PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 73 of 451 30 April 2014 at 11:35am | IP Logged |
What's the name of this app please emk, I couldn't find it
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songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5212 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map
| Message 74 of 451 30 April 2014 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Here's an update of my study hours so far this year. Watching TV/film
(represented by 'R') I am currently
viewing as passive and not counting it in my accumulated hours. Again my study hours of French decreased,
but Dutch increased. Adding the 2 languages together the last 2 months have been stable at around 70hrs of
study time.
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Légende / Legend
C = Cours (Courses)
A = Audio seulement (Audio only)
L = Lecture (Reading)
R = Regarder ; films français etc
(Watching; &n bsp; French movies etc)
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"Procrastinating", schmocrastinating - I suspect you're being too hard on yourself, PeterMollenburg.
Your diligence continues to be impressive and inspiring.
Re. the film/TV watching: unless you have it only in the background as "noise" while you're concentrating on
other things, I'd certainly suggest "counting" it. It may not be what you think of as study-study, but it's still
valuable input/exposure to native material. - Perhaps keep tracking it separately...?
Edited by songlines on 30 April 2014 at 2:27pm
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 75 of 451 30 April 2014 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
songlines wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Here's an update of my study hours so far this year.
Watching TV/film
(represented by 'R') I am currently
viewing as passive and not counting it in my accumulated hours. Again my study hours of French decreased,
but Dutch increased. Adding the 2 languages together the last 2 months have been stable at around 70hrs of
study time.
----------------------------------
Légende / Legend
C = Cours (Courses)
A = Audio seulement (Audio only)
L = Lecture (Reading)
R = Regarder ; films français etc
(Watching; French movies etc)
... |
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Procastinating, schmocrastinating - I suspect you're being too hard on yourself, PeterMollenburg. Your
diligence continues to be impressive and inspiring.
Re. the film/TV watching: unless you have it only in the background as "noise" while you're concentrating on
other things, I'd certainly suggest "counting" it. It may not be what you think of as study-study, but it's still
valuable input/exposure to native material. - Perhaps keep tracking it separately...?
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Thanks Songlines,
I'm always prepared to improve where I can nowadays as I partook in too many years of my life wanting
to/attempting to/claiming to know foreign languages but actually getting pretty close to nowhere. I'm very
keen to improve now. I do still procrastinate but it lasts only a day or 2 instead of a year or two. Life's too
short it is time to get out of it what I want and that means I have to put in the work. Some of us seem to know
these things intuitively others know but do little about it and wind up learning the hard way. In any case my life
hasn't been a waste I've just been bad at learning languages with any kind of consistency, so now I'm not
prepared to allow myself any excuses- determination and perseverance will get me there not half baked
attempts. If you want to be good at something you've got to 'train'- diligently. I still have a life, I'm not driving
myself into the ground but I am very determined to remain on track and improve my methods as I feel I can.
Perhaps you are right about my watching of TV/movies but I am actually still counting those hours separately
as you suggested in brackets with the letter R and nbr of hours, eg for April as follows (R+20) represents 20
hours of watching [R=Regarder]. These hours are not counted in the 47hours,35min for the month but still
recorded as suggested. I know my methods of recording are perhaps a little lacklustre and dully unclear but
yes the hours watching are still counted (separately).
avril:
(April)   ; C34 A12,35 L1
Total: 47,35
(+ R20)
Moy. du mois: 1,35
(Monthly average)
Thanks for the positive comments Songlines at least recognition that I'm putting in the hard work isn't going
unnoticed. It's like a pat on the back, so thank you :)
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 76 of 451 01 May 2014 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
Okay so here's so more PeterMollenburg dribble ;)
Today was a very successful day one of May:
1 hour of Dutch and 5 hours of French- partially managed by staying well away from the
forum until AFTER studying :)
I was determined to start the month well! Wohoo no study for the next 5 days now...
joking :)
I made some more decisions and reversed some others I had already made.
I think Jeffers had a very good point when he made a claim on the 'for' side in using
L1-L2 flashcards. He basically stated that for example in the beginning of Michel
Thomas you translate simple terms like 'je suis' to I am but as time goes on you
instinctively know what je suis means and this would in theory gradually occur with all
other foreign language that you learn well as you progress. I think it's a good point,
not to mention the fact that as Jeffers also stated, speed in producing flashcards L1-
L2 is a plus (ie it's not usually slow). So I'm sticking with my cards as they are and
opting in the end not to change to L2 only cards... for now
I will add every new word when I do my courses or use my French learning magazines. But
i will ONLY add 1 word per page max when using other French texts, thereby getting
exposure to 'fend for myself' material- this approach is also used with French in
Action- i never add flashcards when using this course, I attempt to immerse myself and
work it out through context as it's designed be used. So all in all I am making some
changes/steps fwds and opting to keep some of the old, doing some very slow tedious
style study and some quicker reading.
