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Slow Learning: FR, HI, ancGR TAC 2015 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 41 of 164 09 June 2014 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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My latest update:
French books read Le Petit Nicolas I've read a few more books in the series on my kindle: Les bêtises du Petit Nicolas, Le Petit Nicolas et ses voisins and Le Petit Nicolas s'amuse. When I read these stories, I feel like I really know French well. There are still words I have to look up, but on the kindle that's a quick task, and occasional phrases make me think. But I feel like I can read fluently. I will definitely be re-reading each of these, and adding the rest of the books available on kindle 1 by 1. Pas d'oscar pour l'assassin by Vincent Remède I've read this before, but it's a good story written for learners. I also read Jus de chaussettes by Vincent Remède which is about 50% longer, and so more involved. It involves the suspicious drowning of a programmer, so it has a bit of computer terminology. You can actually download a pdf of computer terms used in the book from the publisher's website. I can't recommend these two readers enough. They are reasonably priced for the length, are available on kindle, you can download the audio for free, and the audio is very well read. They aren't very difficult (I think they're both supposed to be A2), but the language feels quite natural. When I need another book, I'll be looking at some of the other books in the same series from the publisher. Sadly, they only have 2 books by Vincent Remède. Amélie script I've read this carefully 2 more times, during which I made a spreadsheet of every word I didn't know (which came to about 400 words), including the line from the film where it first appears. I might turn this into an Anki deck. Easy readers I read two easy readers I had for the last super challenge: La nuit blanche du Zoé, a not very interesting A1 story, and Julie et le bateau fantôme, a slightly better A2 story. I read both while listening to the audio. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get either book, but since I already have them, I might still re-read them one or two more times. French films 7 jours sur la planète I've watched another 6 episodes since my last update, and have used up my backlog of recorded episodes. Le peuple des océans 1: le peuple du bleu and Le peuple des océans 2: le peuple des sables et des forêts I watched these both for a 2nd time, both with my son who is gaga about animal documentaries and especially anything about turtles. We were both very amused to find out that the word for 'seal' is 'foque'. Boulevard du palais I've watched 9 episodes since my last update, and I'm really liking this show. There are obvious comparisons to Engrenages, in that it involves investigations by the police and an investigating judge. For most people Engrenages would come out on top, but I think I might like Boulevard du palais better. I think Engrenages was written to be "cutting edge" and I think that it often comes off as a bit contrived for this reason. Boulevard du palais is a bit dated by comparison (the episodes I'm watching are about 8 years old), but far more charming. Each episode is a full story, and so it doesn't rely on cliff-hangers to keep you hooked. You watch another episode only because you want to. And so far, I have wanted to. Unfortunately, I've used up my backlog of recorded episodes, and now I'm waiting each week for the next episode. French audiobooks Harry Potter 1 ch 1-3 I listened to the first 3 chapters twice, and then realized I should probably leave this for a few months. Or maybe I should read it first then listen (I usually listen first). I was just missing too much, even though I know the story fairly well. Jus de chaussettes I listened to this twice before reading the book, and then once while reading it (alternating, not reading + listening). Maigret et la jeune morte I listened to this intending to then read it within a few days. I guess I forgot to read it, so I'll probably read it sometime this week. Alex Leroc - Crime à Cannes I found a series of readers which got very good reviews, and picked this one because it was the cheapest on amazon. They are the typical short (45 pages or so?) books which come with a CD. I like the idea of a reader series which use the same characters. However, I found the narration sounded a bit stilted, but maybe my opinion will change once I read the book. Perhaps it was just the reader. Hindi films Ek tha Tiger Kind of a stupid spy story. Not bad, not great. Typical of recent Bollywood. Channai Express I watched this a few months ago, and since it was on Netflix I watched it again for the SC. A good farce with a good dose of action and romance. In short, a well-made masala film. Hindi books I'm continuing to read through my collection of Hindi children's books, but I haven't read as many as I had planned. I'm almost just reading often enough to keep my streak alive. It's sad, but I can't read as fluently as in French, so I'm less drawn to read in Hindi. Of course I know that the only way to fix this is to read a lot more. I definitely intend to once the 6wc is over (since I'm doing French for this 6wc). What's next? I've got lots to read in French, and I'm enjoying most of what I read. As mentioned above, I'll start to read more Hindi soon, and I really should start a bit of Ancient Greek. Edited by Jeffers on 09 June 2014 at 8:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5005 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 42 of 164 09 June 2014 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Jeffers.
