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Fiyero TAC 2015 - French, Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fiyero Newbie United States Joined 3595 days ago 14 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, French | Message 9 of 15 16 January 2015 at 6:54am | IP Logged | |||||
Obviously you need some supplemental study materials (especially for harder languages like Russian), but it's a nice reading/listening combo. Can't wait until I start my other languages and get more of them. I get impatient wanting to start new languages, but French, Russian, Italian, and Spanish may be a bit much. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fiyero Newbie United States Joined 3595 days ago 14 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, French | Message 10 of 15 22 January 2015 at 2:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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French: I'm up to Passive lesson 73 and Active 25 with Assimil. The active phase is definitely a
challenge. While so far I've gotten probably 90% of the translation right, there are still little words or constructions that I translate incorrectly. For example, the English will say "People do it", and I'll think, "Les gens le font", but the book uses "Les gens le pratiquent". Or i'll forget to put a de after a verb. I'm also on chapter 4 of Le petit prince. That is going pretty well. Understanding a large chunk, but again certain constructions confuse me. Also, I am continuing with lingvist.io for building vocabulary. Currently up to 2000 words, which they say is 82% of any random text. And yet, I still can't completely read a newspaper without looking up a lot of words. I can get the main idea, but there are still a lot of strange usages I don't get. The downside to reaching this point on Lingvist is the newer words are less common, so they are harder to stick in memory. Words like patrimoine don't come up too often in reading/listening. Any suggestions on how to reach the point of not constantly translating into English? How do you just think/react in the language without always trying to think of English first? Edited by Fiyero on 22 January 2015 at 2:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4902 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 11 of 15 22 January 2015 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
There are a couple of approaches. Some say never translate, so programs like Duolingo or Assimil would be right out. For me, it's a gradual approach: the more I know, the more I can truly immerse in my reading/watching/listening. Gradually I'm getting to the point where I am understanding things without having to think of what it means in English. To do this, you need a lot of contact with the language by various means, and the more varied the better. Eventually, it will just seem more natural to say, "Les gens le pratiquent" because that's the way everyone says it in similar contexts. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4000 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 12 of 15 22 January 2015 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with Jeffers... For me it is a gradual approach. Starting out, you might just understand a word or two without having to translate, and then you hear words, but without understanding the meaning, and then one day, you just understand, or you just realize this is the right thing to say/write in this context. Also, I have found language exchange partners very valuable: whether Skyping or exchanging/correcting emails. I may learn something in a lesson book, or hear it in a podcast, and use it, and they will tell me to say differently, and explain they "why". And pretty soon it will become natural. For me, this process has been a series of steps. One day, I will notice I can understand topics where I couldn't before. One day, the words just flow where they didn't before. Texts that took me a month of Sundays to read a short while ago are now fun. Having said, I still have a long ways to go on this journey. They key thing is to find resources (outside of lesson material) in French that you enjoy: podcasts, music, film/TV, books, news, and try to do something in French daily, so that this journey does not become a chore. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fiyero Newbie United States Joined 3595 days ago 14 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, French | Message 13 of 15 16 February 2015 at 6:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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So just a little update. Unfortunately haven't been as diligent with my studies lately. Was sick last week and
have been very busy. Still continuing to do Assimil in both French and Russian. Also doing lingvist for French fairly consistently. I'm now over 3300 words, although there are a decent amount that I blank on when those words pop back up from awhile ago. Despite all those words learned, I still read an article in Le Monde or a chapter in Le petit prince or Harry Potter and see so many new words or new sentence constructions that make it difficult to translate. Maybe an issue of not seeing those words in context enough or I guess my vocabulary is still too small. I continue to read New Penguin Russian as well. I keep going over the chapters on cases. The more times I re-read the chapters on case endings, the more they start to make sense. My current issue though is I still have to think for a minute on which case I want to use. I can't wait until it becomes automatic so I don't get so tied up in remembering case endings. And of course vocabulary is still a monster to tackle. Still so many words I need to learn just to read basic sentences/paragraphs. I wish there was a lingvist type website for Russian! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3747 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 14 of 15 16 February 2015 at 10:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey!
Welcome teammate :) I'm finding your log very inspiring... I can relate to you and your language-learning experiences a lot. I am currently on Lesson 48 of Assimil NFWE, but I've been very slack lately. I've now decided that I will simply never go to bed without having done a lesson of Assimil. Keep up the good work, I'll be following along :) Liam 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 15 of 15 25 August 2015 at 4:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Fiyero,
I'm just dropping a line to give you a 'nudge' to see if you're still learning French. If you're keen to get back to your log many of us have started new logs over on how-to- learn-any-language.org. Join us there if you want to get involved again or continue here if you prefer. PM 1 person has voted this message useful |
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