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TAC 2011 (Team ÇÜ): The Continuing Saga | ||
Tags: Esperanto | Dutch | Translation | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Mandarin | German | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5692 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 57 of 135 07 March 2011 at 2:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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*ENTRY 59* (28 February 2011)
FRENCH 10 minutes: wrote on forums in French. 40 minutes: did Assimil lesson 78 (W1) & 22 (W2). 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 72-78. French total: 57 minutes GERMAN 15 minutes: read part of an article in German. German total: 15 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 72 minutes (1h12) --- *ENTRY 60* (1 March 2011) FRENCH 30 minutes: did Living Language Advanced French (LLAF) lesson 1. 12 minutes: listened to the audio for LLAF lesson 1. 40 minutes: did Assimil lesson 79 (W1) & 23 (W2). 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 73-79. 10 minutes: listened to the news from RFI. French total: 99 minutes GERMAN 10 minutes: watched an interview with an ex-Stasi officer. German total: 10 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 109 minutes (1h49) --- *ENTRY 61* (2 March 2011) FRENCH 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 80 (W1) & 24 (W2). French total: 40 minutes GERMAN 20 minutes: read German poetry (Goethe: "West-Östlicher Divan"). German total: 20 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 60 minutes (1h00) --- *ENTRY 62* (3 March 2011) GERMAN 80 minutes: German class. 10 minutes: wrote on forums in German. German total: 90 minutes ESPERANTO 15 minutes: read aloud and typed up 3 "word of the day" entries. Esperanto total: 15 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 105 minutes (1h45) --- *ENTRY 63* (4 March 2011) GERMAN 30 minutes: set my computer's language to German and explored the new words for everything. :) German total: 30 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 30 minutes (0h30) --- *ENTRY 64* (5 March 2011) FRENCH 40 minutes: did Assimil lesson 81 (W1) & 25 (W2). 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 75-81. 10 minutes: listened to news podcast in French. French total: 57 minutes GERMAN 15 minutes: listened to podcasts in German. German total: 15 minutes ESPERANTO 10 minutes: read aloud and typed up 2 "word of the day" entries. Esperanto total: 10 minutes DUTCH 23 minutes: listened to a Dutch podcast, "Klare Taal." Dutch total: 23 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 105 minutes (1h45) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5692 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 58 of 135 07 March 2011 at 2:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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Reflections at this juncture – 6 March 2011
I have a crazy workload at school right now. Let me say that right up front. In the next two weeks (i.e. before March 19) I have to: - write a 5-8 page philosophy paper (not too long, but it has to be exceptionally good because my professor has absurdly high standards); - write and give a presentation in German about four poems by Goethe (again for a professor with very high standards, so I have to have some brilliant epiphanies about these poems and then lead a discussion on them afterwards, all in German); - write a 12-page paper in German (the content doesn't have to be brilliant, but the language should be as good as possible); - and put together a complete rough draft of my senior project (120 pages of translation, of which I've luckily already got 90, and 50 pages of research and analysis). Oh, and I also need to start the application process for grad school! I've picked two places I'll be applying to, both two-year Master's programs in specialized translation: one at the University of Cologne and one at the University of Leipzig. I like them about equally, so I'll be happy no matter which one I get into – although my adviser seems to think I'll get into both of them and be able to pick and choose. We'll see! I'm pretty excited about this part, but figuring out the application process for schools in Germany is kind of difficult (mostly due to their famous bureaucracy… I'm glad I've got some experience with it under my belt now, after my semester in Berlin). So, with all this stuff stressing me out, what better thing to do on a Sunday night than sit down and write a long entry for my HTLAL log? In my defense, it really does de-stress me a little bit to do this. So let's go. 1. Dutch, as you may have noticed from my latest updates, has pretty much fallen by the wayside for the moment. After completing the 6WC I was enjoying it so much that I thought I might just continue with it through the rest of the semester, but my heavy academic workload combined with the more pressing need to work on German and French finally took its toll. I've decided to put Dutch into the "audio-only" bin for now – I'll keep getting input through podcasts and music, in preparation for the time when I take up "serious" study of the language. I'm completely in love with the song "Daar gaat ze" by the Belgian band Clouseau. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV-HFYB0nPk] Speaking of which, I've decided to learn a Flemish accent for Dutch. I just like it, plus I have a good friend from Belgium. 2. Recently I've been narrowing down my French studies to being centered around one Assimil lesson (or I should say two, since I'm well into the second wave now) per day. I'm still really enjoying Assimil. My accent is slowly but steadily improving, although my speaking confidence is still absurdly low. I plan to keep watching the FiA videos whenever I have the time, but due to my busy schedule, I doubt that will be a regular occurrence. Not much to say about French in general – it keeps chunkin' along, and I'm feeling pretty good about it at the moment, especially considering that I'm making for time for it even "extra-curricularly." 