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TAC 2011 - Team Ohana – Le Cinéma Rex | ||
Tags: Dabbling | France | 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | Immersion | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | English | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 89 of 198 25 April 2011 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hi Sunja, thanks for stopping by.
The book I have was apparently written in 1987 and revised in 2007 but judging from the Dutch used, they didn’t actually revise all that much. I remember coming across some other jokes that I found offensive but I couldn’t be bothered to look them up so I went with the most recent example.
Yes, I'm using the Dutch version of Using French. This is the first Assimil course I’ve ever gone through so I don’t have anything to compare it to but I really enjoy working with it. The dialogues are diverse and quite entertaining and I love the footnotes because there’s so much information about expressions, colloquialisms, different registers, the culture, etc. The only thing that irks me sometimes is the choice of topics for the dialogues, or rather the lack of continuity in them. A while back they announced that we were going to “visit” different regions of France in each lesson which I thought was a great idea but it’s been a while and I’m still waiting for them to revisit that concept. There’s also this strange French in Action-esque couple that keeps popping up. I don’t actually remember their names but the guy complains a lot. Actually, now that I think about it; bellyachers are kind of overrepresented in the entire course. Still, everything considered, I would definitely recommend it. Edited by ReneeMona on 25 April 2011 at 8:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6086 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 90 of 198 25 April 2011 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
I tried to locate Using French and I can only find one at Amazon.uk. I'll probably get "Assimil Französisch in der Praxis" next week.
I have 31 lessons left! I don't think I can complete as fast May 1, but I can sure try. I'm ready to be done with my Assimil! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 91 of 198 02 May 2011 at 12:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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Week 17: April 25 / May 1
I don’t know what came over me this week, but I think it may have been all the work I was supposed to be doing for school that made me so motivated to work on French instead. I also had a hard time staying away from my Spanish books but more about that in my next update. French Week 17 (34): 20 h. 2011: 281 h. 05 min. Assimil Ben, qu’est-ce que je vous ai dit ? Je viens d’achever la soixante-dixième et dernière leçon de la pratique du français, ce que veut dire que j’ai terminé le livre entier dans exactement soixante jours. Plusieurs des dernières leçons étaient ennuyeuses à mourir (des sujets comme l’économie et la météo) et en même temps, la dernière vingtaine a inclus des dialogues plus longs et des exercices plus durs donc ce n’était pas une tache facile. J’étais aussi obligée de me presser pour finir à l’heure donc à cause de tout ça, j’ai forcément pas tout assimilé ce que j’ai pu mais pour l’instant je suis lasse d’Assimil (excepté pour la version espagnole, bien sûr) et je n’en veut rien faire durant les six prochaines semaines! Apart from that it’s been a pretty uneventful week. I watched the entire Twilight series and even started reading the first book, all in French of course but still an interesting move on the part of someone who claims to dislike everything to do with that series. The truth is that I’ve been feeling kind of listless and brain-dead all week and that’s exactly the state of mind I need to be able to appreciate bad literature. Let’s see, what else have I been doing this week? Repeatedly abusing the reschedule button in Anki? Check. Resolve to advance at least three chapters in Harry Potter and end up just reading one like always? Check. Falling asleep while watching a French film I don’t even remember the title of? Check. On top of brain-dead and listless, I’m also really tired right now so I’m going to leave this meagre update for what it is and get started on my (hopefully) more substantial first 6WC post. I considered starting a new log for the 6WC but I have a feeling Spanish is not going to disappear from my life entirely after the challenge is over so there is no reason why it can’t just be included in this log. P.S. I just noticed the link to this log has miraculously disappeared from my profile. Strange. EDIT: Very stupid mistake in the French bit. Edited by ReneeMona on 30 May 2011 at 4:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 92 of 198 02 May 2011 at 12:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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6 Week Challenge Spanish: introduction
After some initial reservations, I’m now officially excited for the Spanish Six Week Challenge. My most important goal in participating, aside from learning some Spanish, is to attach some positive associations to the language and hopefully improve my opinion of it because if I’m honest, at the moment I’m not so fond of it. I suspect my synaesthesia is at fault here, because whether I call it Spanish, Spaans or Espagnol, the name, and consequently the entire language, is irreversibly tied to an incandescent yellow that would make me want to scratch my eyes out of I ever came across it in real life. So basically, my dislike of an entire language can be traced back to my dislike of a color (not entirely but let’s not get into that), which is just pathetic and I plan to get over it. So without further ado, let’s get cracking. Materials I often think that when I say language learning is my hobby, it should really be divided up into two different hobbies; there’s the actual studying and then there’s the material hoarding. Case in point; up until three weeks ago I was not going to be studying Spanish for years if at all and yet when I dove in my treasure chest to see what I had lying around, I found a trove of materials that would probably be enough to equip me for six months of studying instead of six weeks: Le Nouvel Espagnol Sans Peine I specifically wanted to use