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Napoleonic French

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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 33 of 129
04 March 2013 at 6:43am | IP Logged 
March 4, 2013
Finished Persepolis 2; it ends with Marjane, the protagonist, being sent away to a French boarding school in Austria.


Edited by napoleon on 04 March 2013 at 6:54am

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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 34 of 129
07 March 2013 at 5:06am | IP Logged 
March 7, 2013
Finished Persepolis 3

Edited by napoleon on 07 March 2013 at 5:06am

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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 35 of 129
08 March 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
March 9, 2013
Upto Chp 20 of Grammaire Progressive Debutant
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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 36 of 129
10 March 2013 at 10:40am | IP Logged 
March 10, 2013
Upto Chp 27 and Bilan no. 3- Grammaire Progressive du Français Débutant

Edited by napoleon on 10 March 2013 at 10:43am

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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 37 of 129
11 March 2013 at 11:19pm | IP Logged 
March 12, 2013
Fsi Tape 4.4
Noticed an improvement in my ability to use the word leur correctly. It still needs some more work though.
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napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 38 of 129
10 April 2013 at 4:27pm | IP Logged 
April 10, 2013
Finally finished Persepolis 4.
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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 39 of 129
10 April 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged 
Hi napoleon

How do you find the FSI course? I tried a little before but the sheer boredom got to me.
Maybe the brute force repetition is what I need.

I was also interested with your reading books. I've already read Persepolis in English
but was just wondering how much of it you need to have a dictionary nearby. I read my
first ever (20 pages, really simple book) French book and I'm not sure I'd be able to
handle Persepolis without spending half my time translating it all.

Congrats on your progress so far
2 persons have voted this message useful



napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
Joined 5014 days ago

543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 40 of 129
11 April 2013 at 8:04am | IP Logged 
fezmond wrote:
Hi napoleon

How do you find the FSI course? I tried a little before but the sheer boredom got to me.
Maybe the brute force repetition is what I need.

I was also interested with your reading books. I've already read Persepolis in English
but was just wondering how much of it you need to have a dictionary nearby. I read my
first ever (20 pages, really simple book) French book and I'm not sure I'd be able to
handle Persepolis without spending half my time translating it all.

Congrats on your progress so far

Hi fezmond,
Thanks for dropping by. It's great that you've finished your first book in French. Give Persepolis a try. If you have problems, you can always get back to it later when you're more comfortable.
FSI is sheer drudgery for me. That's probably why I keep putting it off. I don't really do it as much as I should, as is apparent from my log. I think of FSI as medicine. It doesn't taste very well but it's what the doctor ordered. On a more positive note, FSI really drills the patterns into you. FSI drills may be dull but they make the language very instinctive and spontaneous.
As far as books are concerned, I could take on Persepolis because of two factors: firstly, Persepolis is a BD and the pictures do provide some context; secondly, I had completed at least one Harry Potter book before I started Persepolis.
Now, Persepolis is chock full of everyday French expressions. I did have to look up some words. Say, two to three words every ten pages or so.
Persepolis was an enjoyable read but it didn't really do any wonders for my reading comprehension. It introduced me to a lot of colloquial expressions but that's about it.
I remember a time when I could not understand newspaper articles in French. Spoken French was a strange melange where I could make out a few words here and there but the rest was as clear as mud. This was before I had trudged through my first real book in French.
After getting through a couple of books, my listening comprehension has literally shot up.
The real trick is to find stuff that you like.
Back in the day, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series in English. It's a series in which the complexity of the language keeps on increasing with each book.In that way it's graded but it's also pure unadulterated native material, no matter what language you read it in.
The first book in the Harry Potter series is meant for children and is a relatively easy read. It's definitely easier than reading Max Gallo from the get go. By the time you get to the seventh book, the language you read is aimed at an adult native speaker of your target-language. You can't really go very wrong with using native materials this way.
So the Harry Potter series fit the bill for me. Maybe you'll want to start with a different book. What you read isn't as important as the act of of reading itself.
What also helped was the fact that I read these books on a tablet. At first, I had to lookup every other word. I also made good use of Google Translate. But things got better as I progressed further into the book. If memory serves, I was on the penultimate chapter of the first Harry Potter book when I felt comfortable enough to be able to enjoy the story. The next book was a lot easier and so on.
I still have to look up words, but that's only natural. Don't let that put you off!
Best,
Napoleon

Edited by napoleon on 11 April 2013 at 8:09am



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