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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 57 of 161 17 February 2011 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
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Since I'm not activating the Assimil lessons as planned, I've decided to concentrate on shadowing and translating those mundane thoughts, or even the stuff I hear other people say like, "Ich muss Hausaufgaben machen" "je dois faire les devoirs" The pronunciation won't be accurate but at least the words will be there.
I was with one of my adult students on Tues. and he asked me "Was ist cough?" And for a split second the answer that came to mind was-- not Husten --not toux-- but la tos! Funny, that's a Spanish word that I keep getting wrong when I review my Spanish vocabulary. Still, I was inspired. I have to somehow read more, to keep words -parat-, so that they just effortlessly pop in my head and it won't be such an effort drudging up something to say. Problem: I have a lot of reading material and absolutely no time. Post-it notes? Wordlists hanging everywhere? Opening my Assimil book in the middle of doing the dishes? It's difficult to stop what I'm doing and focus, especially when I'm busy, but I'll do what I can and record what happens. 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 58 of 161 19 February 2011 at 4:44pm | IP Logged |
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Notes for activating French
So I kind of scribbled some thoughts on a blank piece of paper while I was doing menial tasks around the house. First thought, English/German, then piece together something in French: I'm throwing away the garbage (for example), was not easy since I know French doesn't use "throw" in that context. So I tried to find another way and I came up with "Taking out the garbage". That worked. I remember seeing a sentence somewhere with "il a sorti...". Okay that's a past tense transitive sentence. Maybe if I add les déchets. (That was one sentence.) Then I was able to formulate je met les assiettes dans la lavaiselle, je cherche une bouteille d'eau and translate little things I heard in the radio. "Er geht einschlafen" -- I couldn't translate because I know what "sleep" is but "go to sleep" drew a blank. So I came up with "il se couche". I figure the purpose is not to be accurate but to get the jest across. j'ai rempli un formulaire du GI, je vais parler avec le profeseur are a few other random thoughts that I have here, jotted down on a post-it... One note on this excercise. I couldn't multitask and think in French at the same time; it either took twice as long to clean the kitchen or I had to stop trying to translate random thoughts. But I'll keep going. I have to make this a normal practice for it to register as any kind of progess. EDIT: I'm going to spend the rest of the evening listening to France info en direct and reading into Chapter 4 of Qui joue avec le feu. AH, peace and quiet. So glad the weekend is here. Edited by Sunja on 19 February 2011 at 5:32pm 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 59 of 161 22 February 2011 at 7:20pm | IP Logged |
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I'll be taking off for a few days (I hope), because I'll get more done. I'm working on Lesson 78. There's some interesting grammar going on there, multiple objects in one sentence: Je te l'ai vedu. Je la lui ai vendu.
I'm listening to the lessons (that goes without saying) and I'm trying to strengthen my listening comprehension with écoute podcasts. I tried RFI and it's really too fast-paced -- no pauses, no reiteration -- so that doesn't help at all. Ecoute is a little bit too fast but I can catch it sometimes. I try to put in the earplugs whenever I can (maybe three, four times a day) for 15-20 minute intervals. Can't say for sure. 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 60 of 161 24 February 2011 at 12:04pm | IP Logged |
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STill working through lessons 79, 80, 81. I've gone back to lessons 24, 25, 26 and I'll be reworking those until I'm in sync with the other lessons. (Lesson 80 corrresponds to the to-be-activated lesson 30. So I'll try to have those lessons in sync soon.
I'm also trying to translate on paper the small fill-in-the-blank exercises (at the end of each lesson, working on Lessons 24,25,26.... I'm hoping to increase these translation excercises from 10 to 50 before March. I'll then work my way up to the end of the book (Activation Phase). I've started reading newspaper articles, but only sporadically, since I'm trying to finish Assimil. Maybe by the second week of March? Then there'll be some benchmark work to be done. 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 61 of 161 25 February 2011 at 9:59am | IP Logged |
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These week has been slower than last, in terms of work and appointments. That means I've been able to get some work done in French (and German.)