Ek tha Tiger is your typical Salman Khan film. Darn entertaining, but you'd better leave your brain at home. :) I'm glad you liked Chennai Express though. It's not a regular song-and-dance romance. If you can, try watching Kamal Hassan's Viswaroop. A great story with good actors (Rahul Bose plays the villain). It also has nice songs. In fact, one was choreographed by Pandit Birju Maharaj, the doyen of Kathak. A must watch! Bye the way, I'm thinking of studying Hindi myself. I have bought the Practice Makes Perfect Workbook and plan to work through it this summer. I already have Kumars's Hindi for Non Hindi Speaking People, which I'll use as a reference. I can't tell you how inspiring it is to see you progress. Bonne continuation. :) Edited for typos. Edited by napoleon on 09 June 2014 at 11:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 43 of 164 09 June 2014 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wasn't Salman Khan in Munna Bhai MBBS? That was quite funny, although the sequel got too sentimental. Thank you for you kind words, Napoleon. I'm also curious about how you find Practice Makes Perfect Hindi. I was glad to see they made a Hindi workbook.
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| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5005 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 44 of 164 09 June 2014 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, that's Sanjay Dutt who played the lead in Munnabhai.
You're right about the sequel. It wasn't as good as the first film. Did you know they had to postpone shooting the third film in the series, "Munnabhai Chale America," because the Supreme Court sentenced him to five years in jail a on a gun charge. He's still doing time, but the word is that he's a model prisoner and he might even be released early because of his good behaviour. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 45 of 164 15 June 2014 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've finally cracked the Ancient Greek nut, and have read 12 pages for the Super Challenge. For starters, I'm going to be reading the passages from an advanced beginner reader called, Koine Greek Reader. It is made up of approximately 1/3 New Testament readings, 1/3 Old Testament readings (from the Septuagint version, which was a Greek translation in common use at the time of Jesus), and 1/3 writings from early Christians. I plan to work on one reading per week from this text, and probably to also read the sections of It's Still Greek to Me referenced in the reader. Once I finish the reader, I'll start reading the whole New Testament in Greek (I've read about a third of it in the past, but my Greek skills have faded considerably).
One thing which was funny about reading Greek again after a few years, is that I keep catching myself reading the diphthongs the way they are read in French. Anyway, I'm glad my French reading is well-embedded in my mind. I hit a great milestone in Hindi this evening: I have gotten to 50 pages of reading. So I've read 1 book by the SC definition! All those pages have come from children's books counting for just a few pages each. I also have The Routledge Intermediate Hindi Reader, which only came out in December 2013. The book is over 200 pages long, but there are only about 44 pages of actual reading material. The rest are exercises, notes, vocabulary lists, etc. Why do publishers of readers think they have to include more pages of exercises than of reading? As for French, I've started watching Un village Français from the beginning. I'm also about to embark on a long project of working through French in Action with my son (who just turned 13). I expect to take at least 2 weeks per lesson of FIA. We will listen to the audio for about 15 minutes a day during the school run, and meanwhile watch the lesson's video 2-3 times. I'm not sure yet whether we will do all of the workbook exercises or not. Meanwhile, Luke, Napoleon and Peter are tempting me to carry on with FSI. I would intend to do one unit per month. Since I'm in the middle of unit 7, that would be perfect to finish the first half by the end of this year, and then finish the second half next year. I'm not promising anything, but 1 unit per month shouldn't be too bad. Edited by Jeffers on 15 June 2014 at 10:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5630 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French | Message 46 of 164 16 June 2014 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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It must be pretty fun to be learning three completely different languages with three
different scripts! Congratulations on completing your first book in Hindi! When did you start learning Ancient Greek? It's one of the languages on my very long wishlist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 47 of 164 16 June 2014 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do enjoy the combo, but I have to say that I didn't initially choose to study Hindi.
My parents worked at a school in India, and we all had to study Hindi (the rest of the school was conducted in English). I started learning Ancient Greek in university, because I had to study a language and I didn't want to study French or German! Funny that, since I have since studied both. My first year and a half were on Attic Greek, and then I did courses on New Testament Greek. It has been a case of dipping in and out of it over the years since, but the gaps between have been too long for me to have made serious progress. I think that this time, with the Super Challenge, I will finally get some real traction in my study of ancient Greek. An update about French in Action: I tried the first two tracks with my son this morning on the school run. He really couldn't manage the listening part and said that he would rather go back to Pimsleur (we did the first couple of lessons last month). So tomorrow we start Pimsleur I, lesson 3. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3996 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 48 of 164 16 June 2014 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I started French In Action as a primary course as a newbie. At first it was truly overwhelming because I understood nothing! I've now been slowly working my way through it, as a secondary course, back-up to Assimil and Pimsleur. Using the transcripts, and listening to each lessons a few times, around lesson 15, all of a sudden, it was magical, and my listening comprehension made a major jump. I have only have the videos and textbooks, no audio, etc. Perhaps if your son could read the transcript when he listened, or perhaps try again in a month or two. It was definitely difficult in the beginning, but well worth it! I still have 20 more lessons to do! BTW - I am also a HUGE Le Petit Nicholas fan as well. I also enjoy reading your log for the great book/film recommendations. You are doing GREAT on the SC! Keep up the good work! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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