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Raconteur’s Humble Beginnings | ||
Tags: French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Raconteur Diglot Newbie Poland bit.ly/1eiSWnc Joined 3741 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 1 of 27 03 April 2014 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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After years of admiring all of your commendable efforts from afar, I have finally decided to join up and start logging my progress alongside yours!
As I have recently wrote in a separate thread (LL & Loss of Confidence - General discussion), I’ve been fruitlessly attempting to pick up additional languages for a long, long time. Supposedly we learn from failure, yet I seem no wiser for all the false-start-notches on my belt :/ A fellow forum member reminded me of a fitting Einstein quote recently…
In order to finally succeed this time I intend to do things differently, starting with taking Gemuse’s advice and writing this here log! I hope that some of you decide to follow my humble beginnings, it would mean a great deal to me if you joined me on this journey! Cheers, Rac. Edited by Raconteur on 13 April 2014 at 5:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raconteur Diglot Newbie Poland bit.ly/1eiSWnc Joined 3741 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 2 of 27 03 April 2014 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What needs to change?
Accountability Being accountable only to myself, it is easy (or at least easier) to quit when going gets tough. This is especially true when one is surrounded by expats, some of whom make it seem like abandoning French is a-ok! Thus, please keep me in line guys! I pledge to stay accountable not only to myself, but also to this community! And, when I slack, do let me know in no uncertain terms! :) I will truly appreciate some motivation, as well as any other feedback you might have about my journey (methods, resources, etc.) Unrealistic Goals Excited about learning another language, I tend to quickly overextend myself with too many goals. I come up with intricate plans featuring complex webs of learning tools. I’ve always been a strong supporter of the multi-track approach, and a bit of a language learning material hoarder. Paradoxically (or perhaps not so much) extensive multi-tracking has failed me again and again. I became overwhelmed with it as soon as life got in the way. It’s time for a change… it’s time to do things smarter and scale down. Try the opposite approach basically. This time I will be starting ONLY with: H3M - Hugo In Three Months: French (only primary tool) Anki SRS (aiding w/ retention of information from H3M) Supplemented loosely by: Assimil New French With Ease (audio) French in Action (video) France 24 news bulletins (video) Unrealistic Expectations With all the planning, and countless hours spread across different methods, my expectations were often unrealistic. I subliminally counted on (if not outright demanded) rapid, visible results. This let to demotivation, followed by a period of diminishing consistency, and finally stagnation of whatever I managed to internalize in the first place. This time my one and only goal is to stay consistent. Seriously. My solid goals for the rest of 2014 are as follows: - Study French for at least 200 days - Achieve an unbroken streak of 50 days This means at least 30 minutes (but preferably 60+ minutes) of H3M+SRS every day My minor goals are: - Developing a habit of using LL audio during commutes (Assimil, etc.) - Developing a habit of watching the daily news bulletin in French (France 24) - Sometimes watching French in Action episodes in lieu of Polish/English TV &movies Edited by Raconteur on 13 April 2014 at 2:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raconteur Diglot Newbie Poland bit.ly/1eiSWnc Joined 3741 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 3 of 27 03 April 2014 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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A bit about me:
I’ve been living in a Francophone country since August 2013. At first I was really driven to learn French, but gave up (once again!) after only a few months of struggling and awkwardness. It doesn’t help that both professionally and socially an Anglophone environment insulates me. Frankly, I’ve discovered that one can live here permanently with little more than “bonjour,” and quite many foreigners do just that! Long before coming here, I have attempted to learn French in secondary school (formal classes) and university (multiple self-study attempts & informal group study). None of it resulted in gaining ability to use French on even the most basic of levels! Other languages I have studied over the years include: Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and German - all with disappointing results. I have also dabbled in Dutch, Russian, and Korean. Edited by Raconteur on 13 April 2014 at 12:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| linguaholic_ch Triglot Groupie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4897 days ago 69 posts - 96 votes  Speaks: English, Hindi, Bengali Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 27 04 April 2014 at 3:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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With a little determination and a stress free mind, you will certainly do well in your endevour. You have chosen some great resources to study , especially H3M and Assimil which I am using myself. So don't lose hope when you fail to be consistent. It is important to keep on trying. I suggest you use Duolingo along with your resources fir French. They show a streak level and it keeps you motivated to study more. If you have a smartphone, you can download Seinfeld Calendar for showing a streak level too. Discipline is hard , but not impossible. Just don't jeopardize yourself with too much expectations. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5381 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 27 04 April 2014 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Welcome! I like your plan: You have one main resource, a few supplemental resources to use when you feel like it, and also a bit of native media. If you just hang in there, you should definitely make some progress.
Good idea. One of the hard things about language learning is that progress doesn't climb slowly and steadily upward. Instead, you have good days and bad days, and the bad days can easily set you back a couple of months. Here's a nice discussion of what those temporary setbacks feel like, in French:
I once found this brutally discouraging, but eventually I just got tired of stressing out over the bad days, and I recognized the pattern. Anyway, when your life becomes super-stressful, and you're tempted to give up, please ask—either here in your log or in the Advice Center—about ways to maintain your current level when you're overwhelmed by outside stress. It's mostly a question of finding pleasant, calming activities to do in French, and setting aside enough time to stay in touch with the language. But because the details will vary by level and personal interest, it helps to compare notes with other students of French. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3931 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 6 of 27 05 April 2014 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I hope you also have a grammar reference book (like the one I suggested), for when you need to clarify. Hugo tends to be very terse in the grammatical department. Good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raconteur Diglot Newbie Poland bit.ly/1eiSWnc Joined 3741 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 7 of 27 06 April 2014 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, well put – those high expectations need to go! Also, thanks for the resource suggestions. I’ll look into it!
Thanks emk, I’m sure this is bound to happen sooner or latter, so I’ll keep you all posted. The biggest challenge right now (especially April/May) will be just to keep going. I picked a really bad time to get (re)started – so busy right now. But then again, there’s no time like the present!
I also have Schaum's Outline of French Grammar – do you think that will do? Also, are there any good resources online for French grammar? Edited by Raconteur on 13 April 2014 at 12:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Eagle32 Groupie New Zealand Joined 6350 days ago 56 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 27 06 April 2014 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Tex's French Grammar from the University of Texas is very accessible http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/index.html 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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