I'm working through the reflexive verbs out of chapter 26 (review). I made some simple sentences in English using all the personal pronouns ("Elle se réveille et se brosse les dents., Tu te douches, ensuite tu t'habilles.") so that I can practice verb conjugation. Sadly, there were mistakes. I corrected them with "reverso". I liked the translation so much I decided to take a paragraph/dialog out of a used French for beginners book (school book) and I translated it in English. I plan to translated it back into French -- wait a few days -- so that I can check my sentence structure/grammar. This is a nice diversion from Assimil -- I get tired of it sometimes. 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 62 of 161 27 February 2011 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
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Finally made it to lessen 80. They're getting harder to understand just by listening alone. I've read them several times and I understand all the grammar/vocab, but when I just listen to the CDs, I'm only able to catch a word or two. It's frustrating how difficult the listening can be. Thankfully I can tell my progress when I listen to Coffee Break. The earlier dialogs (from Dec. and Jan) are my listening favorites at the moment because they're helping to "cement" the work I'm doing with the translation excercises. Stuff like nous avons parlé de ce fait M. D.... then I hear.... de ce que je .... in another conversation
I'm starting hear and pick up on those relative clauses. It was all just a jumble before.. Edited by Sunja on 27 February 2011 at 8:41pm 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 63 of 161 04 March 2011 at 10:11am | IP Logged |
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I've had to stop with Assimil. I've hit another plateau. Lesson 80 just won't sink in, so I'm going to stop and review some of the earlier lessons. I've done all of the fill-in-the blank excercises from all the lessons up to 30. I'll continue doing that. I'm also translating little sections from a high school French book (I've discovered that it covers just the first two years, *sigh* not any higher. I'm translating from French to Eng, then I wait a few days and translate the Eng. back into French. with the exception of a few mistakes in Satzbau (sentence structure/syntax) and a few grammatical mistakes, it's no problem for me.
I bought a DELF B1 book to practice with and according to a customer review at Amazon, if one can do 90% of the book without difficulty than -B2- is possible. So this preparation book for the B1 is a tick harder than the actual test itself, if I interpret that correctly. Doesn't matter. It's too much of a strain for me. I can get through it -- but it's not easy. There's another problem: If I were to take a "benchmark" DELF in July, then there's the problem of the speaking -- perhaps listening, too. I'm not very good at composing my own sentences, right off the bat. There's still time to study of course, but I don't think I'm gonna knock myself out. I'm just too busy. I was REALLY hoping to be further along by now, but there's been some unforeseen things already happening this year -- one is my choice to get a new German certification, then there are the new, added classes that I've been tutoring, for which I have to prepare lessons for. So I'm sitting comfortable at A2. Almost too comfortable. But I need to solidify some grammar and get myself to the point I can do the A2 oral exam -- then it's just a simple matter of vocabulary and I'm okay at B1 With me doing this German Fernkurs (other log), it's tough finding the hours to study French. Things will change with summer break. I won't be working so much then. For now... I've gotten the DELF preparation for the A2. I've done a few written excercises with one or two acceptable mistakes. I'll finish the book and try as best I can to put in some hours at Yabla, then we'll see where I am. Edited by Sunja on 04 March 2011 at 10:40am 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 64 of 161 07 March 2011 at 9:18am | IP Logged |
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oops, didn't log out.
Well smart.fm is now "iknow" (again) and at the end of March CEREGO is going to charge all users for access to their own work! I was a bit annoyed at that, but all good things must come to an end, I suppose. All my work gone. I don't have time to cry over it. I have to choose between Iknow and Yabla. Both are about 10 a month. The French audio sound quality stinks at "iknow", but I can't create my own lists at Yabla. What to do. The old-fasioned index card method is probably going to make a comeback with me. I don't like ANKI much -- or at least I never stick with it. I'll think about it.. EDIT: I just checked: Even with a membership you can't create lists anymore at iknow. Well that's that. Goodbye, iknow/smart.fm Edited by Sunja on 07 March 2011 at 9:59am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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