Assimil with a French base because I’m a bit paranoid about Spanish taking time away from my French so this way I’ll be able to count my time working with Assimil as French study as well. I also have La pratique de l’esagnol, just in case I develop a photographic memory or invent a time machine over the course of the next six weeks. Michel Thomas Before today I had only listened to one MT lesson before and it bored me out of my mind but MT Spanish is surprisingly engaging so far, even though the students are total morons. I really like the total avoidance of tourist phrases and Michel Thomas seems to know what he’s talking about, even though he says inflection when he means intonation. El Internado I think I remember someone, who’s name momentarily escapes me, claiming that this series alone is worth learning Spanish for so let’s put that hypotheses to the test. By a stroke of luck, I’ve found all seven seasons online with French subtitles so watching it also counts as French study. ;-) Harry Potter I have all seven books and I wonder why because I definitely do not plan on reading all of them, at least not in the next six weeks. I have the audio book for the first one, which I will start reading in a couple of weeks. Berlitz After leafing through it a couple of times, I have a feeling Berlitz and I are not going to get along very well. The dialogues are much too tourist-y for my taste, though there is one chapter called “Am I going to die?” which sounds like something I will need as a tourist. Goals Since May is probably going to be a busy month, I’ve decided to set absolutely no goals for myself whatsoever with regards to Spanish (well, alright, I have some in my head but they’re ludicrously ambitious so I’m not going to share them). In terms of long term plans, after the challenge is over I will drop Spanish until I get back from France but it will probably be part of my dabble month in August. Now about day 1; as enthused as I was about the start of the 6WC, I ended up doing hardly anything at all. I listened to the first four MT lessons and watched El Rey León, but that was mostly because I needed to recover from my overdose of Assimil and I wasn’t listening all that attentively. Ah well, it’s just the first day. Edited by ReneeMona on 30 May 2011 at 4:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| NuclearGorilla Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6787 days ago 166 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, French | Message 93 of 198 02 May 2011 at 5:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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I too have experienced or am experiencing a lack of fondness for Spanish, hoarding of materials and a somewhat lackluster first day. Of course your lack of fondness stems from a way more interesting reason. Perhaps you'd feel better thinking of 'Spanish' as 'Castilian'?
And thanks for mentioning El Rey León, which reminded me I needed to watch it. I wonder if, like me, you feel compelled to watch it in every language you study? Good luck with the challenge! (Luck, or persistence, or whatever's useful.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5472 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch | Message 94 of 198 02 May 2011 at 6:07am | IP Logged | |||||
I have to say that made me chuckle out loud. As for Spanish, I agree with NuclearGorilla. You had better start calling it 'castellano'. Maybe that'll sound a lot less yellow. Personally, I've found that the five pure vowels of my native language have always had colors in my head. A is green, I is white, E is blue, O is red and U is black. If you're into Disney movies the Spanish dub of 'The jungle book' is great. ¡La mejor de las suertes! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 95 of 198 03 May 2011 at 6:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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@ NuclearGorilla: Interesting perhaps, but no less annoying. I usually make sure everything from my Anki decks to the notebooks I use are a color corresponding to the language but with Spanish, sorry, Castilian, I'm trying to avoid yellow but that means choosing colors that don't fit the language and that makes me feel annoyed which doesn't aid my studying either. Sigh, it's not easy being a synaesthetic language nerd. But calling it Castilian is a really good idea and I can't believe I didn't think of that before. Now I just need a sparkly white-pink-orange notebook to make my Assimil exercises in.
Yes, I do watch The Lion King in every language I study, and in every language I don't study as well for that matter. So far I've seen it in about eighteen languages and I'm still looking for a good Arabic version. Did I mention I'm a tad obsessed with this film? Thank you for stopping by and good luck with your own Spanish! @ getreallanguage: ¡Muchas gracias! It sounds like you're a bit of a synaesthete as well. Welcome to the club! I don't agree about the color of any of those vowels but let's not get into that. :) The first thing I did when I decided to join the 6WC was, uh, obtain any Spanish-dubbed Disney film I could lay hold of but they're a bit hard to find. The Jungle Book is one of the few I found and it's always been one of my favorites so I'm glad to hear that it's good. Edited by ReneeMona on 04 May 2011 at 7:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5472 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch | Message 96 of 198 03 May 2011 at 6:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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Synesthesia is a very subjective thing, but, if after spending some time with Spanish vowels (it's been 27 years in my case), they get any closer to my view of them, let me know.
'The jungle book' is my favorite Disney film. They do a good job with the accents too. The monkeys (which in the original have a bit of a stereotypical New Orleans jazz accent) have a (stereotypical) Caribbean Spanish accent, and the four vultures who help Mowgli out... well, suffice to say that they each have a different, very stereotypical accent, from a specific region. I'll leave you to venture your own guesses. Edited by getreallanguage on 03 May 2011 at 7:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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