1) it's really, really hard to effectively drill vocab out of context because the gender of nouns affects everything around them, the indefinite form conceals g

1) it's really, really hard to effectively drill vocab out of context because the gender of nouns affects everything around them, the indefinite form conceals gender (via contraction) in too many cases to be of much use, while the definite is awkward and still doesn't really drill modifying words around it anyway. To do it right you've really gotta come up with a few short model sentences or phrases involving adjectives, which is a giant pain in the ass. 2) It's bizarrely hard to get ahold of French media online, outside the EU. I just want to stream Le Juste Prix, damnit! Makes one envy Japanese learners. The language may, in some ways, be a lot harder, but there's so much media readily available and there are so many tools for it.