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PMs TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission | ||
Tags: TellMeMore | Fluenz | Linguaphone | Flash cards | Michel Thomas | Self-Study | Spaced Repetition (SRS) | Diploma/Certificate | Study Plan | Fluency | Dutch | Pimsleur | FSI | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Assimil | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 313 of 451 12 March 2015 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Just a post of some thoughts and challenges of late...
I've found it difficult to be consistent lately. I think there are a few reasons for this. First of all I've been cycling a lot more lately. Trying to squeeze that into my routine as well as keep my studying up and other commitments is difficult and if I slack off for a an hour or so here or there, sleep later one night, eat rubbish food (and thus require more downtime) it throws the whole routine out and everything is affected. Sugar- already mentioned. For the last few years I've gone through a 'truth-seeking phase'. Many years ago I went through a 'spiritual phase', then a 'nutritional discovery phase'. In this latest phase it's been an almost demand to know what's really going on in this world that we are 'presented' in the media and popular culture, via 'research' and almost forced to follow along like a flock of stupid distracted sheep that we are trained to be. I now see the majority of what human beings do in life as either distraction or enslavement. In my attempt to figure things out I often read information on corruption, nutrition, medical related topics, theories whatever in French, but sometimes I get sidetracked by reading/watching revealing things to myself in English. I also realise that I am a part of this system and ultimately not immune to being enticed and that I could evidently be wasting much of my time learning a language as it keeps me 'occupied'. Notice I said 'could be' ;) My conclusion is that I'm certainly not prepared to stop learning languages (currently only French), and that I need to incorporate my desire to learn such things into my learning of languages, which I often do, but also realise that there is a world out there that matters- a world that I care about where it ends up. Most if not nearly all of us have become extremely complacent and distracted and at extreme odds with the planet, and for the most part we see it as harmless, and it appears ultimately very difficult to change the direction of this march. Unfortunately while we remain busy, distracted and so on, the powers that be are working hard to enslave us further. This shocks me and ironically distracts me from staying focused on my distraction of choice- languages. My norm is to aim for 3 hours a day of 'desk study'. During the 6WC I've been attempting to reach 4 hours. It's not been overly successful by any means. I will attempt this once more before I give up on that idea and potentially return to a more balanced 3hrs desk study a day. I did try 5 in Jan 2014... that was not sustainable, and 4 may not be either. PM Do you know you have been programmed to associate the word 'conspiracy' with rediculous rubbish, something not worth listening to/ reading/ hearing about/ or something you could listen to but not give much credence? So much of our media programs us. Your opinions are NOT your own... they're all mine... ahahaha ahahaha ahhaahhaaa (evil Peter Mollenburg laugh)... ahahaha aahaha *cough cough* *PM nearly chokes to death but gets saved by a bee who passes by, peforms a few back blows and a huge life-giving gulp of air re-enters my lungs, the bee gets drawn into my lungs also stings me and I die, the end* 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 314 of 451 13 March 2015 at 12:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I hereby declare: FULL ON FRENCH ATTACK BITCHES!