3. After reading a little about the Gold List Method, I thought I would try it for some advanced vocab in German. I've been noticing lately that my vocabulary seems to be pretty stagnant, and I catch myself using the same phrases and expressions over and over. It seems like the GL technique might jog me out of this rut a bit. I made my first list today and will be returning to it in two weeks, per the rules of the game. I plan to make a couple more lists during those two weeks, though – let's hope I can keep everything organized. 4. Also, having just read about the technique of putting sentences from Assimil into Anki (only once you've returned to them in the second wave, though), I decided to try that for French. I've started a document of the best sentences from each lesson, and when I've caught up with my current progress through Wave 2 (lesson 26), I'm going to start a new Anki deck for them and try to add a couple every day. 5. I'm sure my legendary on-again off-again affair with Esperanto has made me the laughing-stock of the town by now, but I'm here to say, it's on-again at the moment. I was despairing of my inability to retain vocab, and was also feeling guilty about my months-and-months-worth of unread "Vorto de la tago" (word of the day) emails, when I suddenly had a brilliant idea: I would combine these two! Since the word-of-the-day emails each include a dictionary entry for the word, with a definition and several example sentences, you're presented with some useful phrases that demonstrate the use of the word in multiple ways. I decided I would type up each of these emails as I receive them, effectively getting intensive input by copying every word of the entries. This is a great way to encounter relatively simple vocabulary in a variety of contexts, and to make myself spend a little time on Eo every day without stressing out over it. I'm excited to see how well this input-only method works when it comes to remembering and recognizing vocab in this language, which has always been difficult for me. 6. Finally, a fun little news item before I say goodnight: I've finally taken the initiative to change the language of my computer to German. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier – it's long past time. I've had my iPod, my Last.fm account, and my Facebook in German for a while, but now taking the plunge and putting my entire computer into German feels great! I had a ball the other day just exploring the same old nooks and crannies of my computer, laughing with amusement at the new words for everything. My favorite is still "Ruhezustand" (which I translated for my sister as "Peaceful condition") for "Sleep." Edited by Jinx on 09 March 2011 at 12:23am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5692 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 59 of 135 10 March 2011 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Lately I've been getting more and more frustrated with my accent in various languages. I have very high standards for accents (for myself), let me just say that right away. I know you don't need to sound anything like a native to be understood, but for me it's simply part of learning the language to be able to pronounce the sounds as much like a native speaker as possible.
To that end, and to do something about my vast dissatisfaction with my own accent (especially in French), I decided to record some audio samples and post them here in the hope of getting some detailed feedback from native speakers. (This is partly because ReneeMona gave me such great feedback on my Dutch paragraph – thank you once again!) I know it takes time (although not too much in my case – each sample is barely over a minute long) and effort to focus on a foreign accent and note exactly what is wrong about it, but I would so much appreciate any help you folks are willing to give me, in terms of pointing out specific sounds I could work on and places I tend to make mistakes (and of course it wouldn't hurt to hear what I'm doing right, too!). Okay, enough preamble, here are the links to the sound files (they're both really small, about half a megabyte each): German sample French sample Here's the text of the German sample (part of Assimil "La pratique de l'allemand" lesson 43):
And here's the text of the French sample (Assimil lesson 82):
Many thanks in advance to anyone (the more, the merrier!) who is willing to give me some constructive criticism on these samples! :) Edited by Jinx on 10 March 2011 at 7:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Meelämmchen Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5082 days ago 214 posts - 249 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 60 of 135 11 March 2011 at 8:40am | IP Logged | |||||
That's really great! The bolded words were really the only ones, where you have a stronger American accent. Besides "Stewards" of course, you have pronounced it too good for a German ;) And "fröhliche Tischmusik" was clearly spoken with a Dutch accent. All other words were either spoken perfectly or almost perfectly, at least so good, that you couldn't tell it from first hearing, oder daß man es einfach überhören würde, wenn man nicht darauf achtet. You really shouldn't be disappointed with your German accent, I would say with this level you have already achieved so much. There are Americans on German TV and who live here for years, who even speak more accent (which is probably why they are not reading something but talking freely and this is definitly more difficult; or because they are no language nerds...). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| polyglossia Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5403 days ago 205 posts - 255 votes Speaks: French* | Message 61 of 135 12 March 2011 at 12:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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The french text is awesome !!! you really have a great voice !!!
