decision big time because, as he progresses in French the lack of knowledge on the basics will haunt him.

Click to expand...

Exactly. He shouldn't be shocked when a language has different foundations to his native language, because it just makes him look like a typical English bigot. Just because he learnt English first, doesn't make the 'gold standard' and mean every language that does something different is wrong or inconvenient. I hope he doesn't take that attitude into his classes.
I'm learning a new language right now, and there are about 30 different words for Yes/No (depending on context/tense etc.), but I don't complain because I want to become as fluent as possible and it's something I have to accept.

I’ve never realized how ‘weird’ our numbers were… until I saw English speaking people make fun of them on tumblr back in the days. I understand his point of view but if he finds this hard already then oh boy, he’s not prepared for what’s coming

urfavepisces said:

I’ve never realized how ‘weird’ our numbers were… until I saw English speaking people make fun of them on tumblr back in the days. I understand his point of view but if he finds this hard already then oh boy, he’s not prepared for what’s coming

Click to expand...

I was going to say this, it sounds like a recylced tumblr post from 2013 or something my friends and I would have said about French class in 8th grade, it's a bit weird to complain about it as an adult who willingly chose to learn French.

The way he was complaining about the classes being in French definitely suggests to me that he hasn't learned any language seriously. The language classes I have taken where all in the target language pretty much right of the bat but I'm assuming schools in the UK (and English-speaking countries in general?) don't do that?

(Also love that he's in *actual* France! As we all know, people often go to fake France and learn hypothetical French there, luckily he didn't!)

I've noticed this with quite a few youtubers who started young. They're stuck in that age zone and they aren't growing up the same as their audience is. They're in such a bubble

xaannaa said:

I was going to say this, it sounds like a recylced tumblr post from 2013 or something my friends and I would have said about French class in 8th grade, it's a bit weird to complain about it as an adult who willingly chose to learn French.

The way he was complaining about the classes being in French definitely suggests to me that he hasn't learned any language seriously. The language classes I have taken where all in the target language pretty much right of the bat but I'm assuming schools in the UK (and English-speaking countries in general?) don't do that?

(Also love that he's in *actual* France! As we all know, people often go to fake France and learn hypothetical French there, luckily he didn't!)

Click to expand...

Recycled tumblr post from 2013 describes most of jacks so called humour

3calico3 said:

Jack: *signs up for intensive French classes*
Classes are hard work
Jack: *shocked pikachu face*

I'm pretty surprised he didn't do any French at secondary school at all. I also find it ironic that he's so angry about the French numbering system and yet chose to learn it, presumably knowing that almost all languages have their own quirks? A language other than English =/= English translated into that language. Some things you just have to accept Jack.

Click to expand...

also I will never get why people complain about the French numbering system for the numbers in the 70s - 90s, yes it's multiplications and additions but no French person sees them as that, you just have to imagine it as a word that just happens to read as "fourtwenty" for 80 for instance. Just read that as a word and that's it. When you read the word "understand" your mind doesn't go "wait understand is made up of under+stand" you just read it in one go. And if that's too complicated for him, he can just learn the way the Belgians and Swiss do it, everyone will understand him perfectly fine in France, as long as he makes the effort to pronounce them correctly, that is...

besides, if he finds the French way complicated imagine how hard the danish way, which introduces 1/2's, would be for him...

iglie said:

also I will never get why people complain about the French numbering system for the numbers in the 70s - 90s, yes it's multiplications and additions but no French person sees them as that, you just have to imagine it as a word that just happens to read as "fourtwenty" for 80 for instance. Just read that as a word and that's it. When you read the word "understand" your mind doesn't go "wait understand is made up of under+stand" you just read it in one go.

Click to expand...

Indeed - if he learns a phrase, and then always tries to translate it back into English, not only is that not a great way of absorbing a new language, but of course it's not going sound/look 'right'. He needs to get used to conveying the meaning, not breaking down every single grammar point compared to English.

Having classes taught in the target language is so much better for immersion, and stops learners being too tempted to just switch back to English. If he was serious about learning (which we don't really know, as he hasn't said why he's learning?), he should appreciate that.

What is it with studytubers always overestimating their abilities? He doesn't claim to be fluent like Jade at least, I guess..

I don't dislike Jack's content and lame jokes. His Youtube style, from what I've gathered, does not include showing much of his social life... so we don't really know what's he's doing besides buying books, switching AirBnBs, and studying French (I don't follow him on Insta though, so I can't really tell if he is sharing other aspects there). Tbh, I would also love to move to Paris for a few months and immerse myself in the language and culture, so I can't really judge him for doing that.