What does this mean? Probably nothing What do I want it to mean? Some kind of a desperate attempt at going into French hyper over-drive in which I advance to C2 in like 2 weeks like, for realio... That's it, in reality I declare the B2 exam my target, to pass with flying colours in November is the goal. Peace up! I'm so like... outta here even! Edit: You ain't even me. If you were even me you'd know where I'd be. Ain't that the truth! (no I haven't been drinking or consuming sugar, or drugs) Edited by PeterMollenburg on 13 March 2015 at 1:01am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 315 of 451 22 March 2015 at 7:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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Once again after making declarations of intensifying my efforts with French I seem to
be losing the plot a little lately.... I guess most of us will go through this, and I'm going through it now- struggling to motivate myself. I'm not over French by any means, nor burnt out. I'm just happily allowing myself to be distracted by 'life' lately and not making French my priority I'm still doing something in French 5 to 6 days a week lately outside my usual structure by reading subtitles, reading articles, watching a documentary or show in French, but i've lost my intense effort of 2014 and even reverted to doing English activities lately where I'd normally use French (i'm starting to slip). Without sounding corny I want that to change and I aim to do so for the remainder of the year, or at least until I attempt to sit a B2 exam in NOvember. I think provided I stick to my once again new routine I have developped I should be able to reach B2 comprehension level (listening), reading level, writing a little more tricky, but speaking is where I will struggle. Despite also declaring recently that I was going to participate in a mini French team output challenge via meet ups or skype styled conversational sessions, I haven't yet made the effort to undertake any conversational practise. Thus if I am to pass a B2 in November that will also have to change sooner rather than later. My new routine will be as follows: * 3 to 4 hours desk study a day (3 is realistic, 4 is hopeful and my current target). * I will wake at 6am and aim to finish by 11am (allowing for short breaks) * I will do four 45 minute sessions of learning if studying 3 hours * If I make it to four hours of learning I will do five 45 minute sessions followed by 15 minutes of flashcard reviews (I have almost dropped them entirely lately) * I will rotate through the sessions I have listed below (ie if I make it to session 5 in one day, then the next day I start at session 6 and continue to 8 then back to 1. * During any session of study I will only add a max of 2 new words to my flashcard deck, and limit dictionary use particularly during extensive exposure to the language to aid in speed of covering more material. The study sessions will be a rotation of a mixture of intense study (mainly courses) and extensive study and will be as follows: * Session 1 (intensive): Un cours de français (PR: Assimil / FIA / Assimil / Fluenz / Assimil / FIA/ Assimil / TYBegFR) PR = par roulement (ie 'by rotation') This way I'm doing Assimil every 2nd time I do a course and FIA more frequently than the other less useful courses i'm trying to make my way through) * Session 2 (extensive): Regarder une série avec des sous-titres en Français où avec les sous-titres en FR et la voix en FR aussi, où même seulement la voix FR * Session 3 (intensive): Un cours de français (as above, going onto the next course in the rotation listed in session 1) * session 4 (intensive): Lecture intensive avec un magazine d'apprenstissage de la langue française (J'ai deux: Bien-dire, et Think French) * Session 5 (intensive): Un cours de français * Session 6 (extensive, could be intensive if I wish): Yabla * Session 7 (intensive): Un cours de français * Session 8 (extensive): Lecture extensive (un livre en général) I think the above method allows for plenty of intensive study with a fair degree of extensive French exposure. It allows for enjoyment and some 'hard work'. It also allows me to get through plenty of coursework with a heavy leaning on Assimil and to a lesser extent FIA while still progressing through other courses. Anyway to be able to rotate through eight sessions of study I need to do plenty of work each day, thus I really need to get back to a consistent effort of 3hours at my desk at least each day. Naturally I'll be aiming to do further French while commuting to and from work, and in other spare moments as well but if I can simply manage to do the 3hrs a day with my above methods I think i'll make some decent progress. Other thoughts: Lately i'm longing to get back FSI French as I found those drills quite good, thus I need to make progress with my courses again and stop slowing myself down so much with distraction. Dutch is begging for me to study it again lately. I have such a soft spot for this language, it's like its shrouded in so much nostalgia for me (which it is)... I miss it, and the quaint, yet dynamic culture that it represents. Spanish and German continue to remind me also that they're missing out.... Therefore I need to put my French into 3rd gear. Exercise continues to be tricky to maintain but currently while my French had not been priority i've been doing plenty of exercise compared to last year- the trick is to get my routine running flawlessly (think PM is a robot) to be able to get enough time to do everything including family time. Mission début in 5,4,3,2,1... okay maybe I'll start tomorrow ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5039 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 316 of 451 22 March 2015 at 8:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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I too seem to be losing the plot a little. I'm still getting my french time in, but it's not in ways that I should be getting it. I seem to just do what's easy, which for me is listening to audio books and reading. To be frank, I've gotten a little lazy.
