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Slow Learning: FR, HI, ancGR TAC 2015 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 57 of 164 30 June 2014 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For those who care, I found a page which has summaries, transcripts and exercises for all of the
series of Extr@: Extr@ 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 58 of 164 01 July 2014 at 4:04am | IP Logged | |||||
Definitely useful! Thanks Jeffers! 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 59 of 164 02 July 2014 at 11:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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Half year summary:
French Courses/vocab Anki At the beginning of the year I had about 1200 learnt words in my frequency deck, now I’ve just gotten to 2000. So I only have 500 more to reach my goal of 2500 by the end of the year. 100 per month, with a month to spare is pretty doable. I still don’t know if I’ll keep adding to my frequency deck after that, but I have a feeling that 3000 words will be tempting. And then 3500. Etc. Assimil NFWE I finally finished my passive wave, using the April challenge as my push. I don’t know when, if ever, I will do an active wave. I’m thinking that I’d rather spend time with some other courses first. FSI In June I started working on French I, unit 7. There are some tough drills, and so I’ve worked on some tracks 5-6 times before moving on. I have an idea of doing one unit per month to finish French I this year, and then complete French II next year, but I won’t hold myself to it. They are all good exercises, and I’d rather take my time to do them well and absorb the content than rush to finish the course. Hugo I still want to work on French in 3 Months and then the advanced course some time. I think these will be the opportunity to nail down any points of grammar, verb conjugations, etc, that have slipped past me. I’m thinking of starting as a summer project. Native material/Super Challenge In two months of the Super Challenge I have read 28.2 “books” and watched/listened to 64 “films”. So there is no doubt that I will complete the Super Challenge in French. My personal goal is to exceed 100 books, and for the watching side 200 films (100 from audio, 100 from watching). Highlights for reading have been: *Amélie script, which I read intensively 3 times. I then watched the film again. It was great to know exactly what everyone was saying, but it was so fast at some points (especially the narrator) that it was still difficult to catch all the words. *6 Petit Nicolas books: Le Petit Nicolas, Les vacances du Petit Nicolas, Les bêtises du Petit Nicolas, Le Petit Nicolas et ses voisins, Le Petit Nicolas s'amuse, and Les surprises du Petit Nicolas (which I’m about 3/4 of the way through). I have all of these on kindle, have read each of them at least two times, and will continue to build my habit until I’ve read all the books available on kindle. There are 9 on kindle, and another 5 which haven’t been put on kindle yet. I have really enjoyed these, and appreciated the fact that each book has been easier than the previous one because I am becoming more and more familiar with the vocabulary and style. I do look up any unknown words using the kindle French dictionary, because it is quick and easy. *Vincent Remède policiers on Mondes en VF. The two books are “Pas d'oscar pour l'assassin” and “Jus de chaussettes”. They are both on Kindle, and both have good quality audio available to download for free (you have to answer simple questions to prove you own the book). Good stories, easy enough for beginners, but the language feels natural. Unusual vocabulary is footnoted, with the definition given in French. With the kindle dictionary I don’t need to read these, but they are interesting to have a look at anyway. When I need another book, I’ll be looking at something from Mondes en VF (unfortunately, they only have two by Remède). Highlights for watching have been: *Amélie (of course). After reading the script intensively 3 times, I watched it without subtitles for the first time. I imagine I will watch this several more times. For learning purposes, I think it’s good to have a couple of films which you know inside and out. *7 jours sur la planète I had a backlog of recorded episodes, which I’ve completed, so I’m now watching one episode per week. The special feature of this news programme is that they have French subtitles. I find that with reading the subtitles I can follow almost everything. Occasionally I pause it to look up a word with Google translate on my phone (usually 1 or 2 words per episode). Another great feature is the final segment about culture with Christian somebody. He will talk about music, a book, poetry, art, etc, and sometimes it gives me ideas of things I’d like to read… “someday”. This show will be a regular feature of my life in French for the foreseeable future. *Boulevard du palais I really like this policier series, better than Engrenages. I’ve said before, its advantages are that it is not trying as hard to be “edgy”, and each episode is self-contained. I don’t really like it when series rely on cliff-hangers to keep viewers interested. *Un village Français Another excellent series, and kudos to Mollenburg for pointing me to a source with subs. Yes, I still need English subs for most things I watch, but I’m still learning loads. I’ve watched 3 of 5 series, and enjoy it for the history and the gorgeous setting in Jura. I spent a week in Jura 2 years ago, so I feel a sort of connection there. *Audiobooks: when I have a book with audio, I practice “audio first reading”. The idea is