On the issue of language learning, I think an initial stage is identifying what makes it different from your own. Especially learning as an adult is an incredibly humbling and difficult process, so I also don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" way to approach it. And what is easy or more effective for some, will be the opposite for others.
When I studied English, I thought it was weird that 11 and 12 were different words from the rest, but just accepted it; when I studied French I also complained a lot about numbers at the beginning, but then it just made sense; and when I studied Danish, I definitely complained and made more fun of it, and I still think their system is bonkers, as @iglie hinted above.
I do think he has a very ambitious, maybe naive, goal to be able to have conversations and read a book in the language. But I also don't know for how long is he staying.
I guess if for "conversation" he means ordering the right amount of coffees, and by reading a French book, he means "The little prince", I think he will be okay.

I've moved abroad to a new country, and I've been learning the language seriously for six weeks now (6hr/a week in class, and an extra 4 in my spare time alongside my degree). I still don't feel comfortable doing anything other than ordering the odd coffee. It's going to take me a year or so at the minimum to be conversational/a solid B1 (my TL is one of the closest to English), so I just hope he's aware it's a marathon, not a sprint.

I'm just wary of how long he's given himself to learn French in Paris (not that we know for sure)—I wish I'd started seriously studying my TL before I moved here, so I had a functional basis in it before full immersion. But that's just my personal experience. He should be able to get to A2 by March (if not sooner) if he's in French class as often as he makes it seem he is (full-time)—a similar estimate to when I'll hit A2 in my TL considering we started at the same time.

xaannaa said:

I was going to say this, it sounds like a recylced tumblr post from 2013 or something my friends and I would have said about French class in 8th grade, it's a bit weird to complain about it as an adult who willingly chose to learn French.

The way he was complaining about the classes being in French definitely suggests to me that he hasn't learned any language seriously. The language classes I have taken where all in the target language pretty much right of the bat but I'm assuming schools in the UK (and English-speaking countries in general?) don't do that?

(Also love that he's in *actual* France! As we all know, people often go to fake France and learn hypothetical French there, luckily he didn't!)

Click to expand...

Anecdotally, I studied French all through secondary school in Australia. My teachers almost always spoke French to us, especially in the late years. I've since done some classes with Alliance Français and in an adult learners environment the teachers only spoke French too. So yeah, I think you're right to expect language classes to be mostly in the TL!

I thinks it's weird that he pretended to read dune for his new video. He reviewed it on goodreads like two months ago. The clips from the video can't be that old. Just say you've read it before

The strangers on a train video from a couple months back, would he have asked permission to use those peoples photos in thumbnails?

Mark81 said:

The strangers on a train video from a couple months back, would he have asked permission to use those peoples photos in thumbnails?

Click to expand...

I don't remember him using the pictures in the video so I just figured that he got the thumbnail pictures off the internet. The video seemed a bit fake to me though, since it conveniently was just books that he had already bought and been meaning to read. Although the books were all popular of course

sasha237753 said:

I don't remember him using the pictures in the video so I just figured that he got the thumbnail pictures off the internet. The video seemed a bit fake to me though, since it conveniently was just books that he had already bought and been meaning to read. Although the books were all popular of course

Click to expand...

yeah the picture on the right definitely looks like it's taken off of one of those hot guys reading ig accounts (altough those are also usually posted without permission too so not sure that's any better?)

I will give him that it's easier to spot books you already know of/own and he said he sometimes couldn't read the titles. Obvoiusly when you know what the cover looks like, you'll be able to recognize the book without reading the title if that makes sense? Like if you saw a book with peaches on the cover but hadn't heard of Small Pleasures, you would dismiss it because you couldn't read the title, but if you already own it/know what the cover looks like, you'd be able to recognize it from further away if that makes sense? Idk what I think was weird was that he said like 3 people were reading Hamnet (seems like a bit too much of a coincidence) but in general, I honestly think it's a pretty clever video idea tbh, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one

sasha237753 said:

I thinks it's weird that he pretended to read dune for his new video. He reviewed it on goodreads like two months ago. The clips from the video can't be that old. Just say you've read it before

Click to expand...

I think he might actually be filming that far in advance! I mentioned a while ago in a recent blog there’s a clip of him editing a thumbnail for a video that was posted well before the clog came out.

As someone who has lived just outside Paris for most of their adult life, I’m really alarmed that he posted that ‘view from my apartment’ clip in one of his videos after moving out of the AirBNB. It would probably take even someone who doesn’t know the city at all less than a minute to find the address on Google thanks to some of the stuff featured in that clip. Especially as I imagine the rental listing is still up, as he’s not there permanently. Perhaps he’s already moved on again - although based on what he’s said about moving around, I was under the impression he’ll be in the more recent apartment for a while. I hope I’m wrong, based on how easy it would be for the multiple fans he’s run into around the city to find it.

I also have to say I’m curious how much this cost - private rentals of that size in that area tend to be between 2000-3000€ a month. That’s a bit of a change for someone who had a roommate when they lived in London, isn’t it?

Well, I got about one minute into his new video and had to turn if off after he made about five Timothee based jokes.

Maybe I'm just getting a bit grumpy, but his humour makes me cringe so much. He can't get through an entire thought without making some naff joke.