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French: Ron’s Learning Log

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rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 17 of 68
18 March 2014 at 12:35am | IP Logged 
I've decided to stop tracking hours spent working on my methods. Increasingly I'm thinking it's not adding any value to my study. With the courses I'm doing, books I'm reading and shows I'm watching, the bottom line is that I'm spending most of my evening with French in one form or another. Does it really matter if 2.5 hours of that is with a method, and another 1.5 is with a movie? My goal is not to learn how many hours it takes to get proficient with French. My goal is to get to the point where I can participate in conversations, read French books, and watch films without subtitles.


3 persons have voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7208 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 18 of 68
18 March 2014 at 2:38am | IP Logged 
It sounds like you are doing great. Thanks for the movie tip.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is also on youtube
with subtitles in English.

Good luck with your studies!

Edited by luke on 18 March 2014 at 2:39am

2 persons have voted this message useful



conroy
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5077 days ago

36 posts - 51 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 19 of 68
18 March 2014 at 10:40pm | IP Logged 
rlnv wrote:

An incredibly useful movie for French beginners:
The other night I pulled out a movie from my incoming movie stack, and watched Les parapluies de Cherbourg - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This is just a fantastic movie for listening comprehension. I've watched well over a couple of dozen French movies and some Buffy, but none of them have dialog as easy to understand as this movie.


If you like that film you'll probably also like Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, another musical by the same director in a similar style, with music by Michel Legrand, and equally clear French.
2 persons have voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 20 of 68
19 March 2014 at 1:36am | IP Logged 
Thanks conroy for the heads up on Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. I'll certainly put that one on my list for the future. For now, I checked eBay and its past my price point, and its not on YouTube. No idea full movies could be found on YouTube, luke.


1 person has voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 21 of 68
24 March 2014 at 12:43am | IP Logged 
Time has shifted my methods of study (again). I'm no longer treating Assimil NFWE as a secondary method. It's now my primary method.   Having reached lesson 29, I now realize that I'm learning more from it than any other method I've used to date. I'm getting more from it with less time invested. I feel my progress is more rapid with it, and I think it is better preparation for conversation.

As much as I liked the early levels of Fluenz, I'm finding that it's progressing a bit too slow at the later levels requiring several hours per lesson. To complement Assimil, I need something that covers grammar effectively, and efficiently. I've found that in the Hugo method. I'm currently going through Hugo French in Three Months. It's giving me grammar and much more vocabulary than I was getting from Fluenz.

I'm now also making Anki as part of my daily routine. For the time being I'm putting vocab along with articles to drill gender, using cards that require tying the result. I'll expand usage as I go forward.
    
Big April Push aka: Learning Based Challenge
My commitment is to do the following in April:
1. 30 Assimil NFWE passive lessons
2. 500 new words
3. 5 Fluenz lessons
4. Finish Hugo French in 3 months. (currently at week 3 - first half of book is review for me)
5. On April 30, schedule sessions with tutor. This will be my first time for speaking in French.

Given that I'm studying ~3 hours a day, I see no reason why I should not be able to do the above. The grand finale is to take on a French tutor. I'm a bit nervous about that as I have never spoken to anyone in French except my cat Violet. But its time, and publishing my objective will make it concrete.
1 person has voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 22 of 68
28 March 2014 at 5:42am | IP Logged 
Current progress:
Assimil 31 - I've been doing 1 lesson per day and will try to keep that pace until completion.
Hugo French in 3 Months - Finished week 4.
Fluenz 3-15 - I'm holding on this course and may or may not resume. Perhaps my 3 hours per lesson here are better spent with FSI.

My updated commitment for Jeffers April Learning Challange:
1. Assimil NFWE - 30 lessons.
2. French vocabulary - 500 new words.
3. FSI Basic French - units 1 and 2.
4. Hugo French in 3 months - finish this, 8 more weekly lessons to do.
5. Schedule sessions with tutor during the last week of April.

I'm mostly concerned with the 500 words. I'll pick most of it up with the courses, and where I'm short for my daily quota, I'll grab words from my frequency dictionary. I'll use Anki to test myself on the vocabulary.

FSI!
I did about 30 minutes of FSI Basic French the other night to get a feel for it and I really enjoyed it. I printed all of units 1 through 12, just less than 500 pages! That is a big stack, and I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas morning to get started on April 1.
1 person has voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 23 of 68
28 March 2014 at 9:40pm | IP Logged 
Even though I'm no longer tracking hours, I suspect I'm still at about 2.5 hours a day. That should tick upward in April for the challenge. This amount of study at times is easy, and at other times seems grueling. Like tonight, I'd really rather go out and play some poker.

I'm looking forward to getting a tutor next month primarily so that I can see if these months of study will give me a much needed milestone, the ability to have basic communication in French. If that goes well, I think it may renew my enthusiasm.
1 person has voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3954 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 24 of 68
09 April 2014 at 1:08am | IP Logged 
I think I have discovered just how much Anki can become a bear. In my enthusiasm for giving myself a tough April Challenge, I included the goal of 500 words. All the other goals, check, no issues. The 500 words using Anki, on the other hand, may very well break my ability meet my goals.

Some words just do not stick. Words I study without seeing in context multiple times are the ones that I tend to have a hard time remembering. I think there are two possible solutions to make this work; a) delete these cards, find other words and let these come back to me naturally over time, or b) alter the cards to include a phrase using the Anki cloze feature. I may do a bit of both.

One thing I'm fairly certain of. After my April Challenge obligation, I don't think I'll use Anki again for single word vocabulary acquisition. Certainly not 500 words in one month!    


1 person has voted this message useful



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