Some corrections though: - You said 'Paul' (masc.) like 'Paule' (fem.) ... you should have pronounce it with an opened /o/ - Be careful with punctuation and especially the ','!! You cant end up your sentence when it comes to a ',' !! (the tone is up before a ',' not down) But I love the way you said 'un laaargee fauteuilll de cuiiir noir' !! - Last thing : 'trois heures' : 'trois' should be short!! You said it like you were... from Belgium ! ? Are you ? :))) - And the correct expression is : 'trois heures de l'après-midi' and not 'trois heures après-midi ' Very good job!!!! I understood everything without difficulty and I guess I could have listen to your voice three more hours !!! :) Your prononciation is fine!! Good job!! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6141 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 62 of 135 12 March 2011 at 12:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Disclaimer: I am of course not a native speaker of French, so you should probably take everything I say here with a grain of salt, but I'd just like to comment a little bit on your French sample. Like I said, I'm not a native speaker myself but I have had lots of experience listening to natives talking (and have been told that my accent sounds native-like, but that's beside the point) so I think I could offer a commentary, also from the perspective of a fellow native English speaker.
Anyways, when I listened to your sample it didn't strike me like any of the individual sounds caused you much trouble and it sounded like you said them all correctly. However, for some reason it did sound "off" to me for some reason, which didn't make sense because you seemed to be pronouncing everything correctly. I finally came to the conclusion that it was the pitch and intonation that was off, which is very distinctive in French. This could probably be remedied at least somewhat by listening to lots of natural French as spoken by native speakers and "absorbing" the feel of the intonation, or by shadowing the dialogues from your Assimil book (or from elsewhere) with a focus on getting the right intonation. I also have before me a review book used at my school to prepare for the AP French Exam. I remembered that it has an explanation of some of the main intonational patterns for spoken French in the back, so I thought I could share them with you in case you aren't familiar with them already. (For example sentences: Bold = rising tone, Italics = falling tone) 1. Généralement dans une phrase déclarative, la voix monte à la fin de chaque group de mots et on baisse la voix à la fin de la phrase. - Mais je me sens plus tranquille avec des gens qui font mal des choses bien qu'avec ceux qui font bien de mauvaises choses. - Marie et Jeanne qui sont de bonnes amies et que nous aimons bien sont venues nous voir il y a une semaine. 2. Dans une phrase interrogative: a. on élève la voix à la fin de la question, si la réponse est oui ou non (c'est-à-dire, si la question n'est pas introduite par un pronom ou un adverbe interrogatif): - Êtes-vous heureux? - Est-ce que vous allez au cinéma? - Vous arriverez à six heures? b. on baisse la voix à la fin de la question, si elle est introduite par un pronom ou un adverbe interrogatifs. - Comment allez-vous? - Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça? - Pourquoi faut-il se méfier des Français sur la route? 3. Dans une phrase impérative ou exclamative on baisse la voix à la fin de la phrase. - Taisez-vous! - Que c'est joli! - Dépêchez-vous de nettoyer votre chambre! I hope this helps! I realize the bold and italics are difficult to interpret, but I couldn't use the arrows that they use in the book. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5692 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 63 of 135 16 April 2011 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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*ENTRY 65* (6 March 2011)
