conroy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5067 days ago 36 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 97 of 439 16 December 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
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I've certainly heard of that book. Do you recommend it because it is fairly easy, or very interesting, or what?
I tried going to the [URL snipped] site a couple of times, but it seems to just spin endlessly and never load the page. I thought I'd visited the site many months ago, but wss turned off by the requirement to setup an account to access any content. That could have been another site. Are you afiliated with the site?
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Yikes no, I'm not affiliated! It's bad timing that the site seems to have gone down just as I recommend it, but I have found it useful and I didn't have to sign up for anything.
The reason I recommend Madame Bovary is not because it is easy but because it's a great book and it has good resources for language learners. I thought it might be helpful to mention them.
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songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5202 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map
| Message 98 of 439 17 December 2012 at 12:53am | IP Logged |
Conroy (thanks for the TT recommendation) and Luke,
Tailored Texts tweeted a message on November 26:
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Apologies to all for radio silence - we are still in the process of redesigning/developing TT -it is going to
look IMPECCABLE. Bear with us. |
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So I guess they're still under renovations.
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conroy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5067 days ago 36 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 99 of 439 17 December 2012 at 2:11am | IP Logged |
Thanks songlines. I've been using TT for about a month and although it is sometimes slow in loading this is the first time I've known it go down. Thanks for pointing out the twitter feed.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7198 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 100 of 439 17 December 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
I'll watch for TailoredTexts.com to come back online.
Today, the Using French lesson is 50.
My French Without Toil lessons are 45-54.
Listened to chapters 0-2 of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the background at work.
Edited by luke on 19 December 2012 at 9:22am
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7198 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 101 of 439 19 December 2012 at 9:18am | IP Logged |
I keep a little note of what I've listened to in the background so as to get even coverage on the 3 Assmil courses over time. I've added Les Liaisons Dangerouses to that list. Yesterday I brought up the bilingual text and re-read the preface and the first 3 letters. That's an interesting book, and the librivox voice of Ezwa is pleasant.
With the Assimmil courses I bumped forward one more lesson. Using French, number 51 on La vie de Victor Hugo. In Without Toil I listened and read through lessons 46-55 in the morning. I've only been reading the notes for the most advanced lesson for a couple of days because I've been a bit short of time or busy with other things. Still, I think the best thing is to march forward if one has a basic understanding of the dialogue.
In the evening, I was home alone so I went through lessons 55-39 - I generally go in reverse order - and shadowed them. Many parts of some lessons are very easy to shadow, particularly the earlier ones. Reviewing a few extra lessons like this felt good, as it had been a while since I had shadowed many of the lessons. I also don't get a chance to shadow the lessons with the book every day, so doing that gives my French a boost.
In my car, I also do a bit of shadowing. There besides the doing it, I sometimes have thoughts like, "how is that word spelt", or "I couldn't keep up with all of that" - keep up with the shadowing. Not too big a deal, as the recordings have several actors working together to deliver a very fast paced dialogue, but nonetheless, I see room for improvement.
Edited by luke on 19 December 2012 at 9:20am
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7198 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 102 of 439 21 December 2012 at 3:39pm | IP Logged |
I listened through the preface and first 4 letters of Les liaisons dangereuese, so that's three times through the first few. It's a fun little oeuvre to study.
My wife and I have taken a small trip for the holiday so I had an opportunity to listen and read the remainder of Using French - lessons 53 - 70. I thought to myself this would be a good preview and also ease up on the study stress. You know the kind; thinking one more lesson per day for the next ... 2 1/2 weeks in this case. Anyway, rather than slipping a supplement in sideways for the trip, the march forward should prove efficacious. Today I'm on lesson 54 and tout ira bien.
In French Without Toil, today's lesson set is 58-49. I haven't been writing out the supplemental suggested exercises, although I think that would be helpful. I quit writing the lesson out around lesson 38. I meant to at least pick up and do the written exercises, which are typically verb conjugations when they were given, but I haven't done that, so I'm not quite as comfortable with the written part of the verb conjugations as I would like to be. One can often tell by the context that something is l'imparfait ou le future, but there's a level beyond that where one can say, donner is a regular verb and the conjuagations in l'imparfait et le future would be...
Hmm, I will have an hour or two today and I could do that, but I feel more strongly that the familiarization and shadowing of the current lesson stack is more beneficial, although perhaps less rigorous. I can always go about writing out the conjuation exercises during the "active wave", which started yesterday.
On the "active wave", I had already basically memorized lesson 1, so it wasn't very difficult, not that it should have been or that difficulty is a good indication of effectiveness.
Nonetheless, I do have the lesson 2 active wave to do, as well as shadowing the current stack. I listen to and read them earlier today, and they are playing in the background as I type this... Back at it.
Edited by luke on 21 December 2012 at 3:42pm
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7198 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 103 of 439 21 December 2012 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
I just finished up the active wave for lesson 2 and I can say that I feel it was useful. I did lesson 2, then lesson 1 again, then repeated the translation for lesson 2. I'm sure I won't have that much time for active wave exercises every day, but I do think the translation is helpful for focusing attention on smaller details of the language such as the difference between, "Prennez la valise avec moi", and "Prennez ma valise avec moi", the first being correct translation in this case.
I don't know I'll be able to devote all enough minutes to do 3 lessons, today's twice and yesterday's each day, but I believe it will help with the activation of the language.
Edited by luke on 21 December 2012 at 8:43pm
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7198 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 104 of 439 25 December 2012 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
Yesterday I listened through the whole Using French course while doing yardwork. I have good comprehension of the whole course, but there are generally details in each lesson, some small, some large that I get from looking at the book, such as spelling. Today, I'm on Le Père Goriot, lesson 58 of 70. The next trip through Using French, will probably focus on one or two lessons per day. E.G., the current lesson and yesterday's. That seems like a good "next wave".
Today is lesson 62 in French without Toil, Il pleut et la chanson Le Bon Fromage. Sometimes it's fun looking up the songs on youtube. I still haven't taken to writing out the supplemental exercises, but I have been doing an oral 2nd wave. Today will be lesson 5 of the active wave.
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