redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 17 of 86 11 December 2014 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
It's funny how one's (my) mood shifts in language learning. You power through a few days of Glossika like a boss
and feel on top of everything. Then you have your class with a tutor and cannot string together a coherent sentence
about the weather and feel the opposite. I had that experience this week. It's one of the reasons I keep up with my
Skype tutoring, it's a good corrective and reality check to my natural tendency to dash 30 steps ahead of where I
should be. Oh well. Onwards.
Tonight I went to the Alliance Français de Sydney for a talk by former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on his
book Le mal napoléonien. (Actually, Jospin is back in the news as he has just been appointed to le Conseil
Constituionnel.) About 1/3 seemed to be about the Napoleonic era and Napoleon himself and the rest ranged over
20th history and current events (I understood "printemps arabe" for example). I missed the nuances of course but I
presume it all tied together. I actually felt quite good about how much I understood. I mean I understood very little
but I had the tantalising experience of feeling like I COULD understand a lot of it if only I could press pause and
think about it. I'd often understand or recognise 20 words in a row but have limited understanding of what it all
meant together. But I considered that win, especially since the dispiriting experience of blanking on the stupid
weather chat happened a day and a half earlier. Perhaps as a career politician he knows how speak clearly and
directly. I bought his book and even got it signed so we exchanged a few words.
Him: Pour ce qui? ( I think)
Me: Pour "Amandine" - for some reason I said the French version of my name. Not sure why, I think because I was
nervous he would say something that invited conversation which I wouldn't be able to do so maybe the French name
would make me stand out less?? I don't know!! I just did it automatically.
Him: [signs] ... voila!
Me: Merci beaucoup.
OK so not a profound discussion! But I was pleased! I recorded the talk on my phone so I will listen to it again
tomorrow, and I intend to get it transcribed so I can read along and listen.
In conclusion, here is M. JOSPIN with a kangourou
https://twitter.com/ZoosVictoria/status/541732704816201728
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tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4658 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian
| Message 18 of 86 12 December 2014 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
Voici une vidéo qui pourrait t'intéresser : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lE6wW--eoY
C'est un entretien avec Jacques Gamblin et Lionel Jospin sur le film "Le nom des gens" dans lequel Jospin fait un caméo, un film que j'ai aimé et qui était bien reçu par les critiques. :-)
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redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 19 of 86 14 December 2014 at 11:15pm | IP Logged |
Merci tastyonions! Looks like Le nom de gens is rentable on iTunes so I'll certainly
seek it out.
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redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 20 of 86 14 December 2014 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
I had my class Saturday morning but other than that and my daily flashcard app routine
I've done very little French due to Christmas/End of year functions and family visits.
Not sure if that will be able to change today. ;-(
OH, I did enrol in a 45min casual conversation class at Alliance Française starting
January 10th next year and I sent off the Jospin talk recording to be transcribed so
while I didn't actually study any French but I did do the administrivia for some future
study.
;-)
Edited by redflag on 14 December 2014 at 11:27pm
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redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 21 of 86 16 December 2014 at 4:34am | IP Logged |
Packaged arrived today from Amazon France. Season 5 of "Justified" - French audio and
subtitles and a bande dessinée Jaurès which I was expecting to
be more like what I imagine a comic to be but is actually an oversized hardback. Nice!
Edited by redflag on 16 December 2014 at 4:47am
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 22 of 86 24 December 2014 at 10:10am | IP Logged |
Hi redflag,
Just saying hi as a fellow aussie French learner after skipping through your log. I'm also someone who has
lately been very keen on getting to New Caledonia in the nearish future, so I'm looking fwd to hearing about
your adventure there.
PM
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redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 23 of 86 28 December 2014 at 6:45am | IP Logged |
Hi Peter. Thanks for comment! Yes, New Caledonia is close now (Thursday) and I can't wait. Looks like 30 every
day. I will definitely give a full report, including unvarnished honestly on how well I went using French ...
Just got back fro family Christmas - language learning loot acquired was some iTalki credits and a book/CDs to
learn Dothraki. ;-)
I've also been working through the McGraw-Hill Practice Makes Perfect: Basic French book, done the first 100 or so
pages and pretty happy with it. Probably running around 85-90%, most of my mistakes come from forgetting the
articles and in questions. I also bought Paul Noble French 2 and 3 off Audible. I only got them because I have a
huge stack of books and audiobooks piled up to read and didn't want to add to them so used my monthly Audible
credit on those. I didn't expect to be really taken by them but it didn't really matter - however I'm almost finished 2
and it's really good. I'm kind of shocked I found it as useful as I did. Nothing is theoretically new but I feel like it
has consolidated quite a few structures and verb usage. My other usual French routine - Assimil, Glossika, reading
novels - have fallen off a bit in the last two weeks as I took on some extra work to earn a bit of extra money for New
Caledonia (it's pretty expensive for eating out etc) which soaked up most of my last month's free time. Ironically,
working to pay for a trip I'm taking to practice French has prevented my from really practising French ... :-/
OH, one thing I did, I worked out how to access Netflix France and watched their new show Marco Polo dubbed in
French with French subtitles. That was fun. Also changed my computer language to French, instead of "chansons"
for "songs" in iTunes they use "morceaux" ...
INDONESIAN
This is also now my TAC 2015 log for which I am doing French and Indonesian (Team Rare.) I did a month or so of
Indonesian earlier this year but am basically starting from beginner. Doing it for personal interest reasons but also
for work, it's not necessary for work but will potentially be useful. I think I'll be starting with Teach Yourself
Indonesian or Colloquial Indonesian since the "self-study" book I bought earlier in the year was really unsatisfactory.
Potentially I will do an evening class at some point but not first thing in the year as I realised the French
conversation class I enrolled in is on the same night as the one I was eyeing.
I have quite a few Indonesian books, kids books, teen books and adults (a John Grisham and a Danielle Steele novel)
and my local library has a large Indonesian collection. I went through the first page of the Grisham book when I was
dabbling in Indonesian before and was pretty amazed at how much headway I could make (with a dictionary of
course) - I don't want to overplay the "easy-ness" claim about Indonesian because no language is easy to achieve
proficiency in but the particular grammar characteristics do mean you can make a lot more headway in the
beginning than most, I think.
I've also pre-ordered Glossika Indonesian but it's only 25% complete according to their website so I'm not holding
my breath.
Beyond that I've put off thinking much about Indonesian til I get back from my holiday middle of next week.
Edited by redflag on 28 December 2014 at 6:52am
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redflag Senior Member Australia Joined 3835 days ago 123 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French
| Message 24 of 86 30 December 2014 at 4:20am | IP Logged |
Basically just bludging around watching the cricket, working through the Basic French and Paul Noble. For some
reason I feel like putting off getting back into Assimil and Glossika until after I get back next week. I think I have to
get the upcoming francophonie voyage out of the way.
Oh, I also did some reading exercises today (I'll do the listening exercises after the cricket finishes) in Hachette
"Préparation À l'exmen du DELF A1" book. There's a multiple choice exercise to do with a series of movie ads.
Question 5 is:
1 Vous allez au restaurant avant le film. Quelle séance choissez-vous?
11 h 00
22 h 00
19 h 30
I kew they wanted me to choose 22h00 even though personally I would never go to the movies at 10pm if I could
avoid it. It's perfectly possible to have dinner at a restaurant before seeing a film at 7.30 and even if it is culturally
more likely French people would go to the later session I really think they should stick to strictly language issues,
especially at A1. It would probably choose the 7.30 option just on principle, even if I knew they wanted 22h, and it
would ruin my perfect marks!
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