So as an example today went like this:
1st hour: 20 min of SRS flashcard testing + 40 min FSI French lesson 5
2nd hour: Dutch
(20 min watching French news while eating breakfast)
3rd hour: 20 min SRS FC's + 40 min reading of French learning mag (with audio) "Think
French" (and entering new words in the FC deck as discovered)
4th hour: 20 min SRS FC's + 40 min Lesson 16 of Fluenz French level 3
5th hour: 20 min SRS FC's + 40 min of reading of a book entering only ONE new word each
page into my FC deck
6th hour: 20 min SRS FC's + 40 min of Assimil NFWE Lesson 79
(I might watch an episode of Engrenages tonight, as I now have the set and began with
episode 1 yesterday, mind you i was falling asleep here and there and missed important
bits of the show)
This is has fortunately been an ideal day. Many day's I might be lucky to get 2 hours
of French but I will aim to do more if time allows.
How can I do so much study at the moment? Well my wife was due to give birth on the
28th of April... This hasn't happened yet, but in the meantime we are doing a lot of
waiting around, and i'm on leave.
talk soon, hope everyone is well, bla bla bla,
Sir Peter Von Van de Tappestrie VropMolen-Mollenburg Garcia Sanchez Peternburg
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 77 of 451 01 May 2014 at 12:00pm | IP Logged |
I can't remember if you said you were signing up for the Super Challenge. One more
encouragement to do so: If you watch all 4 series of Engrenages (about 40+ hours) you
will have completed 26.7% of the film half of the super challenge.
EDIT: I'm not trying to make you feel guilty if you don't do it. But it's fun to see
your progress as you take part.
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Many day's I might be lucky to get 2 hours of French |
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That would be a good day for most people!
Edited by Jeffers on 01 May 2014 at 12:38pm
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5479 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 78 of 451 01 May 2014 at 2:31pm | IP Logged |
Jeffers wrote:
That all looks like good stuff. Just be careful you don't get so wrapped up in the
process of making cards that you're not doing much reading/studying!
Peter, have you considered trying the Super Challenge? It seems like a huge task to read
100 books and watch 100 films. But if you work it out, it's just 8.2 pages per day and
14.7 minutes watching (or listening) per day. Which just goes to show that a little bit
every day adds up to a large accomplishment, and that's what the Super Challenge is all
about. Plus, it will be fun to share progress and ideas. |
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I'm quoting this earlier post of yours Jeffers as I like the break down you've provided. The idea kept hovering
in the background of my mind after turning down the suggestion. Now I've decided to join. This won't be easy
for me, I've prob read less than 50 books in English and if you hadn't noticed already I've been reluctant to
read French books. Therefore I stand to gain a lot. 8.2 pages is possible. Anyway I despise Twitter so I don't
have an account as I find celebrity obsession rather unappealing. However if twitter makes things easier I
might need to let go of those reservations and jump on board. I'm still trying to work out the process, how I go
about this (haven't officially joined) as I'm only up to the 13th page if the related thread. Thanks for the push
Jeffers, I needed it :)
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 79 of 451 01 May 2014 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
You don't have to use Twitter, but it does make tracking your progress nice. I have a
Twitter account, but I only use it for the 6 week challenge and the Super Challenge.
Even if you don't complete it, the challenge will push you to do more than you would
have otherwise. Last time I completed the full challenge in French films, but didn't
even finish the half challenge in French reading. Partly because I was too scared to
start reading until several months into the challenge. Nevertheless, the amount I did
complete gave my reading skills a huge boost. And I really enjoyed the film half of
the challenge. I saw some real rubbish, but also some other films which I really love
(and will watch again for this challenge).
Also, you don't really need to read the whole thread. Just look for the posts where
Solfrid gives the rules.
I'm glad you'll be on board!
Just to break it down differently, you don't have to actually read 50 books. A "book"
is 50 pages of reading, however you do it. I'm reading Le Petit Nicolas for the first
week, which comes to 150 pages and counts as 3 books. I'm also reading the Amelie
transcript on word, which I reckon to be 31 pages. The twitter bot adds up your bits
and pieces for you, but you could also do this on a spreadsheet or something if you
prefer.
Edited by Jeffers on 01 May 2014 at 4:07pm
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emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 80 of 451 01 May 2014 at 10:29pm | IP Logged |
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Anyway I despise Twitter so I don't
have an account as I find celebrity obsession rather unappealing. However if twitter makes things easier I
might need to let go of those reservations and jump on board. |
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When you sign up for Twitter, be sure to "Unfollow" any annoying celebrities. Then you can just follow the Super Challenge bot and a few folks from HTLAL. Oh, and you can check out this list:
Immersion française
If it amuses you, you can just read through the feed, and look for interesting stuff. If you find something, you can "Follow" whoever posted it. This will mean that any time you go on Twitter, you'll get lots of links to French sites and tempting things to read.
See? No silly celebrities. :-)
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