That said, we both clearly love french otherwise we'd drop it completely from our lives! I think it's normal to go through phases of intense studies, to a period of maintenance. Your new schedule looks good, I hope you can keep that up! but if you can't, try not to be too hard on yourself. Just keep doing things you love with french and you shouldn't get worst at least. Edited by fortheo on 22 March 2015 at 8:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 317 of 451 22 March 2015 at 9:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks fortheo, I agree, your situation sounds exactly like mine (doing what's easy, have become lazy). Yeah I agree hopefully it's just a phase. Perhaps 'hopefully' is the wrong word as it implies it's out of our control, and we probably are really in control of what phase we choose to be in (consciously or subconsciously). Well I will give me new schedule a decent run, and if it's just far too much I will revise it to 3 hours only and aim to stick to that, as even that will be a large improvement of what I've been doing lately- and for 6 out of 7 days a week I know from what I've done up until now that is still achievable, as I agree I have a tendency of being too hard on myself- I think that i'm prob keen to do 4hrs to make up for lost time, but we'll see how I go. Well hopefully (there's that word again) we both get it together. Keep studying fortheo! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 318 of 451 23 March 2015 at 1:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey PM, sorry I haven't visited for a while. I wonder if your problems mentioned on post 313 have something to do with pushing yourself too much during the 6wc? I should have warned you that I often push myself too hard for the 6 weeks, and then have a slower period for a couple of weeks. It might just be a simple case of temporary burn out.
On the other hand, your new plan looks awesome. It looks like you'd meet your course completion goals while doing interesting extensive activities. It's interesting that you mention the pull of Dutch, German and Spanish, since I mentioned you in my log this evening. I suggested that you could start to work on other languages using French based materials such as Assimil. You could one of them in as "Session 9" and you'd get to study another language every 2-3 days, but still be working on your French. Given your level of French and the quality of language learning materials in French, I'd go as far as suggesting you try one of your language interests without using any English based course material at all. However, you probably have English materials for Dutch. And the English based materials on Deutsche Welle are too good to miss out on. So maybe my idea is for the birds.... 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 319 of 451 23 March 2015 at 5:26am | IP Logged | |||||
Could be, but the thing is I actually did less study than my average during the 6WC. I flew out of the gates like a mad hatter on a mission to desperately find more hats, and maybe that didn't help. Actually maybe it was just that- I started to fast burnt out (i'm talking end of week 1) and then went in to maintenance, slow gains mode (laziness) ie- lost my momentum.
I've got to be careful with my new plan I don't what I did in the 6wc (fast burn out, followed by lazy mode) and ensure I find a manageable level of study. Thanks for the positive remarks :) It so happens that I own Assimil Neerlandais sans peine. I attempted to get the follow on course (equivalent to Assimil 'Using French') in Dutch but was unable to get a hold of it as it's out of print. Then I dropped Dutch (mid 2014 I think) and decided I had enough courses in all my languages and needed to put a stop to buying new ones. I own a lot of Dutch courses (not nearly as many as French, but still a lot), thus even if I did French based learning of Dutch I'd still feel a little silly ignoring the English based ones that I already own. Thus it's inevitable that at some point I will be learning Dutch with English as L1. As for Spanish I have nearly as much material as I do for French, and German... well it's probably likely that I won't pick up German until last as I have put more effort into Dutch and Spanish and it would make sense to pick up one of those... but... just not yet. I'll aim to pass the B2 in November. If I can manage that I'll decide whether it's time to add another language or to continue for another year with only French. Thanks for dropping by Jeffers and sharing your thoughts :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 320 of 451 23 March 2015 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Here I am staying up late when I shouldn't (yeah I'm human I guess), reading some online blogs/experiences
regarding the Dutch NT2 exam (B2 equivalent I guess)..... Dutch is calling me. I'm listening but I'm not going to answer. I'll just lay low and pose as a real francophile and hope I don't get discovered. Man, how long does it take. I really want to learn Dutch and Spanish again but I just can't justify it. I know a couple of months will pass and I will kick myself for not remaining focused on French only.... Patience Monsieur, patience, et va au lit ! Tu as un pays que tu dois diriger monsieur le Premier Ministre ! Et tu dois le faire sans fautes et sans peine ! Au lit ! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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