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Inhaling Belgium | ||
Tags: Belgium | Super Challenge | Living abroad | Dutch | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | French | ||
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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 89 of 116 01 May 2014 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Long lost twins is a staple of Hindi films. One film has triplets separated at birth,
one is raised Christian, one raised Muslim and the third raised Hindu. They meet up again when they all donate blood to, you guessed it, their long-lost mother! Anyway, I look forward to following your SC progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4232 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 90 of 116 11 May 2014 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi Jeffers, sounds if someone stole a story arc :-) Sounds like an interesting film, what a pity I do not speak Hindi!
I'm through with my first book for the Super Challenge! I mean, not a book unit, but a real book book. As already mentioned, I am digging into the Harry Potter series, and have just completed the first tome. Compared to my last reading experience (Inferno), this was rather quick...for two reasons, actually: a) The beautiful weather in the past two weeks made me reading without access to my laptop (i.e. easy look-up of unknown words), which was facilitated by the fact that b) This was an easy book that I already knew. Today's rain allowed me to enjoy the last thirty pages in painful pleasure, with looking up any unknown word and adding it to Anki. Those were a lot, I can tell you. And...really? La baguette magique? This is the first time I learn that "baguette" actually means more than just the French type of bread. So the picture of little Harry, holding a huge magic bread in his hands, has burnt into my brain. It took me about fifty pages not to chuckle every time this word appeared. One little disappointment is left - Harry Potter I has exactly 298 pages....so I have to start the second tome right now, to get some satisfaction from having completed 6 book units... :-) 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 91 of 116 12 May 2014 at 12:48am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I just started listening to the audiobook of Harry Potter 1 in French this week. It is difficult so far, but since I know the story well enough it's not too bad. I haven't come across la baguette magique yet, but now I'm not going to be able to keep from chuckling when I get to it!
Once I start reading the book, it will be on Kindle. An e-reader is a great investment for a language learner. Okay, I do prefer paper, and I like to make notes and marks in my books (pencil only!) But the ability to look up words instantly is just brilliant. As is the fact that I can take dozens of books on holiday, and don't have to choose beforehand. On the newer kindles you can also create lists of words you looked up, and they even have some sort of flashcard program to review them (probably not SRS though). As for page numbers, the description on Amazon.fr says 322 pages. Is your edition different? Anyway, to make up the two pages you could just pick any two favourite pages to reread. EDIT: did I mention that the mother was presumed killed in flood caused by the bad-guy who was in love with her husband? And she got amnesia and went away with him? A good Bollywood film is melodrama to the extreme! The film's name is "Amar, Akbar, Anthony", by the way. Edited by Jeffers on 12 May 2014 at 1:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4232 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 92 of 116 12 May 2014 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Jeffers, audiobooks! Yeah, I am also dipping my toe into this frightening/challenging world and know exactly how you feel! I have started with "Le petit Nicolas", which is by far less complex than Harry Potter, and I need to repeat the audio twice until I feel I got 95 % (which is perfect for me). Yet I am thrilled - this is much better than expected! One year ago, I wouldn't have understood a word! The next audiobook on my list will indeed be Harry Potter as well (the second tome I'm currently reading). I'll try to get the most out of this book, work through it as intense as possible, to make sure my listening skills are not blocked by my poor French.
I clearly see the advantages of an e-reader. I have two reasons to read real books: 1) In the past twenty years I have spent quite a lot of money on French books without ever having opened them - I need to read them in order not to feel I have wasted all that money (not a very brilliant reason, I know). The second is better: I read a lot while having a bath (I really love that), and you will agree that this is neither perfect nor safe with an e-reader... However, ebooks will become part of my super challenge as well. I like the advantages and the idea of accessing stuff that doesn't fill my shelves afterwards (too many books here already....). As dealing with too many electronic devices feels messy to me, I'll probably go for a new laptop instead, with a non-glare screen that will allow me to read outside as well.
Indeed! As said above, bought ages ago...
So I hope it has been dubbed and will be broadcasted in French or Belgian TV in the next 19.5 months :-) I'll definitely watch it! 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 93 of 116 13 May 2014 at 8:33am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Ha ha! Did I write the bad guy was in love with her husband? That's a bit too extreme for Bollywood in the 70s. He was in love with her, and wanted to kill her husband.
I bought a kindle precisely because my bookshelves are too full (and I have about 6 large boxes of books in my garage). I still do buy real books, but usually only special books, or books unavailable as ebooks. When you're looking for kindle books, check out this series: Mondes en VF They are levelled books but written by established authors (supposedly), so they are more "literate". What I like is that they are available on kindle, and then you can download the mp3 audio for free. You can also download learning material from the website, but I haven't bothered much with that. I don't really like "comprehension exercises"; although they also have vocab sheets which might be useful. I've read one, Pas d'oscar pour l'assassin, and have bought the second one by the same author for this Super Challenge. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4232 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 94 of 116 15 May 2014 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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The Indian movie is getting better and better, Jeffers :-)
Thanks for the link to those graded readers! Especially your advice with the additional audio sounds great!
Oh, I understand that....I used to apply a "1 for 2" policy for years (buy one book, get rid of two others) and finally succeeded to get some additional space, but then inherited a house of books from my father. I mean, nice books, books that I like and would love to read, but still...too many.... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 95 of 116 15 May 2014 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
This made me laugh out loud. Great mental image! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4232 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 96 of 116 17 May 2014 at 9:36am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Thanks, Stelle :-)
Having been active in French (and this forum) for roughly one year now, I thought is is a nice idea to look back to my achievements over the past twelve months. Honestly, my improvement and current French skills do not at all match my expectations before my "immigration". That time I expected naively to be fluent in French after one year in Belgium, and at times, I was dissappointed at the slow progress. But progress there is! Just in the last two weeks, I had conversations in French about works in the house and gardening, all of which required more than just basic language skills. My conversations usually will not last any longer than five minutes, otherwise my brain is melting. But I definitely see some slow progress in my conversational skills. In addition, I made good progress vocabulary-wise, and - thanks to the last Super Challenge - also with regard to my listening skills (from 0 to 50 % comprehension). I still track everything in my fancy Excel Spreadsheet (except for conversations), and while I feel it is to boring to post the figures here, I'll be happy to log any milestone I reach there... Thanks to the Super Challenge I also returned a bit to vocabulary and textbook learning, which feels to be a great addition to the reading. As mentioned before, I use Harry Potter II for very intense study, which slows down my progress in the Super Challenge and is not very much in line with its spirit of extensive input. Therefore, I have started to read a Doctor Who novel in addition, without looking up any words here in turn. This mix of intensive and extensive input is currently working very well for me. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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