FRENCH 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 82 (W1) & 26 (W2). 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 76-82. 5 minutes: wrote on a forum in French. 10 minutes: listened to French podcasts. French total: 62 minutes GERMAN 5 minutes: wrote on a forum in German. 10 minutes: listened to German podcasts. 30 minutes: started reading the play "Andorra" by Max Frisch. German total: 45 minutes ESPERANTO 20 minutes: read aloud and typed up 4 "word of the day" entries. 11 minutes: listened to Esperanto podcasts. Esperanto total: 31 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 138 minutes (2h18) --- *ENTRY 66* (7 March 2011) FRENCH 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 83 (W1) & 27 (W2). 8 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 77-83. French total: 48 minutes GERMAN 40 minutes: read various stuff on the internet in German. 105 minutes: finished "Andorra." 30 minutes: wrote a short essay in German. German total: 175 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 223 minutes (3h43) --- *ENTRY 67* (8 March 2011) FRENCH 30 minutes: did Assimil lessons 84 (W1) & 28 (W2). 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 78-84. 10 minutes: listened to the news in French. French total: 47 minutes GERMAN 80 minutes: German class. 5 minutes: listened to a podcast in German. German total: 85 minutes ESPERANTO 15 minutes: read aloud & typed up 4 "word of the day" entries. 15 minutes: read some forums in Esperanto. 12 minutes: listened to a podcast in Esperanto. Esperanto total: 42 minutes DUTCH 10 minutes: listened to music in Dutch. Dutch total: 10 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 184 minutes (3h04) OTHER 30 minutes: listened to audio of various accents in Spanish. 10 minutes: listened to sports radio in Spanish (Colombian). 15 minutes: read some forums in Spanish. 15 minutes: watched music videos in Spanish. --- *ENTRY 68* (13 March 2011) GERMAN 60 minutes: watched German videos (interviews & music videos). German total: 60 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 60 minutes (1h00) --- *ENTRY 69* (14 March 2011) GERMAN 60 minutes: wrote a presentation for German class. German total: 60 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 60 minutes (1h00) --- *ENTRY 70* (15 March 2011) GERMAN 80 minutes: German class, did a presentation. German total: 80 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 80 minutes (1h20) --- *ENTRY 71* (16 March 2011) GERMAN 20 minutes: read websites in German. German total: 20 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 20 minutes (0h20) --- *ENTRY 72* (17 March 2011) GERMAN 10 minutes: listened to some new German songs while reading the lyrics. German total: 10 minutes MANDARIN (hanzi known: 86) 40 minutes: studied hanzi with learnhanzi.com (learned 20 new ones). Mandarin total: 40 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 50 minutes (0h50) --- *ENTRY 73* (18 March 2011) GERMAN 30 minutes: read German online, listened to German music. German total: 30 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 30 minutes (0h30) --- *ENTRY 74* (19 March 2011) GERMAN 30 minutes: read German online, listened to German music. German total: 30 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 30 minutes (0h30) --- *ENTRY 75* (20 March 2011) GERMAN 30 minutes: read German online, listened to German music. 30 minutes: read part of a German book (Mutterzunge, by Emine Sevgi Özdamar). German total: 60 minutes MANDARIN (hanzi known: 102) 30 minutes: studied hanzi on learnhanzi.com (I am so into this site!). Mandarin total: 30 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 90 minutes (1h30) --- *ENTRY 76* (21 March 2011) FRENCH 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 78-84. 30 minutes: did Assimil lessons 85 (W1) & 29 (W2). 100 minutes: watched a French film ("Hors de prix"). French total: 137 minutes ESPERANTO 4 minutes: watched a video in Eo of someone talking about toki pona. Esperanto total: 4 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 141 minutes (2h21) --- *ENTRY 77* (22 March 2011) FRENCH 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 79-85. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 86 (W1) & 30 (W2). French total: 47 minutes GERMAN 15 minutes: practiced speaking German. German total: 15 minutes MANDARIN (hanzi known: 105) 15 minutes: studied hanzi on learnhanzi.com (learned 3 new ones). 65 minutes: reviewed MT Mandarin CD 1. Mandarin total: 80 minutes DUTCH 30 minutes: listened to & sang along with Dutch music (Marco Borsato). Dutch total: 30 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 172 minutes (2h52) --- *ENTRY 78* (23 March 2011) FRENCH 53 minutes: listened to French audio (from "Rond Point"). 20 minutes: read aloud & re-typed a French news article. 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 80-86. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 87 (W1) & 31 (W2). French total: 120 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 120 minutes (2h00) --- *ENTRY 79* (24 March 2011) FRENCH 10 minutes: listened to French radio. 