to listen to the audio 2-3 times before looking at the text, in order to develop listening skills. Then I read the text, looking up mainly the words I feel I have to. Over a longer period of time I then hop back and forth between reading, listening, and listening + reading. This year I have done this with “Les vacances du Petit Nicolas”, “Jus du chaussettes” and “Alex Leroc - crime à Cannes” (a so-so A2 reader). I’ve listened through a Maigret B2 reader, “La tête d'un homme” 3 times, and I think I’ll give it one more listen before tackling the text. Hindi I’ve watched four films (counting as 6 in the SC), and read 17 children’s books (counting as a mere 1.2 books) so far this year. As planned from the beginning of the year, I expect to finish the 50 or so children’s books I own, and then move on to some slightly longer books. I will need to pick up the pace if I expect to finish the half Super Challenge as planned by the end of 2015. But I will focus on trying to read at least a little bit each week and keep my SC streak alive. Ancient Greek I’ve only managed to read a total of 18 pages so far. As with Hindi I just want to read a bit each week in order to keep my SC streak going. When I go to America at the end of the month I’m going to buy the audio for the Greek New Testament, and once I come back I’ll pick up the pace. I think I’ll give my “audio first reading” method a try and see how it goes. I find that reading in French is now so much easier than in Hindi or Ancient Greek, even though I have known them for much longer. Part of it is that French is much less opaque for an English speaker, and partly because I have now read a lot more in French than in either of the two other languages. Massive input really does work! Edited by Jeffers on 02 July 2014 at 11:54am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4085 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 60 of 164 03 July 2014 at 3:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow, good job Jeffers; you have done a LOT this year!!!
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5212 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 61 of 164 03 July 2014 at 4:32am | IP Logged | |||||
Congrats and kudos, Jeffers! By the way, I don't know if you caught that particular podcast, but I was quite bemused when one of the recent RFI Français facile podcasts had "l'engrenage" as its "Word of the week". Of course, it made me think of all of the French learners (including you, naturally) on this forum watching the TV series. Wordreference: l'engrenage 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5212 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 62 of 164 03 July 2014 at 4:34am | IP Logged | |||||
The acting's very cheesy, but then again, I don't think anyone was expecting "Inside the Actor's Studio" calibre. <smile> Thanks for the link. 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 63 of 164 03 July 2014 at 8:12am | IP Logged | |||||
Too bad I missed that one. I haven't been listening to JFF very often these days. I might actually start listening more often, because I figured out how to listen to it while reading the transcript on my wife's tablet a few days ago. Tablets don't seem to be very multitask friendly. 1 person has 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 64 of 164 03 July 2014 at 9:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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Nice work Jeffers,
You're work on the Amélie script astounds me. That's one hell of a task to get through. I couldn't stomach it myself at this point, but still a great movie that I do appreciate. Yes tablets are a bit tricky to multi-task, that last few nights I've been clicking like mad in and out of windows and maps on my wife's iPad reading all about les plus beaux villages de France (there's a website if you've never heard of it, can be read in French too, to save you 'wasting' good study time).... sorry off track a little, but these pretty villages remind me of "Un village français" I"m really really enjoying this series and last episode to counteract my exasperation which came about following a 'basic' clip I struggled to understand as you know, the last episode of Un village français almost felt joyous as I really began to comprehend large components of the dialogue. Fun fun! Your effort with you reading is simply outstanding Jefers, considering you've been inside the top 5 or so for the majority of the SC is simply fantastic! I had to let you leave me in your wake as I plumeted back down the list and became fixated on my courses once again. Well done for sticking with it so consistently! Keep it up! 7 jours sur la planète sounds great! As for FSI hmmm you're scaring me with the need to replay things several times, it must start to step up a bit in unit 7. I'm actually keen to get back to it, but in due time. All in all excellent work Jeffers, I can't give you any advice as it seems you're doing what's right for you and that seems to be what's right for a good deal of learning too. Can't knock your strategy at all. Just keep on keeping on and don't fall into the wanderlust trap is prob the only advice I can give. Once you get your French to a completely sustainable level via media books etc alone without active study being necessary then you have my permission to wander.. sorry i don't mean to stand over just attempting to provide any inkling of advice in a very sound approach. Feel free to not listen to me too! PM Edited by PeterMollenburg on 03 July 2014 at 9:32am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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