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TAC 2011- organizing myself for TAC’12 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6086 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 113 of 161 18 June 2011 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I only picked up the book once that evening.
I haven't done much since then. One thing I've noticed, my finger is completely healed and I'm typing at my old pace again. I'll never take typing for granted again (thank you, high school typing class). I found a book at the library which is aimed at year 3/4 of gymnasial French (high school/grammar school). I remember needing to go over indirect speech (from last weekend) and couldn't find it in this book. (I think indirect speech is for upper intermediate -- year 4/5? -- I have no idea.) Anyway, it's no matter. I found a bunch of other grammar that I urgently need to practice. I started on the tenses. I tried an exercice de traduction and failed miserably on every one of them. It was great, I learned a lot. It's just a matter of remembering. Here's an example of a tricky sentence for the passé composé. Tricky for me, anyway. ma tante est déjà arrivée. Elle a vraiment courée ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tournesol Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5362 days ago 119 posts - 132 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchC1 Studies: German | Message 114 of 161 19 June 2011 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Was it the past of the verb "courir" you wanted i.e. "ma tante est déjà arrivée. Elle a vraiment couru !" Bonne Continuation! 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 115 of 161 19 June 2011 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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whoops, I forgot! Courrir is irregular! I missed that, Tournesol -- thanks --!
Embarassingly, that wasn't (what I thought) was the tricky part. I couldn't figure out why courir was used with the auxiliary "avoir", since I learned that verbs of movement take "être" but I looked back at the rules again and (I think) I understand. I try to remember that courir and marcher are indeed verbs of movement, but there's no change of state. That still doesn't explain "aller" but oh well. I've decided to just hang it with the reasoning and memorize the whole lot of être-verbs . I found a great aid on wiki, DR & MRS VAN DER TRAMP which I'm gonna try to commit to memory today. The wiki page for passe compose is really comprhensive I can tell I'll be referencing it a lot in the near future! I'm still working out of some pages I copied from a book for the 3/4 year 
I'm planning to leave passe compose and do a "test/checkup" for the subjonctif, then direct and indirect object pronouns, indefinite pronouns, y and en, demonstrative pronouns, and when the day's over I'll come back and report what I didn't get done ;) EDIT: ow, subjonctif is proving to be quite a challenge. I'm still stuck on it. Here's a good reference for the rules (wiki) which I'll post here. Hopefully while I'm just sitting here, doing nothing except staring at posts I'll click on it from time to time and hopefully learn a bit more.. Edited by Sunja on 19 June 2011 at 4:44pm 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 116 of 161 19 June 2011 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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For a change of pace I thought I'd do some L+R with Tout est sous contrôle. I referenced siomotteikiru's post (the post for L+R, IMO) just to make sure I do it correctly and tried to skip to #3, ie, listening to the CD and reading the eng. translation for chapters I've already read. Boy, did that NOT work. I'll have to play around with it.
What I've been doing: I've been reading sections of the Eng and then casually reading the same passages in French. As far as any serious L+R practice goes, I'll do some more tests with this book, but it's super fast -- and rightly so, it's a satire for native speakers. I'll try French translation with the CD and see if I get more out of it... EDIT: Reading the French translation + listening to the CD (no Eng.) = much better. I guess that would make sense, wouldn't it? I don't know how one is supposed to listen to a reading in a foreign language and read the corresponding text in another language. Does this work for anyone? I guess it depends on the book. So for the record, L+R: French + Eng = bad. French + French = good. Edited by Sunja on 19 June 2011 at 8:26pm 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 117 of 161 19 June 2011 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
That's exactly my problem with L-R as well. I find seeing or hearing a language I understand well while I'm trying to focus on French hugely distracting and counter-productive because I end up automatically focusing on the language I know instead of trying to understand the French. Because of this I have trouble seeing how L-R is supposed to be helpful but perhaps it's a technique you need to practice for a while before it becomes useful or maybe it just doesn't work for some people. Either way, like you I quickly switched to French + French and that works like a charm for me so I hope it will for you as well. Good luck! 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 118 of 161 20 June 2011 at 10:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Renee, It's good to know I'm not alone! I still find (reading it again after a few years,) siomotteikiru's post the definitive inspiration for this method. It seems so promising and "hey, it can work for you, too!" that I decided to give it a whirl.
