[vundercind]

I’ve found French accents and speaking styles to play a large role in how well I can understand spoken French. African and Levantine French speakers are often easier for me to understand than, say, Parisians.

I do find Spanish to have been much easier to develop an ear for than French (I’ve put in far less effort, but can differentiate words about as well) and also for whatever reason I found gaining a sense for noun gender to be extremely easy for Spanish but nearly impossible for French. I can guess and be right the vast majority of the time in Spanish, while in French it often feels like I’m doing worse than 50/50. It doesn’t help that it can be challenging to practice it in isolation, due to how articles work in French. Only way to drill gender effectively is in context, hard to quickly build, say, an Anki deck for it.