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 81-87. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 88 (W1) & 32 (W2). 20 minutes: read aloud & re-typed a French news article. 90 minutes: watched a French movie (Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or). 30 minutes: did LLAF lesson 2. 45 minutes: practiced speaking French. French total: 242 minutes GERMAN 30 minutes: practiced speaking German. 15 minutes: listened to and sang along with German music. German total: 45 minutes ITALIAN 15 minutes: read aloud and translated an Italian poem. Italian total: 15 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 302 minutes (5h02) --- *ENTRY 80* (25 March 2011) FRENCH 40 minutes: practiced speaking French. 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 82-88. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 89 (W1) & 33 (W2). 20 minutes: read aloud the introduction to "Le brésilien sans peine." French total: 107 minutes GERMAN 15 minutes: read German forums. German total: 15 minutes ESPERANTO 7 minutes: read aloud & typed up 2 "word of the day" entries. Esperanto total: 7 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 129 minutes (2h09) --- *ENTRY 81* (26 March 2011) FRENCH 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 83-89. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 90 (W1) & 34 (W2). French total: 47 minutes GERMAN 10 minutes: listened to German music. 10 minutes: practiced speaking German. German total: 20 minutes DUTCH 10 minutes: read Wikipedia in Dutch. Dutch total: 10 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 77 minutes (1h17) --- *ENTRY 82* (27 March 2011) FRENCH 7 minutes: reviewed Assimil lessons 84-90. 40 minutes: did Assimil lessons 91 (W1) & 35 (W2). French total: 47 minutes ESPERANTO 10 minutes: read aloud & typed up two "word of the day" entries. Esperanto total: 10 minutes TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 57 minutes (0h57) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5692 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 64 of 135 16 April 2011 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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(written 28 March 2011)
It's been way too long since I posted on here – sorry for the unexplained absence, everyone! I was going crazy finishing up school work, and then I was on spring break and feeling, frankly, too lazy to post. I have been keeping track of my hours though, as always, so I'm about to post a ton of updates. First, however, I want to say a HUGE (and terribly overdue!) thank you to Meelämmchen, polyglossia, and ellasevia! You guys have no idea how much I appreciate your detailed analyses of my audio samples. This is the kind of feedback it's hard to get elsewhere, and it is extremely useful to me. @Meelämmchen: I'm glad you put the "problem words" in bold – making it visual like that really helps. Thank you very much for the compliment! German is my favorite language, and my dream is to keep improving my speaking forever. This is the only language in which I'm crazy enough to want to speak it "like a native" someday. That's far in the future, though, I know. :) In any case, vielen Dank für deinen Kommentar! :D @polyglossia: Thanks to you too! :) I didn't realize there was a difference between "Paul" and "Paule" – that's good to know. Both you and ellesevia noticed that my rhythm of speaking (or fluidity) wasn't quite natural-sounding. That makes sense, considering my level, but it's good to be aware of it. Thanks again for your nice words! @ellasevia: I think you make a very astute observation about my prosody (is that the right word? I think it is). I haven't done nearly as much listening for French as I have for German, and I think it shows! Thanks a lot for taking the time to copy the explanation from your book for me – don't worry about the italics and bold, it makes perfect sense. I'll make sure to pay attention to this, although I don't feel it's something that one can "study" so much as just "pick up." Once I've finished Assimil I plan to start doing a lot more listening (and TV watching, if I can find some good programs in French – any recommendations?), so hopefully my rhythm and intonation will improve from that! Again, thanks so much for your detailed observations and comments. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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