one thing's for certain, I can't use it with Tout est sous contrôle. Even when I listened to the French while following along in French, I kept getting lost. Féodor Atkine's voice is so lovely, deep and hypnotic that I would just space out. Then I wake up after a few seconds and think, "oh, I'm supposed to be reading along! Where are we??" It's not very effective. I did try L-R with my new Revue de la Presse. Now, this will be end up being so tiny that no one will be able to tell anything other than it's a newspaper publication of some sort, but 
I've got the MP3 subscription (at a mere extra 3€ who could say no?) and I've already listened/read along to the first file, "Accros à la médecine esthétique". It's about middle-aged women and Botox. (I feel myself playing with the idea of writing someone in the Schünemann publishing house just to pose a few questions..) The articles are much more geared for foreign listeners, which is easier for me, of course. The problem is, it still takes a huge amount of concentration to keep the R in sync with the L. The L is going at a normal, fluid pace and the R is always darting around on the page, trying to keep up with L. 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 119 of 161 20 June 2011 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in here a lot today because I'm doing some work on the computer. The summer tutoring courses are about to begin and I'm trying to find some good resource material.
I've read another article "énergie: courants alternatifs". I like articles about economics because reading them makes me feel smarter. Because of the vocabulary they usually stamp it as being "C1" and that makes me feel even better. So while I was feeling good about myself I went to the website to see if I could order the extra study materials. These materials have some reading comprehesion questions, with possible answers. It's certainly reasonable at 12,€ a year. Unfortunately I checked my account and I'm gonna have to put a stop on all French-spending until July. I haven't yet paid taxes on my income for year 2010. I'm waiting for my "you owe us" statement from the Finanzamt. Should be here any day now.. Meanwhile I have lots and lots of other stuff I could be doing, As soon as I get a handle on subjonctif I plan to go back to my 1000 Grammatik Übungen. I've made two small decks in Anki to help me remember which verbs go with the indicatif/subjonctif. Edited by Sunja on 20 June 2011 at 2:05pm 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 120 of 161 21 June 2011 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm really thoroughly enjoying Revue de la Presse. I've been taking it with me everywhere: once to get my allergy shot, once to the Abschlussgottesdienst and once to the supermarket (the lines get pretty long right around noon..) As for the audio files, there's no special titles when I download them, only "Spur 1, 2, 3, etc" -- which is annoying, because I have to take a few seconds/minutes to figure out which file is for which article. The good news is that I have access to audio files for the previous months (without the newspaper). I've tried some of the ones from Mai and I can usually get the gist of what the article is about. I never knew how much vocabulary there is to learn in French until I got my subscription -- I'm constantly checking the mini-glossary at the bottom of each page! An example of some vocab: faire du lèche-vitrine, se laisser tenter, débourser...
I wish I had more time to get caught up on all the grammar stuff and conjugations that I'm supposed to know. I still lag behind in that respect. Soon I have to go to work -- or not. If they don't need me they'll call me. There's always a lull in the tutoring business right before summer break. Usually I'd be happy about summer break but since we're not planning on going anywhere special (which is next to being a sin in travel-happy Germany) I'm saddled with the notion that I'll be stuck here in front of the computer. Or not. My kids are itching to do something this summer. Maybe a bike tour.. EDIT: okay, they just called. No class tonight. Too many aren't coming -- which I can understand, it being the last day before school's out and all. My earnings lost tonight will have to be gained elsewhere -- like French. I don't have to drive anywhere so I have the whole afternoon and evening to make my own. I've been shadowing along to "Le client surfeur, cauchemar du vendeur" copyright Libération -- just thought I'd throw in the source, it's kind of interesting to see where these articles come from. -- So anyway -- I'll go back to what I was doing.. Edited by Sunja on 21 June 2011 at 3:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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