luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 17 of 439 17 August 2012 at 10:19am | IP Logged |
Wrote and listened to Assimil lesson 32 last night.
Listening to Le Petit Prince wasn't as comprehensible as I'd hoped. Next time through will be with the text for support.
Listening to SmartFrench in the car.
In the background, frequently listening to the Assimil With Ease lessons.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 18 of 439 20 August 2012 at 3:17am | IP Logged |
I wrote lessons 33-34 and 35 was a review in Assimil. That's all going well. For review, I went through lessons 1-14 and 29-35. I've also read ahead and listened to the next 7 lessons 36-42. I'm waking up with French in my head and it's popping out of my mouth naturally at times. Simple things, but it's a good sign.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 19 of 439 21 August 2012 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
I continue re-reading Essential French Grammar by Resnick a few paragraphs at a time.
Some time ago I had edited New French with Ease to have a set of recordings that were just the dialogs without the exercises. I listened through the end of the course while reading along with the book, jumping back and forth between the French and the translation. That effort will fill in a few gaps for the background listening I do to the course at work.
On the intensive side, I wrote lesson 36 yesterday.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 20 of 439 25 August 2012 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
Lately I've tried a few things. One was following some instructions for Assimil that involved basically perfecting pronunciation of the dialog for the day. I did that for a day and half, but have aborted that approach in preparation for going to France. It is too time consuming. My pronuncation is better, but if it takes an hour or so to really shadow a lesson in sync and near perfection at full speed, it's not worth it right now. I could slow the recording in Audacity, and then it would be easier, but I'm taking another approach....
About 4 days ago I'd raced through about 70-80 dialogs (not the exercises) looking mostly at the translation. That was to improve my comprehension for my background listening to the dialogs that I try to do in my spare time each day.
The last 3 or 4 days, I've been racing ahead 7 or more lessons a day. The approach here is:
Put the recording in repeat mode for a particular lesson and let it continue for the following steps:
1) Read along with the lesson. Look at the translation for anything that isn't clear.
2) Read the lesson and the notes and see how the notes relate to material in the lesson.
Later, just listen to the 7 lessons again for comprehension and review.
So using these techniques rather than perfect pronunciation or writing out the lesson, I've gone from about 35 lessons in a month, to 35 lessons or so in a few days. (some days I have done 14 or 21 lessons).
So I like this new approach and will use it through lesson 113. Then I imagine I'll use the same approaches for Using French (listen to the all the dialogs in the course , skipping exercises, then focus on 7 lessons at a time as described above.
Other incidental things I'm doing are listening to Rene Descartes Discourse on Method in English and French. That's an appoach I'm looking forward to as a painless and interesting method. I.E. find a audiobook in English, Spanish and/or French and listen to a chapter at a time in the order of my language strength.
My comprehension is improving - I can tell. My reading has also improved. I can get the gist of wikipedia articles. Lots of cognates in French is helpful.
As I project, as we language learners are at times wont to do, I'm imagining going back through the Assimil courses after my trip and doing them again with attention to pronunciation the next time through, and doing a followup wave translating/writing out the lessons. At that point, I imagine I'll be ready for real material with greater facility using the Listen, Listen, Listen method. As you probably also experience at times, we like to project that just one or two short courses and a few hundred hours down the road, tout ira bien.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 21 of 439 27 August 2012 at 11:52am | IP Logged |
I did lessons 71-77 this morning.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 22 of 439 30 August 2012 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
I've been keeping up the frenetic pace of 7 Assimil lessons per day. Today I did lessons 85-91. It seems to be paying off. I'm of course understanding the audio I've studied very well, and also the audio for lessons yet to come is largely understood as well. I do glean a good deal from the intensive study I do for the 7 lessons. I listen back to many old lessons as well as new lessons. Tomorrow when I make breakfast, I'll probably listen to 85-91 again. When I have time to glance at the book, I do that too. It seems to be working.
As far as shadowing New French with Ease, that typically happens at times when I'm driving. For my daily 7, I don't try to shadow or speak. I think it's actually easier to pronounce better after I've listened to the audio many, many times.
I also seem to be making some progress in my listening of Using French, which I don't listen to every day, but do use as a break. In Using French, I'm reading and listening to 7 lessons one day of the week. That may seem unbalanced, but you know how it is when you're juggling time. I take a bath and listen to 7 lessons and read along. I'm not doing the notes or anything with Using French. This is kind of a listen and understand wave. I'm not shadowing or writing or even trying to get any of the grammatical points. Just listening and assimilating.
Edited by luke on 30 August 2012 at 12:54am
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 23 of 439 30 August 2012 at 6:51am | IP Logged |
One thing I've found helpful is using the Images link at google.com to enrich lessons. It is interesting seeing some of the places described in the lessons. The most recent delight here was the polychromatic rooftops in Beaune and the Alms Houses.
Listening to yesterday's 7 lessons while browsing posts here.
Edited by luke on 30 August 2012 at 6:53am
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7211 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 24 of 439 31 August 2012 at 10:58am | IP Logged |
Aujourd'hui j'ai fait des leçons 92 à 98. Je suis pressé. A bientôt.
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